Juan Antonio Chacon

Juan Antonio Chacon was 18 years old when he died on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002, in West Puente Valley, an unincorporated community in the San Gabriel Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 340 Big Dalton Ave. His death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Times database lists the investigating agency under the code LBH; because West Puente Valley is not part of any city, it is policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 18-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, Aug. 11, after being stabbed in West Puente Valley." The entry gave a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home or building on Big Dalton Avenue, although the record does not say so. 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 Juan Antonio Chacon 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. Juan and Chacon are both common names, and searches turn up many other men called Juan Antonio Chacon, among them a man arrested in Tennessee in 2025, a man named in a British parliamentary record from the 1970s and several older men whose obituaries were published in Texas and Arizona. None of them can be connected to the teenager who died in West Puente Valley.

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.

West Puente Valley is a small unincorporated community in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, surrounded by the cities of La Puente, West Covina and Baldwin Park. It is a largely residential area of modest single-family homes, many of them built in the decades after World War II, with small shops and businesses along its main streets. It is home to many working families, a large share of them Latino.

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 Juan Antonio Chacon 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 lived on or near Big Dalton Avenue in August 2002, or who knew an 18-year-old named Juan Antonio Chacon in the La Puente area, may hold information that could help detectives. 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).