Elisa lam — Her chilling death and 4 Conspiracy theories
Elisa Lam was last seen alive on January 31, 2013, before her disappearance. Her final moments were captured by the hotel’s security camera, where she was recorded behaving strangely inside the elevator.
The security footage, instead of providing clues to her chilling disappearance, further added fuel to various conspiracy theories.
Who was Elisa Lam?
21-year-old Lam was a student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her parents, David, and Yinna Lam, originally from Hong Kong had immigrated to the USA.
She was suffering from bipolar disorder and depression and was undergoing treatment. She was prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotic medications to treat her condition.
Elisa Lam’s Personality
She was an ambitious girl but felt lost and directionless due to her mental issues. She often lamented about her lack of motivation and missing out on her studies. She was not able to continue her course credits regularly and was also afraid that she might not be able to complete her course and attend graduate school. This weighed heavily on her mind as noted in her blog posts.
She yearned to pursue her passion but believed that she was not talented for it. Somewhere deep down she felt guilty about not being able to make the most of her life which she expressed through one of the quotes from American novelist Chuck Palahniuk, which she also used as an epigraph for her blog -
“You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” Personal blogs
In 2010, Lam started a blog named “Ether Fields” on Blogspot where she posted fashion images along with accounts of her life like a personal diary.
In March 2011, she moved on from Blogspot to Tumblr and named her blog “nouvelle-nouveau”. Here, she posted quotes, fashion pictures, and various other things.
Lam’s Blogspot and Tumblr accounts are still active to date.
Elisa’s haunted trip to West Coast
Lam’s parents were worried about her traveling alone to the West Coast but she was determined to go. They allowed her to go but on the condition that Lam will keep them abreast about her wellbeing every day.
On January 26, 2013, she arrived in Los Angeles from San Diego for her solo trip to the West Coast. She was headed to Santa Cruz for the remaining itinerary. On January 28, 2013, she checked into the Cecil Hotel.
For the initial few days, she was assigned a shared room on the fifth floor. However, she had to be moved to a room of her own as her roommates complained that her behavior was odd.
The disappearance of Elisa Lam
Lam was in regular touch with her parents in British Columbia almost every day during her trip. She was scheduled to check out of the Cecil Hotel on February 1, 2013, and then depart to Santa Cruz. When her parents did not hear from Lam, they got worried and informed Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) about her disappearance. Her family reached Los Angeles to assist in the search operation.
Search parties of police and sniffer dogs combed the streets, Lam’s room, and the entire hotel, including the rooftop for any possible clues. Even after a week of investigations and frantic search operations nothing could be found. To get further assistance in the case, LAPD posted flyers in the neighborhood and also on the internet. This brought Lam’s disappearance under public purview, immediately turning the case into a media sensation.
Final day before Lam’s disappearance
Lam was alone as reported by a hotel staff who had seen her on the day before her disappearance.
Katie Orphan, manager of a nearby bookstore — The Last Bookstore, was the only person to recollect meeting Lam on the last day. Lam had visited the bookstore to buy gifts and souvenirs for her family. Based on her interaction with Lam, Katie felt she was a very friendly, and lively person, and she had an outgoing personality.
Elevator Video Released by LAPD
After two weeks of the unsuccessful search operation, LAPD released a video of Lam in Cecil’s elevator — captured by the hotel’s surveillance camera on February 1, 2013 — her last known sighting before the disappearance. The grainy four-minute footage caused a frenzy online as well as in the media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rfLSVIA0L0
Elisa Lam Elevator Surveillance Video
In the video, Lam is seen alone inside the hotel elevator. She makes some strange movements and gestures. She enters the elevator, pushes all the buttons, and peeks fearfully outside the elevator doors. She steps out of the elevator several times while its doors remain open.
It appears as though she is trying to protect herself from someone stalking her. During one particularly frightening moment, she appears to be talking to someone through weird hand gestures and then suddenly jumps back into the elevator and hides in a corner.
No one else was captured in the recording, except Lam.
The Notorious Reputation of the Cecil Hotel
The video ends with Lam moving out of the elevator, towards the left side, and disappearing.
Located in notorious Skid Row, the Cecil Hotel has a murky past and has been infamous for numerous death and suicides.
As high as 80 deaths have occurred in the hotel between 2007 and 2017.
Discovery of Lam’s Body
Serial Killers Jack Unterweger (a.k.a. Vienna Strangler) and Richard Ramirez (a.k.a. Night Stalker) frequently stayed at the hotel.
On February 19, 2013, Elisa Lam’s body was found floating in one of the four hotel’s rooftop water tanks by a hotel maintenance worker, Santiago Lopez.
Lopez made the discovery while responding to complaints from hotel guests about low water pressure and murky water flowing from the tap water.
