Alejandro Pedroza Santos was 25 years old when he died on Friday, July 26, 2002, in the Historic South-Central area of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 906 E. 27th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Newton Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Friday, July 26, after being stabbed in Historic South-Central." The entry gave a residential street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home or building on East 27th 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 Alejandro Pedroza Santos 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. Pedroza and Santos are both common surnames, and searches for his name turn up only other men, including a man with a similar name listed in a municipal archive in Mexico and men named Alejandro Santos whose obituaries were published in California, Texas and New York. None of them can be connected to the young man who died on 27th Street.
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.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, lying just south of downtown. It grew up in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a district of homes and small businesses, and in the middle of the 20th century the nearby Central Avenue corridor was the heart of Black Los Angeles and its jazz scene. By the 2000s the area was home mostly to Latino working families, living in older houses and apartment buildings mixed among garment shops, warehouses and small factories.
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 Alejandro Pedroza Santos 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 East 27th Street in July 2002, or who knew a 25-year-old man named Alejandro Pedroza or Alejandro Santos 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 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).
