James Edwin Hill was 58 years old when he died on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000, in Lakewood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4124 1/4 Pixie Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 58-year-old white male" who "died Wednesday, Dec. 6, after being stabbed in Lakewood." The fraction in the address, 4124 1/4, is the kind of number often given to a back house, a converted garage or a second unit behind a main home, which suggests he may have lived or been found in such a unit, though the record does not say so. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about James Edwin Hill 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. James Hill is one of the most common name combinations in the United States, and searches turn up many men who share his full name, including men charged with crimes in Kentucky and South Carolina. None of them can be connected to the man who died in Lakewood.
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.
Lakewood is a city in southeastern Los Angeles County, just north of Long Beach. It grew almost overnight in the early 1950s, when developers built thousands of small, nearly identical houses on former farmland, and it became one of the best known examples of the postwar American suburb. When it incorporated in 1954, it chose to buy police and other services from the county rather than create its own departments, an arrangement that became known as the Lakewood Plan and was copied by many other cities. Because of that arrangement, killings in Lakewood are investigated by the Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.
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 Edwin Hill 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 James, who lived near the 4100 block of Pixie Avenue in Lakewood in December 2000, or who remembers talk in the neighborhood about a man stabbed there early that month, 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 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).
