Mario Olavarria was 43 years old when he died on Saturday, December 7, 2002, in Monterey Park. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 808 Newmark Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Monterey Park Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 43-year-old white male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 7, after being stabbed in Monterey Park." The entry gave a street address on Newmark Avenue, but it did not say whether he lived there, was visiting or was simply found there. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Mario Olavarria 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. Olavarria is a fairly uncommon surname in the United States, which should make him easier to trace, yet searches turn up only unrelated men, including a longtime mayor in Chile, a psychologist in Miami and names in people-search listings. None of them can be connected to this death.
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.
He was 43, an age when many men are working, raising families or helping aging parents, though nothing in the record says what his own life looked like or how long he had lived in the area.
Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people in the western San Gabriel Valley, a few miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is mostly residential, with neighborhoods of single-family homes on rolling hills, and it is home to East Los Angeles College. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s it became one of the first suburbs in the country with an Asian American majority, and its commercial streets are known for Chinese restaurants and shopping centers. The city runs its own police department, which handles homicides within the city limits.
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 Mario Olavarria could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 43-year-old man named Mario Olavarria in Monterey Park or the nearby San Gabriel Valley, or who lived on or near Newmark Avenue in early December 2002, 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 Monterey Park Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
