Heartbreaking new Netflix documentary leaves true crime fans baffled by “ignorant narcissist”

Two-parter Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter has just dropped on Netflix, and the emotional case has left fans angry with one “ignorant” bystander who was never arrested.

Netflix has truly spoiled users with excellent true crime and documentaries this year, but it might have outdone itself with this week’s release: two-parter Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter.

The new release follows Cathy Terkanian, as she learns that a child she put up for adoption had been missing for 21 years. Armed with the internet and limited knowledge, she sets out to find the truth of what really happened.

Look away now if you haven’t seen it yet, but the new TV show‘s conclusion reveals daughter Aundria’s adoptive father Dennis Bowman was responsible for her murder. However, his wife Brenda was never charged or arrested as a conspirator.

From what we learn in Into The Fire, Brenda seemed to be aware that her husband sexually abused Aundria, which was first revealed to her friends at the age of 13. It is unclear how much she may or may not have known about his further crimes.

This – and her dismissal of believing her husband’s guilt – has led fans to think she knew more than she let on.

“It’s heartbreaking, I felt so sorry for the biological mother. I think Brenda knew more than she said, she was as bad as him in my eyes,” one fan posted on Reddit.

A second agreed: “That woman was willfully ignorant all those years. She didn’t care about her daughter at all. She constantly chose him over her. Shame.”

“Dennis is a narcissist and they are master manipulators. He totally brainwashed Brenda into believing everything he said and to stay with him no matter what because she doesn’t believe she could find someone to love her again. She selfishly chose herself over her daughter,” a third weighed in.

“She deserves to be prosecuted as an accomplice and put into jail as well. She knew and didn’t care.”

Netflix

As Into The Fire draws to a close, we learn Brenda still supports husband Dennis while he’s in prison, with images showing the pair on a video call while Brenda holds a bouquet of flowers.

Dennis was arrested for the previously unsolved and unrelated 1980 murder of Kathleen Doyle in Norfolk, Virginia, leading him to become the prime suspect in Aundria’s disappearance.

In 2020, he was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of Kathleen, followed by an additional 35-50 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Aundria. 

Brenda currently lives alone in Michigan while Dennis serves his time in Virginia. She maintains her husband’s innocence, which we hear first-hand in the new docu-series‘ final scene.

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is streaming on Netflix now.

For more true crime, find out if Born Evil’s Kristin Bluefin is a real person, what you need to know about the Menendez brothers ahead of Monster Season 2, and what happened to Worst Ex Ever’s Mei and Rosa.