Adding to the intrigue is the history of the Cecil Hotel to begin with: Located on Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row, the hotel was a crash pad for serial killers Richard Ramirezin 1985 and Jack Unterweger in 1991. And Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was said to have been seen at the Cecil Hotel bar days before her murder, though there has never been proof of her presence on the property. “Pigeon Goldie” Osgood, a retired phone operator, was found raped and murdered at the Cecil Hotel in 1964, and the case remains unsolved to this day. There have also been almost innumerable suicide deaths inside the Cecil Hotel and on its grounds, leading it to inspire American Horror Story: Hotel. About a million questions remain, but to start, here’s what happened to Elisa Lam, that we know of so far. Please be warned, there are Crime Scene spoilers ahead, and much of what you’re about to read is disturbing and may be triggering.
Who is Elisa Lam?
Lam was a Canadian college student. The daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong, Lam attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She suffered from bipolar disorder and depression and was prescribed medications like antidepressants and antipsychotics, according to her autopsy. She had a desire to see the world but lamented on her blog about her lack of motivation. She expressed on her blog that she believed she had no talents, and that the internet was her “lifeline.” “Bless the internet. All those who wish to find a way to express their sadness can go there and feel less alone,” she wrote in one post from 2011. “So many of the tumblrs I follow seem to carry the same grief as me in some way or another. I wish I could draw, I wish I could take photographs, I wish I could paint, I wish I could write lyrics and sing but since I have none of those talents I’d rather just tumble away and use other people’s talents to express myself,” she lamented. “I could find a hobby, I could throw myself into learning computer science and programming, I could start running again or just focus on my studies but that’s not how depression works. I simply have no motivation to do anything, let alone leave my bed. My computer and the internet is my one lifeline, one link to the world and reminder to look beyond my immediate situation because there is always more. Always.”
What was Elisa Lam’s blog?
Lam had two blogs. On her Blogspot blog Ether Fields, where she detailed her struggles with depression. She also often shared quotes, including this one from author Chuck Palahniuk: “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” Lam eventually moved her blog over to her Tumblr account under the title Nouvelle-Nouveau. She didn’t write much very often on Nouvelle-Nouveau, instead opting to mostly post photos and occasionally quotes.
What happened at the Cecil Hotel in 2013?
In January 2013, Lam was traveling in and around California, and she called her parents back home in British Columbia daily. According to CNN, on Jan. 31, 2013, she was scheduled to check out of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and leave for Santa Cruz. When her parents didn’t hear from her, they contacted the Los Angeles Police Department and flew in from Canada to aid in the search for her. Staff from the Cecil Hotel who reported seeing Lam Jan. 31, 2013, observed that she was alone, as did a nearby bookstore employee, the latter of whom noted that Lam seemed energetic and happy. The LAPD searched the Cecil Hotel, but without probable cause that a crime occurred, The Los Angeles Times reported, they weren’t legally able to search every single room, and K9 units they employed weren’t able to detect Lam’s scent past a window with fire escape access. Two weeks after her disappearance, the LAPD released video footage of Lam from the Cecil Hotel elevator, making the case go viral.
Did the Elisa Lam elevator footage video reveal how she died?
Two weeks after her disappearance, the LAPD released video footage of Lam from the Cecil Hotel elevator. In the footage, Lam is alone and behaving erratically, with many viewers interpreting her actions—which included furiously pressing multiple buttons while the elevator door remained open, peering around, speaking to an unseen presence—as her trying to escape from someone unseen trying to pursue her. Other viewers believed Lam was under the influence of psychedelic drugs or hallucinogens, though no traces of either were found in her system.
Where was Elisa Lam’s body found?
After several guests at the Cecil Hotel complained of low water pressure, dark-colored water and water with an off taste, hotel staff went to check on the water tanks on the roof. Lam’s naked body was found in one of the tanks on Feb. 19, 2013. The clothing she wore in the elevator video, as well as her room key and watch, were found floating in the tank with her corpse.
How did Elisa Lam die?
Authorities believe Lam died from accidental drowning, as no evidence of foul play nor of suicide was present. Lam had traces of only some of her prescription drugs in her system, as well as over-the-counter sinus medicine and ibuprofen and a small amount of alcohol. By the time Lam’s body was found, it was in advanced stages of decomposition, as well as quite bloated from being in the water for so long. Police believe she had been dead for about two weeks when she was discovered. There was no evidence of sexual assault or violence. Some questions remain about Lam’s death, however, including how she got into the water tank in the first place. Police believe she had access to the roof and the water tanks via the fire escape, but that any roof access would have triggered an alarm in the hotel. It was also noted in her toxicology report that she likely had not taken her prescribed antipsychotic medication recently, leading authorities and mental health experts to conclude that Lam may have suffered from a psychotic episode and hid in the water tank from someone or something she hallucinated to be chasing her.
What were the irregularities in the Elisa Lam elevator footage?
Aside from Lam’s behavior in the elevator footage, some viewers of the video observed that the time stamp on the footage was obscured and that some portions of the video were slowed down. Additionally, some viewers noted that almost an entire minute of footage appeared to be missing from the surveillance video.
So what happened in the missing minute from the elevator footage of Elisa Lam?
It’s still unclear, but Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel director Joe Berlinger believes it’s nothing of note. “I don’t have a clear answer,” Berlinger told Parade.com when asked what happened to the footage. “The police don’t want to release the footage, which isn’t unusual. The family isn’t interested in continuing to fan the flames, the family believes the police story, I believe the police story. These are old cameras, some of the cameras weren’t functioning. The time code issue being blurred, I haven’t got a definitive answer, but the police story is that they blocked out time code footage because they don’t want to give things away like time of day because it’s still an open case,” he explained. “The footage was slowed down, and that makes sense because the cameras themselves were slowed down, or they slowed it down to make it easier to recognize the person in the footage.” Ultimately, there are still a number of questions about Elisa Lam’s death for which we may never have answers. If you’re addicted to mysteries like this one, check out our breakdown of the Jennifer Fairgate case from Unsolved Mysteries.
