Just a teenager herself when she gave birth, Cathy Terkanian gave her daughter Alexis up for adoption in the 1970s – but she never stopped thinking about the little girl. Keen to form some kind of relationship with her, Terkanian reached out to social services some 15 years later, hoping that her daughter might want to meet with her.

For a very long time, she waited and hoped for a response. Then, in 2010, Terkanian received a letter that upended her world. She learned that Alexis (renamed Aundria by her adoptive family) had gone missing in March 1989, when she was just 14 years old. 

Now, Charlize Theron has produced a new Netflix documentary charting Terkanian’s 10-year quest to determine what really happened to the baby girl she placed up for adoption.   

Watch the trailer for Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter below:

Here’s what you need to know about the two-part documentary.

What is Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter about?

Directed by Ryan White (The Keepers), Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter dives “into the shadowy depths of a chilling true-crime story that feels almost impossible to believe,” reads the official synopsis.

“At the centre of this labyrinthine tale, however, is the unbreakable bond between mother and child – and the power of maternal instinct across space and time.”

What are people saying about Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter?

Theron has said that Terkanian’s doggedness inspired her to bring this story to the screen. “Cathy was resilient and followed her intuition all the way to the end to get answers about her daughter,” Theron told Netflix’s Tudum platform. “I think that sort of tenacity in the face of a bunch of people telling you you’re wrong is something that really resonates with audiences. We so often are taught to trust our gut, but rarely see it in action.”

Co-producer Jessica Hargrave adds: “Cathy is just a remarkable woman in her strength, and then her conviction. Without her, none of this would have happened. Despite having only met her daughter as a baby, Cathy still felt this connection to her, and felt compelled to the point of borderline obsession to find out what happened to her.”

As Terkanian herself puts it in a separate interview with People: “She’s my child. She belongs with me. No mother would do otherwise.”

When can we watch Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter?

Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter is on Netflix from Thursday 12 September.

Images: Netflix