Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel moments

The 6 Most Disturbing Moments In Netflix’s ‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel’

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Netflix’s Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel is the latest true crime show that has people simultaneously obsessed and horrified.

The four-part docuseries follows the mysterious case of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student who disappeared in 2013 while staying at the notorious Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. Her body was found two weeks later in a water tank on the hotel’s roof, and the whole case gained a huge following after spooky elevator footage was released, showing Elisa exhibiting concerning behaviour.

Through interviews with hotel staff, police, and internet sleuths obsessed with the disappearance, the Netflix series tries to get to the bottom of what happened to Elisa, and why the case inspired worldwide attention — especially among conspiracy theorists.

The show is a hard watch at times and it’s not something you want to binge late at night. It’s also frustrating to hear about the web sleuths, who targeted innocent people with very little evidence.

While the revelations in the last episode make it all worth the watch, it’s still hard to stomach at times. We’re listing the most cooked moments.

The 6 Most Disturbing Moments In Netflix’s Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel:

1. When this hotel turned out to be truly cursed in every possible way.

The first few episodes are focused on the history of the Cecil Hotel, and it’s absolutely horrifying. The hotel has hosted several murders and suicides, along with visits from serial killers literally in the midst of killing sprees. The building is located near Skid Row in LA, which is where thousands of some of the country’s poorest people live on the street. In turn, this means that the hotel became an epicentre for drugs, crime, and sex trafficking.

With such a reputation, the docuseries revealed that, disturbingly, in 2011 the Cecil Hotel was rebranded as Stay On Main, so people who booked rooms there had no clue they were staying at one of the creepiest hotels in the world.

2. When the manager seemed shifty-as-hell.

Amy Price was the manager of Cecil Hotel from 2007 until it closed in 2017, and surely that’s got to do something to her mind. She was simply just a bit odd, and when describing the devastating events that led to the death of Elisa, she just seemed detached and uninterested. Then there’s the fact that Amy called her mum before the police when the maintenance guy discovered Elisa’s body. This doesn’t seem like something a manager should or would do.

3. When the entire hotel was drinking and showering in contaminated water.

This was the moment when I almost couldn’t keep watching this show. After discovering Elisa’s body in the water tank, the hotel guests realised they had been drinking and showering from that water for literally weeks. The weirdest part is that people did notice the water was brown, but still used it?? Absolute nightmare fuel.

4. When YouTubers were exploring the crime scene like it was a theme park.

One of the major takeaways that many viewers have gotten from this show is that some web sleuths are just absolutely heartless and will do anything for clicks. A moment in the series that shows this is when YouTubers go on tours of the hotel, visiting Elisa’s room, the elevator, and the roof where she would be found dead. All the while, they are giggling and making a joke out of a young woman losing her life. In the bin.

5. When heavy metal singer Morbid was treated appallingly.

Aside from Elisa, the biggest victim to come out of this story has to be Morbid (aka Pablo Vergara), the heavy metal singer who many internet sleuths labelled Elisa’s murderer without, well, any evidence whatsoever. The theory that Morbid had killed Elisa was based entirely on the fact Morbid had stayed at the hotel before, and that the lyrics to his music were violent. There was even a theory around one of his songs that mentioned China, which was obviously a link to Elisa who was of Chinese descent.

It was all an absolute stretch, but this didn’t stop internet goers making Morbid’s life hell by sending him death threats and ending his music career. To this day, despite Elisa’s death being deemed as an accident, Morbid says that no one has ever apologised to him.

6. When that ending was tragic.

Most of the season is focused on conspiracy theories from YouTubers based on the elevator footage, proposing all the different ways that Elisa was murdered, including theories that both the hotel and the police were part of some dodgy coverup. The truth was, of course, far less sensationalist. The police proposed that because Elisa Lam had stopped taking her medication for her bipolar disorder, she had a manic episode while staying at the hotel, and she got into the water tower herself and drowned. Ultimately, Elisa’s death was classified as an accident, but that doesn’t make it any less tragic.

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Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel is available to stream on Netflix.