Lucy Natasha Markarian-Minasian was 48 years old when she died on Saturday, May 28, 2005, in Santa Fe Springs, a city in southeastern Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 4140 Workmill Road. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The coroner's record describes her as a white woman in her late 40s. Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Lucy Natasha Markarian-Minasian 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. Her full name, with its hyphenated surname, is unusual enough that any news story or obituary would likely be easy to find.
Searches under both surnames turned up nothing that could be tied to her.
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.
The record gives a street address rather than an intersection, which suggests she may have been found at or near a building on Workmill Road rather than out on an open street, but the record does not say whether the address was a home, a workplace or somewhere else, or whether she had any connection to it. A woman of 48 who was killed with a knife in a small city would ordinarily draw at least a short news item, and the absence of one may mean that few details were ever released.
Santa Fe Springs grew up around one of the major oil discoveries of the early 1920s, and oil derricks once crowded its hills. It became an incorporated city in 1957 and is known today mostly for its large industrial and business districts, with warehouses, manufacturers and distribution centers spread along its main roads and freeways, alongside smaller neighborhoods of homes. The city contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, which is why her case went to the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 Lucy Natasha Markarian-Minasian 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 lived or worked near Workmill Road in late May 2005, who knew Lucy, her family or the people around her, or who heard talk afterward about a woman stabbed in Santa Fe Springs that Memorial Day weekend, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).
