MYSTERY 'KILLING'
Who killed Elisa Lam and where was her body found?
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Who was Elisa Lam?
Elisa Lam, 21, was a college student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Lam headed on a West coast trip alone on January 26, 2013, via an Amtrak train from San Diego to Santa Cruz, California.
She made a pit stop in and decided to check in to the Cecil Hotel and was due to check out on January 31 but never did.
Her family, already wary that she was alone, decided to call the LAPD.
Cops searched the hotel but could not find Lam anywhere in the premises.
Authorities then decided to review surveillance footage and realized that Lam had stepped into an elevator on the day of her disappearance.
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In the footage, Lam can be seen acting strangely as she steps into the elevator and begins pressing every button in the panel.
She eventually steps out and pokes her head out to see who is in the hallway and does that a few times until she decides to walk out completely.
The last of the video shows her standing by the left side of the door waving her hands and making random gestures.
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She is not seen talking to anyone and is the only one captured on tape.
The video made the rounds on the internet and amassed over tens of thousands of views, as many found her behavior in equal parts strange and chilling.
It was the last footage of Elisa alive.
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How did Elisa Lam die?
It is unclear how Elisa died.
Authorities found no evidence of physical trauma in her autopsy report.
Additionally, the only notable findings in the toxicology report were multiple different medications to treat her bipolar disorder but there was no presence of alcohol or illegal drugs in her body at the time.
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Only one person saw her prior to her death, a woman named Katie Orphan, the owner of The Last Bookstore, which Lam walked into and purchased presents to take to her family back home.
“It seemed like [Lam] had plans to return home, plans to give things to her family members and reconnect with them,” Orphan told .
An LA coroner issued a finding of accidental drowning, with bipolar disorder as a significant factor.
Who killed Elisa Lam?
While her death sparked curiosity among law enforcement officials, they never arrested anyone in connection with the case and it was officially documented as accidental.
There were never any suspects tied to her death or her disappearance.
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Where was her body found?
Two weeks after the odd video of her in the elevator was released, maintenance worker Santiago Lopez found Lam’s body floating in one of the hotel’s water tanks.
Lopez discovered her body on February 19, 2013, after several hotel guests had complained about low water pressure and a weird taste in the tap water.
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According to the Los Angeles Fire department, the tank in which Lam was found had to be drained completely and cut in order to fit her body inside of it.
She was discovered wearing the same clothes she had on in the elevator surveillance footage and her body barely had blood due to the decomposition.
Lam also had all her personal belongings and her room card with her, floating near her lifeless body.
Her parents, David and Yinna Lam filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Cecil Hotel but the hotel’s lawyer argued that the establishment had no reason to think that someone would be able to get into one of their water tanks.
Lopez confirmed that statement by explaining that in order to get to the water tanks, several alarms had to be turned off and someone had to have climbed a few ladders to reach the very top.
If any alarms were triggered, the front desk would have been alerted as well as the first two floors of the hotel.
Ultimately, the lawsuit was dismissed as an LA Superior Court judge ruled her death as “unforeseeable” as no guests were granted access to the water tanks.
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Who owns the Cecil Hotel?
The Cecil Hotel is owned by a man named Herb Chase.
It was built in 1924 and was resold a few times to various people before the Simon Baron Development acquired the property in 2014.
The hotel is no stranger to suspicious deaths and unsolved crimes.
It has been the setting for notable murders such as actress Elizabeth Short, aka the “.”
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Additionally, at one point in 1985 it was the home to notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez, who was regarded as the “Night Stalker” and Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, who got the nickname the “Vienna Strangler.”
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The hotel was landmarked by LA’s city council and eventually renamed to Stay on Main as it was redeveloped and renovated.
It has served as inspiration to screenwriter and horror-extraordinaire Ryan Murphy, as he based American Horror Story: Hotel on the Cecil and Lam’s story.
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