

Which takes me to perhaps the worst part of this documentary: the internet sleuths. There's a limit here and Cecil Hotel breezes past it. Hours of needless speculation and - at times - baseless accusations toward police and hotel staff all rendered completely and utterly pointless. One particular piece of information, deliberately withheld near the beginning, is used to create mystery and debate around the nature of Lam's death for the entirety of the show, only to be resolved almost casually near the end of the final episode. It's irresponsible and dishonest, indulging conspiracy theories that put already vulnerable victims at further risk.įootage of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel encouraged "internet sleuths" to investigate her death, often with negative consequences. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is bloated, dull and confusing. With a mystery like that, and a legendary director in Joe Berlinger (previously responsible for classics like Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost) you'd expect Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel to be must-see TV. Residents had been drinking, washing and brushing their teeth in murky water from that very tank for days before she was discovered. to another person? A demented spirit haunting the Cecil? Who can tell? Later, mimicking the actual plot of Japanese horror classic Dark Water, Lam's decomposing body is found face up in the hotel's water tank. Grainy security footage shows Lam, spooked and strange, in an elevator communicating hysterically. But not for the reasons you might expect.įocusing on the notorious Cecil, a grim hotel in downtown LA, it tells the story of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student who went missing in the hotel under mysterious circumstances, before later being discovered drowned.

In 2015, the suit was dismissed.Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, the latest hit documentary on Netflix, is a terrifying watch. It also said that since the circumstances behind Lam being in the water tank were unclear, no liability could be assigned to them for failing to prevent it. The hotel denied the allegations arguing in part that it could not have reasonably foreseen that Lam might enter the water tanks.

In September 2013, Lam's parents, David and Yinna Lam, filed a wrongful death suit against Cecil Hotel Management Inc., claiming the hotel failed to "inspect and seek out hazards in the hotel that presented an unreasonable risk of danger to (Lam) and other hotel guests." They sought unspecified damages and burial costs. Others interested in the case combed over Lam's own posts online, which included blog entries where she discussed her struggles with depression and bipolar disorder.
#ELIZA LAM SERIAL#
Ramirez, a convicted serial killer, went on a killing spree in California during that decade. The elevator video sparked conspiracy theories centering around alien abductions, demons and even theories of traveling to different dimensions to explain the haunting history of reported killings, rapes and deaths at the Cecil Hotel which, over the years, was called by some, "Hotel Death." Famously, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker, frequently crashed at the Cecil Hotel in the 1980s. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning, according to the Los Angeles Times. According to reports, the area where Lam was found was restricted and guests were not allowed there. When maintenance was directed to the rooftop to inspect the plumbing issues, a lifeless Lam was discovered face up and unclothed in the 8-foot-tall water cistern. That is until weeks later when guests started complaining about murky water and low water pressure. The over 3-minute-long video ends with Lam ultimately leaving the elevator on the same floor she entered, never to be seen again.
