Netflix has created yet another viral phenomenon, this time exploring the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.
Without a doubt, one of the most poignant moments in the docuseries is one in which we meet Pablo Vergara, who was falsely caused of killing Lam. It marked the very first time Vergara, a former metal musician known by his stage name Morbid, had spoken publicly about the upsetting ordeal.
"I haven't talked about this in seven years," he reveals in the four-part documentary series. "But I just realised that you can't solve anything by running away from your problems, you have to face them no matter how heavy they are."
Understandably, it's a difficult topic for him to talk about. After Internet sleuths relentlessly harassed him with false accusations, his mental health was impacted severely. So much so, he sadly tried to take his own life and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The Netflix documentary centres around the mysterious case of 21-year-old Lam, who, in February 2013, was reported missing and weeks later, found dead in a water tank at the top of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.
A massive part of the case's somewhat lurid appeal was a CCTV video released to the public by investigators. The footage, taken shortly before her death, saw Lam acting bizarrely in and around a lift. The short clip sparked worldwide attention – particularly from the amateur web sleuths. Desperate to find out how she died, Internet sleuths joined forces and began finger pointing – despite not having all of the evidence.
Before long, they became convinced that Vergara had killed Lam. Demonised for his appearance, persona, and music, the metal musician wanted to set the record straight once and for all so agreed to speak out in the Netflix documentary.
He said: "I realise[d] that I was being accused of being the killer just because the web sleuths found a video of me that I posted on the internet when I was staying at the Cecil Hotel."
Vergara recalls that at the time of the case, he received "death threats, every day, every week" – despite there being no actual evidence that he had committed any wrongdoing. Sadly, he was simply a victim of the overzealous web sleuths who were hellbent on finding Lam's supposed killer – even at the expense of the innocent.
The sleuths then unearthed a video Vergara had posted online during his stay at the Cecil Hotel. After some digging, they also came across sinister music videos of his, with titles such as The Lord Of Violence and Died In Pain.
The music video for Died In Pain particularly caught the attention of the online sleuths as it showed a young girl running for her life until she was captured and murdered.
"Sure, some of the lyrics talk about death and murder," Vergara continued. "But it's just lyrics, it's just music, it's art. That doesn't make me a killer."
Soon after the web sleuths discovered his music videos, Vergara was alerted to a Taiwanese news report in which he was wrongly named as a suspect in the case. Prior to that, he had never even heard of Elisa Lam – he wasn't even considered a person of interest by investigators.
And yet, Vergara was forced to post a video declaring his innocence. Sporting a mask and speaking using a distorted voice filter, he said in the video, "This is Morbid. I wanted to inform you that I didn't kill Elisa Lam. I am innocent."
The web sleuths, however, continued to hound the musician. "They flagged my accounts, and I ended up getting my YouTube channel, my Facebook account, and my email account terminated," he recalled.
"Being truthful doesn't matter to [the web sleuths]. They want to destroy you," Vergara added.
Indeed, it did not seem to matter at all to them that he had actually stayed at the Cecil Hotel in February of 2012 – a whole year before Elisa Lam even checked in.
Furthermore, at that time of Elisa Lam's death, Vergara wasn't even in America – he was actually in Mexico recording an album. The musician even has contracts from the recording studio and other documentation as proof.
At one point, the PGR, essentially Mexico's FBI, turned up at his door and asked him to declare whether he had made "blood sacrifices" for the devil, harming animals in the process. Vergara hadn't done anything of the sort, and he was never charged - either for that or anything else in relation to Elisa Lam.
Sadly, he was never the same after the accusations and had even attempted to take his own life.
"At a point, when you get so much hate and just negativity, there's something that breaks in your mind. Something clicks," he said. "I got in a very bad place. I guess I just had a meltdown and I did try to take my life and just woke up in a psychiatric hospital."
Later on in the documentary, Vergara explained that when it emerged that Lam's death was no more than a tragic accident, no one apologised to him.
"No one reached out to me. Nothing changed," he said. "It's just wrong. People shouldn't get away with that, and we have to be more responsible.
"The web sleuths go on with their life like nothing happened. But, you know, they really turned my life upside down."
Vergara also stopped making music following what was a very dark time in his life – and has not revisited his passion in the seven years since the Elisa Lam case.
"I'm trying to rebuild my life and everything but it sucks every day," he said. "It's never going away. And I have to live with it for the rest of my life. It's going to be there for the rest of my life."
