Elisa Lam Updates?

By Peter Tieryas

*Another update on 6-20-13 Elisa Lam’s death was ruled accidental drowning and she was suffering bipolar disorder which was listed as a significant condition. The result was issued by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office Thursday according to Lt. Fred Corral from the coroner’s investigations division. There are still lots of questions and will update more later.

*Update to the original update: Someone on Twitter contacted me and let me know that the toxicology reports will be ready next week. Let’s wait and see if this will shed more light on the case. (Thank you TP!)

I wrote an article called “What Happened to Elisa Lam?” for Punchnel’s a few months back. If you’re like me, you were haunted by the youtube video of her acting strangely in the elevator. I sum it all up in my article as well as my thoughts on the case and murder in general here at Punchnel’s.

More than 2 months later, I hadn’t heard any updates until on Twitter, someone contacted me and let me know that the toxicology reports will be coming out sometime in May. Initial reports indicated it would take 6-8 weeks. Based on some of the comments I’ve seen regarding the case, as well as scouring websleuths, the explanations have varied all across the board, ranging from she was meeting a weird stalker to the supernatural. In response to my Punchnel’s article, someone actually posted a video of someone else who had visited the Cecil Hotel and recorded their trip. Their report was in Chinese and I will post a brief summary in English of their conclusions. First, the video below:

It’s interesting actually seeing the interior of the hotel. To do a very shoddy translation as my Mandarin is not that great: the video starts off with a brief introduction to the hotel, mentioning it is a really old hotel. The lobby and the halls look brand new, but the rooms are not that great and very simplistic in comparison (there are shots of both the interior and exterior). At about 4:28, he mentions five things he wants to investigate.

1. Does the door of the elevator not close?

2. How many buttons and panels are there outside the elevator?

3. Does the hold button work?

4. What can you see from the inside?

5. What can you see if you look outside the elevator?

Interestingly, when he pushes the floor buttons inside the elevator, the door does not close (in most modern elevators, pushing the floor buttons closes the elevator). That’s why in the video, when Elisa pushes the buttons, the elevator doesn’t necessarily close until later. Outside, there are only two buttons (up and down) and one panel on the wall. From the inside, as there is a mirror right outside on the opposing wall, you can see if anyone is outside the elevator. Peeking out, there are corners (marked in his graphic map) that show what you can and can’t see.

elisa01

Next he posits three questions:

1. How many ways are there to get to the top?

2. How accessible are those paths?

3. How close can you get to the water tank?

First, he goes to the fire escape which is open and can be accessed to reach the top floor without any problems. However, it is dangerous and had someone actually carried Elisa up there, it would have been extremely difficult for them. Second, the pathway that can only be accessed by employees is locked off and sets off an alarm. The narrator proceeds to climb up the fire exit to reach the top and from there, it looks shockingly easy to access the water tanks, especially as there is a stairway and building to its side from which you can jump off.

elisa02

elisa03

Again, I was surprised at how easy it was to reach the top through the fire escape. The guy just went up there and there was no security. The video ends on that note (major props to FilmTransformer for doing this)

Someone also let me know that the Hotel Cecil has SRO status, which as one tweeter informed me through two different identities is a: “Single Resident Occupancy. Low income incl registered sex offenders live there full time.” Elisa Lam’s blog/tumblr also has some cryptic references as in one about some creeps going after her strong. You can check out her tumblr here:

http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/post/41581697593/im-going-out-tonight-i-really-hope-no-creeper

Someone wrote that Elisa Lam mentioned Left 4 Dead and someone using a water tank to escape, though I have not been able to find this tumblr post (indicating maybe it was a stunt gone awry). Truth is, I have no idea what really happened and like most readers, can only speculate. At the same time, I try to focus on what’s important here, and that’s the tragic death of Elisa Lam. I hope for the sake of her family and friends, they can find out what happened to her soon.

Thanks everyone for reading.

95 thoughts on “Elisa Lam Updates?”

  1. Is it just me or is it completely bizarre that the Canadian media is not more interested in this? Particularly Given all the attention that other cases have got e.g, arias case. Where is the toxicology report?

