Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A grassy lawn next to the water. In the second episode, Debra refers to the location as "The Waterfront Stroll". Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A. At the harbor, in Miami. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In Episode 1 (of Season 3), "Our Father". We see Dexter pull up in his car to a crime scene, camera in hand. He is met by Debra, who asks him where he was last night (since he stood her up for their annual celebration of their father's birthday). He tells her he's having problems with Harry, and she rebukes him. He apologizes for not noticing her new haircut, and she's moved when he tells her it's beautiful. Angel shows up. Moving on to work, Debra tells Dexter that Angel took her off the Oscar Prado case and moved her to this case - as she leads Dexter past a chain link fence, under a yellow police tape, and down to see the dead body, who she refers to as a "dead-end Jane Doe". Masuka is already at the body, which is lying face down in some ice plants, and tells Dexter that she was strangled.  Dexter asks why they called him in, when there's no blood. Masuka turns the dead body over, and we see that there is a bloody square on her right shoulder, where her skin has been peeled away. Dexter recognizes the face of the victim, it's Freebo's girlfriend, Teegan, who Dexter met briefly when Dexter visited Freebo's house.

A. A strip of grassy lawn, perhaps a small park, next to the harbor - but not in Miami.

A. You'll find this grassy strip on the south side of Sampson Way between 5th & 6th Street (just south of Harbor Blvd.), in the Los Angeles harbor at San Pedro, CA.

That's at the far south end of 6th Street, where it ends at the harbor. The park lies between Sampson Way (on the west) and the harbor's water edge (on the east).

The small park is right next door to (north of) the Los Angeles Maritime Museum (that blue/gray building you see behind Dexter when he gets out of his car), and it's just south of the distinctive waterside Fire Station where the city docks its colorful fireboats. (In fact, you can see part of those fireboats at the pier behind Dexter & Debra, as they stand by the fence.)

It's also less than half a mile north of Ports O'Call Village.

That water (which you see behind them when they head down to see the body), is the Main Channel of the Los Angeles harbor - where all the big freighter ships come into the harbor to be unloaded. And on the other side of that water you see piles of cargo containers (on Terminal Island), waiting to be loaded aboard those ships.

The tall, brick building you see behind Dexter (in the fourth photo from the top, and in the photo below) is the old San Pedro Municipal Building; it's actually on the other (west) side of Harbor Blvd, at the southwest corner of Harbor and 6th Street. (It has always reminded me somewhat of the Texas School Book Depository building from the JFK assassination.)



I shot the photos below in Oct. 2008



The photos above & below are looking south, towards the Maritime Museum, where Dexter parked his car.



The photo below (looking northeast) shows a fuller view of the fireboat pier behind the fence.





The location is just a few blocks away from the housing project (where they filmed a gang murder for the second season), and next to the cargo lot where, in the first season, they filmed Dexter checking a cargo container while searching for his kidnapped sister. It's also not very far from Little Chino's party house, the church where they held Paul's funeral, or the spot where the police found a victim inside a railroad box car.

And from this third season, it's right across the channel from the Skinner's warehouse, about a half mile from Freebo's house, and only about three miles northeast of the pier where Dexter and Miguel Prado argue.


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



UPDATE: In 2014, the city essentially ripped out the land where this scene was shot (between the Maritime Museum and the Fire Boat station) to create a new small harbor - a rectangular niche of water cut out of the land, providing docking space for several boats, a good view of the harbor channel, and generally a more attractive waterfront area.


But a a result of the improvements, the small grassy strip of land, where Teegan's body was found, no longer exists.  Gone are the palm trees and the large tree seen in the photos above, as well as the old fence.


Here is a photo I shot in July 2014, showing what the area looks like now:

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

A. This was an easy one for me.

I used to frequent Ports O'Call Village (my brother worked there), and I've been to both the Maritime Museum and the fireboat station as part of my guide book research.  So I recognized the area the moment I saw it.