November 2, 2026 | By: Robin Geslani- Librodo

This story is part of a collaborative project between Project: Cold Case and the University of North Florida’s Applied Journalism class.

Karen Kathleen Alexander, affectionately known as Karen K., was a mother before anything else. An eight-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Alexander was a rigid but spontaneous person. Her daughter, LaTanya Washington, remembers her mother waking up early on occasion to have “G.I. Parties”.  These were social gatherings to deep clean, paint, redecorate, etc., coupled with food, drinks, and music.  She would invite any and everybody to join in.

LaTanya misses those days fondly. The day before Mother’s Day, on May 13, 1995, Karen Alexander was murdered. She was 43 years old.

Karen was born in East Texas on Nov. 2, 1951, she grew up with a love for family and soul food. When she was 10 years old, her mother died from complications of diabetes, and she experienced a grief she carried with her all her life. Alexander spent the rest of her childhood being raised by her aunt and continued having a great love for family.

As an adult, Alexander joined the U.S. Air Force and served in the military for eight years. Throughout her time in service, Alexander was stationed in various states including Washington and Nevada. After being discharged, Alexander settled down in California to raise her three children, LaTanya, Kevin, and Anthony.

After serving, Alexander wanted to be a nurse and applied to nursing school while caring for her kids. Alexander had been accepted and completed a portion of the program before having to make a choice. Her daughter LaTanya had developed appendicitis and had to stay in the hospital. Alexander’s program had strict attendance policies, and she had to decide between learning to care for patients and caring for her daughter. As a dedicated mother, she chose her daughter.

Despite Alexander never completing nursing school, she still found ways to care for others as a homemaker, mother, and caretaker for disabled individuals. She loved caring for her kids. Alexander showed love for her children in many ways, but especially through food. She loved to make her own gravy and loved to cook collard greens, fried fish, ribs, and goulash.

Alexander simply loved other people: family, friends, and even strangers. “My mother was someone who never met a stranger,” said LaTanya. “She was just a social butterfly.” Alexander didn’t take moments for granted with her loved ones either. When passing a park, Alexander always took the opportunity to take up a spontaneous game of jump rope with her daughter; she was the kind of person who knew how to seize the moment.

But in the early ‘80s, Alexander fell victim to the crack cocaine epidemic spreading across the nation and had experiences with addiction. It was a difficult time for her family. However, one thing always remained true, and it was that she loved her family. Alexander sacrificed immensely for them, and she took the long journey toward recovery. In the final year of her life, LaTanya said, she could tell her mom was changing for the better and turning a corner.

A week prior to that fateful Mother’s Day weekend in 1995, LaTanya sent her mother gifts for the occasion from her new college home in Virginia. On May 12, the two of them spoke for what would be the last time, and they talked about the gifts Washington had sent her mother – a card, a money order, and a Gucci bracelet.

The night of May 12, 1995, LaTanya received a call from her then 15-year-old brother, Kevin. On the phone, Kevin told her that their mother was going out and their youngest brother, Anthony, was crying and begging her to go with her. Over the phone, LaTanya gave advice on how to placate their youngest brother and overheard their mother saying, “I’ll be right back. I’m coming back.” But she never made it back home.

According to reports, that night, Alexander and her fiancé had a friend over. At some point the friend developed a nosebleed, and Alexander went out to walk her friend halfway home. A short time later, she called her fiancé to let him know that she was on her way home.  And then she disappeared.

Authorities believe she was murdered the following day, her death due to multiple gunshot wounds. LaTanya had called that day to talk with Alexander, but it wasn’t a big surprise that she hadn’t come home. Those who knew Alexander knew that she was a spontaneous person and may have simply stopped at a relative’s home before returning.

On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1995, two days after her disappearance, it became clear that something was wrong. LaTanya had again called to greet her mother, but there was still no sign of Alexander. She suggested filing a report if her mother still wasn’t home the next day. On the morning of May 15, the report was made, and later that day, the family received the news that Alexander had been found dead on California Polytechnic State University’s Pomona (Cal Poly) campus. She had been deemed a Jane Doe for 3 days.

After the murder, LaTanya returned home from college to California, and from that moment, the trajectory of her life changed. With the support of her family, at the age of 21 years old, she took custody of her two younger brothers, Kevin and Anthony. Instant motherhood was a difficult and unfamiliar process for Washington, but she made it through with the love of her family. With the virtue of being raised by Alexander, LaTanya knew Kevin and Anthony would turn out to be good people; she just had to get them across the finish line into adulthood.

Over 30 years have passed since Alexander’s murder, and the case hasn’t been solved. LaTanya said that she has struggled getting help from the police who, she said, suggested Alexander had contributed to her own death, but LaTanya has persevered. After 17 years, she went back to college and earned both her Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Master’s degree in Community Counseling. LaTanya partially attributed this to her mother and said that she had wanted to gain education from this devastating experience. In this time, she also created a now dissolved nonprofit in honor of her mother. LaTanya had wanted a space to talk about Alexander and a space where anyone could talk about their murdered loved ones, so she made one: Perfect Peace -The Karen K. Foundation.

LaTanya still thinks of Alexander daily, and she sees her in various people: her brothers, herself, and her adult daughters Caryn and Tanaya. Alexander never got an opportunity to see her 6 grandchildren, nor did she see any of them graduate from high school or college.  LaTanya and her siblings share the same sentiment as Alexander that they and her their mother shared the same sense of grief that comes with losing a parent much too soon.

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Anyone with information concerning Karen Alexander’s unsolved homicide is asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. For anonymous tips, you can call Crime Stoppers USA at (800) 222-8477.

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