Robert Evan Hodges was 41 years old when he died on Monday, August 23, 2004, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 6th and Kohler streets. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Central Division.
The coroner's record describes him as a white man in his early 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Robert Evan Hodges 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 fairly common, and searches for it turned up only other men: a man convicted in a much later case in Yolo County, men named in court cases in other states, and men whose obituaries were published in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere. None of them is the man who died downtown in August 2004.
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.
The coroner placed his death at a street intersection rather than at a house number, which may mean he was hurt or found outdoors. The record does not say whether he lived nearby, worked in the area or was passing through.
Sixth Street and Kohler Street meet on the eastern side of downtown Los Angeles, in an area of warehouses and wholesale businesses not far from Skid Row. In 2004 Skid Row held one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the country, along with missions, shelters and single-room-occupancy hotels. Many people lived on the sidewalks, and violence there often drew little public attention. The record does not say whether Robert was homeless, and nothing should be assumed about him from the place where he died.
The busy, crowded character of these streets means that someone may well have seen what happened to him, or heard about it later.
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 Robert Evan Hodges 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 was near 6th and Kohler streets in downtown Los Angeles in August 2004, who knew Robert or the people he spent time with, 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).
