Plot Synopsis

From LAW & ORDER creator Dick Wolf, HOMICIDE: NEW YORK is a one-hour docuseries that illuminates the stories of notorious murder cases as told by the people who know them best: the detectives and prosecutors who cracked them. From the officers tasked with cracking the case, to the intense grief experienced by those left in the wake of a violent crime, to the complicated process of bringing perpetrators to justice, this series shares law enforcement's recollections of some of their grisliest cases. Season 1 features five different stories, from the 1997 stabbing murder of a man in Central Park to the 2001 Carnegie Deli massacre -- in which five people were found shot in an apartment above the restaurant. All five episodes of HOMICIDE: NEW YORK dropped on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 on Netflix:

"Carnegie Deli Massacre": In 2001, the authorities are called to an apartment located directly above Carnegie Deli, an historic eatery popular with tourists in Manhattan's theater district. Five victims have been shot, execution-style -- four of them are found with binding at the wrists and ankles. As EMTs attempt to save the lives of those who survived the initial shooting, NYPD Lieutenant Roger Parrino, death investigator Barbara Butcher, and their colleagues work to figure out who committed this heinous crime -- and why.

"Central Park Slaying": In the middle of the night, a man's body is found floating in the lake in the middle of Central Park. By the time NYPD homicide detective Rob Mooney arrives on the scene the next morning, the press is already swarming and the pressure is on to figure out who's responsible for the gruesome slaying. When a local teenage girl tells police that her boyfriend slayed the victim, her account results in arrests for both of them. Now Mooney is tasked with getting to the bottom of what happened in the park that fateful night in order to build a case against the true perpetrator of this heinous murder.

"Vanished on Wall Street": Eridania Rodriguez is a 46-year-old woman who works the evening shift as a cleaner in Manhattan's Financial District. During the summer of 2009, Rodriguez arrives to begin her shift and seemingly vanishes. When a co-worker contacts her family to see if she's returned home, her family frantically rushes downtown to see if they can find her -- but to no avail. When the NYPD arrives, they find that by all accounts, Rodriguez never left the building. So begins a frustratingly slow search to find out exactly what happened for the sake of Eridania's grieving family.

"Midtown Slasher": When Howard Pilmar, the owner of an office supply company in Midtown Manhattan, is found stabbed to death in 1996, the police begin to suspect that it was members of Pilmar's own family -- his wife and brother-in-law, specifically -- who conspired to have him killed. As his loved ones descend into further distress and internal strife, NYPD lieutenant Roger Parrino works tirelessly to determine who killed the beloved entrepreneur. It will take nearly two decades before it's possible to finally make a case stick.

"East Harlem Serial Killer": The discovery of an unknown female victim in the staircase of a building in East Harlem leads the NYPD to piece together a spate of related cases throughout the neighborhood over the course of several years. A serial rapist and murderer is targeting young Black and Latina women, and the longer it takes for police to track him down, the more a community remains at risk.