Jason Joshua Bahena was 20 years old when he died on Friday, June 27, 2003, in La Puente, in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 651 Glendora Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 20-year-old Latino male" who "died Friday, June 27, after being stabbed in La Puente." The entry gave an address on Glendora Avenue, but it did not say whether that was a home, a business or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jason Joshua Bahena 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. The few other people named Jason Bahena who appear in public records live in other states or were born years later, and none can be tied to this death.
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.
He was only 20, at an age when many young men are finishing school, starting their first full-time jobs or still living with their parents. He died at the start of summer, on a Friday. Whatever happened to him that day, it left almost no mark on the public record, and his family's memories of him remain private.
La Puente is a small city in the San Gabriel Valley, about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is one of the older communities in the valley, with roots in the ranchos of the nineteenth century, and today it is a largely working-class city of single-family homes, small apartment buildings and commercial strips. Glendora Avenue is one of its main streets. La Puente contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, and killings there are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 Jason Joshua Bahena 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 20-year-old man named Jason Bahena in La Puente, who went to school with him, or who was near the 600 block of Glendora Avenue in late June 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
