Maria Guadalupe Soto was 29 years old when she died on Sunday, May 21, 2006, in Pasadena. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 829 N. Los Robles Ave. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pasadena Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her as "a 29-year-old Latino female" who "died Sunday, May 21, after being stabbed in Pasadena." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly everything that has been made public about her death.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Maria Guadalupe Soto 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.
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.
Maria Guadalupe Soto is a very common name, and searches turn up many other women who share it. One of them was a Los Angeles woman killed in a separate stabbing in 2024, whose case the Los Angeles Police Department lists as closed by an arrest. That woman was 44 and died in the San Fernando Valley, years after this death, and her case has no connection to the 2006 killing in Pasadena. Others with the name include a baby kidnapped in Chicago in 1998, students and residents of Texas and Georgia. None of them can be tied to this death. A young woman of 29 almost certainly left behind parents, siblings or friends, and possibly children, who still remember her.
Pasadena is one of the best known cities in Los Angeles County, home of the Rose Bowl, the Tournament of Roses Parade, the California Institute of Technology and the shops and restaurants of Old Pasadena. Los Robles Avenue is one of the city's main north-south streets, running past apartment buildings, homes, churches and offices. Pasadena has its own police department, which is why the case belongs to city detectives rather than to the Los Angeles Police Department or the sheriff. On a Sunday in a busy, close-knit city, someone may have seen or heard something without understanding what it meant.
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 Maria Guadalupe Soto 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 was on or near North Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena in May 2006, or who knew Maria Soto and spent time with her in the days before her death, 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 Pasadena Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
