CRIMINAL MIND > FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

LA Forensics: The Actor's Secret

Fortune and Fame

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The Hollywood Sign

EDITOR'S NOTE: The name of the victim has been changed in this story to protect his identity.

Hollywood. It's a place where scads of young want-to-be models and actors converge with dreams of fame and fortune. Others come with plans to score it big with business acumen, pushing their latest and greatest ideas. In the 1980s to mid 90s it was a seedy place where hustling, prostitution and drugs were commonplace, and, on occasion, so was murder.

It was into this environment that Michael Finch moved, an East Coast transplant with a college degree and an appetite for the fast lane.

"I think he was attracted by that whole lifestyle that the area offered," said Los Angeles police Detective Dennis Kilcoyne. "He lived in a nice residential area in Hollywood where everybody has a story, a script, or wants to be in TV or the movies."

Detective Dennis Kilcoyne

Finch, 28, lived in an apartment on the north side of Hollywood; far enough to be removed from the crime of downtown yet close enough to be part of the action. He was like so many who had a goal of being in the right place at the right time, able to grab on to the Hollywood dream.

Even though Finch was far away from his family and had no permanent job, he did have a fairly large group of friends. And so it was bizarre that he went unaccounted for 10-11 days.

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