LOS ANGELES : Homicide Victim Identified After Hunt for Family Fails

The county coroner’s office took the unusual step Thursday of identifying a homicide victim before notification of relatives because his family could not be located.

The body of Freddie Chavez, 16, was found about 9 a.m. April 8 on North Hicks Street in East Los Angeles, said coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier. The teen-ager had been shot and stabbed.

The coroner’s office normally does not release names of victims until relatives have been notified, but in this case family could not be found and no one has claimed the body, Carrier said.

Chavez had recently been arrested in San Bernardino County, but no relatives were listed on his official paperwork there, Carrier said. Chavez was described as 5 feet, 7 inches, 150 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He had the word “Vicke” tattooed on his upper right arm and “Blanca” on his inner right forearm. There were other tattoos on his chest.

The coroner’s office also was seeking the identity of a woman who died of a head injury at a hospital after being found at the Santa Monica Pier. She was described as either Hispanic or Native American, 4 feet, 11 inches, 135 pounds, about 45 years old, with brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair. She was possibly a transient.