Alberto Rodolfo Galindo Garcia was 39 years old when he died on Saturday, December 20, 2003, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 245 S. Main St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Central Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 39-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 20, after being stabbed in Downtown." That short entry is nearly all that has been made public about his death. He died five days before Christmas, on a Saturday, when downtown streets are usually quieter than on weekdays.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Alberto Rodolfo Galindo Garcia 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.
His full name carries two surnames, Galindo and Garcia, in the pattern common in Mexico and Central America, and he may have been known to friends simply as Alberto Garcia or Alberto Galindo. Alberto Garcia is one of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turn up hundreds of unrelated men, among them defendants in court cases in Texas and Mississippi, a university researcher in Spain and men remembered in obituaries in Kansas, Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. None of them can be connected to the man who died on Main Street.
The address on South Main Street lies in the older core of downtown Los Angeles, not far from City Hall and the civic center. Main Street is one of the original streets of the city, and its blocks hold a mix of older commercial buildings, hotels, small shops and government offices. The record does not say whether the address was a residence, a business or simply the place where he was found.
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 Alberto Rodolfo Galindo Garcia could be found in news archives or public records. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Alberto Galindo Garcia, or who was on or near the 200 block of South Main Street downtown in December 2003, 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).
