Duane Dominique Diaz was 40 years old when he died on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1101 Mahanna Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 40-year-old Latino male" who "died Tuesday, Aug. 6, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The entry gave a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home or building on Mahanna 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 Duane Dominique Diaz 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. His middle name, Dominique, is unusual for a man, yet it does not appear in any public record that could be found. Searches for Duane Diaz turn up other men instead, among them a civic leader in Biloxi, Miss., who died in 2013, a university student in Arizona and a car salesman in Florida. None of them can be connected to the man who died in Long Beach.
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.
At 40 he was in the middle of his life. Nothing in the record says whether he had a wife or children, what work he did, how long he had lived in Long Beach, or whether he lived on Mahanna Avenue or was only there that day.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with its own police department, city government and long history as a Navy town and shipping center. Its neighborhoods range from the downtown waterfront and the older apartment districts near the coast to quieter areas of single-family homes farther inland.
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 Duane Dominique Diaz 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 Mahanna Avenue in August 2002, or who knew a 40-year-old man named Duane Diaz in Long Beach, 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
