Carmine Frank Puccio

Carmine Frank Puccio was 42 years old when he died on Saturday, December 11, 2004, in Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 5611 Carton Way, as the address appears in the record. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Division case.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 42-year-old white male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 11, after being stabbed in Hollywood." The record spells the street as Carton Way. Hollywood has a residential street called Carlton Way, which suggests the address may refer to it, though the record itself does not say so. The entry does not say whether the address was his home.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Carmine Frank Puccio 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. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. Carmine Puccio is an uncommon name, but searches turned up nothing that could be tied to this man. The best known person with the surname in crime news is a Florida man convicted in an unrelated 1993 killing, who has no connection 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.

Hollywood is one of the best known neighborhoods in the world, home to the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Bowl and the historic movie palaces along Hollywood Boulevard. A few blocks away from the tourist corridors, much of the neighborhood is made up of older apartment buildings and small bungalows, many of them home to working people, aspiring actors and musicians and new arrivals to the city.

He was 42, in the middle of his life, an age when many people are settled in their work and close to family and longtime friends. Whoever stabbed him ended that life just two weeks before Christmas, and the people who knew him were left without answers.

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 Carmine Frank Puccio could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 42-year-old man named Carmine Frank Puccio, or who lived or spent time near the 5600 block of Carton Way, or Carlton Way, in Hollywood in December 2004, 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).