Bevelyn Joetta Patel was 44 years old when she died on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001, just south of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 767 E. 14th Place. Her 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 her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 44-year-old black female" who "died Tuesday, Feb. 27, after being stabbed in Downtown." It gave no other details about what happened.
A website that republishes Los Angeles County coroner's reports, Hollywood LA News, adds a few more details. Its page about her is headlined "Bevelyn Patel, 44, Died in an Alley," and it gives her dates as "September 5, 1956 to February 27, 2001." It also says that the "formal pronouncement of death was made on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m."
If those details are accurate, she was found in an alley early that morning, and she had turned 44 less than six months before she died. The page does not say when she was stabbed or who found her.
Beyond those few lines, almost nothing about Bevelyn 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 her death. Her first name, Bevelyn, is unusual, which might be expected to make her easier to trace, yet her name appears online only in short listings drawn from coroner's records. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
The record does not say whether she lived near East 14th Place, whether she was attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or whether anyone saw what happened. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
East 14th Place lies in the industrial and wholesale area just south of downtown Los Angeles, a part of the city the Times listed as Downtown but which falls within the LAPD's Newton Division. The streets there are lined with warehouses, garment and produce businesses, loading docks and alleys, along with some older homes and apartment buildings. During business hours the area is busy with trucks and workers, but early in the morning and late at night many blocks are nearly empty, and people without stable housing often sleep in doorways and along the alleys.
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 Bevelyn Joetta Patel 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 700 block of East 14th Place in the late night or early morning hours before Feb. 27, 2001, or who knew Bevelyn and the people around her at the time, 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).
