Manuel Siria was 33 years old when he died on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000, in Lennox. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 10425 Inglewood 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 33-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 2, after being stabbed in Lennox." The entry gave an address on Inglewood Avenue, but it did not say whether he lived there, worked there or was found there. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Manuel Siria 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. Siria is an uncommon surname, yet searches for his name turn up only unrelated people in Spain, Latin America and on social media, none of whom can be tied to this death.
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.
Lennox is a small unincorporated community in the southwestern part of Los Angeles County, just east of Los Angeles International Airport. Because it is not part of any city, it is policed by the Sheriff's Department rather than a city force. It sits between Inglewood and Hawthorne, and jets on their final approach to the airport pass low over its rooftops many times an hour. Inglewood Avenue is one of its main north-south streets, lined with small businesses, apartments and homes.
In a place as compact as Lennox, neighbors, shopkeepers and regular customers often know one another by sight. That makes it likely that someone who was in the area on the first weekend of December 2000 remembers the night a man was stabbed on Inglewood Avenue, even if that memory never reached investigators.
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 Manuel Siria 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 Manuel, who lived or worked near the 10400 block of Inglewood Avenue in December 2000, or who heard talk afterward of what happened to him, 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).
