Photo courtesy of Hello! magazine

True crime lovers around the world will remember the infamous “elevator video” of 21-year-old Elisa Lam, a college student who went missing in 2013 at the Cecil Hotel, a low-budget hotel located in downtown Los Angeles. After her disappearance and the LAPD’s release of the strange footage, YouTubers and crime buffs went crazy trying to solve the mystery. After her body was found in a water tank on the roof of the hotel, people became more outraged, calling for justice. However, the police eventually ruled the incident an “accidental drowning,” leaving those dedicated to the case unsatisfied with the verdict.

Now, eight years later, this four-part series has been released on Netflix. It was directed by Joe Berlinger, who is known for his work on crime mysteries including two projects centered on the serial killer Ted Bundy; the docuseries “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” and the film “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.” Following a similar format to his other work, “The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” tells the full story of Elisa Lam with ominous background music and harrowing videos. 

These in-depth interviews gave those obsessed with Lam’s story the full picture everyone desired. There were many strange parallels found in this case, causing people to develop different theories. Some go so far as to suspect that Lam was part of a government operation to give the homeless tuberculosis, and others believe that death metal musician Pablo Vergara, also known as “Morbid”, is Lam’s supposed murderer. However, the LAPD eventually came to the conclusion that Lam suffered from a manic episode induced by her bipolar disorder that caused her to jump into the water tank and drown. 

Hopefully this documentary series will give a sense of closure to the Elisa Lam case with the surplus of information and evidence given by the LAPD and Cecil Hotel staff that Berlinger accumulated. However, to many the mystery still feels unsolved and the “elevator video” will haunt everyone for years to come. No matter the opinion on Lam’s case, it is undeniable that the Cecil Hotel has an unnerving history filled with multiple deaths, crime and other truly awful things. “[The Cecil Hotel] is just a portal to hell, in my opinion,” Vergara said.

The hotel has been closed for four years and is set to open sometime this year, fully renovated. It remains to be seen if this renovation will make a new name for the Cecil Hotel or if it is truly a “portal to hell” with a dark future ahead of it. Overall, “Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” gave some much-needed insight into the case of Elisa Lam and unveiled the dark secrets hidden within the Cecil Hotel.