Cold Cases in Los Angeles, California
ColdCaseIndex documents 20 cases in Los Angeles, California, dated 1922 to 2020. 5 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is William Desmond Taylor (1922) and the most recent is Pop Smoke (2020).
- Unsolved 5 (25%)
- Partly resolved 2 (10%)
- Solved or convicted 11 (55%)
- Closed without conviction 2 (10%)
By type
All 20 cases
Pop Smoke
Rapper Pop Smoke (Bashar Barakah Jackson), 20, was shot dead during a home-invasion robbery at a rented house in the Hollywood Hills on February 19, 2020.
Nipsey Hussle
Rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle (Ermias Joseph Asghedom), 33, was shot and killed outside his Marathon Clothing store on West Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles on March 31, 2019. Eric R. Holder Jr.
Adea Shabani
Acting student Adea Shabani, 25, was last seen leaving her Hollywood apartment on February 23, 2018. Her remains were recovered a month later from a shallow grave in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Nevada County, California…
Elisa Lam
Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was found dead in a rooftop water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. Eerie elevator surveillance footage showed her behaving oddly before her disappearance.
Ashley Ellerin
Michael Gargiulo was convicted in August 2019 of murdering Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion design student who was stabbed 47 times in her Hollywood home on February 21, 2001.
Bonny Lee Bakley
Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, was shot on May 4, 2001, while sitting in a parked car near Vitello's restaurant in Studio City, Los Angeles.
Susan Berman, Kathleen Durst & Morris Black
Writer Susan Berman, 55, was found shot in her Los Angeles home on December 24, 2000. A jury convicted real estate heir Robert Durst of her murder in 2021, but the conviction was vacated after he died in January 2022 with an…
Ennis Cosby
Ennis Cosby, 27, the son of entertainer Bill Cosby, was shot dead on January 16, 1997, while changing a flat tire beside Interstate 405 in Los Angeles.
The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace)
Rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G., was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles shortly after leaving a Vibe magazine after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum, held the night after the Soul Train…
Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman
Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ron Goldman, 25, were stabbed to death outside her condominium on South Bundy Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on June 12, 1994. Her former husband O.J.
Latasha Harlins
Latasha Harlins, 15, was shot in the back of the head by store owner Soon Ja Du at Empire Liquor Market in South Los Angeles on March 16, 1991, after a dispute over a bottle of orange juice.
Grim Sleeper Victims
Lonnie Franklin Jr., known as the Grim Sleeper, was convicted of killing 10 women in Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007. He appeared to stop killing for years (hence 'Grim Sleeper') and was identified through familial DNA from…
Night Stalker Victims
Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, terrorized Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984-1985 with a series of home-invasion murders, rapes, and burglaries.
Hillside Strangler Victims
Cousins Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi posed as police officers, kidnapped, raped, and murdered 10 women in Los Angeles. Their victims were found on hillsides, giving rise to the 'Hillside Strangler' name.
Charles Manson Victims
Charles Manson directed his followers to commit a series of brutal murders in Los Angeles on August 9-10, 1969, killing seven people including actress Sharon Tate.
Reet Jurvetson
Reet Jurvetson, a 19-year-old from Montreal, was found stabbed to death off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles in November 1969 and remained unidentified as 'Jane Doe 59' for 46 years.
Robert F. Kennedy Assassination
Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 42, was shot in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, after winning the California Democratic primary; he died on June 6.
George Reeves
George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on television, died of a gunshot wound to the head at his Benedict Canyon home in Los Angeles on June 16, 1959, at age 45.
Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia)
The mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. Her body had been severed at the waist, drained of blood, and posed.
William Desmond Taylor
Film director William Desmond Taylor, 49, was shot in the back at his bungalow in the Alvarado Court Apartments in Los Angeles on the evening of February 1, 1922; his body was found the next morning.