Cheryl Diane Tyler was 63 years old when she died on Saturday, April 9, 2016, in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 1018 W. 83rd St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau Homicide unit.
She was found inside her own apartment. According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, LAPD Det. Dave Garrido said officers were called about 5:15 p.m. to a disturbance in the courtyard of an apartment complex on the block. There, officers found a 44-year-old man "with a knife in his waistband who was unresponsive to questions." Officers then did a welfare check in a nearby apartment and found Tyler's body in the living room.
The Times reported that the man "was taken into custody and remains jailed on an unrelated matter, according to online jail records."
Police told the Times they believed the man lived with Tyler but that the relationship was not romantic. The man was not named, and no charge in Tyler's death was reported.
That leaves the public record in an uncertain place. Police described a person of interest who was found close by, but the published record does not show that anyone was ever charged with killing her, and nothing in news archives shows a court case connected to her death. It is possible that detectives were never able to build a case that prosecutors would file, or that a case moved forward without any public coverage. Neither possibility can be confirmed from what has been released.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Cheryl Diane Tyler has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found that clearly belongs to her, and Cheryl Tyler is a common enough name that searches turn up women in Arkansas, Virginia, Texas and other states who have no connection to this case. She surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Vermont Knolls is a small residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles that takes its name from nearby Vermont Avenue. It is made up mostly of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings on quiet side streets, close to the commercial strip along Vermont Avenue.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Cheryl Diane Tyler could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived in or near the apartment complex at 1018 W. 83rd St. in April 2016, or who knew Cheryl Tyler, may hold information that could help detectives. In 2016, police asked anyone with information to call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at 786-5113. 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
