Jerri Joesett Patterson was 42 years old when she died on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2002, in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 320 W. 120th St., in the area the Los Angeles Times maps as Broadway-Manchester. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 42-year-old black female" who "died Saturday, Aug. 10, after being stabbed in Broadway-Manchester." The entry gave a residential street address, which suggests she may have been hurt at or near a home, although the record does not say so. 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 Jerri Joesett Patterson 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 middle name, Joesett, is unusual, but it does not appear in any public record that could be found. Searches for Jerri Patterson turn up many other women, including women whose obituaries were published in Nebraska, North Carolina and Oklahoma, a woman who organized a fundraiser for a child's service dog and a painter in Kentucky. None of them can be connected to the woman who died on 120th Street.
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.
Broadway-Manchester takes its name from the intersection of Broadway and Manchester Avenue in South Los Angeles. It is a long-established, working-class area of small single-family homes, apartment buildings and commercial strips along its main streets, home over the decades to many Black families and, increasingly, Latino families as well. The boundary between the city of Los Angeles and unincorporated county neighborhoods runs through this part of South Los Angeles, and unincorporated blocks are patrolled by the Sheriff's Department rather than the LAPD, which may explain why her case was assigned to the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.
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 Jerri Joesett Patterson 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 West 120th Street in August 2002, or who knew a 42-year-old woman named Jerri Patterson in South Los Angeles, 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).
