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| “ | 1973! The Port of Miami! A shipping container! A chainsaw! Laura Moser! You remember now? | „ |
| ~ Dexter Morgan confronting Santos Jimenez about one of the 4 known victims of the Shipping Yard Massacre. |
The Shipping Yard massacre is the inciting event of ShowTime's crime/drama series Dexter. It was the murder of four suspected informants in the Estrada drug cartel with a chainsaw. One of the victims, Laura Moser, was accompanied by her two young sons, Dexter and Brian. The children were spared, but after being left at the crime scenes for two days their psyches were damaged beyond repair.
History[]
Background[]
Laura Moser, a drug addict and dealer for the Estrada Cartel, was approached by Detective Harry Morgan in order to obtain evidence against the cartel's leader Hector. Moser agreed and became an informant for the police, with Morgan asking her to dirt on the cartel to Miami Metro.
At an unknown point in time, Moser informed Morgan of a shipment of 300 bricks of cocaine coming into Miami, and Estrada would be present to receive it. Morgan asked her to steal some of the cocaine to prove Estrada's guilt. However, around this time Estrada discovered that Moser and three other dealers were informing on the cartel and ordered that they be killed at the shipyard where the shipment had been scheduled to arrive.
Massacre[]
On October 2, 1973, Moser and her two young sons Dexter and Brian were kidnapped and taken to a shipping container at the Port of Miami. Along with the other three informants, they were forced into the container by Estrada and his henchman Juan Pablo Aliso. A dealer by the name of Santos Jiminez was then instructed to kill all four informers and was handed a chainsaw. Jiminez proceeded to butcher all four of the informers while Estrada prevented him from leaving (Jiminez was threatened with death if he refused). The three perpetrators then fled the scene.
Aftermath[]
Jiminez had spared Dexter and Brian, as they were only children, and they were left in the container for several hours. Eventually, Morgan and other officers arrived in order to find Moser. What they found was the grisly aftermath of the massacre in a nearby container. The officers were completely horrified to discover what had taken place. Morgan felt sorry for the two children and took Dexter away from the scene, later adopting him. He intended to take Brian as well, but looked into his eyes and realized that he was "a f*cked-up kid", leaving him for the other officers.
Estrada was identified as the main suspect and arrested on suspicion of murder. Jiminez was also located and avoided prosecution by testifying against Estrada, going into witness protection. Estrada was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. Aliso was never charged, having been killed in a drug deal gone wrong.
Unsurprisingly, Dexter and Brian were both deeply traumatized by witnessing their mother's brutal murder at such a young age. Dexter, being younger than Brian, repressed his memories of the event and did not recall what had happened until he was an adult, whilst Brian remembered everything that had transpired. Both Dexter and Brian began to develop homicidal urges, resulting in both of them becoming serial killers in later life as a result of what they had witnessed.