After her daughter goes missing, one woman’s relentless efforts to find her child uncover a wave of unsolved murders on Long Island. Based on real events about a purported serial killer and the woman who set out to find his victims, the 2020 film Lost Girls is the narrative feature debut of Emmy winner and Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus (The Fourth Estate; What Happened, Miss Simone?).
Check it out below.
After a 24-year-old sex worker named Shannan mysteriously disappears one night, her mother, Mari, is determined to find her at all costs. So when the police fail to make Shannan’s disappearance a priority, Mari takes matters into her own hands — driving an investigation within an insular gated community near Long Island’s outer banks. In doing so, Mari’s efforts enable detectives to uncover numerous unsolved murders.
Yes. It’s based on the nonfiction book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker.
Oona Laurence, Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie and Miriam Shor in Lost Girls
Yes. Lost Girls is inspired by the true story of Shannan Gilbert’s disappearance, her mother Mari Gilbert’s efforts to find her, and the Long Island serial killer — or LISK, as he has become known — who is alleged to have killed up to 18 people between the years 1996 and 2011.
A suspect was arrested and charged in three of the murders in July 2023.
Lost Girls takes place on the South Shore of Long Island, New York.
