Homicide

The Homicide Desk is a Department of the Los Angeles Police Department in L.A. Noire. Homicide is concerned with the investigation of murders and deaths linked with foul play within the city of Los Angeles.

Description

The Homicide desk is considered the most brutal and harrowing Department in the LAPD and is considered by many to be the prime detective assignment in the LAPD.

Events of L.A. Noire

Cole works the desk from the Central Police Station. His partner in Homicide is veteran Detective Rusty Galloway. The captain of the department is James Donnelly.

Most of Cole's cases in this department are concerned with the brutal and horrific murders committed on young women. At first, it is not known whether one or more killers are responsible, and it is often very different to choose the correct suspect when giving the choice of charging one of two, often given that the evidence points against both suspects and the player has to use his own initiative to come to a conclusion on what has happened. Each murder case seems to have a slight twist in the storyline and in some ways can be repetitive, as Rusty says "9/10 times, it's always the husband" of the victim who committed the murder.

There are a total of six homicide cases during the game. The first 5 cases are the build up to the finale (The Quarter Moon Murders). Each case in the homicide desk contain similarities that appear to connect them as either a conspiracy or a case of copy-cat killing through media amplification of the infamous real-life Black Dahlia (B.D.) Murder of Elizabeth Short. Most cases on this desk have a similar evidence structure; lipstick, writing on the body, strangling by rope, etc.

During the final case of the homicide, Cole and Rusty find out that the one behind the murders is Garrett Mason, and finally kill him in a shootout.

Members

James Donnelly - Captain
Finis Brown - Detective Sergeant
Rusty Galloway - Detective
Cole Phelps - Detective (Later promoted to Vice and served as Det. Rose's replacement) - Deceased
Floyd Rose - Detective (Retired)
Stefan Bekowsky - Detective (Promoted from Traffic and serves as Det. Phelps' replacement)

Cases

Trivia

Excluding the street crimes, Homicide is the desk with the fewest number of suspects killed.
The murders of Celine Henry, Deidre Moller, Antonia Maldonado, Theresa Taraldsen and Evelyn Summers are based off the murder of Elizabeth Short aka "The Black Dahlia", one of the most famous unsolved crimes in history.
When first promoted to Homicide, Captain James Donnelly will say that Cole was promoted from Burglary to homicide. Burglary was going to be a desk but was cut from the game, supposedly the reason for this is because Rockstar told Team Bondi the game was "big enough".
Along with Patrol, Homicide is the only desk without any DLC cases.
The Homicide desk has the largest amount of times Cole must charge a suspect, with a total of 3 cases.