On January 31, 2013, Elisa was scheduled to check out of the Cecil Hotel and leave for Santa Cruz, her parents did not hear from her and called the LA police. Shortly after her family fly in to California and found their way to the LA Police Department.
Hotel staff who saw her that day said there was no one with her. Many of the people to last see or interact with her said she was in good spirits and even one said that she was buying souvenirs for her family back in Canada.
Because this was only a missing persons case, the Police had limitations to their ability to search. They had dogs comb the hotel, from the lobby and even on the roof. But no one found anything other than the odd security footage.
Two weeks later after the exhaustive search started to fizzle out, the Police released the security video of her in the elevator. This is where most of the controversy and mystery is, because none of it makes much sense.
I am going to break down the video a bit here:
-Note that this was on what appears to be the top floor of the Hotel by the way the lights shut off later in the video.
-She enters the elevator, and presses ALL of the floors buttons. In order. So the theory that she was playing the “elevator game” is not true. She wasn’t even close to matching the floor code that allows her to reach the 5th floor. But why did she press all the buttons?
-The elevator door does not close. If there is any X factor in this mystery, it’s that damn elevator door. She pressed all the buttons, the door did not close, not until the end of the video.
-Elisa quickly peeks / looks out of the elevator. I imagine she looked because the elevator door did not close, it is what I might of done. But she then proceeds to “hide” in the corner of the elevator. The way she was hiding, it would of obscured her from anyone walking past, so in her mind at the time, I believe, this is what she is trying to accomplish. But from who or what?
-Afterwards she jumps out of the elevator. She looks both ways, it does not appear she sees anyone. Does a were side step move, and then back in the elevator, and back out. Part of me thinks she is trying to trigger the elevator door, but it does add up with her other actions.
-She stands just outside of the elevator. She looks like she is stretching, yawning even. If she was trying to hide from someone, she would not of done that. So this is why the video is so hard to explain.
-Elisa goes off on the elevator buttons. Looks like she gets frustrated and hits all the buttons again, a bunch of times. She leisurely walks out of the elevator.
-She looks like she is talking to someone, or herself. With the evidence so far, it looks like she is talking to herself at first but then possibly someone else. She is clearly frustrated with the elevator, and possibly the Hotel in general. She waves her hands in the area of the Elevator door, telling me, any conversation she is having (alone or with someone) is about the malfunctioning doors.
-She continues to talk and counting on her hands. This is where I believe she might just be frustrated in general, because she looks like she is still talking but she is grabbing her fingers in succession like you would if you were telling someone about MULTIPLE things wrong. (Example: “First off, the elevator does not work, secondly, the elevator smells, thirdly, etc etc”)
-She disappears, and roughly a minute later the elevator door starts to work. I think the elevator went up a floor, when the door opens again the wall outside the elevator is slightly different and the button lights are going off.
One of the creepiest things about this, is the fact hundreds of people drank and bathed in her… dead water. Just the thought makes my stomach turn. I can’t believe this Hotel is still in business.
February 19, after multiple complaints about the color and taste of the water, an employee went to the roof, where there are four 1,000-gallon water tanks. In one of them he found Lam’s body, floating face up a foot below the water surface with many of her possessions floating around her, or sunk to the bottom of the tank. They had to drain the tank, cut a hole in it to remove the body.
After the autopsy, nothing was conclusive. No foul play was found, she was not assaulted or raped. They found traces of some drugs but they were related to common over the counter drugs, and they were not at a level that could of been harmful.
The Final Questions
The roof was locked and required a pass-key. Neither of which was found in the tank, in her clothing or on her. How did she get on the roof? It is one thing to pick a lock, but another to know passcodes and keys. There is very little chance, Elisa, on her own knew the codes and/or had the key.
Though not impossible, her journey to the tanks, up the ladders, opening a very large heavy door and jumping in seems to be pretty incredible. Is it possible? Yes, it is. It would of taken a lot for her to get there and jump in… but the main point to all this. Who closed the tank door after her? The report is, the man had to open the door to look in, so it was not left open. It would of been near impossible for her to do that with the weight of those doors.
Lastly, why was she naked? That really does not make much sense. She could of taken them off in the tank, or before and threw them in, but why? It could of weighed her down and she felt she could tread water longer without them?
Final Conclusion, if there is any
I have read some crazy conspiracies about what might of happened…
The Elevator Game That is a no go, because the first 10 seconds of the security video clearly shows her just hitting every floor in succession, so no, it was not the game. This theory is quite ridiculous and crackheads need to stop with it.
Murdered This is the best theory we have. Some person, was following her. They had access to the Hotels doors and codes. Killed her. Threw her naked body into the water tanks, with her belongings, and closed the door. Problems with the idea is that there was no evidence of foul play (not that something done to her that might of went away while floating in a tank of water might of covered) or rape. So the perpetrator must of been very careful how he did it.
Assassinated No. Just No. I could buy into this theory if what was attached to it wasn’t so fantastical. She found out about a “cloaking” technology and people wanted her dead because of it? It hurts my head just typing that. Someone who does this, does not go buy souvenirs for her family back home. I am not even going to waste my time writing anything further on this crap.
Paranormal I am a BIG skeptic. I think some things are unexplained and viable, but 90-95% of the rest is pure crap. Thus the reason I have this blog. They say she was possessed, that she was taken over by an entity and she killed her self. No. The same issues still present themselves that squash this theory… no key, no passcode and the door shut behind her in the tank, which is almost 100% impossible to do.
That is all I got for this, for now. I do find it very fascinating and unexplainable. If you have any theories that don’t involved green men or invisible technology… let us hear about it!
