Joquin Hernandez was 18 years old when he died on Sunday, September 5, 2004, in Reseda, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 8223 Tunney Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the West Valley Division.
The coroner's record describes him as a young Latino man. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Joquin Hernandez 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. The spelling of his first name in the record is unusual, and it may be a variant of Joaquin.
Searches for the name turned up only other people: a city employee in Dallas, social media users, and men named as relatives in obituaries in Texas and California. None of them could be tied to the young man who died in Reseda.
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.
He was only 18, an age at which many young men are finishing high school or just starting work, and his death came on the Sunday of the Labor Day holiday weekend. The coroner gave a specific street address on Tunney Avenue, which may mean he was found at or near a home, but the record does not say whether he lived there or was visiting.
Reseda is a neighborhood in the west San Fernando Valley, within the city of Los Angeles. It grew from farmland into a suburb after World War II, and it remains largely residential, with blocks of single-family houses and apartment buildings. Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way are its main commercial streets, and Reseda Park, with its small lake, is one of its best known landmarks. Tunney Avenue is a residential street in the neighborhood. On a holiday weekend, many people would have been home, and some may have noticed unfamiliar people or a disturbance on the block.
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 Joquin Hernandez 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 lived on or near Tunney Avenue in Reseda over Labor Day weekend in September 2004, who knew Joquin or his friends, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).
