One of the most popular genres on Netflix and the one that most engages millions of people. True crime or documentaries that tell about murders and real cases analyzing them from all points of view. Unknown stories or media cases that we can know in depth thanks to witness statements, archive images, experts… And if you don’t know where to start, these are some of the best true crimes that we can see on Netflix.
They hook thousands of people and glue us to the screen with fascinating stories… If you have never seen one, these are some of the best or most striking true crimes that you can start with.
The Watts case: The homicidal father
One of the best docuseries of real murders on Netflix is “The Watts Case” with an event that occurred in 2018. Shannan, a young pregnant woman, and her daughters Belle and Celeste have disappeared. In August 2018, a friend of Shannan reported her missing because she did not answer the phone, she could not hear from her. Thanks to videos and publications on social networks, it can be reconstructed what she did in her last months, what she may have gone through. A single episode of a Netflix true crime that allows us to discover where the woman is and who her murderer is, whom the Denver police will search for through security camera images, from an intense investigation between acquaintances and neighbors.
Chapters: single episode
Duration: One hour and 23 minutes
Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox is another of the true crimes that we can see on Netflix. The docuseries is named after a student at the University of Peruggia who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kerecher. Amanda Knox was the main accused of this murder that we can relive in a single one-and-a-half hour episode with a case full of errors and an investigation criticized for its chaos and her mistakes. Knox was accused and acquitted on two occasions and in this hour and a half we will be able to find out what happened through images, archives, witnesses, specialists, journalists…
Chapters: Just one episode
Duration: An hour and a half
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann
If you live in Spain you will remember one of the most listened to or most broadcast cases on television not only in our country but throughout the world. The disappearance of a girl who was on vacation in the Algarve with her parents… Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007 in the Algarve, in Portugal, while her parents were having dinner with their friends and she was in the room with her brothers, sleeping. A disappearance that moved the entire world and that even today has not been resolved but that we will be able to follow in these eight episodes that will recreate the events, the first moments, the repercussion, the role of the media and those who were suspected and investigated by the disappearance of the girl.
Chapters: One season, eight episodes
Duration: Between 45 and 65 minutes
Sophie: A Murder in Cork
In 1996, a French woman was found murdered before Christmas in a rural area of Ireland. A film producer spending time in a country house in West Cork, Sophie Toscan de Plantier. She was murdered on December 23, 1996 in an event that stars in one of the best true crimes that we can see on Netflix. Three episodes that tell us what happened to Sophie Toscan de Plantier while she enjoyed a few days of relaxation before returning to Paris to celebrate the holidays. How it happened, why it happened and what the investigation was like.
Chapters: One season, three episodes
Duration: Between 49 and 64 minutes per chapter
Carmel: Who killed María Marta?
María Marta García Belsunce was found murdered in her bathtub at her home in Buenos Aires in 2002. It seemed like a domestic accident at first but it was soon discovered that it was a murder, but who was it? An attempted robbery? Her family? A Netflix docuseries released in 2020 that tells us about an event that kept an entire country in suspense for months and without a clear murderer to blame.
Chapters: One season, four episodes
Duration: About an hour per episode
The Keepers
One of the most striking true crimes on Netflix is The Keepers with the murder in the sixties of the nun Catherine Cesnik. A nun murdered in 1969 whose crime did not stop there but ended up being the reason for discovering a story of murders, sexual abuse, conspiracy and mystery. Everything that was around Sister Cesnik in six one-hour episodes where we will discover all the details of the case in one of the best crime docuseries that we can see on Netflix.
Chapters: six episodes
Duration: Between 60 and 70 minutes per chapter
Don’t even touch cats: A killer on the Internet
“Don’t even touch cats: A murderer on the Internet” is one of the most striking and crazy true crimes that we can see on Netflix. It is one of the first ones you should see, one of the most entertaining and most unlikely on the streaming platform if you try to explain it. Three episodes in which we will meet a group of Facebook addicts. They have their own group of “cyber friends” and they search for things on the Internet… Until they discover a video of an anonymous person who kills cats while it is being recorded. They will then become obsessed with unmasking him, with finding clues that will lead him to know who is behind the murders, why he does them. A search that will become more complicated and will become something much more important than entertainment on social networks. Flight between countries, murders and three episodes that will hook you from beginning to end.
Chapters: One season, three episodes
Duration: About 64 minutes per episode
Night Stalker: Hunting a Serial Killer
A serial killer with dozens of attacks in crimes and the same method over and over again: he enters his victims’ homes at night, murders them and rapes them. Women and men of all ages with the same procedure and the same criminal whom the press called “The Night Stalker.” A case entrusted to inspectors Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno who were in charge of doing everything possible to discover who is behind these terrible events in which there are no clues or indications as to who it could have been or why. Reconstructions of the events, interviews with the victims and statements from the investigators in a docuseries of four episodes of around fifty minutes each.
Chapters: One season, four episodes
Duration: About 50 minutes per chapter