Cory Joseph Shuman was 30 years old when he died on Friday, Aug. 31, 2001, in Pomona. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at the southwest corner of 2nd Street and Towne Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pomona 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 30-year-old white male" who "died Friday, Aug. 31, after being stabbed in Pomona." The entry placed his death at a street corner rather than a building address, which suggests he may have been hurt or found outdoors, although the record does not say so directly. 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 Cory Joseph Shuman 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. Cory Shuman is an uncommon name, but searches for it turn up only other men, among them grandsons named in family obituaries in Georgia and Pennsylvania, a man raising money online for his parents and a car show organizer in Utah. None of them can be connected to the man who died in Pomona 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.
At 30 he was a young man, with most of his adult life still in front of him. Nothing in the record says whether he had a wife or children, what kind of work he did, whether he lived in Pomona or was only passing through, or whether relatives in California or elsewhere were ever told how he died.
Pomona is one of the larger cities at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, in the valley that shares its name. It is home to the Fairplex, where the Los Angeles County Fair has been held for about a century, and to Cal Poly Pomona.
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 Cory Joseph Shuman 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 2nd Street and Towne Avenue in Pomona in late August 2001, or who knew a 30-year-old man named Cory Joseph Shuman, 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 Pomona Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
