Daniel Ernesto Reyes was 20 years old when he died on Friday, May 7, 2004, in Koreatown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 116 S. Kenmore Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Rampart Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 20-year-old Latino male" who "died Friday, May 7, after being stabbed in Koreatown." The entry gave an address on South Kenmore Avenue, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was attacked there or whether that was simply where he was found. 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 Daniel Ernesto Reyes 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. Daniel Reyes is a very common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a man stabbed in Orange County more than a decade later and men whose deaths were reported in other countries. None of them can be connected to this death.
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.
Koreatown is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, lying west of downtown between Hollywood and the Mid-City area. It is known for its Korean restaurants, shops, churches and late-night businesses, but most of the people who live there are Latino, many of them immigrant families renting apartments in the older buildings that line streets such as Kenmore Avenue. The neighborhood is busy at all hours. The part of Koreatown where he died is patrolled by the LAPD's Rampart Division.
At 20, Daniel Ernesto Reyes was barely an adult. Whoever stabbed him took away the years he might have spent working, building a family or simply growing older.
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 Daniel Ernesto Reyes 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 20-year-old man named Daniel Reyes in Koreatown, or who was on or near the 100 block of South Kenmore Avenue in early May 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 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).
