Tywanna Lynette Johnson was 28 years old when she died on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at Pacific Coast Highway and Myrtle Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach 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 black female" who "died Wednesday, Dec. 13, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The location was given as a street intersection rather than a house number, which suggests she may have been found on or near the street, though the record does not say so. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Tywanna Lynette Johnson 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. Her first name is less common than her surname, but Johnson is one of the most common surnames in the country, and searches turn up many other women named Tywanna Johnson, mostly relatives listed in obituaries in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi and Alabama. None of them can be connected to this death.
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.
Pacific Coast Highway runs east and west through the middle of Long Beach, a few miles north of downtown and the waterfront. Along much of its length in the city it is a busy commercial strip of gas stations, motels, fast food restaurants, auto shops and small stores, with residential blocks of houses and apartment buildings on the side streets. Myrtle Avenue is one of those side streets. Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County and has its own police department, which investigates killings within the city limits through its Homicide Detail.
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 Tywanna Lynette Johnson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Tywanna, who lived or worked near Pacific Coast Highway and Myrtle Avenue in December 2000, or who heard talk in Long Beach about a woman stabbed there that week, 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).
