Salvador Pena Sanchez was 54 years old when he died on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2001, in Woodland Hills, in the southwest San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds across from 22522 Ventura Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Valley Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 54-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 8, after being stabbed in Woodland Hills." Years later, his family and the detectives on his case told a fuller story to CBS Los Angeles.
His daughter told the station that he "was a day laborer and often didn't spend the night at home but on the streets waiting for work." Police said that was what he was doing the night he was killed.
He "had been working at a Woodland Hills car wash and spent the night there when someone attacked and killed him," police said.
Detectives released a composite sketch of a man they said may have killed him. According to the report, several days after the killing someone called police to say he had just bought coffee for a transient near the car wash who talked about the death. About 15 years later, police said they had new evidence that supported what the caller said. But the caller never left his name, and detectives said they hoped to talk to him again.
His family described a loss that never eased. "It hasn't been the same without him," his niece, Betsy Castro, said as the family prepared for Thanksgiving. She was 14 when he was killed. "He didn't get to see me married, have my children, my children get to know him," she said. His daughter, Guadalupe Guillen, said, "I remember him, and I feel very sad." Asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "I want him to get him back, but it's impossible."
Woodland Hills sits at the southwestern corner of the San Fernando Valley, below the Santa Monica Mountains. Ventura Boulevard, the Valley's main commercial street, runs through it lined with restaurants, shops, offices and car-oriented businesses, and the Warner Center business district lies to the north. Like many busy stretches of the boulevard, it has long drawn day laborers looking for work alongside its shoppers and office workers.
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 Salvador Pena Sanchez 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. Detectives have said they especially want to hear again from the man who called about the transient near the car wash, and anyone else who was on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills in early December 2001 may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. The detectives named in the CBS report, Martin Mojarro and Jeffrey Allen, could be reached at 213-486-6813 and 213-486-6810. 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).
