Olivia Carmelita Grijalva was 54 years old when she died on Tuesday, April 18, 2000, in Montebello. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 350 N. 4th St. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Montebello Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 54-year-old Latino female" who "died Tuesday, April 18, after being stabbed in Montebello." It gave no other details about what happened, and no follow-up story about her death appears to have been published.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Olivia Carmelita Grijalva 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. Olivia and Grijalva are both fairly common names in Southern California, and searches for her turned up only other women, among them an Irwindale resident and a New Mexico woman who both died in 2021, and an Olivia Grijalva listed as a surviving sister in a 2002 obituary. None of them can be connected to the woman who died in Montebello.
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 coroner listed a street address rather than an intersection, which suggests she may have been hurt at or near a home, although the record does not say whether she lived there. At 54, she was older than most people killed in Los Angeles County and nothing in the public record says whether she knew the person who attacked her.
Montebello is a city just east of East Los Angeles, in the southeastern part of Los Angeles County. It grew up in the early twentieth century and became known for the oil discovered in the Montebello Hills, and today it is a mostly residential city of single-family homes and apartment buildings, with shops and restaurants along Whittier Boulevard. Unlike many neighboring communities, Montebello has its own police department, which handled this investigation.
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 Olivia Carmelita Grijalva could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near North 4th Street in Montebello in April 2000, or who knew a 54-year-old woman named Olivia Grijalva and the people close to her, 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 Montebello Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
