Robert Munoz was 26 years old when he died on Wednesday, December 18, 2002. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Foothill Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 26-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Dec. 18, after being stabbed." Unlike most entries, it gave no street address and no neighborhood, so even the place where he was hurt is missing from the public record. The only clue to location is the case assignment to the LAPD's Foothill Division. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Robert Munoz 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. Robert Munoz is one of the most common Latino names in California, and searches are flooded with other men who share it, including defendants in unrelated criminal cases in Sacramento, Texas and the South Bay, and many men whose obituaries and memorial fundraisers appeared over the years. 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 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 26, an age when many young men are working early jobs, starting families or still finding their way, though nothing in the record says what his life looked like.
The Foothill Division covers the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Its communities include Pacoima, Sun Valley, Sunland, Tujunga, Lake View Terrace and Shadow Hills. Much of the area is made up of working-class neighborhoods of small single-family homes, with semi-rural horse-keeping properties closer to the hills. Without an address, it is not possible to say which of these communities he died in.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Robert Munoz could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 26-year-old man named Robert Munoz in Pacoima, Sun Valley, Sunland-Tujunga or nearby communities, or who heard about a young man being stabbed in the northeast San Fernando Valley in mid-December 2002, 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).
