Ray Lee Odom was 62 years old when he died on Wednesday, March 7, 2001, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Grand Avenue and General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central 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 62-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, March 7, after being stabbed in Downtown." It gave no other details about what happened. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ray Lee Odom 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.
Ray and Odom are both common names, and searches for him turned up only other men, among them a retired school superintendent in Northern California and men whose obituaries were published in Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma. None of them can be connected to the man who died downtown.
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 coroner listed an intersection rather than a street address. That suggests he may have been found outdoors, on a sidewalk or near the street, rather than inside a home, although the record does not say so directly. At 62, he was considerably older than most people killed in Los Angeles, and nothing in the record explains why he was at that corner on that day.
Grand Avenue is one of the main streets of downtown Los Angeles, running through the hilltop district of office towers, apartment buildings and cultural institutions such as the Music Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art. General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way is a short downtown street named for the Polish military engineer who fought for the American colonies in the Revolutionary War. By day the area is crowded with office workers, and at night it can empty out quickly, leaving its plazas and stairways quiet.
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 Ray Lee Odom 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 worked, lived or spent time near Grand Avenue and General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way in early March 2001, or who knew a 62-year-old man named Ray Odom downtown, 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).
