Moises Vasquez Reyes was 43 years old when he died on Friday, January 4, 2002, on the east side of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Olympic Boulevard and McGarry Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Newton Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 43-year-old Latino male" who "died Friday, Jan. 4, after being stabbed in Downtown." The entry gave an intersection rather than a street address, which suggests he may have been attacked or found outdoors, on a sidewalk or in the street, although the record does not say so directly. He died only a few days into the new year.
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 Moises Vasquez Reyes 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. Moises Reyes is a common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, in obituaries from New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, Georgia and Puerto Rico and in social media comments. None of them can be connected to the man who died near Olympic Boulevard in 2002.
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.
The area around Olympic Boulevard east of the downtown core is very different from the office towers a mile or so to the west. It is a district largely given over to warehouses, wholesale businesses, garment and food suppliers and loading docks, busy with trucks and workers by day and much emptier at night. Few people live there, although in the early 2000s some homeless people slept in the area. The intersection falls within the LAPD's Newton Division, which covers a stretch of the city south and east of downtown.
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 Moises Vasquez Reyes 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 worked or spent time near Olympic Boulevard and McGarry Street in early January 2002, or who knew a 43-year-old man named Moises Reyes, 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).
