Rosalva Yamileth Carranza was an infant, less than a year old, when she died on Wednesday, December 19, 2001, in Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after being stabbed. Her death was ruled a homicide. The agency responsible for the case is recorded in the Times database only by the code ACU, which is not explained.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a Latino female" who "died Wednesday, Dec. 19, after being stabbed." The entry listed her age as zero, which means she had not yet reached her first birthday. It gave no street address and no neighborhood, so even the community where she died is not part of the public record. She died six days before Christmas. No follow-up story about her death appears to have been published.
The death of a baby by stabbing is among the rarest and most disturbing kinds of homicide.
Very young children cannot defend themselves or go anywhere on their own, and they spend nearly all their time with the adults who care for them. That suggests the people around her in her last days would know a great deal about what happened, although the record does not say who they were or whether any of them was ever questioned.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Rosalva Yamileth Carranza 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 first and middle names, Rosalva and Yamileth, are both common among Spanish-speaking families, and searches turn up many adult women named Rosalva Carranza who appear as donors on fundraising pages, as a heart transplant patient and as commenters on social media. None of them can be connected to this child.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say where she was when she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, who was caring for her, whether anyone else was injured, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
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 Rosalva Yamileth Carranza could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a baby girl named Rosalva Yamileth Carranza, or her family, in Los Angeles County in December 2001 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 the local police department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
