Ricky Moses Walters was 20 years old when he died on Saturday, March 18, 2006, in El Monte. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 11044 Dodson St. 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 described him as "a 20-year-old white male" who "died Saturday, March 18, after being stabbed in El Monte." That brief entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly the whole of the public record on his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ricky Moses Walters 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.
Ricky Walters is a fairly common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a well-known rapper whose birth name is Ricky Walters and men whose obituaries were published in Georgia, Kentucky, Kansas and the Carolinas. None of them can be connected to this death. His middle name, Moses, is less common and may be the detail most likely to help someone recognize him. At 20, he was barely an adult, and he almost certainly left behind parents, siblings or friends who still remember him, but none of their words have entered the public record.
El Monte is one of the older cities of the San Gabriel Valley, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is a dense, largely working-class city of houses, apartment buildings and small businesses, crossed by the 10 Freeway and close to the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River. El Monte has its own police department, so the sheriff's listing suggests that the Dodson Street address may lie in one of the unincorporated county areas that carry an El Monte mailing address, or that sheriff's homicide investigators handled the case for another reason.
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 Ricky Moses Walters 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 Dodson Street in the El Monte area in March 2006, or who knew Ricky Walters and spent time with him in the days before his 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 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).