At the time of the discovery, Lopez noticed the hatch of the water tank was open and Lam’s naked body was floating face-up in the water. Lam’s clothes, which she wore in the elevator video, were floating alongside her body and her room keys were found at the bottom of the tank.
The tank had to be drained out completely and cut open from the side in order to remove Lam’s corpse.
How did Elisa Lam actually die — The Official explanation
The incomplete LAPD Coroner’s report sparks a debate amongst Internet Sleuths
On February 21, two days after Lam’s body was discovered, The Los Angeles Coroner’s office listed the cause of her death as “accidental drowning”, with bipolar disorder listed as a significant factor. Her autopsy revealed that she had not been taking the full dosage of prescribed medication during the time of her death.
The Coroner’s report did not offer any explanation for Lam’s strange behavior in the elevator video. No clarity was provided as to how she reached the locked rooftop of the hotel and into the water tank, without anyone noticing her.
The access to the hotel’s roof was secured with an alarm and a lock to the door which required a passcode to open. A forceful entry to the door would have triggered the alarm which could have been heard on top floors as well as the hotel’s reception.
Her phone was never found — neither with her body nor in her hotel room. It was presumed to have been stolen around the time of her death. The phone could never be retrieved. Her missing phone also adds to the conspiracy theory as it may have been done to destroy evidence.
The lack of clarity in the report made the circumstances leading to her death appear even more suspicious.
Theory #1 — She was murdered
Notwithstanding the official report, conspiracy theories about Lam’s cause of death still continue to do the rounds on the Internet, and Internet sleuths are still hunting for the clues:
Her strange behavior in the elevator video made people believe that she was murdered by someone who was not captured in the elevator camera. People felt Lam’s panicky behavior could have been to ward off a stalker who she considered a threat to her life.
Also, her body was found naked, which further raised the suspicions of foul play.
It was also claimed that the lid of the water tank was closed when investigators arrived at the scene investigation. However, the claim was refuted by the hotel worker who discovered the body. He clarified that the lid was open at the time of the discovery of her body but he had closed it before informing the investigators.
Some believed that the video had been tampered with before being released to the public. They claimed the timestamp has been obscured and some parts have been slowed down. In addition, they felt, that about a minute of footage has been removed. They claimed this was done to protect someone who was responsible for Lam’s death.
Some conspiracy theorists accused Pablo Vergara, Vocalist of German Metal Band — Morbid, of murdering her. Pablo had shared a video of himself in the Cecil Hotel soon after Lam’s body was discovered. Ironically, around the same time, he also released a new music video called “Died in Pain”, which had lyrics based on a woman drowning in water. However, the accusations were found to be false as Pablo had visited the Cecil in 2012, not 2013, and he was in Mexico at the time of Lam’s death.
Theory #2 — She committed suicide
Some believe it was a copycat murder inspired by the 2005 movie — Dark Water. The movie shows people at the lead actor’s apartment complex complaining about drinking water being murky and having a weird taste. The complaints leads to the discovery of a girl’s corpse in a water tank located on the apartment’s roof.
Theory #3 — She acted under the influence of substance drugs
She was suffering from bipolar disorder and depression. In her blogs, she posted about her daily struggle dealing with her mental disorders, which hampered her studies and often kept her away from pursuing her passions. Some conspiracy theories pointed out that she had given up on herself and taken her own life to escape from the struggles due to her mental disorder. However, this theory was ruled out by the authorities.
Theory #4 — She was involved in a Tuberculosis test
Some people argued that Lam’s strange behavior in the elevator footage was due to drug abuse. However, her toxicology report did not show any evidence of any illegal drugs in her system.
Though it may appear outlandish, some Internet sleuths believed that Lam may have been used as a biological weapon to wipe out the homeless population and she was killed to remove evidence.
It was noted that around the time of her disappearance, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis in the Skid Row, which is in close proximity to the Cecil. What makes it even stranger is that the name of the tuberculosis test was the LAM-ELISA (Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).
But her autopsy didn’t show any signs of tuberculosis, so this theory does not hold water.
Though Lam’s final moments were filled with turmoil and tragedy as the documentary shows, her grave in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby, Canada is peaceful. The cemetery has mountain and water views and boasts other scenic burial benefits overlooking Vancouver.
Though her final moments may have been tragic and traumatic, Elisa Lam now rests peacefully in her grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby Cemetery, located amidst scenic mountains.
To this day no one knows what exactly transpired during Elisa Lam’s last moments and her death remains shrouded in mystery.
You may also like to read about the mysterious deaths of Princess Diana, Sushant Singh Rajput, Divya Bharti, and Aarushi Talwar, who died in a similar fashion and their deaths remain shrouded in mystery.
Originally published at https://owwlogy.com on December 24, 2021.
