The Devastating True Story Behind <i>The TikTok Killer</i>

It’s every solo traveler’s biggest fear: disappearing while abroad with no one there to immediately realize you’re gone. For 42-year-old single woman and avid adventurer Esther Estepa, a seemingly chance encounter with a social media influencer during a trip to Spain cost her her life—and only her family could solve the case.

It all started when Seville-based Esther befriended content creator José “Dynamite” Jurado Montilla in the lobby of her hostel in Alicante. On the morning of Aug. 22, 2023, Esther and her new travel buddy Montilla walked 37 kilometers from Denia to Gandía, a hike that culminated in Montilla calling emergency services for Esther to transport her to a hospital to treat a swollen leg and a severe headache. Esther allegedly left the hike in an ambulance, alone. She was discharged from the hospital at 4:30 a.m. the following day.

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And then the odd WhatsApp messages began arriving: Just thirteen hours after exiting the hospital, Esther wrote to her mother, Josefa “Pepa” Pérez, expressing that she was “broke” and about to leave Spain to start a “new life in Buenos Aires.” Sure, Esther had been living a nomadic lifestyle for years and did not have a fixed address, but she would never abandon her two beloved dogs in such a way. It seemed, at least to Josefa, that Esther was saying goodbye. But was it really Esther who wrote those now-final words? 

The new two-part Netflix docuseries, The TikTok Killer, retraces the Estepa and Pérez family’s search for Esther after she went silent in August 2023. Directed by Héctor Muniente (The Ecuadorian Candidate, American Greyhounds, Gustavo Bueno, La Vuelta A La Caverna), and produced by Netflix Spain’s iZen Documentaries, the series recreates Esther’s digital footprint—including a trail of videos, social media posts, messages, geotags, and appearances in Montilla’s many posts—that led to her alleged killer.

“When Esther vanishes without a trace, her family is able to piece together her last movements thanks to José Jurado Montilla, a traveler who journeys across Spain sharing heartfelt videos of his trips on his TikTok account,” the description teases. “But ‘Dynamite’ Montilla–the last person to have been with Esther–hides a dark past.” 

The series speaks to the way “social media can reflect unreal, carefully fabricated lives, and how, in this case, that phenomenon takes on a terrifying dimension,” says Muniente. 

The search for Esther

Almost a year later, the Estepa and Pérez family were no closer to receiving answers as to where Esther went. Josefa told Artículo 14 that she would usually speak with her daughter daily, especially whenever Esther was traveling. “My daughter had been living on her own for years, but we talked every day on WhatsApp, by phone or video call,” Josefa said, citing how out of character it was for Esther to suddenly not check in with her family. “She had so many plans that we always ruled out the possibility that her disappearance was voluntary. What’s more, we expected her to be back home by Christmas [2023].” 

Even more alarming was how odd Esther’s note read: She mentioned relocating with pals, but her mother knew that Esther “didn’t have any friends” in Alicante. Esther was known for traveling solo, and the claim in the message didn’t sit right with Josefa. “It made me doubt that it wasn’t her writing it,” Josefa said in a news report via La Sexta.

Esther’s family reported her missing to the police in Alicante on Aug. 26, 2023, three days after Esther’s questionable messages. That missing persons report led to an unexpected lead.

Possible suspects

Of course, Esther could have just opted to disconnect entirely from her loved ones without providing an explanation. Alicante investigators thought that theory was the most likely answer as to where she had gone.

The Estepa and Pérez family, though, knew of one other person who might have wanted to harm Esther: Her ex-partner who she accused of abuse in 2022. Esther had filed a complaint against him in Seville. However, he was ruled out of the investigation after proving that they were on good terms merely a few months before Esther’s disappearance.

Then, Josefa received a phone call on Sept. 8, 2023 that changed the trajectory of the case.

“We had reported her disappearance a few weeks earlier, and suddenly, a man called me saying he had run into my daughter at a hostel in Alicante,” Josefa said. “He told me he wanted me to know what he had already told the police: that the last time he had seen Esther was when he accompanied her to a health center in Gandía because her legs were hurting a lot.” 

The search for Esther was suspended by authorities in June 2024, but by that point, Josefa and Esther’s sister Raquel had begun investigating the only suspect they had: the man who reached out to alert them that he had crossed paths with Esther—and even documented their time together to his six thousand followers on TikTok.

“The real shock came later, when we searched the internet for the name he gave me, José Jurado Montilla,” Josefa said. When they looked him up, they found out that Montilla was a convicted killer.

Murky motives

Montilla’s criminal past exploded the case wide open. Despite having an internet presence as a friendly tour guide of sorts, the Malaga-born Montilla had previously served 28 years in prison for murdering four people, two of whom were tourists. Montilla only publicly admitted to killing his neighbor in 1985; the other three victims were visitors from Germany and England, and a former driver of flamenco singer Juanito Valderrama. All of the killings took place in the 1980s, and all of the victims were men. Were Josefa and Raquel supposed to believe that it was a coincidence that Esther spent her last hours before going rogue with a serial killer?

“He’s a despicable jerk who even sent us the videos he uploaded to TikTok commenting on my sister’s disappearance,” Raquel told Artículo 14 about Montilla, who meticulously uploaded his locations to his followers. 

That oversharing definitely backfired, though: After Montilla reached out to Esther’s family, he was on the radar of the authorities, who began comparing his whereabouts to other recent homicides in the area. Montilla later was investigated for the August 2022 murder of a 21-year-old male student named David in the Los Montes area of ​​Málaga; he was arrested for that case in 2024. 

Montilla’s content provided a “rich archive” for both investigations and now, the documentary itself. 

“At first, when diving into his content, you focus on what he says, looking for contradictions and lies. But after hours of raw footage, after selecting dozens of videos, watching them repeatedly, and editing them in the cutting room, you start to develop small obsessions,” Muniente says. “You notice tiny details, repeated patterns, his gestures, and almost without realizing it, you become a bit like a forensic psychologist. What I will never forget is his ability to switch emotions in a single click, from one second to the next, blending sadness with joy, anger with charm, all in the same video, with no transition or mediation. It feels like watching a performance of what many would call psychopathy unfold in real time.” 

What happened to Esther? 

Esther’s case was never formally closed. The police found a skull in February 2024, but they did not confirm that it belonged to Esther until June 21, 2024. That month, the rest of Esther’s body was recovered when hikers found her remains in a reed bed in Gandía, Alicante, with her bones hidden amongst undergrowth. At that point, they were reportedly skeletalized after exposure to the elements. Authorities later returned to the area of the cañar where the skull had been found and discovered additional remains.

According to Muniente, Josefa learned Montilla’s real identity before the skull was found, likely around January 2024. “That discovery is actually the cliffhanger ending of the first episode,” Muniente says.

Montilla, at that point in custody for the alleged student murder, has denied killing Esther.

“The police keep telling us they still don’t know for sure how he killed her,” Esther’s sister Raquel told Artículo 14. “He did hit her on the head, because her skull has that fracture, but since they haven’t found her whole…” 

Montilla is currently in preventive detention in prison, and has been formally charged with two homicides, one of them being Esther Estepa’s. The trials do not have set dates yet, but they are expected to take place later this year. Even The TikTok Killer director Muniente says that the chronology of this case is a “bit tricky” since the police did not collaborate with the project in part because it is still pending a trial. 

Esther’s family continues to recognize August 23 as the anniversary of her death.