Netflix railroad story series#

Rau told them that she was a German citizen and gave several different names.

Whilst hitchhiking she looked lost and disoriented so locals called the police. She feared medication almost as much as she feared the cult. So she discharged herself and went hitchhiking. It stated that once she was released, she had to take medication as an outpatient. The catalyst for her disappearance from a psychiatric hospital, just before she was detained, was a community treatment order.

Netflix railroad story series#

This isn't focused on in the series at all. She kept getting worse because she hated taking her medication. Rau was in and out of psychiatric facilities for years. She becomes ill, tries to disappear and then almost immediately gets locked up in a detention centre. Her behaviour was erratic: she jumped off a moving train in Italy and bit officers who stopped her getting on a flight to Indonesia. In the six years before she was detained, she constantly disappeared, though she usually ended up contacting her family. Rau's mental health issues meant that she kept travelling to different places without telling anyone and took terrible risks.

But it omits and changes many details about her story. The show effectively highlights how Sofie Werner, the character based on Rau, completely unravelled and tried to disappear so she could escape from the cult. Years later, she still talked about the cult and how Dyers sexually assaulted her. She became someone who couldn't function in society. Dyers told Rau that she hadn't lived up to expectations and lacked any artistic talent. We couldn't figure out how she got so ill.'Ĭult leader Ken Dyers listened to members' secrets and made them feel like he could see into their souls. 'It was while she was with them that she started getting sick. Her sister, Chris Rau, talked to the press about the impact they had.

Her life changed when she took a break from her job as an airline hostess and became involved in a cult called Kenja Communication. She was vivacious and bubbly, though there were times when she became anxious and restless. What makes it so astonishing is that it's actually based on real events.Ĭornelia Rau was born in Germany but her family came to Australia when she was just 18 months old. Immigration officials failed to consider her psychiatric issues or conduct a proper investigation into her case. Stateless tells the extraordinary story of a mentally ill Australian resident who is mistakenly locked up in a detention centre.