Edgar J. Romero was 25 years old when he died on Wednesday, January 7, 2004, in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at the rear of 2630 S. Corning St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the West Los Angeles Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Jan. 7, after being stabbed in Mid-City." That short entry is nearly all that has been made public about his death. The location was recorded as the rear of an address on South Corning Street, which suggests he may have been found behind a building, perhaps in a yard, a driveway or an alley, though the record does not say which.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Edgar J. Romero 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.
Edgar Romero is a very common name in Southern California and across Latin America, and searches turn up many unrelated men who share it. Among them are a doctor who cares for newborns in Texas, a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey, and several men whose deaths in other places and other years were marked by online fundraisers and obituaries. None of them can be connected to the young man who died on Corning Street.
Mid-City is a broad stretch of central Los Angeles between the Westside and the older neighborhoods closer to downtown. It is largely residential, with blocks of modest houses, duplexes and apartment buildings, crossed by busy commercial corridors such as Pico Boulevard and Venice Boulevard, and its residents come from many different backgrounds. Corning Street is one of the area's quiet residential streets. The case was assigned to the LAPD's West Los Angeles Division.
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 Edgar J. Romero 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 Edgar Romero, or who was on or near South Corning Street in Mid-City in early January 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 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).
