Ricky Allen was 42 years old when he died on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001, somewhere in Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case. The public record does not give an address, a street or even a neighborhood for the place where he was hurt.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 42-year-old black male" who "died Sunday, Oct. 21, after being stabbed." Unlike most entries from that year, it did not name a community, which leaves even the setting of his death unknown. 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 Ricky Allen 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. His name is a very common one, which makes any search for him difficult. It turns up a blues musician, a film director in Britain, men in court records in Ohio, Kentucky, Texas and New York, and obituaries of other men named Ricky Allen in many states. None of them can be connected to the 42-year-old man who was stabbed in Los Angeles County in October 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.
The Sheriff's Department patrols the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County and dozens of smaller cities that contract with it for police services, from the Antelope Valley in the north to communities in the south of the county. Its Homicide Bureau investigates killings in all of those places, as well as deaths inside county jails and some other county facilities. A Sheriff's case number therefore narrows the place of death only slightly, and the coroner's record that reached the public left the location out entirely.
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 Ricky Allen 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 42-year-old man named Ricky Allen in Los Angeles County in 2001, or who heard about a stabbing on or around Sunday, Oct. 21, of that year, 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 leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
