Jose Roberto Lopez was 20 years old when he died on Saturday, June 19, 2004, in Westmont, an unincorporated community in South Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1118 W. 102nd St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 20-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, June 19, after being stabbed in Westmont." 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 Jose Roberto Lopez 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.
Jose Lopez is one of the most common names in California, and even the full name Jose Roberto Lopez is shared by many men. Searches turn up only unrelated people, among them a man sentenced in San Antonio, Texas, in 2025 for a robbery committed in 2023, a money broker prosecuted in San Diego in 2018 and people listed in Westmont, Illinois, a different town with the same name. None of them can be connected to the young man who died on 102nd Street. The record gives a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether he lived there.
Westmont is an unincorporated community of about 30,000 people in the southern part of Los Angeles County, bordered by the city of Los Angeles and close to Inglewood. Because it is not part of any city, it is governed by the county and patrolled by the Sheriff's Department, which investigates homicides there. The area is made up mostly of modest single family homes and small apartment buildings on a grid of numbered streets, with commercial strips along its larger avenues. West 102nd Street is one of its residential streets.
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 Jose Roberto Lopez 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 Jose Lopez, or who was on or near West 102nd Street in Westmont in June 2004, 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 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).
