Tony Darrell Woods

Tony Darrell Woods was 41 years old when he died on Saturday, June 1, 2002, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 310 E. 5th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central 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 41-year-old white male" who "died Saturday, June 1, after being stabbed in Downtown." The entry gave a street address on East 5th Street, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was attacked there or whether that was simply where he was found. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Tony Darrell Woods 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. Tony Woods is a very common name, and searches are crowded with other men who share it, among them a stand-up comedian, college athletes and men whose obituaries were published in other states. None of them can be connected to the man who died on East 5th Street.

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.

At 41 he was a grown man with a long life behind him. Nothing in the record says where he came from, whether he had a family, what kind of work he did, or whether he had a home of his own.

The 300 block of East 5th Street lies in the part of downtown Los Angeles widely known as Skid Row, an area of about 50 city blocks east of the old financial district that has for decades held one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States. Its streets are lined with missions, shelters, single-room-occupancy hotels and social service agencies, and many people sleep in tents and makeshift shelters on the sidewalks.

Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Tony Darrell Woods could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near East 5th Street downtown at the start of June 2002, or who knew a 41-year-old man named Tony Woods in the area, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).