How much of Netflix's The Breakthrough is rooted in real events, and where does the line blur between fact and fiction?
The Breakthrough, a Swedish crime drama series streaming on Netflix, is based on a real-life double murder in Linköping, Sweden that went unsolved for 16 years.
The case was finally cracked using genealogical research, marking the first time in Europe that such methods solved a murder.
The series, directed by Lisa Siwe, stars Peter Eggers and Mattias Nordkvist. They bring the gripping investigation and groundbreaking techniques that resolved this chilling crime to life. The Breakthrough started streaming on Netflix in January 2025.
Is The Breakthrough Netflix Series a True Story?
The Breakthrough is inspired by a true story, as detailed in the book The Breakthrough: How the Genealogist Solved the Double Murder in Linköping, but the series still takes creative liberties.
The Netflix series presents a fictionalized account with characters based on real-life individuals. While the series dramatizes the investigation, it emphasizes the human tragedy behind the events.
Series director Lisa Siwe emphasized that The Breakthrough is more than just a crime drama (via Netflix), stating, "Though this is a fictional drama series about a crime, it is above all a depiction of a human tragedy."
She highlighted the show’s focus on the victims and the investigation rather than the perpetrator, adding, "It's a story about the compassion and care for one another that is needed to move on when terrible things happen."
Siwe explained the series' unique approach: "the genealogist moves backwards in time to find clues in church records and family trees, and the police officer moves forward in his search for the next trace of the perpetrator."
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for The Breakthrough.
The Breakthrough dramatizes the 2004 double murder in Linköping, Sweden and how forensic genetic genealogy solved the case after 16 years.
Using DNA evidence and a genealogist's meticulous work, investigators traced the killer's family tree back 200 years, ultimately identifying Daniel Nyqvist.
A 2024 Netflix documentary, Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer, tells the true story of the "Coma Killer" with an entire cast of real-life people.
The Real-Life Events Covered In The Breakthrough
On October 19, 2004, Linköping, Sweden was shaken by the brutal murders of 8-year-old Mohammed Ammouri and 56-year-old Anna-Lena Svensson.
Mohammed was attacked while walking to school, and Anna-Lena, witnessing the assault, was killed trying to intervene.
Despite securing DNA evidence, including from a murder weapon and the perpetrator's hat, the case remained unsolved for 16 years, leaving the town and law enforcement lost without a resolution.
However, the breakthrough (get it?) came in June 2020, when genealogist Peter Sjölund used ancestral DNA tracing to construct a family tree that led investigators to Daniel Nyqvist.
Arrested at age 37, Nyqvist confessed to the murders, claiming he acted under the influence of voices in his head. This marked the first time ancestral DNA was used to solve a murder in Sweden, revolutionizing criminal investigations and closing one of the country's most significant cases.
Want more true crime? Learn about why Jennifer Pan had her parents killed.
The Breakthrough is streaming on Netflix.
