Hubert Walter Ifield was 62 years old when he died on Monday, January 17, 2005, in Vermont Square, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4630 S. Vermont Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the 77th Street Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 62-year-old black male" who "died Monday, Jan. 17, after being stabbed in Vermont Square." That short entry is nearly all that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Hubert Walter Ifield has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death.
He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Ifield is an uncommon surname, and searches for his name turned up almost nothing. The only close match was a man named Hubert Ifield of New Orleans, who was listed as a surviving friend in a Louisiana obituary in 2009, years after this death, so he cannot be the man who died in Los Angeles. At 62, Hubert Walter Ifield had lived a long life by the time he died, and he very likely had relatives, old friends or neighbors who still remember him.
Vermont Square is a South Los Angeles neighborhood a few miles south of the University of Southern California and Exposition Park. It is made up largely of older single family homes and small apartment buildings on residential side streets, with commercial strips along the main avenues. Vermont Avenue is one of the longest and busiest streets in the city, running from the hills of Los Feliz south through Koreatown and South Los Angeles. Along this stretch it is lined with small shops, churches, markets, auto businesses and apartment buildings, and it is served by busy bus lines at all hours. The record gives a street address on Vermont Avenue, which suggests people living or working nearby may have seen or heard something, though it does not say whether he was hurt indoors or outside.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Hubert Walter Ifield could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Hubert Ifield, or who was on or near South Vermont Avenue in Vermont Square in mid January 2005, may hold information that could help investigators. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
