What Happened To Mari Gilbert, The Mom In Netflix's 'Lost Girls'?

Played by Amy Ryan, Mari's life gets turned upside down when Shannan, an escort, goes missing in May 2010 on Long Island. "They are trying to kill me," Shannan says in a 9-1-1 call that remains a key piece of evidence in her case. Lost Girls follows Mari as she demands the police investigate her daughter's disappearance.

In the true crime film and in real life, it's Mari's persistence that pushes law enforcement to start searching for Shannan. And it's during their search that police discover 10 dead bodies (eight women, one man, and a toddler) on Long Island, opening a much larger investigation around sex workers who'd been murdered at the hands of the still-at-large criminal now referred to as the Long Island Serial Killer.

Shannan's body was not one of the 10 investigators discovered in 2010. It wasn't until a year later that police found Shannan's remains trapped under the Gilgo Beach marsh on Long Islandnine miles away from the other bodies.

Here's everything you need to know about the real Mari from Lost Girlsand what happened to her:

Mari spoke to Shannan the day before she disappeared.

As shown in Lost Girls, Shannan was planning to visit her mom's home in Ellenville, New York just a day before she went missing. According to Mari's interview with People , Shannan was coming over to celebrate Mothers Day and Maris birthday. But she said she needed to make money to buy a gift.

Watch Amy Ryan, who plays Mari, and Lost Girls co-star Lola Kirke discuss the new film:

"I said, 'Shannan stay home,'" Mari told the publication. "She said, 'I have to go out. I want to make money.' I said her presence is my present. She said, 'Dont worry, Mom, I will be okay.' I was like, 'I love you. Bye.' And that was it. It was our last conversation."

Mari fought to solve Shannan's murder even after her remains were found.

Despite law enforcement's theory that Shannan's death was a result of drowning, Mari remained adamant it was a homicide. In 2012, she filed a wrongful death claim against Dr. Peter Hackett, the Oak Beach resident who called her days after her daughter's disappearance.

The doctor was one of the few Oak Beach residents to have seen Shannan alive, according to Newsday . The lawsuit Mari filed claims that Hackett "took Shannan into his home that morning and administered drugs to her, facilitating her death," according to Vice .

Much of Mari's lawsuit was dismissed, according to Newsday . But that didn't stop Mari from continuing to search for answers in her daughter's case. A 2013 Change.org petition demanded the release of Shannan's 9-1-1 calls. "This is my daughter, and I will NOT Stop Fighting until Justice Is Done for her!!!!" Mari wrote in the comments of the online petition.

And just weeks before her death in 2016, Mari spoke to People about her relentless fight for Shannan. "It is not easy," she said. "I have to do what I need to do for Shannan and for the rest of the family. Nothing will bring any of us peace because none of it will ever bring her back."

Mari added: "I hope it will bring awareness to any police department anywhere that, regardless of who you are and what you do for a living, that you are not judged, and that all cases are handled equally."

Mari really did put Shannan in foster care.

Mari Gilbert was a mother of four girls: Shannan, the oldest, followed by Sheree, Saraa, and Stevie. But she couldn't always care for them all. Remember that scene in the movie where Sheree, confronts her mother about giving Shannan away to foster care? Well, that happened IRL. According to Kolker's book, Shannan was placed in foster care at 7 years old.

Mari was eventually murdered by her other daughter, Saraa.

According to NBC , Mari's 27-year-old daughter Sarra stabbed her more than 200 times and hit her with a fire extinguisher, resulting in Mari's death in 2016.

The Gilbert family's attorney, John Ray, told People that Sarra was mentally ill. "It was schizophrenia," he said. "Sarra was hospitalized several times. Over the past couple of days, she began to hear voices. She called her mother and said come over... And she stabbed her to death." Sarra was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison, according to the Daily Freeman.

Mari's other two daughters continued to fight for answers after her death.

Mari's daughters Sheree and Stevie continued to work alongside Ray to advocate for their sister Shannan and other sex workers like her after their mother died. "I just cant not do it. That is what Mari would have wanted," Ray told People . "She pursued this case relentlessly."