(Credits: Netflix)

For viewers who enjoy true-crime documentaries, The TikTok Killer on Netflix tells a story that might feel almost unbelievable at first. It begins with any other ordinary social media account.

There were videos of long walks, travel updates, sunsets and reflections from the road. But what the docuseries reveals further will shock you because, as it turns out, those clips would eventually become part of a murder investigation that shocked people across Spain.

It turns out, the man behind the account was José Jurado Montilla. On TikTok, he presented himself as a traveller documenting long journeys across the country. His videos showed stretches of open road and moments from his daily walks. To most viewers, it just looked like someone posting travel videos.

What many people didn’t realise was that Montilla’s life already carried a dark history long before he began posting on social media.

Decades earlier, Montilla had been convicted of several murders in Spain. He spent many years in prison before eventually being released. After his release, he began travelling again, moving from place to place and documenting parts of the journey online. His TikTok account gradually attracted attention, mostly from people curious about the long routes he was walking across the country.

The TikTok Killer brilliantly shows how that online presence would later become important in an entirely different context.

The story took a disturbing turn when Montilla crossed paths with Esther Estepa. Estepa, another traveller from Spain, met him during one of his walking routes. For a time, the two travelled along the same path, something that appeared in a few of Montilla’s social media posts. Not long after that meeting, Estepa disappeared.

At first, the situation raised more questions than answers. Friends and family noticed that she had stopped responding to messages. Later, messages were sent from her phone saying she planned to start a new life somewhere else, but her family quickly found that suspicious.

Investigators soon began piecing together the timeline of her last known movements. That process led them back to Montilla and, unexpectedly, to his social media posts.

The TikTok Killer also takes a look at the investigators examining the videos he had uploaded during his travels, which began to offer clues about where he had been and when. Locations in the background of certain clips helped investigators reconstruct parts of the route he had taken. What once looked like ordinary travel updates has now become pieces of evidence. And months later, the case took another grim turn.

Human remains were discovered near Gandía, a coastal area in eastern Spain. Authorities eventually confirmed that the remains belonged to Esther Estepa. The discovery changed the missing-person investigation into a homicide case.

Police later arrested Montilla in connection with the killing, along with another violent crime authorities were investigating. For many people following the case, the situation was difficult to process. Imagine a man who had been posting everyday travel videos online was now at the centre of a murder investigation. What makes this case so interesting is the contrast. Someone can pretend to be something else very easily, and you’d never know if a criminal is hidden behind it.

The documentary The TikTok Killer explores how investigators connected the pieces together, from Montilla’s past criminal history to the social media trail that helped track his movements. It also examines how platforms like TikTok can unexpectedly play a role in modern criminal investigations.