Hestepigen fra Helvede

What Is the Series About?

Hestepigen fra Helvede — translating roughly to The Horse Girl from Hell — is a Danish true-crime documentary series streaming on HBO Max that examines one of Denmark's most disturbing recent murder cases: the premeditated killing of 40-year-old Frank Dan Nørgaard Jørgensen in the summer of 2022. Told across four episodes of approximately 40 minutes each, the series premiered on 29 August 2025 and quickly generated widespread attention across Danish media. The title references the central figure in the murder conspiracy, Maibrit Wessel Busk Sørensen, whose nickname became shorthand in Danish true-crime coverage for the cold calculation alleged to lie behind the crime.

The series is tied to earlier podcast journalism on the case and is described by its creative leads, journalists Christina Ehrenskjöld and Camilla Marie Nielsen, as an attempt to trace the full arc of the case: from Frank's disappearance on a summer afternoon to the courtroom verdicts that sent four people to prison.

The Case

On 14 July 2022, Frank Dan Nørgaard Jørgensen disappeared on Djursland, a peninsula in eastern Jutland, Denmark. He was 40 years old. What initially appeared to be a missing persons case rapidly escalated when, approximately one week later, his body was found wrapped in plastic in a forest near Gassum, north of Randers. The manner in which the body was concealed pointed immediately to premeditation rather than a spontaneous act of violence.

Danish investigators established that Frank had been lured to a farm on Djursland, where he was beaten nearly to death and then strangled. According to reporting by Kino.dk, the killing was methodical and involved planning by a group of four individuals who knew one another socially — a friend circle rather than a criminal organization in the traditional sense.

The four convicted perpetrators are:

- Maibrit Wessel Busk Sørensen — portrayed as the central planner and the person behind the title nickname. She was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

- Mathias Wessel Busk Sørensen — sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in the murder.

- Mie Torup Hansen — convicted of aiding in murder and one attempted murder; her sentence was increased on appeal from 10 years to 12 years.

- Jesper Jensen — sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The picture that emerges from Danish media coverage — including detailed reporting by Se og Hør — is of a carefully coordinated conspiracy in which the four participants divided roles. As Politiken noted in its review, the day after they murdered Frank, the group played Uno and got drunk at a hotel — a detail that crystallizes the disturbing emotional detachment at the heart of the case.

Production

The series is produced for HBO Max Denmark and runs to four episodes, each approximately 40 minutes in length. Christina Ehrenskjöld and Camilla Marie Nielsen are named in press materials as the key journalists and creative leads on the project. The series is described as a natural extension of earlier podcast reporting on the case, suggesting a degree of source development and background research that goes beyond a purely reactive documentary commission. No director is named in the available press materials at the time of publication.

The documentary draws on the substantial Danish media record that built up around the case between 2022 and the conclusion of the legal proceedings, as well as original access to materials and interviews gathered during the podcast phase of the journalism.

Reception

The series has drawn strong public interest in Denmark since its 29 August 2025 premiere. Coverage appeared across major Danish outlets including Femina, Politiken, Se og Hør, and Kino.dk, reflecting the degree to which the underlying case had already embedded itself in Danish public consciousness.

Heaven of Horror describes the series as very watchable and highlights the four-person murder conspiracy as the element that most distinguishes the case from more straightforward homicides. The review notes that the documentary handles the material responsibly while not shying away from the disturbing specifics of what was done and how it was covered up.

The title itself has attracted comment. Hestepigen fra Helvede is deliberately provocative — a tabloid-style label that the documentary both deploys and, to some extent, interrogates. No formal controversy regarding editorial decisions has emerged in the available reporting. An IMDb listing exists for the series under the ID tt38367377, though no verified public rating score was available at the time of publication.

The Case Today

All four convicted participants received sentences ranging from 12 to 14 years. Given that the sentences were handed down and the documentary is reporting on the case in 2025, all four would, based on the sentence lengths, still be serving their terms. However, the precise current custodial status of each individual has not been independently confirmed in the sources available to this publication at the time of writing.

The case of Frank Dan Nørgaard Jørgensen remains one of the most discussed true-crime cases in Denmark in recent years, and the release of Hestepigen fra Helvede on HBO Max has renewed public and media attention around both the crime itself and the question of how a group of four people came to plan and carry out a killing — and then, allegedly, go drinking and play Uno at a hotel the following day.