Netflix has struck true-crime gold again with Missing: Dead or Alive?, the four-part docuseries that has exploded to the top of global charts since its May 2025 premiere, leaving viewers breathless, bingeing through the night and obsessively dissecting every frame for answers they’re terrified to face. Filmed in real time across South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the series follows the Richland County Sheriff’s Department as they hunt for four missing persons in cases that spiral from routine welfare checks into labyrinths of buried evidence, conflicting testimonies, and betrayals so shocking they blur the line between victim and villain.
Each episode centers on a different disappearance, but the real star is the unfiltered chaos of investigation: bodycam footage of frantic searches, interrogation rooms thick with lies, and investigators racing against time as families fracture under grief and suspicion. The standout case — that of 28-year-old mother Shante Coleman, last seen leaving a convenience store with her toddler — detonates when her boyfriend’s alibi collapses and her own mother becomes a person of interest. What begins as a missing-person hunt morphs into something far darker, with revelations that left test audiences gasping and social media erupting: “I had to pause and walk around the house after Episode 3.”
Directors David Bruckner (The Night House) and executive producer Ridley Scott keep the pacing merciless — no narration, no dramatic reenactments, just raw footage, frantic 911 calls, and interviews that crack open like fault lines. The result is a series that feels less like television and more like watching a tragedy unfold in real time. “It’s the closest thing to being inside an active investigation without wearing a badge,” wrote one critic. “You’ll finish Episode 4 at 3 a.m. and immediately start it again because you can’t believe what you just saw.”
Viewers are spiraling. #MissingDeadOrAlive has surpassed 2 million posts on TikTok, with reaction videos titled “I’m never sleeping again” and “This broke me” racking up tens of millions of views. Reddit threads dissect every frame like the Zapruder film, while survivors from the cases have begun speaking out, thanking Netflix for giving voice to the voiceless — and warning that some truths are still buried.
This isn’t just another true-crime binge. It’s a mirror held up to the cracks in the system: overworked detectives, families torn apart by suspicion, and the terrifying ease with which someone can vanish. As one investigator says in the finale: “Missing isn’t a crime. But what happens after… that’s where the monsters live.”
Stream Missing: Dead or Alive? now on Netflix — but be warned: once you start, stopping isn’t an option. And the questions it leaves behind? They’ll haunt you long after the screen goes black.
