David Stephen Dillon was 37 years old when he died on Sunday, July 28, 2002, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 200 W. 6th Street. 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 37-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, July 28, after being stabbed in Downtown." The address given is on one of the main east-west streets of downtown, in a busy commercial area, which suggests he may have been hurt on or near the street, 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 David Stephen Dillon 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. David Dillon is a common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, among them a well-known architecture critic in Dallas, a Carmelite priest, a police detective named in a California court opinion and men whose obituaries were published in Ohio, Colorado and Minnesota. None of them can be connected to the man who died downtown.
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.
Downtown Los Angeles is the historic and government center of the city. Its older blocks around Broadway, Spring Street and Main Street hold early 20th-century office towers, banks, theaters and department stores, many of which had emptied out by the 2000s. In 2002 the area was busy with shoppers and workers during the day but much quieter at night, and the conversion of old office buildings into lofts and apartments was only beginning. The streets east of downtown's core, including Skid Row, were home to thousands of homeless people.
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 David Stephen Dillon 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 was on or near West 6th Street downtown in late July 2002, or who knew a 37-year-old man named David Dillon in downtown 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 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).
