Prince Charles Smyth III

Prince Charles Smyth III was 21 years old when he died on Monday, November 29, 2004, in Lawndale. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4512 153rd St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 21-year-old black male" who "died Monday, Nov. 29, after being stabbed in Lawndale." The entry gave a street address on 153rd Street, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. He died on the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend. 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 Prince Charles Smyth III 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. His name is unusual, and the suffix III is traditionally carried by a man who shares his full name with earlier generations of his family, which suggests that his name was handed down to him. Even so, searches found no record of 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.

Lawndale is a small city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, near Hawthorne, Redondo Beach and Torrance. It is made up largely of modest single-family homes and apartment buildings, crossed by Hawthorne Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway. The city has no police department of its own and contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, which is why sheriff's homicide investigators handle killings there.

At 21, he was barely an adult. A young man that age may still have been living with his family, finishing school or working one of his first jobs. Whoever stabbed him took away the rest of his life before it had really begun.

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 Prince Charles Smyth III 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. Anyone who knew a 21-year-old man named Prince Charles Smyth III, or who lived, worked or spent time on or near 153rd Street in Lawndale over Thanksgiving weekend in November 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).