Hoa Phuoc Le was 37 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists his case as a homicide that remained open with no arrest. The crime-tracking site CrimeTea also lists his case as an active, unsolved murder.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Hoa Phuoc Le has been made public. No news story about the killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public.
The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew the attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether anyone else was hurt or whether investigators ever identified a suspect or a motive.
His case stands out in one respect. He is listed in the database as Asian, and Asian Americans made up only a very small share of homicide victims in St. Louis in those years. His name suggests Vietnamese heritage, and St. Louis has a long-established Vietnamese community on the city's south side, centered around South Grand Boulevard. Someone in that community may remember him or his family.
Searches for his name are also complicated by another man named Hoa Phuoc Le, of Charlotte, North Carolina, who appeared in unrelated drug arrest reports years later. That man is not connected to this case, and the overlap makes it harder to find any trace of the man who died in St. Louis in 2014.
The location recorded in the database places his death on the far south side of St. Louis, a part of the city of brick bungalows, small shops and quiet residential streets. People who lived or worked there in late July 2014 may remember the police activity that followed his death.
St. Louis, a city of roughly 300,000 people, has for years had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. Police recorded about 120 homicides in 2013, 159 in 2014, 188 in both 2015 and 2016, and 205 in 2017, the most in roughly two decades. In many of those years, detectives solved fewer than half of the city's killings. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly.
St. Louis Regional CrimeStoppers keeps a public list of open homicides and accepts tips without asking for a caller's name, and a tip that leads to an arrest may be eligible for a cash reward.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Hoa Phuoc Le could be found in news archives or public records. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Hoa Phuoc Le, worked with him, or heard talk in the community about what happened to him in July 2014 may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division at 314-444-5371, or leave an anonymous tip with CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477).
