Unsolved and Bizarre Mysteries: The Death of Elisa Lam

The following mystery makes one wonder if ‘Hotel California’ was actually written about a hotel in LA, one known for its bizarre and unexplained events. Instead, as it turns out, the the hotel was the inspiration for the ‘Hotel Cortez’ in the popular American Horror Story series.

You’re welcome, cause, the more you know.😉

So what is the name of this creepy hotel? Is it a vile, frightening name that conjures up images of evil and mayhem? Nah. The name is actually the Cecil Hotel. I know, I know, it sounds like a character on the Muppets, right? But the terrifying occurrences in this particular hotel are anything but cute and cuddly. Case in point…the mysterious death of Elisa Lam.

True story…Elisa’s case is so odd, they made a Netflix movie about it.

Elisa was a 21-year-old Canadian who decided to take a hiatus from her studies in Vancouver to travel the West Coast. On January 26, 2013, she arrived in Los Angeles and checked into the Cecil Hotel. Because she had a history of bipolar disorder, her parents were not exactly fans of her traveling alone. To ease their minds, Elisa agreed to call them every day and detail her adventures.

When January 31st came and her parents hadn’t heard from her, they became alarmed and contacted the LA police department. Officers conducted a search of her room and the hotel without success. Soon after, authorities released discovered video footage of Elisa Lam on January 31st, the day she went missing, and the mystery deepened.

Elisa can be seen in an elevator, frantically pushing all the floor buttons before stepping into and out of the elevator car. At one point in the video, she hurries back inside the elevator (the doors remain open like, forever) and hides in a corner. Then she is seen peeking out and looking up and down the corridor, eventually leaving the elevator and standing to the side of the open door, just out of frame. By her arm and hand movements, it appears she is having a conversation.

But no one is there. At least, no one in view of the camera.

There are amateur sleuths who have watched the footage hundreds of times and swear they see a shadow in the background. While I haven’t watched it hundreds of times, I did go through the reel about a dozen times and didn’t see a shadow. Full disclosure? Here on my blog page, we don’t try to push a square space into a round hole. If the evidence isn’t there, or it’s questionable, it gets tossed like yesterday’s bologna sandwich. (Cause, let’s face it…bologna is one of those things you gotta eat fresh. )

The images are pixelated and grainy, so any ‘shadows’ that appear can be explained by the quality of the video. Still, the footage is creepy AF.

Two weeks after the police made the video public, a worker in the Cecil went to the roof to check the hotel’s water tanks. Guests were complaining of foul-tasting water and low pressure from the faucets and shower heads. Grabbing a ladder (because, again, the tank was ten-feet tall) he scaled the side and found the 20 pound lid partially opened. Inside, floating naked on her back, was the body of Elisa Lam.

Explains the funky water.🤢

The story goes that the fire department had to drain most of the water and then cut a hole through the side of the tank to pull her out. Sitting at the bottom, like a macabre mockery of what this poor janitor guy found, were Elisa’s hotel keys and the clothes she was last seen wearing. Her cell phone has never been recovered. Weird, considering that, up until January 31st, she was calling her family every day.

So, where’s that stinkin’ cellphone?

Upon questioning the hotel staff, it was determined that Elisa was always alone and never seen in the company of another. The last person who saw her alive, a bookstore owner ( the name of the store was The Last Bookstore😳Gulp), related that Elisa had purchased books and music for her family and was planning on returning to Vancouver.

Autopsy results suggested the young woman had been non-compliant with her medication regime. The levels they expected to see in her blood of prescribed medications were lower than expected, leading authorities to believe she was skipping her scheduled doses. Conversely, and despite her bizarre behavior in the elevator, toxicology reported no alcohol or illegal drugs in her system. There were also no signs of trauma that could have contributed to her death.

So, what does this all tell us? Logic would say that this is a case of a mentally ill woman, one who was not taking her meds properly, who spiraled into a manic episode that included delusions and hallucinations. Investigators speculate that, during a particularly rough hallucination and/or delusion, Elisa believed she was being chased by someone (or something), and climbed to the roof where she entered a water tank to hide from her ‘attackers’. Unable to climb out again, she drowned.

Just a horrible, sad, and unfortunate accident. Or was it?

I have questions. So many questions. Probably the biggest one is ‘how did she climb into the tank?’ Those tanks were at least ten feet high (as you can see in the photograph) and the hotel maintenance worker checking them needed a ladder to climb up to the lid.

Important point here...there was no ladder anywhere on the roof. If she used one to climb inside by herself, where was it?

In addition, the tank lid was said to weigh at least twenty pounds. Lam was a petite girl. It would have been extremely difficult, but not impossible, for her to move the lid.

To be fair, I will admit that she could have found a way. After all, the mind is a force to be reckoned with, especially when it’s in turmoil.

But what of the roof alarm?

What alarm, you say? Well, it seems that the doors leading to the roof are all alarmed when they are opened. It’s a safety measure, an added level of security to protect both the hotel and its guests. Yet the staff denies hearing an alarm—alarms that, in theory, could only be deactivated by a staff member. In addition, the unfortunate worker who found Elisa swore that he needed to take the elevator to the 15th floor, climb a ladder to the roof, and then climb on the platform that housed the tanks. From there, he used a ladder to climb to the top.

And yet, we are to believe all of this was done without anyone noticing. Hmmmm.

Another weird thing (and this one is for those folks into conspiracy theories) is that at the time of her death, there was a TB drug being studied in a facility near the Cecil. Guess what the drug’s name is? Go on, I dare ya!

Stumped? Holy Hannah and pass the biscuits, it’s a tuberculosis drug named Lam-Elisa. You read that right…Elisa Lam, backwards.

Mind. Blown.

Need more weirdness? Since the hotel opened in 1927, there have been 18 unexplained and unnatural deaths in the hotel. Additionally, over the years, there have been countless stories and experiences that could only be described as ‘paranormal events.”

But wait, there’s more! (she said, like some kind of late-night infomercial dude).

There is additional, disturbing history in the Cecil Hotel. Apparently, in the past it was a hot-spot for serial killers. The Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, killed dozens of people in California in 1984-1985. His residence during the killings was the Cecil Hotel. He would kill, strip off his bloody clothes, and parade, naked, through the lobby to his room.

And no one found this weird?

Another killer, a guy from Austria called The Vienna Strangler, was also a resident of the hotel at one point during his killing spree.

Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, was seen having drinks in the bar at the Cecil only a few days before her mutilated corpse was discovered. That case remains unsolved and will surely be the subject of another blog😳

So, what actually happened to Elisa Lam? I believe this may be one of those mysteries along the lines of Jon Benet Ramsey, where we may never know the answer. Authorities continue to insist it was a tragic accident, brought on by paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions.

Maybe.

But there is no getting around that the hotel has been home to suicides, homicides, and other unexplained deaths. There are even some supposed photographs floating around of apparitions caught on camera. Admittedly, the ones I saw were not clear and definitely not ones that scream ‘Look at me! I’m a ghostie!’

Still, the Cecil Hotels checkered past and spooky history has made it one of the most disturbing, most haunted, hotels in California.

And one that, obviously, is on my bucket list.

Later, gators😉

—Q