Crime Scene: The vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

     

    Lastly, I will be reviewing the vanishing at the Cecil                                                     Hotel 

'The vanishing at the Cecil Hotel' is an unsolved murder mystery, different from the past Netflix series and documentaries i have reviewed. The 4-part series explores the mysteries that the Cecil hotel holds. The Cecil Hotel is a famous hotel located in downtown Los Angeles. Once a lavish hotel when it opened in the 20's, The Cecil quickly turned into a hotspot for violence and crime. The hotel has housed many known serial killers, Richard Ramirez (The night stalker) being one of them. The hotel recently gained media attention in 2013 from the infamous case of Elisa Lam who died in the hotel.  

                                                     Breakdown 

- The 4-part series starts by informing us about the Elisa Lam case. Elisa was a Canadian student that had moved to America and died in the Cecil hotel. CCTV footage shows Elisas' last moments in the elevator before going missing. The Series also includes interviews from the hotel staff who comment on her strange behaviour.

- In the elevator things seem off with Elisa, she is shown having strange behaviours in the camera footage; hiding in the corner of the lift, hitting random buttons, and talking to someone that wasn't actually there.

- Elisa is reported as missing after disappearing when leaving the lift. it wasn't until 3 weeks later that her body was found in a water tank on the hotels' roof after complaints from guests about the water quality and the taste. 

- There were no signs of drug use or trauma for her to end up in that state. Police were baffled as to how she ended up in the water tank as it was sealed shut. 

- The case still remains unsolved. Although there have been some guesses to as how she ended up in the water tank; there was someone else in the lift with her that the cameras didn't pick up on or, that she was suffering from mental illness and that there was no crime committed at all. Some also believe that it could be the 'curse' from the hotel. The hotel has been rumoured to be going through renovations for it to reopen but has come to a halt due to COVID.

                                                       Review

unlike my other reviews, this series is unsolved with only conspiracy theories which leaves it to the viewer to decide on what happened. Personally, I am not a massive fan of unsolved crime cases. I prefer to have the facts and conclusions as to why these crimes happened. However, the series itself is an interesting watch.

Rating: 7/10