'The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth' has been making waves since its release. However, one question has been plaguing viewers: Is the film based on real-life events? Let's find out.
The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth is a thriller film directed by David F. Mewa. It premiered on Lifetime on January 25, 2026, and is available on platforms like Philo and DIRECTV. The film stars an impeccable cast including LeToya Luckett, Rainbow Francks, Amanda Thamage and Shane Marriott. The Lifetime's special release follows a prosecutor named 'Shenae Griffiths', who has taken pride in her righteousness. However, what will happen when her morals come into conflict with her emotions? The film takes us back to the time when she gave a testimony that was incremental in sending her husband to death row.
And since then, 'Shenae' has lived each day believing that her husband was guilty of the murder of two teenage girls. Nonetheless, now things have changed as her daughter, 'Brooke', has disappeared days before her husband's execution. 'Shenae' is forced to face a terrifying possibility, that her husband is innocent while the real murderer, still at large, has now set their eyes on her daughter. What follows is a fight against the system and time itself as she tries to find her way out of this horrifying web before she loses her family.
The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth has been making waves since its release. The terrifying struggle of a mother against time left everyone in chills. However, one question has occupied every viewer's mind since the film's release: Is it based on real events? Well, you don't have to look any further for answers. The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth is a work of fiction by Al Kratina. While the movie's subject matter naturally feels hyperrealistic in its essence, the plot beats themselves are made up, with no real-life incident serving as a direct inspiration.
It won't be fair to say that The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth hasn't drawn on real life. The movie, even if unintentionally, draws some vague parallels to real life. A large part of which lies in its storyline itself, as the story is about a prosecutor's husband being found innocent in a murder case, years after his original conviction. We are no strangers to such, as is the case in multiple real-life situations as well. In recent years alone, several capital cases have demonstrated how dramatically a conviction can be thrown into doubt just days before an execution. The same events mirror the movie's narrative.
One potentially similar case is that of Tommy Lee Walker. For the unversed, Tommy was officially exonerated on January 21, 2026, nearly seventy years after he had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the s**ual assault and murder of Venice Parker. He was only 19 years old when he was arrested in 1953. According to reports, Tommy was convicted by an all-white jury before being sent to the electric chair in 1956.
Decades later, the Dallas County Commissioners Court formally acknowledged the inconsistencies in the original judgment and ruled that Tommy's wrongful conviction had been shaped by a coerced confession, racial bias, and misconduct. However, it's highly unlikely that Tommy Lee Walker's story directly inspired The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth, but there are still some vague overlaps between the two. One such overlap is the movie's emphasis on the role of 'Brooke Griffiths', the daughter of the wrongfully convicted man, and on how her campaign brings the truth to light.
According to reports, it was Tommy Lee Walker's family, especially his son, Edward Smith, who fought a decades-long legal battle to protect Tommy's legacy. However, that battle was anything but ordinary, as during their campaign, the family endured generational trauma. Although these details are not referenced in the movie, they shed light on similar thematic strands.
The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth has another major element, the man who is responsible for the death of at least two teenage girls. Much like the movie's premise, however, the 'Millwood' murderer is fictional in nature and has no connections to any real-life serial killer. The fact that he initially escapes justice due to another person's wrongful conviction does partially resemble some real-life cases, but any intentional inspiration has not been cited.
However, a similar case from 1981 has been largely discussed for the same reason. On September 7, 1981, a 72-year-old, Ida White, was found with multiple stab wounds in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and died of her injuries shortly after. The suspect arrested at the time was Grover Thompson, a man sleeping inside the post office directly across the street from where Ida lived. He was then wrongfully convicted of murder in the same year and died in prison 15 years later, in 1996.
However, 11 years later, in 2007, a serial killer named Timothy Krajcir confessed to the murder of Ida White, prompting an inquiry into the original investigations. On January 14, 2019, Grover Thompson was declared innocent, 23 years after his death in prison, marking the first posthumous exoneration in Illinois. The Millwood Murders: Buried Truth, the movie, doesn't draw inspiration from any single case, but it does speak to the awareness it aims to generate.
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