Santiago Maqueda Hernandez was 61 years old when he died on Monday, Oct. 1, 2001, in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 5326 Broadway Blvd. 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 61-year-old Latino male" who "died Monday, Oct. 1, after being stabbed in Historic South-Central." The entry gave an address on Broadway, one of the busy commercial streets of the area, but it did not say whether that was his home, a business or the spot 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 Santiago Maqueda Hernandez 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. Santiago Hernandez is a very common name, and searches turn up dozens of men who share it, from obituaries in Texas, South Carolina and California to court records in New York and Arizona. None of them can be connected to the 61-year-old man who died in South Los Angeles in 2001, and his second surname, Maqueda, appears in no other record found for this story.
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.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, lying between downtown and the communities farther south. In the first half of the twentieth century it was the heart of Black Los Angeles, and the Central Avenue corridor was famous for its jazz clubs and businesses. In later decades many Latino families settled there as well. Broadway runs north and south through the area, lined with small shops, auto businesses, churches, apartment buildings and older homes, and buses and foot traffic keep it busy through most of the day.
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 Santiago Maqueda Hernandez 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 5300 block of Broadway in South Los Angeles at the start of October 2001, or who knew a 61-year-old man named Santiago Hernandez who lived or worked in the area, 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).
