
The Hotel Cecil has a rich history and hearing firsthand accounts of the events that occurred there are shocking. She'd also talked about something which would later prove crucial to her case: her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.īut the documentary, which begins with such, soon makes its way towards discussing the Hotel Cecil.
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The first episode of the series introduces the viewer to Lam's Tumblr account, Nouvelle-Nouveau, where the Lam had been candid about her emotions and growing pains. A Chinese-Canadian Lam had taken that fateful solo trip to Los Angeles in 2013. The documentary begins with a background on Elisa Lam. Read also: Tatler Review: Why People Hated The Ending Of "Promising Young Woman" (2020)

Thankfully, however, the show has escaped the trappings of sensationalism and manages to present its audience with an honest, in-depth, eagle's eye point of view of what happened to Lam on that fateful day in 2013. Especially for such a high-profile case, there was no doubt that the Netflix series, a four-part documentary containing hour-long episodes, would attract attention. In many respects, this video is what brought about the snowball effect that led to the creation of Netflix's The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel.Īny fan of true crime can attest to the lure of a documentary such as this. Most may be familiar with the infamous elevator video of Lam taken from security footage of the elevator on the 14th floor, it shows the young Canadian acting strangely, looking scared, confused, and defensive. “My past projects have leaned into individual crimes and criminals,” says Berlinger, “but I have never explored the role a particular location has played in creating an environment in which multiple crimes seemingly take place over and over again.In 2013, the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam made headlines-and to this day in 2021, her death remains a significant tragedy to many. Suicides, mysterious deaths and murders have taken place in the Skid Row boarding house perhaps most notoriously, the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez was a regular guest there.
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Described by one LA historian in the documentary as “the place where serial killers let their hair down”, it has been a nexus of crime almost since it opened its doors in 1927.

That Lam’s death occurred at the Cecil Hotel only adds to the intrigue. Not only did they have an impact on the investigation, but many still believe the wrong conclusions have been reached – alleging a conspiracy that involves the hotel, the police, and the coroner – and provide ‘evidence’ to back up their case.”

“I’ve been intrigued by amateur investigators for quite a while and have wondered what motivates them to spend so many hours digging into cases,” says Berlinger, “so it was extremely important to have them participate in the series. Crime Scene interviews the internet sleuths who dedicated hundreds of hours to the case, while also raising questions as to the morality of their “investigations”.
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