Biography:

Steve Hodel was born and raised in Los Angeles, Calif. After serving four years as a medic in the Navy, he joined the Los Angeles Police Dept. in 1963. After six years in uniform patrol, he transferred to Hollywood division detectives where he worked all of the "tables"; burglary, robbery, auto theft, juvenile, crimes against persons and then homicide detail.

During his career at Hollywood Homicide, Steve promoted to Detective II, and in 1983, he was the senior field homicide detective. Steve handled over 300 separate murder investigations and had one of the department's highest solved rates. He promoted to Detective III (the highest attainable rank in detectives) and retired from LAPD in 1986, and moved to Bellingham, Wash.