Grace was murdered in 2018.
A documentary on the disappearance and murder of British backpacker Grace Millane is coming to ITV soon, it has been confirmed.
The new film, working title The Murder of Grace Millane, will be part of a larger series about the role that social media has played in recent killings.
Millane, a backpacker from Britain, was murdered in New Zealand by Jesse Kempsen during a Tinder date. The 22-year-old was strangled to death in her date’s apartment. Her body was later placed in a suitcase and buried.
Kempsen was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 17 years in prison. He had claimed that Grace died accidentally during “rough sex.” Kempsen was also found guilty of attacking two more women.
The case led to much criticism concerning the so-called “rough sex defence,” which has in the past seen those accused of killing a sexual partner found not guilty of murder.
An order suppressing the publication of Kempsen’s name was lifted in 2020. Grace’s family later said that not naming her killer had “allowed people to remember Grace – a young, vibrant girl who set out to see the world, instead of the man who took her life”.
“To use his name shows we care and gives him the notoriety he seeks. We instead choose to speak Grace’s name.”
ITV says the new series will be a “modern real life story-telling that puts the victim and their loved ones central to the narrative and draws on in the moment material harvested from social media accounts and mobile phone footage.”
The two other cases in the series concern Alex Rodda, a schoolboy who was killed by a man he met online, and Kent university student Molly McLaren, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend.
A release date for the Murder of Grace Millane has yet to be announced.
