Kriti Mehrotra
When Emilie Anine Skovgaard Meng suddenly disappeared from her small town of Korsør, Denmark, in the early morning hours of July 10, 2016, it left the entire community shaken. Nothing much ever happened in this generally safe, old, picturesque, quiet city of around 14,000 residents, as explored in Netflix’s ‘ A Friend, A Murderer,’ so her disappearance was a big deal. However, no one could have ever imagined her case would go cold even after her remains were found, only for an unrelated matter to provide a breakthrough and earn her justice in 2024.
Emilie Meng Was Found Dead in a Lake 5 Months After She Went Missing
Born on July 31, 1998, in Korsør in Zealand, Denmark, Emilie Anine Skovgaard Meng was reportedly a typical bubbly, creative teenager by the time the summer of 2016 rolled around. According to accounts, she was a choir girl, a family-oriented young woman, as well as a light in the lives of those who knew her, so her upcoming 18th birthday was being eagerly awaited. But alas, everything turned upside down for the high schooler on a summer break after she decided to go on a night out with three close friends to nearby Slagelse on the evening of July 9.
It was rather normal for Korsør teenagers to take the ten-minute train to Slagelse to experience its nightlife, so no one questioned it when Emilie left to do the same that fateful Saturday. Her happening evening soon turned sour, though, as the guy she had been seeing broke up with her by phone out of the blue, which really upset her because she’d been excited about him. As per her friends, she wasn’t in despair but went a little quiet for the rest of the night, and then she refused to share a taxi with them upon returning to their small town at roughly 4 am.
According to Emilie’s friends, the 17-year-old wanted to walk home from Korsør Station, claiming she needed the air and some alone time to clear her mind, so they didn’t push her. However, not only did she never return home, but she also failed to show up at church, where she was expected to be in the choir at 9:30 am, driving her family to immediately raise the alarm. What ensued was an extensive search for her, but it was only on December 24, 2016, when a family out on a stroll found her remains in a lake at Regnemarks Bakke in Køge Municipality. Her autopsy determined she had been strangled, and there was evidence that her head had been wrapped in clear tape.
Emilie Meng’s Case Went Cold Despite Efforts by Officials and Volunteers Alike
When Emilie was reported missing, local officials quickly set up a search for her in all nearby areas — they spread out deputies, launched drones/helicopters, and enlisted canines. They even accepted help from volunteers, leading to many showing up or offering tips in one way or another — it was as if the entire community banded together to find her as quickly as possible. As per the show, there were initially suspicions of her simply having spent the night with someone else, as many saw her profile active on Facebook, but it was just the police on there.
Over time, as all efforts by authorities as well as volunteers continued to yield absolutely nothing, the official hypothesis became that either one of three things had happened with Emilie: she had run away for good after heartbreak, was involved in a terrible accident, or was the victim of a violent crime. At first, there were allegedly also concerns that she could have possibly taken her own life and died by suicide, but these were wholly dismissed when everyone close to her asserted she wouldn’t have gone down that path. The teenager’s family, friends, loved ones, as well as well-wishers, subsequently organized private searches and hung up countless missing-person posters across the nation, which led to several tips.
That’s when three suspects came into the picture, including some teenagers from a reportedly ghetto area, a 33-year-old truck driver, and a 67-year-old retired man whose house was searched a total of five times. According to the show, a neighbor had reported the latter upon hearing what they believed to be a young girl’s voice asking for help from inside his home, which they even recorded on their cell phone, but to no avail. All of them were soon cleared as there was no evidence of any sort of wrongdoing against them, and it was only after this that the 17-year-old victim’s remains were recovered from a lake in Regnemarks Bakke, near Borup. Emilie was missing for a total of 168 days, but even after this, her case went cold.
Emilie Meng’s Assailant Was Identified as Philip Patrick Westh in 2023
After the recovery of Emilie’s remains, investigators devoted themselves to looking into all possible evidence and mobile traffic from the area where she had initially disappeared to where she was finally found. It was then ascertained that she had likely been kidnapped from Korsør Station itself since surveillance footage revealed a car driving around the parking lot at 4:07 am on July 10, 2016, before suddenly leaving. Unfortunately, the video was of very poor quality, so it took a while for even experts to reach a consensus on the vehicle most probably being a dark-colored Hyundai i30 2011-2016. All of this only led to the interrogations of more individuals across the nation, but nothing came of it until nearly 7 years later, in 2023.
That’s when 32-year-old Marketing Manager Philip Patrick Westh was arrested in connection with an unrelated crime, the investigations into which unraveled evidence of his ties to Emilie’s homicide. It was shortly before noon on April 15, 2023, when a 13-year-old girl disappeared in Kirkerup while on her way home after finishing her daily job of newspaper delivery in the local area. She had been riding her bicycle, which was found abandoned along the road of her usual route, with her cell phone right beside it.
Thanks to security cameras in nearby residences, detectives were quickly able to identify that a black car had been in the vicinity of her at about the same time, prompting the launch of a full-scale search. Fortunately, after 27 intense hours, they were able to safely rescue the teenager from her assailant’s home — she was bound with plastic zip ties, gagged, and laid nude under his bed. The assailant had been identified as Philip and arrested, following which a search of his belongings resulted in the seizure of almost 150 pieces of evidence. That’s how he was connected to Emilie’s murder.
Philip Patrick Westh is Serving the Harshest Sentence Denmark Has to Offer Today
It was 9 days after Philip’s initial arrest that he was indicted in connection with the 2016 homicide based on the photographic and physical items recovered from his property. Among them was a nearly finished roll of clear tape with traces of Emilie’s DNA on it. As if that’s not enough, in January 2024, an additional indictment was placed upon him, and it was in relation to a November 8, 2022, attempted imprisonment and attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl near Frederiksberg. He was also charged with possession of child porn.
Since Philip had initially pleaded not guilty, he faced a jury trial on the charges against him in all 3 cases, which commenced in April 2024. On the very first day of the proceedings, he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography as well as prolonged deprivation of liberty, sexual intercourse other than intercourse, unlawful coercion, and assault on the 13-year-old girl. Therefore, his trial proceeded with a focus on the other 2 cases, during which several of his former friends also came forward to testify against him. According to the show, some of them revealed that they had spent almost all of July 10, 2016, with him watching the UEFA European Football Championship, but they weren’t with him that morning.
Moreover, per the series, Philip’s former friends claimed that mere hours after it was announced that a girl’s remains were recovered from a lake in Regnemarks Bakke on December 24, 2016, he had sent out invites to a spontaneous Christmas party at his place. Along with all this, there was significant physical evidence against him, as a result of which he was ultimately convicted in both the remaining cases on June 24, 2024. He was found guilty of prolonged imprisonment, kidnapping, attempted rape, rape, and murder in Emilie’s case, as well as attempted prolonged imprisonment, attempted rape, possession of a knife, assault, and threats in the 15-year-old’s case. He was consequently handed down Denmark’s highest sentence of life in prison, so today, at age 34, he is incarcerated at the maximum-security Storstrøm Prison in Eskilstrup, Denmark. He had appealed his verdict, but eventually withdrew it in September 2025.
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