Terron Lee Green was 22 years old when he died on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1711 Chestnut Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 22-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, Nov. 7, after being stabbed in Long Beach." It gave no other details about what happened. The record lists a street address on Chestnut Avenue, but it does not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. 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 Terron Lee Green 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. Searches for his name turn up a younger Terron Green, born in 1989, whose obituary was published years later, and men of the same name listed as relatives in obituaries in New Jersey and Minnesota. None of them can be connected to the 22-year-old who died in Long Beach in 2001.
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.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city of more than 400,000 people on the southern edge of the county. It is home to one of the busiest container ports in the country, to the retired ocean liner Queen Mary and to California State University, Long Beach. Away from the waterfront and the high-rise downtown, much of the city is made up of older residential neighborhoods of small houses, duplexes and apartment buildings. The Long Beach Police Department investigates killings within the city limits.
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 Terron Lee Green 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 was near the 1700 block of Chestnut Avenue in early November 2001, or who knew a 22-year-old man named Terron Lee Green in Long Beach, 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