    • hey Dezzer, I don’t know where the toxicology report is either. I was told a few times via twitter it was going to be ready a few weeks back. Not sure what is going on. Thanks for checking out the post.

    • It just occurred to me that her family requested certain details not be released. I wanted to know what this young woman would do so “odd” that her room mates would formally request she be moved out. Small details such as if there was antagonism following being tossed out into the hall with suit case and a formal interview with these people. Any signs of sexual assault are erased in water. She did not have her glasses on in elevator – was leaning down to see buttons better, which means she was hiding from someone, had to leave her glasses where she last was. 3 sex offenders were in hotel, plus hotel workers and their acquaintances, the long term tenants should have been given polygraphs.

      Canadian Govt hid Ng Lee from US authorities. Ng Lee had taken part in the abduction of several people, including 2 families and their babies, murder, tortuous on a prolonged basis in a dungeon in a “Master – Subservient” sexual night mare that included a vice. Yes, the Canadian government felt this man did not deserve to die, even after he sent several innocent people to their grave but not before putting them into inescapable humiliating living hell.

      Canada is a joke of a country. I am a Canadian. You should see what they do to orphans and the children of the destitute. Horror chamber. Our civilization is circling the drain.

    • That’s a really good point. Perhaps the police are holding back as a matter of privacy. Either way, hope there’s some clarification at some point. Thanks for coming by the blog.

  4. No one seems to thinks it’s bizarre how Richard Ramirez just recently died? One of the most famous serial killers of The Cecil Hotel, everything surrounding the Hotel is so mysterious. I can’t help but want to visit one day.

  5. Pingback: Elisa Lam Death Ruled Accidental | The Whimsy of Creation: The Blog of Tieryas

  6. Who is going to believe that is accidental ? There are so many unanswered questions that investigators are trying to evade. . World opinion should prompt FBI to make sepearate findings.

  7. Pingback: Reflections on the Elisa Lam Case | The Whimsy of Creation: The Blog of Tieryas

  8. Pingback: Reflecting on the Elisa Lam Case | The Whimsy of Creation: The Blog of Tieryas

  9. I just drove by the Cecil an hour ago after reading about this case yesterday! I can’t believe how haunting this all is. It reminds me a lot of The Shining. I am going to visit the bar area on Sunday and take my own pictures of it. I’d also like to find out how the elevator works for myself. It’s frightening to think that this may have been an inside job, and maybe I’ll be next to someone who is suffering from guilt.

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  14. Too many distractions for me to pay a much attention to this story until now. No toxicology results, the coroner would have been able to tell if she died of drowning or if her dead corpse was place there. This was never clarified. Ramirez was one of a long line of serial killers who may have been “tuned up” by Anton Levay, etc-a front for the Media Industrial Complex’s long line of manufactured killers and weirdos. This story has occult and hidden mean to it that needs to be crowd sourced.

  17. When she pressing all the buttons the first time, keep an eye on the door.. first it come’s out a little like it want to close..and then it goes farther back as it’s starting position….

    Also after she disappears , the doors don’t go in so far , when opening after each stop…

    Maybe the first time the door was remotely opened by security guard to lure her out of the elevator ?

  18. Anyone else notice that on her tumblr site there is a post with an image of hand movements, one of which looks familiar. Also, another post mentions the German word for sleepwalking. A mystery within a mystery. That is the key to all wonder.

    • You’re asking my question :). What about any other cameras? We’re supposed to believe that the Cecil is so weird and flakey that it doesn’t have any, when virtually any other facility is bristling with these (especially since all the laws changed after 911). But your question “and would a hacker…?” What does that suggest to you? To me, it suggests that someone in authority modified the video. Someone having the privileges to do so – not a “hacker.”

