A. The residential home of Miami Police Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta.

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. Somewhere in Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. Maria LaGuerta has been a regular character on the show since it started, but I believe this (third season) is the first time they've shown us her home.

We first see the house in Episode 10 (of season 3), "Go Your Own Way", when a manipulative Miguel Prado shows up at Maria's house, trying to charm information out of her about the investigation into Ellen Wolf's murder.  As Prado is putting the moves on Maria, a knock at the door turns out to be Dexter (who is trying to refocus Prado's attention away from LaGuerta), and Prado is flummoxed that Dexter has caught them together.

We see the house again later in the same episode. Prado and LaGuerta are standing outside her house, after dark, when Prado's wife shows up at LaGuerta's house and catches him there, assuming that they are having an affair. (Prado later mistakenly believes that Dexter set him up, but in reality, his wife has gotten the faulty information from Rita.)

The house is shown a final time in Episode 11, "I Had a Dream". Prado is there again, trying to charm her by hinting that they might rekindle their old romance. But she has become suspicious that he might have murdered Ellen Wolf, so while he's still inside the house, she takes his keys and surreptiously checks his car for evidence.  Prado later discovers that she was in his car, and begins plotting her murder - all of which is observed by Dexter (who is watching from his own car, across the street).



Four years later, in Season 7, Episode 7, "Chemistry", LaGuerta's house is shown again.  She is shown looking at boating records, and zeroing in on Dexter.  In later episodes, Debra sits outside LaGuerta's house in a car, waiting to plant evidence in he garage.  And in the Season finale, Episode 12, Dexter breaks into her house and finds that she is preparing warrants to track the GPS whereabouts of him and Debra on the night of Travis Marshall's death.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A residential home - but not in Miami.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. This Mediterranean-style home can be found at It's 3929 Locust Avenue, in northwest Long Beach, CA.

That's on the west side of the street, just three houses north of Roosevelt Road.

It's just a block northeast of another "Dexter" location: the home of Miguel Prado, and about two blocks west of another location, the Angel Food Donuts stand on Long Beach Blvd.

And it's also just south of the "American Pie"/"Ferris Bueller" Country Club neighborhood in north Long Beach.



I shot the photos below in 2009



[ Warning: This is a private home.  Do not trespass on their property, knock on their door,
or do anything else that might disturb the residents. ]



Here is an aerial photo of the neighborhood. And here is a map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  During one brief scene when they are outside at night, I could make out the house number, 3929, on the front of the house. Since they had filmed the Prado house in north Long Beach (and since this looked like it could be a home in the same area), that's where I began my search.

I mapped out every 3929 across Long Beach, then began using Live Local's aerial photos to check out the houses from above, looking for a match.  Unfortunately, the aerial photos in this part of the city weren't that good, and (at the time) Google didn't have StreetView there for close-ups.  So, after narrowing it down to a few suspects, I had to get in my car and drive to Long Beach and personally check out each of the homes that looked like it might be a match.

I found it just a short ways north of Prado's house, which didn't surprise me. Producers tend to cluster-shoot in the same area, to save time & money. It was then just a matter of shooting a few matching photos, which you see above.

( As you can see from my photos, the house looks considerably less pink in person than it does in those night scenes. I'm not sure of they repainted it, or if it was just the bluish nighttime lighting that gave it that tint. )