A. A public street.

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

A. Somewhere in Miami, Florida.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 12 (the first season's finale), "Born Free".

The "Ice Truck Killer" has taken Dexter's sister (Debra) captive. We see him driving down the street in a stolen car, playing the radio, with the Debra's muffled voice hollering in the background.

He stops the car on a deserted street, gets out, opens the car's trunk, and we see Debra is tied up and gagged inside the trunk. (The dead body late owner of the stolen car is in the trunk with her.)

The killer re-tapes her mouth, then slams the trunk closed again.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A public street, but not in Miami.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. The road is part of the greater "Dexter Neighborhood" (where you'll find seven other locations seen in "Dexter") in the 'Los Altos' neighborhood of Long Beach, CA..

Just east of six "Dexter" homes are two schools, side by side: Stanford Middle School and Prisk Elementary School; the two schools are separated by a north/south street named Albury Avenue.

Both schools are located right next to (south of) the San Diego (405) Freeway. An east/west street named Vernon Street runs between the schools and the freeway, and there is a tall, concrete sound wall built along the north side of Vernon, to muffle the sound of freeway traffic.

Painted on this sound wall, at the intersection of Albury & Vernon is a colorful mural reading "Prisk". As you can see from out-of-focus the screencaps above, this mural is visible in the "Dexter" scene where the killer stops his car to check on Debra.

The "Ice Truck Killer" stops his car on E. Vernon Street (he is heading west on Vernon at the time), just a few yards east of the intersection of Albury Avenue & Vernon Street, in Long Beach.


I shot the photo below in early 2008, looking west on Vernon (duplicating the view seen in Episode 12).



(One of the two schools was used for the location of the schoolyard bully scene, in Episode 8.)

The majority of location filming for "Dexter" is done in Long Beach.

This Los Altos neighborhood contains at least six different homes used on the TV show, including Rita's house, Dexter's childhood home, Angel's house, the house of the neighbor with the noisy dog, the Dade City house that Dexter inherits from his biological father, and the house of the old lady across the street.

The neighborhood is located just south of the San Diego (405) Freeway, and just east of Bellflower Blvd (and north of 23rd Street), in upper Long Beach.

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

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

A. The "Prisk" mural was the giveaway. While I was using Live Local' s aerial maps/photos to find the other "Dexter" locations, I happened to spot the "Prisk" mural on the freeway sound wall. When I later saw it again in final episode, it rang a bell, and I soon tracked it down using the same aerial photos. A personal visit there to shoot photos confirmed the exact view seen on the show.