An odd documentary about the serial murders and attempted murders of over a dozen babies after birth, The Investigation Of Lucy Letby is heavy on the AI and light on participants.
I have mentioned before that I am a huge true crime watcher. Documentaries like Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, The Perfect Neighbor, and Memories Of A Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes are all filled with rich material, letting you in on the situations for the perpetrators, the victims, and everyone involved. But not every documentary is like that, and this is one of those.
The Investigation Of Lucy Letby is a Netflix documentary about former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby. While working at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England, suspicion began to grow on the neonatal unit when babies began dying or were injured while in nursing care after birth. Faced with substantial circumstantial evidence, Lucy Letby, who worked on the unit during each of the incidents in 2015-2016, was arrested for the crimes.
Before starting this documentary, I had never heard of Lucy Letby. I live in the States, and even though I keep an ear out for true crime stories, this one missed me. Now that I’ve watched the film, I still have a lot of questions.
There are interviews with a few detectives and barristers who worked on and around the case, as well as police interview footage, some police body-cam footage, and images of notes and documents from court. They are fairly sparse, but provide an overview of what happened in the case after arrest and beyond.
There are two interviewees, however – the two who make up most of the interview footage in the film – that display a warning of “digitally anonymised.” One person is a friend of Lucy Letby, and the other is the mother of one of the babies who died. What this means is that, when you are looking at them on screen, they are AI people. These avatars look too smooth, move strangely, and you aren’t even sure if the voices are theirs.
To be clear, I understand why someone would want to protect their identity. These are very sensitive topics, and exposing yourself to the world puts you in a hugely vulnerable state. But there have been interviews with people in shadows and distorted voices for many decades. Creating a “pretend person” to stand in for someone feels pretend. I was so distracted by these AI people that it detracted from both the story and the experience. Plus, in one scene, the redheaded “character’s” hair suddenly turned a brighter shade of red at the bottom and, later, she had strange bluish shadowing on her face. It’s not good.
The one thing I truly liked about this documentary was the softness and decency the police showed toward Lucy when they arrested her. They could not have been kinder, explaining every step, guiding her with gentle voices, and allowing her to hug her cat. Good for them for their humanity and allowing the system to work.
Even as a true crime lover, I would pass on The Investigation Of Lucy Letby. I’m going to be haunted by those fake people, and you don’t have to be. Don’t bother.
I have mentioned before that I am a huge true crime watcher. Documentaries like Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, The Perfect Neighbor, and Memories Of A Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes are all filled with rich material, letting you in on the situations for the perpetrators, the victims, and everyone involved. But not every documentary is like that, and this is one of those.
