Best Unsolved True Crime Documentaries on Netflix

What To Watch
Bring Out Your Inner Detective with These Unsolved True Crime Documentaries
What do you think happened?
By Ananda Dillon
July 17, 2025

For those of us obsessed with true crime, it’s often both the mystery and the journey for justice that entice us to keep watching. And then there are those of us who revel in a puzzle that needs solving. It’s a sad fact that the world is full of swindlers, abusers, and even murderers walking among us, untried for their crimes. For some, the justice system failed those harmed, and then there are those who have outwitted everyone — or been plain old lucky — and eluded punishment.

If putting together a corkboard of pictures and red string is your sleuthing style, you’ll be sucked in by these true crime documentaries with unsolved cases. But consider yourself warned … they may have you looking over your shoulder.

A Deadly American Marriage

The Mystery: Aug. 2, 2015, Tom Martens called the police to say he’d intercepted an argument between his daughter, Molly Martens, and his son-in-law Jason Corbett, resulting in a violent altercation. When police arrive, Jason is dead, brutally beaten by a bat and a brick. After Jason’s death, Molly and Tom claim self defense and describe a troubled marriage and home life. When Jason’s children, Jack and Sarah, admit Molly has been feeding them answers to investigator’s questions, things grow extra suspicious.

The Victim: Jason Corbett was 39 when he died. As a widower in Ireland in 2008, Jason hired Molly, an American au pair, to help care for Jack and Sarah. The two fell in love and married in 2011 after moving to South Carolina.

The Outcome: Although they initially defend their father’s wife, Jack and Sarah, who were 10 and 8 years old at the time of his death, eventually speak out against Molly. She and her father maintain their innocence, however, and the case’s many new developments leave viewers wondering.

A Deadly American Marriage

1h 42m TV-MA 2025

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Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The Mystery: On Jan. 31, 2013, Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old student from Vancouver, was reported missing by her family. Elisa was on a solo trip traveling around California and at the time was staying at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel has a sordid history including notorious guests and a seedy atmosphere. Police obtained footage from the hotel’s elevator in which Elisa is seen behaving strangely, unsure as to whether she wanted to get out of or back into the elevator, and seemingly talking to someone out of view, though no one came forward saying they’d spoken to her.

The Victim: With the mystery playing out over four episodes, we learn Elisa Lam was a student and prolific Tumblr blogger where she candidly shared her struggles with mental illness. Elisa was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression, and had a history of forgetting to take her medications.

The Outcome: There was no indication that Elisa Lam ever left the Cecil Hotel, but with no trace of the young woman, police released the elevator footage and Elisa’s picture to get the public’s help. The internet was flooded with conspiracy theories. The situation got even darker two weeks later when guests at the hotel started complaining the water in the hotel had a bad smell. Cue a morbid discovery and all-new conspiracy theories.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

Limited Series TV-MA 2021

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Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders

The Mystery: It’s the reason that over-the-counter medications are now sold with safety seals, and it is one of America’s most terrifying unsolved crimes. In 1982, in the greater Chicago area seven people died within two days from taking Tylenol pills laced with potassium cyanide. A mass panic and the largest product recall in history to date followed, along with an exhaustive search to find the person responsible.

The Victims: On Sept. 28, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman was the first to go to the hospital and subsequently perish from ingesting a poisoned Tylenol. On the 29th, Mary Reiner, Paula Prince, and Mary McFarland also died after taking the pills. However, it was the death of three people from the same family — Stanley Janus, Adam Janus, and Theresa Janus — that really got the attention of authorities to what was a potential national emergency.

The Outcome: Johnson & Johnson recalled their product and investigators focused on the areas with tampered bottles, though further copycat attacks kept up the hysteria. The documentary speaks with the case’s one and only suspect, James W. Lewis, who had a three-page letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding money to stop the killing spree, as well as other incriminating evidence. For reasons you’ll have to watch to discover, neither Lewis or anyone else was ever convicted of the crime.