JSON Parse Failure

I have the following pipeline config:

input {
  file {
    type => "json"
    path => [ C:/temp/*.json" ]
    start_position => "beginnning"
    codec => multiline {
      pattern => "^ZsExDrC"
      what => "previous"
      negate => true
      auto_flush_interval => 2
      max_lines => 50000
    }
  }
}

filter {
  json {
    source => "message"
  }
}

output {
  elasticsearch {
    hosts => [ "https://hotdata1:9200", "https://hotdata2:9200" ]
    index => "index-name-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}"
    user => "logstash_internal"
    password => "xxxxxx"
    ssl => true
    cacert => "path/to/cert"
  }
}

It's ingesting the log into ES, but the fields aren't being parsed and I'm getting the following tags: multiline and _jsonparsefailure. I looked in the LS logs (set to debug), but can't find any more details on what is causing the parse failure. I'm sorry I can't easily share the JSON here, but am wondering if there is anything in my pipeline config that is wrong?

Is your document really a json?

You are using a multiline pattern that starts with ZsExDrC, for the json filter to work your message should be a valid json, it would expect that your message starts with {.

Can you share an example of your document? Anonymize any personal information if it is the case.