Kevin Lee Wiggins was 32 years old when he died on Saturday, November 16, 2002, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 628 S. San Julian St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Central Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 32-year-old black male" who "died Saturday, Nov. 16, after being stabbed in Downtown." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether he lived there, stayed nearby or was simply found there. 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 Kevin Lee Wiggins 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. Kevin Wiggins is a fairly common name, and searches are dominated by a Maryland death-row prisoner of the same name whose case reached the United States Supreme Court in the same years, along with men in Michigan, South Carolina, Wisconsin and other states. None of them can be connected to this death in Los Angeles.
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 32, an age when many men are building careers or raising young children, though nothing in the record says what his own life looked like or where he called home.
San Julian Street runs through the heart of Skid Row, the downtown Los Angeles district with one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States. The blocks around it are home to missions, shelters, single-room-occupancy hotels and social service agencies, and for decades many people have lived in tents and makeshift shelters on its sidewalks. Nothing in the record says whether Wiggins lived on Skid Row or was only passing through.
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 Kevin Lee Wiggins 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 32-year-old man named Kevin Wiggins who spent time downtown, or who was on or near San Julian Street in mid-November 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).
