For years, conspiracy and speculation have shrouded Elisa Lam's death. But Netflix's new documentary sheds light on the true story of the young woman's bizarre case
In 2013, the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam made headlines—and to this day in 2021, her death remains a significant tragedy to many. 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. 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.
Any fan of true crime can attest to the lure of a documentary such as this. 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. 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.
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The Hotel Cecil
The documentary begins with a background on Elisa Lam. A Chinese-Canadian Lam had taken that fateful solo trip to Los Angeles in 2013. 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. She'd also talked about something which would later prove crucial to her case: her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
But the documentary, which begins with such, soon makes its way towards discussing the Hotel Cecil. The Hotel Cecil has a rich history and hearing firsthand accounts of the events that occurred there are shocking. Amy Price, the former general manager, spoke about infamous guests—prostitutes, serial killers, and drug addicts to name a few. This, they say, is likely because of the hotel's adjacency to Skid Row, a neighbourhood in downtown Los Angeles that's also been dubbed "the epicentre of LA's addiction crisis". Here, drug addicts, prisoners newly released from jail, prostitutes, and more are segregated and formed into makeshift shantytowns. The documentary ponders on Lam's vulnerability as a young foreign woman on her own, unaware of the dangers that surround her. The word "naïve" had been thrown about as a description.
Someone, they speculate for a time, might have hurt her, lured her, or done something terrible to her. At some point, an investigator suggests that Lam—who was open to meeting people—might have been the victim of foul play. For some time, it was the angle that investigators—and web sleuths—were exploring.