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It's been almost exactly a year since 25-year-old Samuel Michel was brutally murdered in his Koreatown apartment, but there are still few clues about who might have stabbed him to death—or why they did it.
This summer the City Council offered $50,000 to anyone who had information about Michel's murder. That hasn't seemed to help the case, and now the family is announcing that they're upping the reward to $100,000, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Michel was murdered on the night of April 10, 2012 at the Sir Francis Drake Apartments on 841 South Serrano Avenue in Koreatown. That night he had gone out to R Bar with a friend. He left at 12:45 am and walked the five blocks back to his apartment. At around 2:40 am, neighbors heard loud screaming from his apartment and called police.
By the time police arrived, he was dead. He had been stabbed in the head and back, and there was still a knife in his back. Neighbors reported seeing a man in a white tank-top flee the scene on a BMX bike. There were security cameras at the apartments but for whatever reason they weren't working that night, so police had few other clues about who might have killed Michel.
Family and friends are holding a memorial celebration at his former apartment on the anniversary of his death between 3 and 7 pm. There will be a food truck and music. Bob Harris, a family friend, told the Times: "It’s been one year and it’s time to bring renewed awareness to the fact this case is still unsolved, and push to get someone, anyone to come forward with information."
Michel was an aspiring photographer from South Salem, N.Y., and he was also interested in music and graphic design. He had moved out to Los Angeles just 8 months before. His mother said he loved it on the West Coast: "Griffith Park was his favorite place, he liked the second hand clothing stores, he loved the taco trucks, and he loved all of his friends."
