A. The residential home of Miguel Prado.

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

A. Somewhere in Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. Often.

Temperamental D.A.A. Miguel Prado (played by Jimmy Smits) is the leading antagonist in the third season, and he appeared in almost every episode.

We first saw his home (and that of his wife, Sylvia) in Episode 2, "Finding Freebo", when Dexter & Rita first visit the house.  As they walk up the front walkway, Rita is trying to get Dexter to talk about her pregnancy.  Prado and his wife, Sylvia, meet them at the door. During the visit, Sylvia finds out that Rita is pregnant, and Miguel tells Dexter that he is closing in on Freebo, something Dexter knows he has to head off.

Next, we saw the home's back yard & patio in Episode 4, "All in the Family", at a BBQ where Miguel Prado argued with his brother, Ramon, and tried to convince Dexter to let him tell Ramon their dark secret.

The house's patio shows up again in Episode 6, "Si Se Puede", where Syl recruits Rita into her real estate business, and Prado tells Dexter about his plan to kill a convict.

We see the house once again in Episode 7, "Easy As Pie", when Dexter tells Prado they can't kill Ellen Wolf, and Prado reveals his temper.

We see it once more in Episode 9, "About Last Night", when Dexter arrives at the Prado home on the morning after Prado has murdered Ellen Wolf and meets Miguel on the front lawn.

We see it for the last time in Episode 10, "Go Your Own Way", but we only see the front door of the house and its interior, as Dexter shows up, talks the housekeeper into letting him inside, and then searches Miguel's room until he finds the ring that Prado had taken as a souvenir from the finger of Ellen Wolf, the woman Prado murdered. Dexter takes the ring from its hiding place (in a cigar box,) and leaves behind a claim ticket from a cleaners.

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 Spanish-style home can be found at 3827 N. Weston Place, in northwest Long Beach, CA.

That's on the west side of Weston Place, five houses north of Bixby Road.

According to real estate listings on the web, it's a 1,877 square foot, 4 bedroom home, built in 1921, and it sold in 2005 for $1,750,000.

It's just a block southwest of another "Dexter" location: the home of Maria LaGuerta, 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 Oct. 2008



[ 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.




   

In late 2009, a fan, Nancy, emailed me with proof that the interiors were shot inside the same house in Long Beach. She found matching photos of the interior on this real estate website.
, where the home was being sold at just under $2 million. (Thanks, Nancy!)

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

A.  I knew that they were filming in the Bixby Knolls / Country Club neighborhood (thanks to Press-Telegram pal Tim Grobaty), and I knew that the homes there were upscale, so when I saw Prado's house on the show, I immediately assumed that it was probably in that neighborhood, and began looking for it there.

Since Google doesn't have a StreetView of those streets, I had to make do with more distant aerial photos, looking for the red tile roof, curving sidewalk, lamps, etc.

After spotting what I thought was probably the house, I drove down to the neighborhood to confirm it, and shot the photos you see above.