Emilie Anine Skovgaard Meng, 17, was a typical teenager heading home from a night out when she disappeared from Korsør, a small Danish town of roughly 14,000 people. In the early hours of 10 July 2016, around 4:00 a.m., she said goodbye to friends at Korsør railway station and began the approximately 3.3-kilometre walk to her mother's apartment. She never arrived. The following morning, when Emilie failed to appear for a planned performance at her local church at 9:30 a.m., her disappearance became public—and quickly became a national obsession.

The search for Emilie captured Denmark's attention. Police, hundreds of volunteers, mounted units, divers, and canine teams combed the region in one of the country's most high-profile missing persons investigations. Yet weeks turned into months with no sign of the teenager. Four months into the search, investigators explored three primary theories: that Emilie had run away, that she had died in an accident, or that she was the victim of a crime.

During this period, police investigated several suspects. A 33-year-old truck driver and a 67-year-old man were scrutinised, with the latter's house searched five times. But without a body or conclusive evidence, the case stalled.

Then, on Christmas Eve 2016—nearly six months after Emilie vanished—her body was discovered in a lake at Regnemarks Bakke in Borup, Køge Municipality, approximately 60 kilometres from where she disappeared. The discovery was both a breakthrough and a tragedy. A post-mortem examination determined that Emilie had been strangled. On 25 December, police held a press conference confirming that she had been the victim of what they described as a "cruel and callous" crime.