10 Foreign True Crime Documentaries To Scratch Two Itches At Once
Travel the world or curl up on the couch to watch true crime documentaries? Why not do both?
Travel the world or curl up on the couch to watch true crime documentaries? It’s the universal conundrum. On the one hand, the world is a big and beautiful place full of opportunities to eat delicious food and meet new people and wear hats you would never wear at home. On the other hand, there are true crime stories that need to be solved by you in your pajamas on the couch under a weighted blanket.
How do you scratch both of those itches? Well, you could travel the world seeking out true crimes to solve yourself, but that would get pricey and probably pretty dangerous. You don’t want to become the subject of your own true crime documentary, after all. Instead, settle in on a long, rainy weekend (or when it’s bright and sunny, I’m not judging) to watch these engrossing true crime documentaries set in beautiful locations around the world. It’s safer and the snacks are cheaper.
Netflix
Sophie - A Murder in West Cork
In 1996, French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found murdered outside her remote holiday cottage in the small village of Toormore. West Cork two days before Christmas. Sophie was just 39 years old and mom to son Pierre-Louis. A local journalist was one of the first to report her murder, and quickly became the main suspect. Netflix’s three-part docuseries Sophie - A Murder in West Cork covers not only Sophie’s tragic death, but also the struggle between Ireland and France to convict the killer.
Amy Lynn Bradley was just 23 years old when she went missing from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Sea one early morning in March 1998. The ship was en route to the island of Curaçao. Her room showed no sign of a struggle, and several items were left behind. Authorities initially considered Bradley’s disappearance to be a potential accident or suicide, but Netflix’s 2025 three-part docuseries Amy Bradley is Missing speculates on several other possibilities that could have happened in the sunny tropics.
We do not love a scam artist. Especially one who preys on women looking for love, as Israeli conman Shimon Hayut aka Simon Leviev did between 2017 to 2019. Hayut swindled millions of dollars from women in the Netherlands, Norway, and other countries around Europe, leaving them destitute and broken-hearted. That’s the bad news. The good news is the way these women eventually found each other, banding together to bring Hayut to justice and try to reclaim their money. Netflix’s 2022 documentary The Tinder Swindler tells the story of three women who lost nearly everything to Hayut, and how they came together to bring him down.
The Netflix 2026 three-part docuseries Should I Marry a Murderer? will stay with you for a long time after the fact. Not just because it’s set in the gorgeous Scottish countryside, but because of the perspective it offers on what it might actually look like to find out the man you love is genuinely a murderer. Caroline Muirhead met handsome Scottish farmer Alexander “Sandy” McKellar on Tinder, and the two got engaged in 2020 after a whirlwind four month romance. When McKellar confessed to a murder that happened three years earlier, Muirhead stays with him. Told from her modern day perspective, Should I Marry a Murderer? Is an unflinching glimpse at what we might be willing to overlook in the name of love.
Vittorio Emanuele was nine years old when his family was exiled from Italy in 1946. His father was King Umberto II, and Vittorio was meant to be a prince until Italy voted to create a republic without the royal family. Living a life of luxurious exile, Vittorio was on the French island of Corsica in 1978 when he was involved in the death of 19-year-old German tourist Dirk Hamer. Netflix’s 2023 three-part series The King Who Never Was features interviews with Vittorio himself, as well as Dirk Hamer’s family members who were determined to see the privileged deposed royal charged with Dirk’s murder.
Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil
Michel Fourniret confessed to killing 11 women and one man in the picturesque Ardennes region of France between 1987 to 2003, making him one of the most notorious serial killers in modern French history. The Belgian killer only confessed after his seemingly submissive wife, Monique Olivier, provided police with enough information to force his hand. Which meant, of course, that she knew something of her husband’s crimes. More than police might have suspected, if the 2023 Netflix limited series Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil proves anything. Olivier might have even been a willing participant in her husband’s horrific crimes. Chilling.
Fair warning for the 2019 five-part Netflix docuseries Who Killed Little Gregory? - the entire series revolves around the awful kidnapping and murder of 4-year-old Grégory Villemin in a small village in eastern France. Grégory’s murder has never been solved, and this docuseries delves into the disturbing allegations that members of his own extended family might have murdered the little boy. This one is equal parts difficult to watch and completely engrossing.
If you’re looking for some real-life Scandinavian noir to get you through the dark nights of fall, you’ll want to check out The Lørenskog Disappearance, Netflix’s five-part docuseries based on the true story of real life Norwegian billionaire Tom Hagan. Hagan’s wife Anne-Elisabeth Hagan went missing from the couple’s opulent home in October 2018, and a ransom note asking for nine million euros was left in her wake. The police originally believed Anne-Elisabeth was kidnapped, but began to suspect murder when the alleged kidnappers didn’t continue to reach out. While this 2022 limited series is a drama and not a straight documentary, it really delivers on Scandi vibes and billionaire intrigue.
Prime Video
The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane
British tourist Grace Millane was taking a gap year to travel the world when she ended up in New Zealand in 2018. She planned to head back home to her family for Christmas. She never made it back home. Millane was reported missing by her family, with police conducting a massive search in Auckland and the surrounding area before zeroing in on Jesse Kempson, her final Tinder date. The 2024 documentary The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane on Amazon Prime, features interview tapes with Kempson as he is interrogated by police, and his subsequent attempt to use the so-called “rough sex murder” defense for killing the 22-year-old. On her birthday.
Apple TV
If you’ve been thinking of spending a bit of time in the UK along the coast, the Apple TV series Coastal Killers will either intrigue you or scare you off, depending on your perspective. Instead of focusing on just one true crime story, Coastal Killers has eight seasons of stories of mayhem in lovely little seaside towns in the UK...
...Which should keep you busy as you plan your next potential trip.
