Young Woman Mysteriously Dies in Murder Hotel
The case of Elisa Lam is one of the most well-known unsolved cases in America.
The case of Elisa Lam is one of the most well-known unsolved cases in America. What’s especially chilling is that this incident didn’t happen that long ago, meaning that her potential killer could still be out there. Her death is one that involved lots of conspiracy theories, but no evidence could place exactly what happened. Her story continues to disturb and sadden many, and there is still content being made about her case to this day, including a Netflix documentary.
Elisa Lam was a 21-one-year old girl from Canada. She traveled to California to stay at the Cecil Hotel, and she vanished. The last sighting of her comes from footage inside of the hotel. The video showed her inside of the Cecil elevator, frantically pressing buttons and peaking outside of the elevator as if someone is following her. The video is very eerie, and she has strange body language throughout it, appearing to be very stressed out. What’s even stranger is that despite pressing buttons, the elevator doesn’t close while she’s in it. She eventually steps out and around the corner, and the elevator closes once she’s gone.
The Cecil Hotel has a reputation for death. Many believe that the building is haunted. More than a dozen murders and suicides have taken place in the Cecil Hotel since its opening in 1927, and the building is known for being somewhere where drug users reside. The Black Dahlia was said to have been seen there days before her murder, and Richard Ramirez stayed there for a while. Elisa technically hadn’t booked her stay in the Cecil. In an attempt to market itself to travelers, the Cecil had converted half of its floors to a new building called the Stay on Main. The two had separate lobbies and entrances, but they had a shared elevator. Residents of the Stay on Main said that the building was rather peaceful, but going in the elevator could result in you being next to clear drug users and disturbing people.
Elisa was reported missing after she didn’t check into her room on February 1, 2013. Before her disappearance, the hotel had moved her from a shared room to a private room after she had been reported to have been disturbing the girls there. The hotel manager also said that she had had an outburst in the hotel lobby. After she was reported missing, her room was searched, and revealed that all of her belongings were still there. Search parties of police were sent out, and after seeing the elevator footage, the hotel suspected that she had never left the building. However, the police searched the place and still couldn’t find her. The elevator video was released to the public on February 14, and media outlets went crazy. Conspiracy theorists started uploading videos digesting the footage, and many noticed that some cuts in the video made it seem like someone had edited the footage.
On February 19, 2013, twenty days after Elisa had been seen, she was discovered. Hotel guests had been complaining for days that the water pressure in their rooms was low and that the water was discolored with an odd taste and smell. A hotel staff member went up to the roof of the hotel to check on the water tanks. Upon opening one of the tanks, he found Elisa’s body, floating naked in the water. Her clothes were floating in the water next to her. The case was closed in June 2013, and her cause of death was listed as accidental drowning.
What Happened?
According to Elisa’s autopsy, she hadn’t been taking the full dosage of her bipolar medication around the time of her death. Due to this, her death report listed bipolar disorder as a significant cause of her death. However, the elevator video and the facts of how she got onto the locked roof and managed to climb into the tank in the first place are a mystery. The top of the water tank was very heavy, so many suspects that she wouldn’t have been able to lift it on her own. Also, the way that she made it seem as if someone was following her near the elevator leads people to suspect that someone had a hand in her death.
Conspiracy theorists have different ideas of what could have happened, some of which are covered in the Netflix documentary about the incident. Since the Cecil Hotel is in a poor area and is known for having drug users and violent people stay in it, some think that she may have encountered someone from the Cecil side in the elevator who wanted to harm her. Others think that someone on the hotel staff may have possibly had something to do with it since the elevator didn’t close when she was in it, the video looks like it was edited to cut something out, and her body was found in the water tank which only the hotel staff is supposed to have access to.
Despite the theories that someone else was involved in her death, nobody has ever been convicted of being involved. The case has been ruled out as being a tragic display of a young girl with mental health issues. Since she wasn’t taking the full dosage of her bipolar meds, the most suspected theory is that she wasn’t thinking logically, and she somehow was able to climb up to the roof where she climbed into the water tank. The case hasn’t been opened again since it was ruled as an accidental drowning.
Elisa’s case is a tragic story that highlights the importance of mental health. No other drugs had been detected during her autopsy, so it wasn’t suspected that she was using drugs. The only confirmed part of her case is that she suffered from mental health issues, and since she was acting out before her disappearance, the case may be a suicide. Maybe someone will be caught being involved in the case in the future, but for now, Elisa’s death is known as a horrible accident.