Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam

The body of Elisa Lam, alsoknown by her Cantonese name, Lam Ho Yi (藍可兒;April 30, 1991 – February 2013), a Canadian student at theUniversity of British Columbia in Vancouver, was recovered from awater tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on February19, 2013. She had been reported missing at the beginning of themonth. Maintenance workers at the hotel discovered the body wheninvestigating guest complaints of problems with the water supply andwater pressure.

Her disappearance had been widelyreported; interest had increased five days prior to her body'sdiscovery when the Los Angeles Police Department released a video ofthe last time she was known to have been seen, on the day of herdisappearance, by an elevator security camera. In the footage, Lam isseen exiting and re-entering the elevator, talking and gesturing inthe hallway outside, and sometimes seeming to hide within theelevator, which itself appears to be malfunctioning. The video wentviral on the Internet, with many viewers reporting that they found itunsettling. Explanations ranged from claims of paranormal involvementto bipolar disorder, which Lam took medication for. It has also beenargued that the video was altered prior to release.

The circumstances of Lam's death, onceshe was found, also raised questions, especially in light of thehotel's history in relation to other notable deaths and murders. Herbody was naked with most of her clothes and personal effects floatingin the water near her. It took the Los Angeles County Coroner'soffice four months, after repeated delays, to release the autopsyreport, which reports no evidence of physical trauma and states thatthe manner of death was accidental. Guests at the Cecil, nowre-branded as Stay on Main, sued the hotel over the incident, andLam's parents filed a separate suit later that year; the latter wasdismissed in 2015. Some of the early Internet interest noted whatwere considered to be unusual similarities between Lam's death andthe 2005 horror film Dark Water. The case has since been referencedin international popular culture.

Background

Lam, the daughter of emigrants fromHong Kong who opened a restaurant in Burnaby, just outside Vancouver,Canada, was a student at the University of British Columbia althoughshe was not registered at the beginning of 2013.

For her trip to California, Lamtraveled alone on Amtrak and intercity buses. She visited the SanDiego Zoo and posted photos taken there on social media. On January26, she arrived in Los Angeles. After two days, she checked into theCecil Hotel, near downtown's Skid Row. Lam was initially assigned ashared room on the hotel's fifth floor; however, her roommatescomplained about what the hotel's lawyer would later describe as"certain odd behavior," and she was moved to a roomof her own after two days.

Built as a business hotel in the 1920s,the Cecil fell on hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930sand never recaptured its original market as downtown decayed aroundit in the late 20th century. Several of Los Angeles's more notablemurders have happened at or have connections to the hotel: in 1964,Goldie Osgood, the "Pigeon Lady of Pershing Square,"was raped and murdered in her room at the Cecil, a crime that hasnever been solved. Serial killers Jack Unterweger and RichardRamirez both resided at the Cecil while active. There have also beensuicides, one of which also killed a pedestrian outside the frontentrance of the hotel. After recent renovations, it has tried tomarket itself as a boutique hotel, but the reputation lingers. "TheCecil will reveal to you whatever it is you're a fugitive from,"says Steve Erickson, a journalist who spent a night in the hotelafter Lam's death.