Teresa Gaspar was 28 years old when she died on Tuesday, July 3, 2001, in Pomona. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 810 Reeves Place. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pomona Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 28-year-old Latino female" who "died Tuesday, July 3, after being stabbed in Pomona." It gave no other details about what happened, and no follow-up story about her death appears to have been published.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Teresa Gaspar 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Gaspar is a common surname in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, and searches for her name turn up only other women, including a woman in Pennsylvania named in a 2019 drug case, people listed in New Jersey and Alabama, a pageant contestant and a scientist in Portugal. None of them can be connected to the young woman 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 she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Women are a minority among homicide victims in Los Angeles County, and when a young woman is stabbed, investigators often look first at the people closest to her. Nothing in the public record says whether that was the case here, and no suspect has ever been publicly identified, so any such link remains only a possibility.
Pomona is a city of about 150,000 people on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, near the San Bernardino County line. It is home to the Fairplex, where the Los Angeles County Fair is held each year, and to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Much of the city is made up of modest single-family homes, apartment complexes and older commercial streets, and many of its residents are working families. Reeves Place is a residential street in the city. The Pomona Police Department, not the county sheriff, 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 Teresa Gaspar 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 28-year-old woman named Teresa Gaspar in Pomona, or who was near the 800 block of Reeves Place in early July 2001, 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).
