The Harrowing True Story Behind Netflix’s ‘Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter’

Netflix has a knack for finding and telling true crime stories that have to be seen to be believed. Its latest offering, Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter, is no exception.

The harrowing tale follows Cathy Terkanian, who discovered that the daughter she placed for adoption had gone missing when she was 14…21 years ago. Although she didn’t raise the child or even know about her adoptive parents, she set out on a mission to uncover the truth about what happened.

Here’s the true story about Terkanian’s search and her devastating discovery. Spoilers ahead for Netflix’s Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter.

A missing daughter

Cathy Terkanian’s journey began in 1974 when she gave birth to a daughter at the age of 16. Terkanian’s mother convinced her to consider adoption, as she believed the teen was too young to raise a child. Terkanian agreed to a closed adoption—and never learned who the adoptive parents were.

Terkanian was shocked when, in in April 2010, the adoption agency wrote her a letter informing her that her birth daughter had gone missing 21 years earlier in 1989. Why did they write to her so long after the disappearance? Because police had discovered a body and wanted to test Terkanian’s DNA to see if it was a match.