Julianna Cox

Julianna Cox is a fictional character in the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street for seasons 5-6, played by actress Michelle Forbes.

Cox was introduced in the season five episode "M.E., Myself, and I," where she is arriving back home in Baltimore to take a position as the chief medical examiner at the morgue. Her father is in frail health and barely hanging on. He passes away within days of her arriving, devastating her; while its first implied that he has died of natural causes, she later reveals that he died from injuries sustained in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. She compensates for her sadness by speeding and drinking a lot.

As the chief M.E., Cox distinguished herself by being much more friendly and personable with the homicide unit than her predecessor, Dr. Scheiner, had been. The detectives were all impressed that she would actually make trips to see them once in a while, both on and off duty, and she was very good at her job. She did not tolerate sloppy work or incompetence, and she fired two of her staff members - one who deliberately mis-classified a prostitute's murder as a drug overdose, and a second who stole jewelry from several homicide victims. She was also a regular at the Waterfront Bar.