Jose Perez

A man is stabbed while out with friends
Just two days before Christmas in 1977, a man named Jose Perez was killed in a San Antonio bar, his life ended by a single, sudden act of violence. For decades, his case has remained unsolved, a lingering question for law enforcement and a story without an ending. The few facts known about his death paint a frustrating picture of a crime committed in plain sight, yet shrouded in a wall of silence that has yet to be broken.

The evening of Friday, December 23, 1977, found Jose Perez inside Sylvia's Lounge in San Antonio. He was not alone; he was seated at a table with at least three other people. The night took a fatal turn when an unidentified man walked through the front door of the lounge. Witnesses later told police that the man strode directly to the table where Perez was sitting. After a brief exchange of words, the man abruptly stabbed Perez in the chest. Having delivered the fatal blow, the assailant turned, walked back out the front door, and vanished into the night.

When San Antonio police officers arrived at Sylvia's Lounge in response to a call about a fight, they found a chaotic scene. Jose Perez was on the floor in a pool of blood. He was pronounced dead at the location. An autopsy conducted by the Deputy Medical Examiner would later confirm the cause of death as a homicide resulting from the stab wound to his chest. The initial investigation, however, hit an immediate and formidable obstacle.

The three individuals who had been sitting at the table with Perez, the closest witnesses to the murder, were gone. They had left the lounge before police arrived and, in the more than four decades since, have never come forward to be identified or to share what they saw. They were not the only ones who disappeared. According to police, several other patrons who were in Sylvia's Lounge and may have held crucial information about the suspect or the preceding events also fled the scene before officers could interview them. This mass departure left investigators with very few leads and no cooperating witnesses.

The lack of cooperation has been the defining challenge in this case. The San Antonio Police Department has stated that the three men at the table with Perez have never been identified. The case eventually went cold, one of many unsolved homicides from that era in a growing city. San Antonio in the late 1970s was a city grappling with a rising crime rate, and unsolved cases were an unfortunate reality for law enforcement agencies with limited resources.

As of January 2017, the investigation into the murder of Jose Perez is still open and is in the hands of the San Antonio Police Department's Cold Case Squad. Detectives believe that even after so many years, someone holds the key to solving this crime. The identities of the three men at the table, the name of the suspect, or any detail about the argument that led to the stabbing could finally provide a breakthrough. The passage of time can change allegiances and ease fears, and police hope that someone will finally break the long-held silence.

The San Antonio Police Department continues to ask for the public's help. Anyone with any information regarding the stabbing death of Jose Perez, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is urged to come forward. Individuals can contact the SAPD's Cold Case Squad directly at 210-207-7635. The search for justice for Jose Perez continues, awaiting the one crucial tip that could solve a decades-old mystery.