    • yes indeed..i seen ayou tube video,,an ex guard some how loaded footage from elevator there to his you tube and captured an orb…time stamp is clear video is clear and night visioned..very curious…people ask him questions he answers only a couple out of 4 cameras work and security is light there and access to roof is easy….look up tour of cecil hotel..youl find his tour with lame techno…go to his page on you tube and fine the elevator clip and read comments if you like…but my point is..they dont have some odd access to the footage…not sure what they can do to it though

  20. I just learned about this case yesterday (actually, I already knew about it but I wasn’t really interested. So yesterday I watched the video and since then I can’t stop to think about it). I am pretty obsessed. I just can’t believe it was an accidental death, my hypothesis that’s a homicide – maybe the killers are the italian and mexican guys, maybe someone who work in the hotel… So weird! Greetings from Brazil! (and I’m sorry about my english)

    • I to am pretty obsessed about this case I hear that she updated her blog six months after her death on every site I see but there is no link to it or what was apparently said

  25. http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/archive

    here is a link to her blog on tumblr, more specifically her “archive” page. It shows that in February 2013, March 2013, April 2013, June 2013 and December 2013, she was active and had reblogged only a select few photos.

    This is something that’s been puzzling me for a while now, glad I have finally found people to share this with!!!

  26. Has anyone gone to the Cecil (or whatever its called now) to poke around to see if there really only were security cams in the elevators? I really find it hard to believe. Most places (since 911) are bristling with them – especially hotels. Has anyone investigated whether they had hidden security cameras?

  27. This case is so weird but so interesting too, anyway nobody can know what really happened. These guys did a very great video, it helps a lot to think about what happened but just that, we can think too many things, but we’ll never know what’s the truth behind all these things

  28. I researched this over a few days, myself, and came to my own conclusion.

    There are nearly 1000 posts on a websleuths.com forum that go back and forth over many details (link below), expert opinions and also much speculation (quite a bit of bull$hit conspiracy theories too). There is also a PDF of the autopsy out there (link below).

    In summary, all of my research has led me to believe that she died an accidental and tragic death. This is the same conclusion that the LAPD came to.

    I believe she took the fire escape ladder up to the roof (alone), climbed on top of the water tank fully clothed, jumped in (i.e. she was in the midst of a psychotic break, as visible in the elevator video, and as assessed by professionals), tried to escape, undressed herself completely while inside (believing her clothes were weighing her down), failed (due to the weight of the hinged lid), and drowned.

    I don’t believe she could have been murdered, as there was absolutely no evidence of foul play (i.e. trauma to the body), and the cause of death was drowning, as stated in the autopsy.

    Don’t waste your time doing the same research as I did. It’s very depressing and there’s so much crap and repetitive confusion/speculation to wade through.

    Websleuths forum: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?200566-Elisa-Lam-What-Happened
    Autopsy PDF: http://www.pdf-archive.com/2014/02/24/el-autopsy/

    • Great post! But i dont think she death by accident. No trauma ok, but she dont le ave a note of suicide and she think in a way she dont be found.
      Other thing with no trauma, if i use “escopolamina”(burundanga) i control the person and other people dont notice that. And in 24 hours the drug is imposible of find.
      Sorry forma muy english, im search forma people want investigate this case toó, because i dont think in suicide.
      Cu guys

      • Why “great post?” The writer said “a couple of hours of research.” That of itself is nothing. If anything makes the writer seem like they may intact be helping to hide something. The circumstances surrounding this event are incredibly suspicious and official closure of the case only added to the feeling.

  30. JT- the only thing not addressed in most of the theories I’ve seen is the fact that the lid of the water tank was closed. Looking at the tank, I cannot imagine jumping in from the top while closing the lid behind you- it seems like it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, doesn’t it? Also, it seems like quite a jump onto the top of the water tank from the top of the adjacent utility room, especially for someone Elisa’s size.

