Clifford Douglas Yunker

Clifford Douglas Yunker was 59 years old when he died on Sunday, April 24, 2005, in East Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 800 N. Mariposa Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 59-year-old white male" who "died Sunday, April 24, after being stabbed in East Hollywood." The entry gave an address on North Mariposa Avenue, but it did not say whether that was his home or simply the place where he was found, and no follow-up story appears to have been written about the case.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Clifford Douglas Yunker has been made public. An online obituary index lists a 2005 notice for a man named Clifford Yunker, which may refer to him, but its text could not be reviewed for this story. No memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. Yunker is an uncommon surname, and the other Clifford Yunkers who appear in public records, including a man of that name who died in 2012, cannot be connected to this case.

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.

He was older than most homicide victims in Los Angeles. A man of 59 may have been working, retired or living alone, and the record does not say which. Nor does it say whether he was a longtime resident of the neighborhood or a recent arrival.

East Hollywood is a dense, busy neighborhood just east of Hollywood proper, made up largely of apartment buildings, small houses and commercial streets. It is home to Los Angeles City College and to Barnsdall Art Park, where Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House stands on a hill, and its major hospitals make it one of the city's medical centers. The neighborhood also includes the communities known as Thai Town and Little Armenia.

Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Clifford Douglas Yunker could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 59-year-old man named Clifford Yunker, or who lived on or near North Mariposa Avenue in East Hollywood in April 2005, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).