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In S02E08, Doakes breaks into Dexter's apartment and finds Dexter's blood slide trophies.

In S02E09, Doakes goes to Haiti to ask his old fixer Leones to get the blood slides analyzed in a hospital in the Dominican Republic. Why does Doakes do this?

What useful and usable information could Doakes possibly get with such an analysis that he couldn't get anywhere in the US?

Why doesn't Doakes just go to any US authorities (e.g. his own department or the FBI) with the blood slides (rather than risk losing the slides or, as it turns out very conveniently for Dexter and the plot, risk getting the slides found in his possession and being framed as the Bay Harbor Butcher)?

Yes, at this time Doakes is already on administrative leave (after being baited by Dexter into beating up Dexter in the middle of the Miami Metro office in S02E07). But if Doakes were to simply honestly admit to any US authorities that he had broken into Dexter's apartment and found the blood slides, wouldn't he be guaranteed of far better results than trying to discreetly get the slides analyzed in the Dominican Republic?

(Again, an answer should address what superior useful and usable information could result from an analysis of the blood slides in the Dominican Republic. With the blood slides Doakes found, Doakes already knows that Dexter is a serial killer. So, what Doakes seems to want is more definitive evidence and leads that could be used to eventually convict Dexter in a court of law.)

  • If the samples were found as the result of an illegal search, they are inadmissible as evidence in a court of law so he can't turn them over to the US authorities. – Paulie_D Aug 04 '23 at 12:03

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With the blood slides Doakes found, Doakes already knows that Dexter is a serial killer.

Not necessarily. Since he’s a blood pathologist, for all Doakes knows Dexter’s trophies could be blood samples from cases that he’s worked on and not taken from his victims. Dexter would still want to hide them because he could get fired and maybe prosecuted for stealing evidence from his job.

if Doakes were to simply honestly admit to any US authorities that he had broken into Dexter's apartment and found the blood slides, wouldn't he be guaranteed of far better results

That would get Doakes charged with breaking and entering and no one would bother to analyze the slides because now they are tainted and can never be used in court (as pointed out in a comment). That also means they can’t be used to justify a warrant for any further searches, wiretapping, etc. The most any law enforcement agency could do with this is begin to try to find a legitimate reason to suspect Dexter, but more likely they would suspect Doakes. Doakes can’t prove that he found the slides in Dexter’s house.

If Doakes has possession of the slides and they are tested and confirmed to contain blood of Bay Harbor Butcher victims, how could Doakes possibly convince anyone that he’s not the Bay Harbor Butcher? Merely claiming that the slides were in Dexter’s house would be worse than useless because everyone knows Doakes hates Dexter, so trying to frame Dexter would be believable.

Aside from all of that, while suspended Doakes is not a cop. He would find it very hard to convince anyone in law enforcement to analyze the blood because they could get in huge trouble for doing it. Plus, generally American law enforcement lab work is backlogged. They want to spend their time on legitimate cases with a chain of custody on the evidence that could be used in court to get a conviction.

Finally, Doakes didn’t come up through law enforcement, his oldest friends are from his time in Special Forces. So he doesn’t have anyone to turn to who is an American cop who is really close with him. But he has old special forces contacts who owe him favors, including one relatively nearby who can get blood analyzed.

Todd Wilcox
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  • "That would get Doakes charged with breaking and entering and no one would bother to analyze the slides because now they are tainted and can never be used in court (as pointed out in a comment)." This is technically incorrect (although it might have been part of cinematic logic). There's a case where thieves broke into a house, found child abuse materials, reported it to the police, and the victim was then arrested for possession. The thieves of course were also prosecuted, so that's still something for which Doakes would have needed to account. –  Aug 06 '23 at 02:00
  • @cmw There would be serious chain of custody issues. I don't know the exact circumstances of the case you're discussing, but I'm guess that the thieves weren't people known to have a vendetta against the home owner. – Acccumulation Aug 06 '23 at 03:30
  • @cmw while you’re right there are some situations where evidence can be used even if it was not obtained via search warrant or probable cause, there are some important differences. First, even though Doakes is not a cop while he’s suspended he still is a cop in terms of custody. A cop improperly obtaining evidence usually disqualifies it. A non-cop obtaining evidence usually won’t. Second, the evidence of child abuse didn’t have to be analyzed to be suspicious and indicative of a crime. – Todd Wilcox Aug 06 '23 at 03:53
  • The first thing that occurred to me is that Dexter is also wired into and an expert at navigating the US law enforcement systems. A lot of how he pinpoints targets is through the system which he navigates without detection. I would think Doakes would be worried that Dexter would be (A) alerted somehow when DNA matches to "unsolved" Miami cases pop up on the system, or (B) would be on the lookout, with his slides missing, and would somehow intercept and alter the labwork reports. Think of a trouble-making kid who knows a bad note from the school principal to his parents is on the way.... – PoloHoleSet Aug 07 '23 at 18:33