The character of Dominic Da Vinci was based on the real-life B.C. Chief Coroner Doctor Larry Campbell, who after his tenure of coroner acted as a technical advisor on the show. In 2002 Larry Campbell was elected mayor of Vancouver.
Before the show premiered in 1998 there was an ongoing mystery concerning the disappearance of dozens of Vancouver area prostitutes which did not stop until the arrest of a Port Coquitlam. B.C. pig farmer - Robert "Willy" Pickton - for multiple murder of some of these prostitutes. The three part opening episode was based on this mystery.