  31. Honestly, the weird hand movements she does in the door of the elevator, looks a lot like someone would do when they’re trying to stop an elevator to get in. I’d do that, too, to see if maybe there was something wrong with the door’s sensors. And like everyone has pointed out, the elevator doesn’t move floors. Instead, the doors open and close repeatedly until the end of the video. We don’t ( at least I don’t ) know exactly what buttons Elisa pushed.
    And with the lid, the human body generally floats in water. According to things I’ve read prior to this post, the lid wasn’t very heavy. I don’t know where the water level was the moment she got in the water tank, and I don’t know if she could have reached the lid. But if she could, I’m guessing it would be pretty easy to close. But there’s also the fact that if someone was using water at that moment, the suction from the water would pull her down. If she was trying to hide, she would have grabbed onto anything to keep her up.
    I don’t know much about her, but I don’t think she was on a psychotic outbreak. She may have been paranoid, like the Tumblr post and the elevator video proves. And if you were trying to hide, wouldn’t you close the lid, too? Otherwise, it’d be pretty easy to realize that you were in there with the lid randomly open.
    The being naked thing is what’s catching my attention, also.
    Also with her Tumblr, her Archive shows activity all the way to December of 2013. This has nothing to do with my view on the video, I just think it’s kind of odd.
    I also know that Bipolar Depression doesn’t send you going crazy.
    I don’t know exactly what happened, obviously. That’s what I’m trying to figure out, because like everyone else, that video’s been haunting me since I watched it. It may have been a murder, it may have been some weird paranormal stuff, and it may have been an accident. I don’t know, I’m just a 19 year old. What I do know by the video, is that she freaked out. In the midst of her freaking out, she exited the elevator. When she throws up her hands at 1:13, I’m also going to assume that was part of her freaking out. Most of the human population throws their hands towards their heads or necks when they’re frightened. Proving my point, at 1:30, she lowers her hands from her head while she’s re-entering the elevator, and grabs the sides of the doors, most likely to steady herself mentally or physically. Then presses all of the buttons, including or excluding the “Close Doors” button. At 1:57, she starts the hand gestures. I’d generally do that to, if the doors wouldn’t close. I don’t know why her other hand is up, or why she holds her hand still at first, then waves it. But where she waves it is around the area where the sensors are. Then she’s freaking out, and maybe talking to someone. I’d be wondering what the hell someone was waiting outside an open elevator, freaking out. We don’t know, we can only see half of her, and we can’t see the mirror across the hall to prove this point. 2:29 is the last thing you see of her as she walks ( not runs ) towards the only staircase, or a fire exit, that goes to the roof. The doors start closing at 2:58, and stay closed for exactly 10 seconds. They, please make note of this, open ALL of the way, and start closing again. They’re closed for almost 14 seconds this time, and again open all of the way for a few seconds. And that’s my interpretation of the elevator video.

    • The elevator moves… you can notice it at the light bulb you can see in upper right corner trough the elevator door..when doors closing and opening again the first time the bulb is gone…

      • This is at the end of the video after the door closes and the elevator travels to a different floor. Not all floors look the same in buildings, hence why the color of the wall is different too.

    • I suspect the reason the case is “too hard” to solve for most people is that they won’t step “outside the box.” They don’t realize that there is an infrastructure of psychopaths surrounding the society that would think nothing of turning an individual into an experiment. The “not closing the lid” issue is somewhat unneeded. As has been mentioned, it would have been extremely awkward, difficult, or impossible for her to have done so on the way into the tank. It is also assumed that it was open when she came upon it. Either way, from inside the tank, struggling to stay afloat, closing a large door situated open flat on the surface of the top of the tank would be (probably) impossible – especially under stress. Her clothes may have been off because she was intelligent. Being in the water in your clothing is a mistake if you want to float. Someone may have taken her clothing away once they understood her situation was sufficiently hopeless. She may have been administered “knock out” drugs as well – drugs that didn’t quite do the job, until later. Who knows? The writing on the roof also indicates that someone else was there. Look for “Fecto… her summa” – and the fact that the same writing style was repeated on another part of the roof. If that statement was translated accurately, it refers to a “her” – a female – and in the past tense. Something like “she was a total ____” – this is a comment that only a psychopathic hater of females could utter. That you might find many of those characters on someone’s payroll is not so surprising to me at least. Also the fact that it was written in Latin indicates the kind of mentality that joins a fraternity. Fraternities are essentially “junior Mason” camps that love to use esoteric symbolism to confuse the “profane” (that’s us). Thus the obsession with “Delta Tau Delta” (Greek) etc., and in Masonic temples, Arabic language – they even greet each other in Arabic. Their entire ethos is bound up in a shallow sort of “secrecy” that would be the envy of any 7-year-old boy. Likely poor Elisa, no doubt an innocent dupe, was discovered by some malignant particle out there and scoped for this treatment – that’s how it seems to me.

