In The TikTok Killer, a Spanish true crime documentary directed by Héctor Muniente (The Ecuadorian Candidate), Josefa “Pepa” Pérez lives out every mother’s worst nightmare when her 42-year-old daughter Esther Estepa vanishes. When she starts investigating the man Esther was with before she disappeared, she discovers a grave reality.
The two-part documentary follows the harrowing saga that began in August 2023, when Pepa receives an alarming text from her daughter, who’d recently escaped an abusive relationship. Esther tells her mother she’s been living on the street and intends to move from Spain to Buenos Aires with a friend, which sparks Pepa’s concern. But when Pepa reaches out, Esther’s phone is shut off. When hours without a response turn into days, Esther’s frantic family reports her missing to the police in Alicante, the seaside town where Esther had been staying in a women’s shelter.
A few weeks later, when Pepa gets a call from a friendly stranger, José Jurado Montilla, aka Dinamita, the family finally feels a spark of hope. Dinamita, a TikTok travel influencer, had met Esther at the shelter in Alicante and traveled with her for a few weeks; he could be the key to finding out where Esther is. Dinamita even posts about his and Esther’s trip, seemingly to spread awareness about his missing friend to his thousands of followers. Desperate to find out what happened to her daughter, Pepa begins to dig into the only lead investigators have: Dinamita, the last person to see their daughter alive. What the Pérezes find when they start looking into the charming but odd influencer uncovers a dark, unsettling history hiding in plain sight.
The two-part doc, which features Montilla’s extensive social media archive, is streaming on Netflix now.
