Nery Noel Palacios-Cano was 34 years old when he died on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, in the Hawthorne area of the South Bay. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 141st Street and Inglewood Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 34-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, Feb. 25, after being stabbed in Hawthorne." It gave no other details about what happened. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Nery Noel Palacios-Cano 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. His hyphenated name joins two family names, a custom common in many Spanish-speaking countries, but searches for the full name and for its parts turned up no record of him at all, not even a short listing.
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.
The case was assigned to the Sheriff's Department rather than to the Hawthorne Police Department. That may mean the spot where he was hurt lies in one of the small unincorporated pockets near Hawthorne, which are patrolled by sheriff's deputies, although the record does not explain the choice of agency.
Hawthorne is a working-class city in the South Bay, southwest of downtown Los Angeles and a few miles east of Los Angeles International Airport. It grew up around the aircraft and aerospace industries in the middle of the twentieth century and is known as the hometown of the Beach Boys. Inglewood Avenue is one of its main north-south streets, lined with apartment buildings, small shops and auto businesses, and the surrounding blocks are home to many working families, a large share of them Latino.
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 Nery Noel Palacios-Cano 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 141st Street and Inglewood Avenue in late February 2001, or who knew a 34-year-old man named Nery Palacios-Cano, may hold information that could help investigators. 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
