Deanna Doris Gibbs was 33 years old when she died on Monday, February 9, 2004, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 332 E. 19th St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her as "a 33-year-old black female" who "died Monday, Feb. 9, after being stabbed in Long Beach." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly all that has been made public about her death.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Deanna Doris Gibbs 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.
She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she 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 she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Deanna Gibbs is not a rare name, and searches turn up many unrelated women who share it, among them a children's physiotherapy researcher in Britain, and women remembered in obituaries in Ohio and Indiana. None of them can be connected to the woman who died in Long Beach. Her middle name, Doris, appears in no other record found for this story. The record gives a residential street address, which suggests she may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether she lived there.
Long Beach is the second largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city of more than 450,000 people on San Pedro Bay with its own police department. Its harbor, joined with the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, forms one of the busiest shipping complexes in the world, and its downtown waterfront is home to the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific. East 19th Street runs through the central part of the city, north of downtown, an older and densely built area of bungalows, small apartment buildings and corner stores, home to many working families. Central Long Beach has long been one of the most diverse parts of the city.
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 Deanna Doris Gibbs 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 Deanna Gibbs, or who was on or near East 19th Street in central Long Beach in February 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
