Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel Lands On Netflix Today

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel will finally drop on Netflix today.

The long-awaited documentary series delves into the murky history of the infamous Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, US.

It focuses on the 2013 disappearance of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian tourist, who was staying at the Cecil during a trip to California when she mysteriously disappeared.

It includes CCTV footage from the night of her disappearance, as well as interviews with the detectives who were leading the case at the time, reporters who covered it, and internet sleuths who tried to get to the truth.

Viewers even hear from the former hotel manager Amy Price, who worked at the Cecil for 10 years, seeing 80 deaths in that time.

During a tour of the hotel when she first started working there, Ms Price says the caretaker showed her around, pointing out where former guests had died.

At the time, she remembers asking him: "Is there a room here that maybe somebody hasn't died in?"

Adding: "I never got used to that."

Over the years, it has been 'home' to a number of murderers, including the 'Night Stalker', Richard Ramirez, and Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger.

In the trailer for the doc, one contributor explains: "Throughout its history, the Hotel Cecil has always had a dark persona.

"This is a place where serial killers let their hair down, like Richard Ramirez, who had come back covered in blood, and no one's got a problem with that."

After opening in the 1920s, it suffered as a result of the Great Depression, quickly gaining a reputation for its dark underbelly of drug abuse, prostitution, and death.

In the 1930s alone, a total of six people reportedly killed themselves there.

In 1944, a teenage mum threw her newborn baby out of the window, later being charged with murder but found not guilty by reason of insanity.

A 22-year-old woman called Elizabeth Short, who had the nickname of the 'Black Dahlia', was allegedly seen having a drink at the Cecil Hotel just days before her gruesome - and unresolved - murder in 1947, although many dispute this claim.

Short's body had been found beside a sidewalk in a vacant lot in a suburb of southern LA, having been mutilated, with gashes carved into her face to extend her smile. Her killer was never identified.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel will be available to stream on Netflix from today.

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

Topics: Police, Entertainment, True Crime, Documentaries, US News, crime, US Entertainment, Netflix

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom