Alicia Hernandez was 51 years old when she died on Monday, November 20, 2006, in Mayflower Village, a small unincorporated community in the San Gabriel Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 2620 Broderick Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 51-year-old Latino female" who "died Monday, Nov. 20, after being stabbed in Mayflower Village." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether that was her home, the home of someone she knew or simply the place where she was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written. She died three days before Thanksgiving.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Alicia Hernandez 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. She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Alicia Hernandez is one of the most common women's names in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turn up many other women who share it, 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 she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Mayflower Village is a small, mostly residential unincorporated area in the western San Gabriel Valley, surrounded by incorporated cities such as Arcadia and Monrovia. Its streets are lined largely with single-family homes, and because it is not part of any city, its policing is handled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
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 Alicia Hernandez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Broderick Avenue in Mayflower Village in November 2006, or who knew a 51-year-old woman named Alicia Hernandez in that part of the San Gabriel Valley, 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).
