Blanca Isela Desantiago was 28 years old when she died on Wednesday, September 24, 2003, in the northern San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 15040 Parthenia St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division. The coroner's record placed the address in North Hills, while police and the Los Angeles Times described it as Panorama City.
According to a Los Angeles Police Department news release, Devonshire patrol officers responded at about 1:45 a.m. to a radio call of a stabbing on the 15000 block of Parthenia Street. They were directed to an apartment where they found two people with stab wounds. Paramedics took both to hospitals, where Blanca died. The second victim, an 18-year-old man, was listed in critical but stable condition. Detectives believed he "attempted to intercede in the attack and was subsequently stabbed several times."
The Times later reported that he was treated and released.
Police identified the suspect as her brother, Victor Manuel Desantiago, 24, who had recently moved in with her after arriving from El Paso, Texas. The Times reported that he "has a history of violent crime and spent nearly two years in a Texas prison for stabbing another relative, police said," and that shortly after his parole about two weeks earlier, he had moved in with his sister, "a single mother of two." During an argument at the apartment, she "was stabbed multiple times," said LAPD Capt. Joe Curreri. Her children were at home but were unharmed.
The brother was seen fleeing the apartment complex on foot. Police described him as 5 feet 10 and 195 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and multiple tattoos, and called him "extremely dangerous." Curreri told the Times he "is a drug abuser and is considered armed and dangerous." The department held a press conference outside the Devonshire station that morning to ask for the public's help in finding him. Police said the reason for the dispute remained under investigation. The suspect is presumed innocent, and no court has ever found him responsible for her death.
Parthenia Street runs east and west across the San Fernando Valley. Panorama City and North Hills are neighboring communities of apartment buildings and modest homes in the central and northern Valley, both part of the city of Los Angeles. Panorama City grew up after World War II as one of the Valley's first planned communities.
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 Blanca Isela Desantiago 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 Blanca Desantiago or her brother, or who has heard where he went after September 2003, in Los Angeles, El Paso or anywhere else, 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).
