Ondina Cerda was 75 years old when she died on Friday, September 5, 2003, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 2401 Maine Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Long Beach Police Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 75-year-old Latino female" who "died Friday, Sept. 5, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether that was her home, the home of a relative or the place where she was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written, and no police statement about her death could be found.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Ondina Cerda 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. Ondina is an uncommon first name, and the only other people found with her full name live far from Southern California and have no connection to this death.
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.
Her age makes the case especially troubling. Women in their mid-seventies are rarely the victims of homicide, and the stabbing of an elderly woman raises questions the public record cannot answer. It does not say whether she lived alone or with family, whether someone forced their way into a home, or whether she was attacked by a stranger or by someone close to her. None of those possibilities has been confirmed.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County and one of the largest in California, a port city on San Pedro Bay. It is home to one of the busiest container ports in the country, to the Queen Mary, the retired ocean liner docked in its harbor, and to a long stretch of beaches and waterfront. Away from the shoreline, much of the city is made up of residential neighborhoods of older houses and apartment buildings.
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 Ondina Cerda 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 a 75-year-old woman named Ondina Cerda, or who lived on or near Maine Avenue in Long Beach in September 2003, 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 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).
