Elijah Osric Molinas was 25 years old when he died on Thursday, August 25, 2005, in East Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 738 S. Hendricks 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 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Thursday, Aug. 25, after being stabbed in East Los Angeles." That short entry is nearly all that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Elijah Osric Molinas 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.
His full name is an unusual one, and searches for it turned up nothing at all beyond the coroner's listing, not even a namesake. That silence may simply mean that his family mourned him privately, without a published obituary or an online memorial. At 25, he was a young man who very likely had parents, siblings, friends and perhaps children of his own, any of whom may still remember the summer he died.
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated community just east of downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. It is governed by Los Angeles County rather than by a city, and it is patrolled by the Sheriff's Department from its East Los Angeles Station. The community is known for Whittier Boulevard, for East Los Angeles College and for its long history as a center of Mexican American life and culture in Southern California. Hendricks Avenue is a residential street of modest homes and small apartment buildings. The record gives a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether he lived there.
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 Elijah Osric Molinas could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Elijah Molinas, or who was on or near South Hendricks Avenue in East Los Angeles in late August 2005, may hold information that could help investigators. 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).
