‘Lost Girls’ Explores Long Island Serial Killer Case in New Trailer

Amy Ryan stars in the upcoming Netflix film Lost Girls, which premiered its first trailer on Thursday. The crime drama, based on the real-life unsolved case of the Long Island serial killer, will premiere on the platform March 13th.

Ryan portrays Mari Gilbert, whose search for her daughter Shannan was explored in a 2011 New York Magazine story and later adapted into the non-fiction book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery. Shannan went missing shortly before the bodies of four women were found scattered along Ocean Parkway. (The killer targeted mostly sex workers, and is estimated to have killed upwards of 20 people.)

Although Shannan’s disappearance and death — her body was discovered in December 2011 three miles from most of the other bodies — have long been maintained by authorities to be unrelated to the case, Gilbert became a fierce advocate for murder victims and supported the families of the Long Island serial killer’s victims. Gilbert died after being stabbed by her other daughter, Sarra, in 2016.

On the same day that the trailer was released, investigators unveiled new evidence in the case: a photograph of initials on a black leather belt found at one of the crime scenes. When asked about Shannan Gilbert’s death — which was long thought to be an accident — Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said that the cause of death was “inconclusive.”

Lost Girls is directed by Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), and co-stars Thomasin McKenzie, Gabriel Byrne and Lola Kirke.