Raul Uribe was 25 years old when he died on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002, in El Monte, in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 12026 1/2 Magnolia 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 recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Feb. 13, after being stabbed in El Monte." The half in the address number usually marks a second home or rear unit on the same lot, which suggests the place where he died was a small dwelling, although the record does not say whether he lived 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 Raul Uribe 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. Raul Uribe is a common name, and searches for it turn up only unrelated men, among them a man injured in a family stabbing in Texas, a police officer in a records case and men named in obituaries in Texas and Colorado. None of them can be connected to the man who died in El Monte in 2002.
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.
At 25 he was a young man with most of his life still ahead of him. Nothing in the record says whether he had a wife or children, what kind of work he did, how long he had lived in the San Gabriel Valley, or whether relatives were ever told how he died.
El Monte is a working-class city in the San Gabriel Valley. Once a farming town, it filled in over the twentieth century with houses, apartments, small factories and shopping streets. Today its neighborhoods are home to many Latino and Asian American families.
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 Raul Uribe 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 Magnolia Street in El Monte in February 2002, or who knew a 25-year-old man named Raul Uribe there, 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).
