The ending of Harlan Coben’s ‘Missing You’ explained, including who killed Clint and what happened to Josh

• “Missing You” follows Kat Donovan whose fiancé, Josh Buchanan, disappears.
• She starts hunting for answers after she spots him on a dating app 11 years later.
• Her investigation also forces her to ask who murdered Clint Donovan, her father.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Missing You.”

Netflix has kicked 2025 off strong with “Missing You,” the latest thriller based on a Harlan Coben book.

It follows the hugely successful Coben adaptation “Fool Me Once,” which became one of Netflix’s most-watched shows of all time in 2024.

The new series revolves around Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), a detective who has never gotten over her fiancé, Josh Buchanan (Ashley Walters) disappearing without warning 11 years ago.

He left shortly after her father Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry), a police inspector, was murdered. It’s another incident that she wants answers for after a hitman confessed to the killing.

Who really killed Kat’s father? Why did Josh leave? All the answers are revealed by the end of “Missing You.”

Josh Buchanan was never on the dating app, his profile was created by Titus Monroe’s scamming group

“Missing You” starts with Kat spotting Josh on the Melody Cupid dating app. But it emerges his account was faked as part of an extensive romance scam being run by a man called Titus Monroe (Steve Pemberton), from his remote farm.

He and his associates had a room full of laptops, computers, and phones that they used to lure unsuspecting single people into fake online relationships.

Once their victims were invested, the scammers invited them on a fake romantic getaway, kidnapped them, and held them at the farm where Titus forced them to transfer him thousands of pounds.

That’s what happened to Rishi Maghari (Rudi Dharmalingam), the lecturer, who audiences meet in the first episode.

Buchanan’s dating profile was harvested from a Facebook account made by his secret daughter, Sadie (Amelie Dokubo), whom he had with an unknown woman after leaving Kat.

In the final episode, the scam operation is stopped when Titus realizes that the police are closing in and he burns the farm down. He tries to kill Dana Fells (Lisa Faulkner), one of his scam victims, and her son Brendan (Oscar Kennedy) to cover his tracks. But Kat arrives and shoots Titus dead before he can kill anyone.

But none of this answers the key mystery behind Josh’s disappearance or Clint’s death, it just ties up the subplot regarding the various missing people that Kat was investigating.

Clint Donovan was blackmailed into working for a gangster to hide that he was gay

By the end of “Missing You,” Kat learns that her father was a corrupt officer working for Calligan (James Nesbitt), a gangster.

It’s a surprise because Kat had an idealistic view of her father as a hardworking police officer. But that’s not the only twist: Calligan points her toward someone called Parker (Cyril Nri), who is revealed to be a man that Clint was having an affair with.

Kat learns that her father was secretly gay, and Calligan was using that to blackmail him into working for him. Parker and Clint were in a committed relationship, which they kept secret because of Clint’s family and his job.

Josh left after accidentally killing Clint, who was trying to cover up his secret relationship

When Kat finds Josh in Scotland, she initially thinks he left because he knew Clint was corrupt and, for a moment, it looks like they could rekindle their relationship.

But when the tech genius Charlie Pitt (Charlie Hambley) finds Josh’s fingerprint on the knife that killed Clint, it all comes crashing down, and Josh tells Kat the truth about why he left.

11 years ago, on the night of Clint’s death, Kat’s friend Aqua Vanech (Mary Malone), saw a heated exchange between the police officer and Parker, which made it clear they were together. In his desperation to keep his secret, Clint attacked Aqua at her home while berating her for being able to live as her true self as a transgender woman.

Josh happened to arrive at Aqua’s home while Clint threatened her with a knife and stepped in to defend his friend. In the ensuing struggle, Josh accidentally stabbed Clint, killing him.

Then DCI Stagger (Richard Armitage) arrived. He covered up Clint’s death — including paying off hitman Monte Leburne (Marc Warren) — to hide Clint’s corruption and protect his family.

The guilt Josh felt led him to leave Kat.

“Missing You” ends on an emotional cliffhanger, as it’s clear that Kat and Josh aren’t sure whether their relationship can continue now that she knows he killed her father.