Billy Ray Jefferson was 32 years old when he died on Tuesday, September 24, 2002, after being stabbed in the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds, and the place of injury was listed as 105 East 112th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Southeast 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 Tuesday, Sept. 24, after being stabbed in Broadway-Manchester." No follow-up story about the killing appears to have been published.
A short death notice published a few days later in the Daily Press, the newspaper in Victorville, adds a little more. It said that "Billy Ray Jefferson, 32, died at Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 2002."
The notice said he was born in Fairfield and that he lived in Apple Valley, a High Desert town in San Bernardino County, more than an hour's drive from the street where he was hurt. The name, age and date all match the coroner's record. Only the opening lines of that notice could be read for this story, and they do not say how he came to be in South Los Angeles that day or who he was with.
That he died at a hospital rather than at the scene suggests he was still alive when help arrived, though the record does not say how long he survived. Beyond the death notice, no memorial page, fundraiser or news story about him could be found, and searches for his name mostly return other men called Billy Jefferson, including an unrelated missing-person alert in San Diego and obituaries in other states.
Broadway-Manchester is a mostly residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, named for two of the main streets that cross it. Its blocks are lined largely with modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings, and numbered east-west streets such as 112th Street run between the larger avenues. Much of the area falls within the LAPD's Southeast Division, which covers Watts and neighboring communities.
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 Billy Ray Jefferson 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 Billy Ray Jefferson from Apple Valley, or who was on or near East 112th Street in late September 2002, may hold information that could help. Someone in the High Desert may also know why he was in South Los Angeles that day. 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).
