Anna Quesada was 42 years old when she died on Tuesday, June 10, 2003, in Covina, a city in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 1160 E. Wanamaker Drive. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Covina Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 42-year-old Latino female" who "died Tuesday, June 10, after being stabbed in Covina." The entry gave a street address on Wanamaker Drive, but it did not say whether she lived there, whether she was visiting or whether that was simply where she was found. No follow-up story about her death appears to have been published.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Anna Quesada 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. Anna Quesada is not an especially rare name, and searches for it turn up other women in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere, along with women named in obituaries as daughters or wives. None of them can be connected 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.
At 42, she was at an age when many women are raising children, working and caring for aging parents at the same time, though nothing in the record says what her own life looked like.
Covina is a city of about 50,000 people in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, between West Covina, Glendora and Azusa. It is largely residential, with tree-lined streets of single-family homes, apartment complexes and a small historic downtown along Citrus Avenue. The city was once surrounded by citrus groves, a past still reflected in its street names and civic identity. Covina has its own police department, which handles homicides that occur inside the city limits.
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 Anna Quesada 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 42-year-old woman named Anna Quesada in Covina or the nearby cities, or who lived on or near East Wanamaker Drive in June 2003, may hold information that could help. Neighbors, coworkers or friends who remember a disturbance in the area that week may also be able to 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 contact the Covina Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
