Netflix viewers shocked tuning into ‘craziest true crime documentary series ever’

Netflix viewers have been left unsettled after watching a true crime series about a mother trying to find out the fate of her missing daughter.

The two-part documentary Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter follows a ‘tenacious mother unravelling the complex mystery surrounding the 1989 disappearance of the daughter she placed for adoption’.

After giving birth aged just 16 in 1974, Cathy Terkanian was advised to give her daughter Alexis Badger up.

She agreed to a closed adoption and was never told who the adoptive parents were.

However, when she was 14, her daughter who had since been renamed Aundria Bowman went missing from her home in Michigan.

At the time of Aundria’s disappearance, her adoptive father Dennis Bowman told police she had run away.

Not long before she had accused him of molesting her.

It was 21 years before Cathy was made aware of her daughter’s disappearance, then setting out to find out what happened to her.

But years later, as Cathy undertook her own investigation, devastating details emerged about allegations of the physical and sexual abuse her daughter was subjected to as a child.

She also discovered Bowman had a sordid criminal history, including several offences against women.

In 2010 Cathy began her decade-long search for answers, being convinced Bowman had murdered his adoptive daughter, with her quest for justice the subject of the gripping documentary.

Many viewers have shared their shock at watching the story play out.

‘Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter on Netflix is heartbreaking and destroying me,’ user cherdelaware posted on X.

‘Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is the best Netflix true crime docu this year. Riveting. This has a great limited tv series potential,’ deeitao shared.

‘Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is one of the craziest crime docs I’ve ever watched on Netflix,’ Nick added.

Others labelled it a ‘must-watch’ but also said they were left ‘infuriated’ by the ‘sad and sickening’ crime.

In 2020, while awaiting trial for the murder of a woman named Kathleen Doyle who had been killed in 1980, Bowman confessed he was also responsible for the death of Aundria, with her remains uncovered a few days later.

Police stated that Bowman confessed to striking Aundria, causing her to die of a resulting head injury, and then dismembered her body with an axe and machete.

After pleading guilty to killing Doyle and receiving two life sentences, Bowman then received an additional 35-50 years in prison for Aundria’s murder.

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum ahead of the series’ release, Cathy spoke about seeking justice for her daughter’

“I think a lot of this drive came from her rising up in me,’ she said.

‘This is what she would have done. She would have gone looking for me.’