      For further information on this kind of malignant behavior, see: “gang stalking” as a topic.

  32. The elevator moves… you can notice it at the light bulb you can see in upper right corner trough the elevator door..when doors closing and opening again the first time the bulb is gone

  33. About her clothes in the water. Does it include her underwears? I’m asking this because I can understand why someone trying to swim would remove her trouser and top, but it doesn’t make sens for her underwears. Especially in a tiny place like this where it’s probably more difficult to remove your clothes than to swim with your clothes on.

  34. People, Elisa’s own family accepted the conclusion it was an accident. Obviously, they have info about her mental health status at the time. You can see she was paranoid in the video. She probably thought someone was chasing her. She hid in the water tank and drowned.

    Also, her bizarre behavior is all part of her psychosis at the time. The comment she made on Tumblr shows that she was paranoid and she was talking about going out and Italians and Mexicans are pushy. It is not in the context that they are chasing her now. This was a tragic accident. From her blogs, you can read that she had been depressed for years, withdrew from her studies and she was on multiple medications and they may have had something to do with her psychosis. The point is that this is tragic and instead of looking for supernatural or killers and things, look at the obvious and let her R.I.P.
    p.s. the later posts by her after her death on tumbler were obviously done by someone who hacked her account. A lot of the postings were done in German… C’mon people, use your reasonable brains here and let the family and the girl rest. She obviously was mentally disturbed.

    • Often wonder where comments like these come. The parents agreed to the findings is in some way conclusive (in your mind)? I’m sure her parents were experienced forensic investigators — please. There is no reason to let this rest – least of all her parents and “the poor girl.” As you aptly state: she’s dead. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what the rest of us do to protect ourselves from this kind of likely murder. It is almost no doubt that she was murdered, the questions remain: who did it? and why? You, as an observer here (and perhaps a participant) apparently have not looked in much depth at such popular trials as that of OJ Simpson or for example Scott Peterson. When the details _are_ examined, the fishy odor comes straight out. There was nothing “normal” or set in stone about either of those cases – nor of this one. There is likely collusion with the judicial system to cover something up or perhaps less benign – spend taxpayer money. That doesn’t make any of the odd facts of this instance go away. And speaking of those last two words in my last sentence – might you (and your kind) consider the possibility?

    • I’ve been reading all the comments here, and I also thought of an accident (BTW, I’ve been reading about her case since some few months after the incident, but now I’ve found her Tumblr thanks to these comments and posts). All I can think is about her being scary and paranoid about these Italian and Mexican guy, maybe, she’s read about Cecil’s criminal history and so one…. Supposedly she’s going to leave the next day of the “accident”, but her Tumblr post about the Mexican and Italian guy was posted like 3 days before… I just think she tried to hide from them, and fell in the tank…as you said, she undressed, maybe for float… And at the next day maybe a worker at the hotel saw the tank open and closed it (but for some reason didn’t find or ignored her clothes)…. She died drowned, I don’t think someone would hear her if she started to shout inside the closed tank.
      Another thing: Tumblr has a tool named “Queue” that saves posts for being posted later. So, I don’t think her account was hacked, but she uses this tool…. Since she was travelling, she probably didn’t enter everyday but wanted to keep active her site (in fact, in a post she says she lost the cellphone)….

      • Another thing: Tumblr has a tool named “Queue” that saves posts for being posted later automatically. So, I don’t think her account was hacked, but she uses this tool…. Since she was travelling, she probably didn’t enter everyday but wanted to keep active her site (in fact, in a post she says she lost the cellphone)….

