New York Homicide Host and Longtime NYPD Vet Reveals the Cases That "Stay in Your Head Forever"
Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert K. Boyce, host of New York Homicide, reveals the shocking Season 3 cases he'll never forget, like the murder of a prince.
In Season 3 of New York Homicide, shocking crime scenes are all over the map — when it comes to both the types of cases highlighted, and the boroughs they took place in.
“We have two serial-murder investigations, two murder-for-hire cases. We have an organized crime-related investigation,” Robert K. Boyce, who hosts the series and was formerly Chief of Detectives for the New York City Police Department, told Oxygen.com. "We’re in an international city, so cases can go transnational."
The homicides covered on the show's 20 new Season 3 episodes — which air on Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen — involve killers and victims from various walks of life, ranging from those who came from great wealth and lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, to those from a poor section of the Bronx and beyond. Victims include a schoolteacher, a royal, and a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Despite their differences, the homicides share something in common for the detectives who worked them. “These cases stay in your head forever,” said Boyce, a 35-year veteran of the NYPD.
New York Homicide shines a light on how “emotionally invested detectives were in their cases,” said Boyce. “They’ll remember details and exactly what they were thinking at the time. You work the case, and it stays with you.”
The cases New York Homicide host Robert K. Boyce won't forget
Boyce said he won’t forget a serial-killer case in Brooklyn that's covered in an upcoming Season 3 episode. “I was actually on scene for that,” he said. “It was prior to my time as chief of detectives, but I actually was in Brooklyn then.”
Another case — which will be covered in Season 3, Episode 7, titled “Royal Bloodshed" — also remains vivid for Boyce. The inquiry began as a double-homicide on Manhattan's Park Avenue — that of an Indian prince and his wife — and led to two more murders and an investigation that went beyond New York. “There’s a bond between investigators and detectives across the country,” Boyce told Oxygen.com.
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And while Boyce had no personal connection to the upcoming “A Hurricane of Deceit” episode, which debuts March 1 and covers how a killer used a natural disaster to try to cloak a murder, he described the detective work that went into cracking the case as “really fascinating.”
“We spoke to detectives, and it was important to understand that they didn’t know what they had,” Boyce explained. “They thought they might have had a serial murder at the time because there was a murder just about a half a mile away.”
"My detectives were not Hollywood types"
Boyce marvels at the dogged determination of law enforcement, and the diversity among the officers, detectives and supervisors across the NYPD, some of which are featured on New York Homicide. “My detectives were not Hollywood types," he told Oxygen.com. "They’re not actors, they’re real people with real accents. And you’ll see the change in accents across the city.”
One constant, Boyce added, is that detectives often rely on the media to get the word out about cases, and sometimes, to help solve them. The upcoming “Killer Club Kids” episode, airing Saturday, February 15 at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen, deals with a high-profile murder set in the underground world of New York City nightlife. A news article was a key to resolving that investigation.
“If you're a smart detective, you understand that reporters may be talking to people that you haven't talked to yet,” Boyce explained. “When you read the papers, make sure that person that they spoke with is part of your case.”
Just as Boyce is in contact with detectives who worked cases covered by New York Homicide, he also hears from victims’ loved ones whose perspectives add depth and understanding to episodes of the true crime series.
“Their contributions are important to us,” said Boyce of the family members and friends of victims who speak out on behalf of their loves ones. “When you have a family broken and really in pain, that’s what drives detectives.”
New York Homicide airs new episodes on Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.
