Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old college student from Canada with Bipolar Disorder. She was on a west coast tour &, on January 1st, 2013, she checked into the Cecil Hotel. The Cecil Hotel opened on December 20th, 1924, in Downtown Los Angeles. Ever since it opened its doors, it has been the center of too many issues making it one of the most notorious places in the US. It even hosted famous serial killers like Richard Ramirez & Jack Unterweger.
She initially checked into a type of hotel room where she had roommates but had to be moved because of odd behavior. We can get a grasp on what behavior they’re talking about in the security camera footage that went viral of her in the elevator taken on February 1st. If you have never seen it, the general rundown is that she walks in, presses most of the buttons to the floors, walks out of the elevator, walks back in. She then jumps in & out of the elevator, hides in the corner, slowly looks out, leaves, & starts doing hand gestures, & finally leaves the elevator for good. Mind you, during all of this, the elevator never once closed its doors or left the original floor until after she walked away from the elevator at the end. This is the last sighting of Elisa Lam alive. People were immediately worried, her family flying over to help look, her case being on the news, & police searching the hotel to the fullest extent. They even brought dogs on the roof, but they didn’t detect her scent.
18 days after the security footage the hotel starts receiving complaints from guests complaining that the water pressure is very low, tasted funny, & even discoloration of the water, some of the people’s water even being black. The hotel sent Santiago Lopez, a hotel maintenance worker, to check out the 1000 gallon tanks on the roof. There he found the lifeless body of Elisa Lam, naked with her clothes floating around with her. They were the same clothes seen on the security footage. To get on the roof you would need to enter with either a keycard or if the alarms were disarmed which only Santiago could do. After getting on the roof you would need to climb the ten-foot tanks, move the 20lbs lid, climb in, & close it again. This would be impossible since there wasn’t a ladder on the roof or any other way up there. She also could’ve gotten there from the fire escape but still couldn’t have climbed up there. The reason the dogs didn’t find her when they had searched on the roof, it’s because the lid was closed. The tanks are very tightly closed, & of course, they didn’t suspect the tanks at the time. That’s all we truly know about the case, but there are a million theories out there, some of those we will now go over.
Drugs
A theory is that she was on drugs or hallucinogens which would explain how she was acting in the elevator. This theory was quickly debunked however because a toxicology report says she was not on any drugs or alcohol.
Bipolar Episode
Since she had Bipolar disorder this was an obvious cause of death to many. She was off of her four medications according to the toxicology report, it would explain the behavior, & more. Though it still wouldn’t make sense how she made it up there since she was a small woman who wasn’t very strong.
Suicide
Another theory was that she killed herself because she was depressed. She had a blog where she was very open about her disorder, & many people think based on how she had been recently she did it herself. But, many things still didn’t add up with that theory.
Murdered by a hotel worker
This is one of the most plausible theories. In the elevator video, there is about one minute of missing footage & the only people who could have corrupted it would be staff members. In the video, she also could have been hiding from workers & stuff but stayed out of frame because they know where the cameras are pointing. They are also the only people who could get on the roof & could have easily pretended to be fixing something in the water tank so they brought a ladder, brought her up, dumped her body, & left. The workers at that hotel even had a history of sexually harassing, & in some cases, raping their tenants. An investigator said she seemed to have been strangled, & raped before her body was dumped which would explain why her clothes were off. The LAPD failed to do a rape test as well as a rape drug test.
Possession
Many people believe this theory because the Cecil Hotel is said to be haunted. Many people claim to have been choked by thin air, someone even dying by choking with no culprit. They think she was possessed & was forced into killing herself. If you believe in possession it seems fairly plausible but, if you don’t like most, it sounds dumb.
Elevator Game
The elevator game is a Korean game in which you travel to an alternate dimension. It is said that when you return you are extremely disoriented & confused which could explain her behavior. I don’t know much about the game, but the rules are to the right. However, she is never seen playing the game or following any of the rules.
Dark Water
A movie from 2005 titled Dark Water, perfectly portrays everything that happened to Elisa. People in the hotel were saying that their water was really weird, & then found a decomposing body in the water tank. In the movie, there were also elevator problems, & the main character was also talking to some imaginary thing. The main character was even wearing the same clothes as Elisa. The theory is that she or someone else wanted to recreate the events of this movie. We have seen this theory in many cases before, so it isn’t too odd.
Tuberculosis Test Coverup
At the time of her stay, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis in the downtown LA area. The strange thing was that the tests that were being conducted were called LAM ELISA. The main drug of treatment for tuberculosis is said to cause delusion & abnormal behavior. But, once again, the toxicology report shows she had no drugs in her system.
The autopsy report determined that her cause of death was accidental drowning but, we will never truly know. There are so many things that could have been investigated that were not. Believe whatever you want, either by researching more theories, creating new ones, agreeing with one here, or a mix of any of them. Unfortunately, We will never know what happened, & her family will always be asking questions.
