Kenneth Allen Bojok was 38 years old when he died on Friday, June 14, 2002, in Paramount, a small city in southeast Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 14528 Coke Ave. 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 recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 38-year-old white male" who "died Friday, June 14, after being stabbed in Paramount." The entry gave a street address on Coke Avenue, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was attacked there or whether that was simply where he was found. 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 Kenneth Allen Bojok 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. Bojok is a rare surname, which should make him easier to trace than most. Yet searches for his name return almost nothing at all, and nothing that can be tied with confidence to the man who died in Paramount.
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.
Paramount is a compact, working-class city of about 50,000 people, lying between Compton, Lynwood, Downey and Bellflower and close to the Long Beach Freeway. It was once a center of dairy farming, and the area later grew into a community of modest single-family homes, apartment buildings, small factories and industrial yards. The city contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, so homicides there are investigated by 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 Kenneth Allen Bojok 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 lived on or near the 14500 block of Coke Avenue in June 2002, or who knew a 38-year-old man named Kenneth Bojok in Paramount or the surrounding cities, 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).
