Byron Walter Houston was 35 years old when he died on Monday, Jan. 24, 2000, in Carson. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 521 E. Collamer Drive. 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 35-year-old black male" who "died Monday, Jan. 24, after being stabbed in Carson." The entry gave a residential street address, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written, and the only other places his full name appears online are websites that copied that same sentence.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Byron Walter Houston 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. Byron Houston is not a rare name, and searches turn up several other men who share it, most prominently a former college and professional basketball player, along with ministers, veterans and men who died of natural causes in other states. None of them has any known connection to the man who died in Carson.
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.
Carson is a city of about 90,000 people in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, between Compton, Long Beach and the Harbor Gateway section of Los Angeles. It was incorporated in 1968 and is known for its mix of quiet residential tracts, refineries and industrial land, and for California State University, Dominguez Hills. Carson has long been one of the most diverse cities in the county, home to large Black, Latino, Filipino and Pacific Islander communities. Like many cities in the county, it contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why deputies and the department's Homicide Bureau handled this case.
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 Byron Walter Houston 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 a 35-year-old man named Byron Walter Houston, or who lived on or near Collamer Drive in Carson in January 2000, may hold information that could help. 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).
