The death of Canadian student Elisa Lam is set to be investigated in Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel — the newest true crime series coming to Netflix.
The streaming giant this week dropped the trailer for their in-depth look at this spine-chilling mystery, which has been a popular topic of speculation since 2013 when Lam’s body was found in a water tank on the roof at the infamous Cecil Hotel.
What happened to Elisa Lam?
The 21-year-old student was traveling alone through California in January 2013 and eventually arrived to stay at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, a low-budget haunt in the downtown area which had been the scene of many suicides and murders, dating back to the 1930s.
When talking about the hotel in the trailer for the new Netflix series, a female voiceover asks, “Is there a room that, maybe, somebody hasn’t died in?”
A few days after Lam’s arrival to the city, she went missing. An investigation took place and later, her naked body and a scattering of clothes were found inside of one of the hotel’s water tanks.
The outcome of this case was devastating and unexpected for Lam’s family and friends as the young woman never showed any signs of suicidal thoughts or behavior, despite her death being ruled as “accidental drowning” with some blame placed on her treated bipolar disorder.
What was so weird about Elisa Lam’s Death?
Video surveillance of Elisa Lam’s last appearance inside the Cecil Hotel began circulating the internet, mid-February 2013.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThis video showed Lam standing in the hotel’s elevator acting erratically. The elevator was not moving for an extended amount of time and she was seen pressing all of the buttons, peering eerily outside of the elevator doors before cowering in the corner.
Lam was filmed stepping outside of the elevator for a few moments, making bizarre and tentative movements, before rushing back in and pressing numerous buttons once again. The entire thing was very unnerving.
Bits of the footage is shown in the trailer for Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel and it poses the same question that people have been wondering for years: Why is the elevator not going anywhere?
There are a number of theories across the internet on blogs and and Reddit threads, some of which point towards paranormal activity — the “elevator game” was a trend at the time of Lam’s death— while others blame drug use and her mental disorders. Some even think that the surveillance footage was sketchy and edited to conceal the identity of the perpetrator.
Watch the Netflix trailer for Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
The first season of Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel drops on Netflix on February 10.