Manuel Carlos Ruiz was 69 years old when he died on Sunday, July 5, 2020, in El Monte, in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 10107 Garvey Ave. 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 described him as "a 69-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, July 5, after being stabbed near 10107 Garvey Ave. in El Monte." That entry is almost all that has been made public about his death. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Manuel Carlos Ruiz 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.
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.
Manuel Ruiz is a very common name, and searches return academics in Spain, obituaries in Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere, and news stories about other men, including an unrelated killing in Kern County the same year. None of them can be connected to the man who died in El Monte.
El Monte has its own police department, yet this case is listed with the Sheriff's Department. That may mean the address falls in one of the unincorporated pockets near the city, where the Sheriff's Department handles policing, or that sheriff's homicide investigators took the case for another reason. The record does not say, and this is only an inference.
El Monte is one of the older cities of the San Gabriel Valley, and today it is a working-class community of modest homes, apartment complexes and busy commercial corridors. Garvey Avenue runs east and west through the area, lined with auto shops, small markets, restaurants, motels and strip malls, and it carries steady traffic between the cities of the valley.
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 Carlos Ruiz could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 10100 block of Garvey Avenue over the Fourth of July weekend in 2020, or who knew Manuel Ruiz and saw him in the days before his death, may hold information that could help detectives. Neighbors, shop workers and regular customers of the businesses nearby may remember a man in his late 60s and the people he spent time with. 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.
