Maria De La Luz Gonzalez De Pintor was 59 years old when she died on Saturday, December 14, 2002, in Boyle Heights. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 915 N. Forest St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Hollenbeck Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 59-year-old Latino female" who "died Saturday, Dec. 14, after being stabbed in Boyle Heights." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether it was her home or simply the place 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 Maria De La Luz Gonzalez De Pintor 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. Her full name follows a traditional Spanish style, and the closing "de Pintor" may reflect a married name, though no record confirms it. Searches for Maria Pintor turn up other women, including a Dallas woman born in 1919 and people who organized or gave to unrelated fundraisers, but 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 59, she was older than most homicide victims, though nothing in the record says what her life looked like.
Boyle Heights lies just east of downtown Los Angeles, across the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, long known as a working-class community of small houses, apartment buildings and family businesses. For much of the 20th century it was home to Jewish, Japanese American, Mexican American and other families, and by the early 2000s it was a largely Mexican American and Latino community with landmarks such as Mariachi Plaza and the White Memorial Medical Center. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division.
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 Maria De La Luz Gonzalez De Pintor 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 59-year-old woman named Maria Gonzalez or Maria Pintor in Boyle Heights, or who lived on or near North Forest Street in 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).
