Lillian Negrete Gonzales was 38 years old when she died on Wednesday, April 5, 2000, in Pico Rivera. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 4542 Durfee Ave. Her 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 her death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described her as "a 38-year-old Latino female" who "died Wednesday, April 5, after being stabbed in Pico Rivera." The entry gave a street address on Durfee Avenue, but it did not say whether that was her home, the home of someone she knew or simply the place where she was found. The only other places her full name appears online are websites that copied that same sentence.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Lillian Negrete Gonzales 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. Lillian Gonzales is a common name, and searches turn up many other women who share it, including obituaries in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and elsewhere in Southern California. None of them has any known connection to this death.
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.
Pico Rivera is a mostly residential city in southeast Los Angeles County, lying between the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River. It took its name from two older communities, Pico and Rivera, which joined together when the city incorporated in 1958, and the Pico name honors Pio Pico, the last governor of Mexican California. Its neighborhoods are made up largely of single-family homes on quiet residential streets, with shopping centers and small businesses along the main boulevards. Durfee Avenue is one of the streets that crosses the city.
The city has no police department of its own and contracts with the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, which is why the case belongs to sheriff's homicide investigators.
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 Lillian Negrete Gonzales 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 knew a 38-year-old woman named Lillian Negrete Gonzales, or who lived near the 4500 block of Durfee Avenue in Pico Rivera in April 2000, 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 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).
