Ricardo Marroquin-Garcia was a transient man who perished in a tent fire on Los Angeles' Skid Row within a transient encampment. He apparently went by the nickname John. His identity was released by the Los Angeles County Coroner in 2021.
Case[]
On the evening of April 8, 2021, a security team contracted for the Skid Row district alerted firefighters to a tent fire in the nearby homeless encampment. While the firefighters were making their way to the scene, the security team attempted to extinguish the blaze but were not successful. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze, though the man that was inside of the tent where the fire began was already deceased. The decedent carried no form of identification, and the local members of the encampment only knew him as a 55-65 year old man possibly named "John".
Currently, the cause of the fire is unknown, though fires are a common danger for transients in encampments, with tent fires in the area being a common occurrence. It is suspected that the fire may have been an accident, but due to a string of arson attacks on the homeless in the area in 2019 that injured and killed many transients, authorities find it probable that the fire may have also been an act of homicide. His primary cause of death was a stress-induced seizure.
Characteristics[]
- Black hair.
- Small irregular scar on right upper back.