Jose Blas Soto Gonzalez was fatally stabbed inside an apartment in the 4700 block of North Kilpatrick Avenue in Irving Park, on Chicago's Northwest Side, on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Area detectives with the Chicago Police Department investigated. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, gives his age as 63.
According to Chicago police, he was arguing with another man, 23, inside the apartment at about 1 p.m. when the younger man stabbed him multiple times in the body. He was taken to Community First Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No one else was reported hurt, and police did not say what the argument was about or whether a weapon was recovered.
That brief account stands out because police were able to give the attacker's age, which suggests investigators had an idea of who he was. The two men were inside the apartment together and had been arguing before the stabbing, so they may have known each other.
Yet the only public report said that Area detectives were investigating. It did not say anyone was in custody, and no later story about an arrest, a charge or a court appearance could be found.
Even his age is uncertain in the public record. The tracker lists him as 63, the text of the Sun-Times story gives his age as 64, and the summary line of the same story describes the victim as 56. Small inconsistencies like these are common in early reports, but they are one more sign of how little has been published about him.
Almost nothing about his life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. His name follows the Spanish-language custom of carrying two surnames, so relatives, co-workers and records may know him simply as Jose Soto or Jose Gonzalez, both very common names. That makes it harder to find any trace of him, and may help explain why his story has been so hard to follow.
The 4700 block of North Kilpatrick Avenue lies just south of Lawrence Avenue, on a residential stretch of houses and small apartment buildings in the western part of Irving Park. The busy Cicero Avenue and Lawrence Avenue corridors are close by. Because the attack happened in the early afternoon on a weekday, neighbors, delivery drivers or people coming and going from the building may have heard the argument or seen someone leave.
Chicago recorded about 620 homicides in 2023, down from about 720 in 2022 and about 800 in 2021, the deadliest year in a quarter century. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in the years from 2019 through 2023, though those figures count cases closed without charges. Most killings in those years were shootings, and deaths from stabbings and beatings often received only a few lines of news coverage before fading from view.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jose Blas Soto Gonzalez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 3 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived in or near the building on North Kilpatrick Avenue, who knew the 23-year-old man described by police, or who heard about the argument that afternoon may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a person seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
