A FRIEND, A MURDERER

A Friend, a Murderer is the chilling, meticulously researched true crime account of one of Denmark's most shocking betrayals: how Philip Patrick Westh, an unassuming marketing manager and trusted friend to many, hid a monstrous double life that culminated in the 2016 murder of 17-year-old Emilie Meng and a series of violent sexual crimes against young girls.
In the safe, high-trust coastal town of Korsør, Denmark—where bikes stay unlocked and doors remain open—Emilie Meng vanished after a night out with friends, stepping off the train at 4 a.m. on July 10, 2016, and never making it home. Her disappearance gripped the nation for nearly seven years: massive searches, endless tips, grieving family pleas, and a community forced to question its deepest assumptions about safety and strangers. Emilie's body was later found, but the case went cold—until April 2023, when Westh's brazen abduction of a 13-year-old newspaper delivery girl led police straight to him. Forensic links, DNA evidence, and his Hyundai i30 tied him to Emilie's murder, plus the abduction and rape of the 13-year-old, an attempted abduction and rape of a 15-year-old in 2022, and other offenses.
What made the revelation devastating: Westh wasn't a shadowy outsider. He was ordinary—friendly, reliable, the guy who remembered birthdays, joined barbecues, and blended seamlessly into social circles. Friends like Amanda, Nichlas, and Kiri (featured in the related Netflix documentary) discovered they had shared laughs, trips, and everyday moments with a predator who committed these horrors while maintaining a facade of normalcy. The book draws on court records, police investigations, witness accounts, psychological insights, and the raw aftermath to explore how predators exploit trust, the shattering impact on victims' families (including Emilie's mother Helen Meng's tireless advocacy), and the cultural reckoning in a society built on unparalleled social trust.
In June 2024, a unanimous jury in Næstved convicted Westh on multiple charges, sentencing him to life imprisonment (currently served at Storstrøm Prison, with an appeal ongoing). This is more than a crime chronicle—it's a haunting examination of hidden darkness in plain sight, the fragility of community trust, the long shadow of unsolved cases, and the resilience of those left to rebuild.
Gripping, unflinching, and essential for true crime readers, A Friend, a Murderer reveals how one man's betrayal turned friendship into fear, shattered illusions of safety, and forced Denmark to confront the monsters who walk among us.