Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A residential home. 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 5, "Hello Bandit". In an earlier scene, the Miami police had found a woman's severed head in the park. Quinn & Deb thought it was the work of drug dealers. A rookie from the neighborhood, Sierra, thought it was the work of the Santa Muerte cult. In this later scene, the police come to a house where a man is lying dead on the floor of his living room. The blood on the ceiling and the large hole in the top of his head leads to the conclusion that he blew his head off with a shotgun. Masuka, who has been forced to do blood work since Dexter took time off (following Rita's death) complains throughout the scene. When they check the dead man's ID, they discover that his name was Francisco Alfaro, and that he was the husband of the decapitated murder victim in the park. Quinn suggests that he probably murdered his wife, then killed himself. Q. What is it actually in real life? A. A residential home. Q. Where can I find it in real life? A. This house is located directly across the street from the spot in Drake Park where they filmed the "head found in the park" scene, at 906 N. Park Circle, Long Beach, CA. ( W. 9th Street is renamed "Park Circle" west of Main Street. )

You can actually see part of the house in background of that park scene.

The home and the park are just a few blocks west of the fake botanica, seen in the next episode, and north of the church where they filmed the funeral home scene. It's about a mile west of the garage where they filmed the moving van rental scene. And it's not far from the Shoreline Village area, where they have filmed numerous scenes.




I shot the photos below in October 2010:



[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 house. And here is a map link.


The interior scenes, however, were not shot here in Long Beach. The door, which is visible in the scene, doesn't match the door at 906 Park Circle.

On the other hand, it is a perfect match of the door of Boyd's house (as this Bing view shows). So there's a strong possibility that the interiors of this "suicide house" were actually shot at "Boyd's house" (at 1444 Gordon Street, in Hollywood), while the interiors of Boyd's house were actually shot at yet another house on Gordon Street (1432)...

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

A.  In previous seasons, I've usually had to hunt down the locations after viewing the episodes, using clues from the various scenes.  By the 5th season, though, I'd developed a small group of fans, spies & tipsters who kept an eye out for Dexter filming in their neighborhoods, and would let me know in advance when something was about to film there.

Between those reports, and my own personal reconnaissance around town, by the time the first episode aired, I already knew most (but not all) of the filming locations, and only needed to watch the episodes and match up the scenes with the correct locations.

This group of helpful fans includes Kerry, Rick, Joel, Geoff, Ellen, Julie, Susan, Jeff, and others. My thanks to all of them.

Rick had tipped me early on that they were filming in and around Drake Park, so when I saw this house I figured it was probably close to the park. But before I had a chance to go looking for it, I got an email from another prime tipster, Geoff, who had found it, and sent me the address. (Thanks, Geoff!)

I double-checked it via Google StreetView, then drove back to the park and shot the matching photo of the house.