A. A city auto tow yard.

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

A. Somewhere in Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 2 (of Season 4), "Remains To Be Seen ".

In the previous episode, Dexter fell asleep at the wheel (while driving at night) and was involved in a major accident, crashing his car and winding up being taken away in an ambulance.

The problem is that he believes that he stashed the dismembered body of boxer Benny Gomez in the car trunk. And if someone finds it before he does, he's in big trouble.

So he leaves the hospital prematurely (with a concussion), and heads to the city tow yard where they took his car.

Once there, he finds his wrecked SUV, but there's no body inside (just his tools).

With partial amnesia (as a result of the accident), Dexter then goes on a hunt for the body, retracing his steps while trying to remember where he hid it.

We see the tow yard again, later in the same episode, when Rita goes there. Dexter had led her to believe that the accident was just a minor fender bender, so she is shocked to find the car totally wrecked.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A city tow yard.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. This was filmed at the Towing Operations & Vehicle Storage Facility, at 3111 E. Willow St., in Long Beach, CA.

That's between Temple Ave & Redondo Ave, on the north side of the street.

It's in the Signal Hill area, just southwest of the Long Beach Airport, a block south of the 405 Freeway.


(While they were in the area, they also filmed part of the driving scene where Christine phoned Trinity.
)






I shot the photos below in 2009.




This is the outside of the tow yard, looking east up Willow Street.  (The yard is behind the fence on the left.)

Looking north, the low ,brown building you see below is the same building seen behind Dexter in the second screencap from the top.




Here is an aerial photo. And here is a map link.

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

A.  Considering how much they film in Long Beach, the Long Beach tow yard would have been my first guess. But fortunately, the scenes revealed enough of the surrounding territory that it wasn't necessary to guess at all.

Most notably, you can see the name of the Harriman Jones Medical Group on one of the taller buildings nearby, and a simple Google search reveals Harriman's address as 2600 Redondo Ave, just east of the City tow yard.