Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter – Review | Netflix

INTO THE FIRE: THE LOST DAUGHTER on Netflix is a documentary in two parts. Not only is it a great production, but the true story keeps evolving. It’s a wild ride about never giving up. Read our full Into the Fire documentary review here!

INTO THE FIRE: THE LOST DAUGHTER is a new Netflix documentary that’s going straight onto our “Best True Crime Documentaries on Netflix”-list. The production is as great as the crimes in it are terrifying.

I’m not sure what I expected, but the trailer had me hooked. Also, the fact that Charlize Theron is a producer (as she is on the Mindhunter series) made me have great expectations. And this Netflix documentary managed to meet them.

Continue reading our Into the Fire documentary review below. Find both parts on Netflix from September 12, 2024.

A life-changing letter

The true story told in Into the Fire begins in April 2010, when Cathy Terkanian receives a letter that changes her life forever. The letter came from a social worker, who explained why a sample of Cathy’s DNA was needed.

It turns out a Jane Doe has been found murdered, and the police suspect it may be the daughter Cathy Terkanian gave up for adoption 35 years earlier.

Also, Cathy discovers that the girl has been missing since 1989. At just 14 years old, the girl had supposedly run away from her adoptive home. The police never did much to look for her, which may not sound like a big deal.

However, as you learn the truth about her adoptive father, there are so many red flags.

Each twist is darker

Needless to say, Cathy Terkanian wants to find out what happened to her biological daughter. She is driven by a desperate need for answers, but with each new fact, a new chill runs down her spine.

Cathy Terkanian is quick to realize that she has no real rights or the ability to investigate this case. Instead, she has persistence and a mother’s instinct that is eerily strong.

With the help of an amateur Internet sleuth and local authorities, who are interested in working cold cases, she embarks on a quest that will take 10 years. However, before the end of this two-part documentary, she will have answers!

Before she gets any definitive answers, she will come to learn the truth about the daughter she gave birth to in 1974. And also, some dark truths about the family she was adopted by.

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is a labyrinthine tale where each new twist is darker than the previous one.

Watch Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter on Netflix now!

Into the Fire is directed and produced by Ryan White, who also made the brilliant (and scary) documentary The Keepers. This new documentary is also produced by Jessica Hargrave, Matt Maher, and Charlize Theron.

Charlize Theron who incepted the project, having read Nile Cappello’s reporting on the story in The Atavist, so she reached out to Ryan White’s team. Charlize Theron is an adoptive mother herself and feels passionately about this case.

Ultimately, this is a true crime that clearly shows a worst-case scenario of what could happen with adoption. For Charlize Theron herself, she has stated that it was Cathy Terkanian’s unflinching perseverance that inspired her.

This is the story of families in all shapes and sizes, but also the unbreakable bond between mother and child. And especially, the maternal instinct. As we’ve seen before, we must trust our gut, when it’s telling us something.

Still, I can’t imagine anyone had any real idea about just how much this case would evolve.

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter premieres on Netflix on September 12, 2024.