James Irwin Moore was 56 years old when he died in his home in Long Beach. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner gave the date of his death as Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001, and recorded that he died of stab wounds at 4050 E. Ransom St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times reported on his death the next day in a short item at the end of a story about another Long Beach killing. It said that "the owner of a Seal Beach picture framing shop was found stabbed to death Tuesday in his Long Beach home, authorities said." The paper added that Moore "was last seen in his shop about 5 p.m. Saturday, Long Beach Police Sgt. Steve Filippini said," and it asked anyone with information to call homicide detectives at (562) 570-7244.
Those two sentences say a great deal about how his last days may have unfolded. He was last seen at work on the evening of Saturday, Feb.
24, and he was not found until Tuesday, three days later. That gap suggests he may have been killed some time before he was discovered, and that the date in the coroner's record may reflect when he was found rather than when he was attacked, although the record does not say so. The report did not say who found him, whether anything was taken from the house, or whether there were signs of a break-in.
As a small business owner, he would have been known to customers, suppliers and neighboring shopkeepers in Seal Beach, as well as to his neighbors on Ransom Street. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for him could be found for this story, and no later news story about the investigation appears to have been published. James Moore is an extremely common name, and searches for him are crowded with other men, including a 70-year-old James Irwin Moore whose death notice appeared in a Los Angeles newspaper later in 2001.
Ransom Street is a residential street in eastern Long Beach. Seal Beach, where his shop was, is a small beach city just across the county line in Orange County, a short drive to the southeast. Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city whose own police department, not the Los Angeles Police Department or the Sheriff's Department, 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 James Irwin Moore 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 saw him at his framing shop in Seal Beach on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001, who noticed anything unusual on Ransom Street between that Saturday and the following Tuesday, or who did business with him in those weeks, 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
