Lesley Stock was gripped by a Netflix crime documentary.


Until this weekend, I’d never heard the name Cecil Hotel or indeed Elisa Lam.

In January 2013, Canadian student Elisa Lam decided to ‘find herself’ and take a trip to California alone. She ended up booking into the Cecil Hotel in Skid Row, downtown L.A.

This is the documentary of the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam, and takes the viewer through the infamous past of the Cecil Hotel (renowned for murders, suicides and altogether unsavoury things happening).

Candid interviews with the general manager of the hotel at the time of Elisa’s disappearance and input from the detectives who worked the case, the coroner and also reporters and web sleuths, such was the fascination about this vanishing.

Elisa went missing on 31 January 2013 and the last known sighting of her was in the lift on the 14th floor of the hotel, where Elisa is observed to be acting in a strange manner. She exits the lift but is never seen alive again. Police confident that she never left the hotel.

If you like crime documentaries, this is definitely one to look out for on Netflix.

⏩ Lesley Stock is a former PSNI and RUC Officer currently involved in community work. 

Crime Scene ➖ The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel

Lesley Stock was gripped by a Netflix crime documentary.


Until this weekend, I’d never heard the name Cecil Hotel or indeed Elisa Lam.

In January 2013, Canadian student Elisa Lam decided to ‘find herself’ and take a trip to California alone. She ended up booking into the Cecil Hotel in Skid Row, downtown L.A.

This is the documentary of the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam, and takes the viewer through the infamous past of the Cecil Hotel (renowned for murders, suicides and altogether unsavoury things happening).

Candid interviews with the general manager of the hotel at the time of Elisa’s disappearance and input from the detectives who worked the case, the coroner and also reporters and web sleuths, such was the fascination about this vanishing.

Elisa went missing on 31 January 2013 and the last known sighting of her was in the lift on the 14th floor of the hotel, where Elisa is observed to be acting in a strange manner. She exits the lift but is never seen alive again. Police confident that she never left the hotel.

If you like crime documentaries, this is definitely one to look out for on Netflix.

⏩ Lesley Stock is a former PSNI and RUC Officer currently involved in community work. 

6 comments:

  1. I remember seeing something on TV about this a month or two back.
    It looked promising.
    I am always on the lookout for for good shows.
    Currently doing Breaking Bad with my daughter and The Serpent with my wife.

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  2. Elisa Lam's blogs and social media sites are listed here -
    http://elisa-lam-blogs.blogspot.com

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  3. I made the mistake of binge watching the Sopranos and the wire first, everything pales after that. Watching Cobra Kai and the man in the high castle at present, entertaining but not great.

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    1. Could not get into The Wire but recently showed The Soprano's to my wife who loved it. It's so well done it still stands up after decades.

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  4. I'll go back to The Sopranos. It was good. The Wire is outstanding. Think Mallory recommended Ozark so I'll watch that too.

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  5. Started Ozark, couldn't really get into it, same reason I couldn't really get into breaking bad. I know ordinary people get involved in organised crime, but in some aspects of the story who have to with it and ignore obvious flaws.
    The wire and the Soprano had artistic license but they are are based on sub cultures that exist which makes them more relatable. You could write a box set about our neck of the world, among the carnage there was enough humour to carry it off.
    The wire is the best thing I ever watched, to the extent I was talking like a Baltimore gangster at the end of it. Better watch out, that's cultural appropriation nowadays.

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