Documentary: Finding Andrea

The missing persons case of Andrea Knabel

The first thing you need to know about Finding Andrea is that the case remains unsolved. If you’re the type (like me) who hates unsolved cases, don’t watch this documentary. But if you’re the type who enjoys following the path of these kinds of cases, read on.

Finding Andrea is a four-part documentary that investigates the missing persons case of Andrea Knabel. Andrea disappeared in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019, and was, ironically, involved in an organization called Missing in America, for which she helped find missing people around the country.

Andrea went missing after a fight with her sister at her mother’s home, where they had both been staying. The documentary follows the search for her by family members, women who worked with her in Missing in America, her father, and a retired homicide detective, offering various theories about her disappearance. Did she go missing because of undercover work she was doing for a private investigator? Were her family members, particularly her sister and brother-in-law, involved? Was the disappearance due to her associations with drug dealers, or are her friends suspects?

None of these theories has been proven, and the case is still open, so detectives involved in the official investigation do not appear in episodes. Instead, the women she worked with, her family members, and a retired homicide detective who took up the case offer their insights.

Throughout the documentary, it feels as if the producers tried to create tension and suspicion where there really isn’t any, in order to drag out the story into four episodes. Therefore, it’s a very slow slog through the evidence, and could have been just one episode, particularly because there is no resolution and no information about the actual police investigation. Because of its slow pace and veiled attempts to create suspicion and red herrings, it fails to be engaging enough to recommend. Pass.