Glenn Erik Smith was 52 years old when he died on Sunday, December 12, 2004. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. The public record does not give an address or even a city for the place where he was hurt. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Glendale Police Department case, which suggests the stabbing happened in or near Glendale.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 52-year-old black male" who "died Sunday, Dec. 12, after being stabbed." Unlike most entries, it named no neighborhood and no street. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Glenn Erik Smith 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. Glenn Smith is a very common name in the United States, and searches turn up hundreds of other men who share it, including a Louisiana prison inmate, a novelist and many men whose obituaries appear across the country. None of them can be connected to this death, and the middle name Erik did not lead to any record about him.
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.
Glendale is one of the largest cities in Los Angeles County, located just north of downtown Los Angeles at the foot of the Verdugo Mountains. It is known for its busy shopping district along Brand Boulevard, for Forest Lawn Memorial Park and for its large Armenian American community. Glendale has its own police department, which investigates killings within the city limits. Its neighborhoods range from busy commercial corridors and apartment districts to quiet residential streets in the hills.
He was 52, an age when many people are thinking about the years ahead, watching children grow up or caring for parents. Whoever stabbed him took those years away, two weeks before Christmas, and the people who knew him were left without answers.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Glenn Erik Smith could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Because the public record does not even say where he was stabbed, anyone who knew a 52-year-old man named Glenn Erik Smith, or who heard of a man being stabbed in or around Glendale in December 2004, may hold information that could help. 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 contact the Glendale Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