        Edit: Since the last post was programmed for December, maybe she “planned” her death????? I don’t know… I prefer to think it about an accident (or maybe a murder, but there are no proves about it).
        I’m sorry for my bad English.

    • Why would she decide to go all the way to the roof, then climb the utility building before jumping down and submerging herself in an 8-got water tank to ‘hide’, when she has a room there?

      Even using the most unhinged thinking, logic would tell you that you’re safer in your own room – where you can call for help – than in a godamned water tank on the roof of a 40-story high building, no?

  35. Finally, the weird hand movements are Tai Chi. This is a relaxation attempt and it is used for distressing when she was paranoid. You can see her bending her knees in an attempt to do so. Please let this rest.

    • If she weren’t Asian, you wouldn’t say it was “Tai Chi.” Even your use of the term “Tai Chi” is kind of insulting. As a 30 year practitioner of – get this – Taijiquan – the proper name of the martial system as opposed to the “tai chi” – the daoist principle upon which the system is based – her hand movements have _nothing_ at all to do with “Tai Chi” as you so astutely put it. The far better explanation is that she is in a panic, whether induced by drugs, or by sheer terror, to see if the elevator is operating. She is attempting to activate – or at least to check the status of – the electric eye on the elevator.

      I think it is you who should rest and let more competent observers develop this case where apparent law enforcement has decided to bury it.

      • regarding her tumblr, can someone check if any of her post mortem reblogs were originally posted after her disappearance? that would indicate it was someone else using her tumblr. would’ve done it myself but currently no access to a pc and checking it on a phone takes ages.

  36. Su. in her blog, the posts are after she died. They all seem like stuff she would post. As to her behavior, she seemed like she knew something was following her, and you can see, she pops out a few times and is extremely distressed that she cannot find the cause of her distress. She is seen wringing her hands, almost debating what to do. The doors aren’t closing while she’s inside the only safe place with a camera watching her.

    It seems a bit odd how they don’t have any cameras going to the roof. My old apartment complex had cameras in only the lobby and the only access door to the roof. Something is keeping the doors open. In my new building, the sensors on the elevators are about knee height, we have lots of kids and animals and no one likes doors closing on their dog’s tail. Sensors pick up everything. Those doors definitely have sensors.

    And as for the opening to the water cistern? There is no way anyone her size could have fit into there and there not be any mark on her body. According to the autopsy, there weren’t marks or bruising, which there would be if she went into that thing alive, which she would had to have if she drowned. Which leads me to believe either the coroner is lying and her body showed broken ribs and significant bruising patterns indicative to one being shoved into a tiny hole, or the more unlikely scenario; someone opened the entire top to the tank and put in her nude body, then tossed in her clothing afterwards. But that is damn near impossible and extremely noticeable and costly. No amount of lube would have made her fit either. Fuck me, but I can’t think of a single possible way to fit a woman into that hole. I need to talk to someone that knows physics… Can’t jump into the supernatural without first proving it wasn’t science.

    • This was an interesting comment, but you don’t mention your proof that her body could not have fit through the port at the top of the tank. What are its dimensions? How do you know what those are?

      • 16 inches is the diameter of the entrance to the water tank I heard I heard it some were and there is a video in mandarin that shows the tanks and it sounds about right and looks like a body could fit through there

      • The opening is a rectangle. It does seem to be about 16″ wide by 10″ (roughly) in the photos if you google “elisa lam rooftop tanks.” Anyway, nothing about any of the evidence of her committing suicide – as an individual spontaneous response to depression makes any sense at all.

  37. It looks to me as if she is talking to someone, making hand gestures, although odd, can just be her own style, explaining how the elevator doors would not close. After she leaves you can discern her shadow on the floor, the movements. Though the video is not very sharp it seems as if there is a slight movement of a shadow on the floor on the other side moments later. I wondered if someone was there, hesitating because they do not want to cross in front of the doors before they close, so they will not be on camera.

    They may be following her.

    I’m wondering if she went to the room with the thought, due to her depression, of suicide. Since I’ve read she had her hotel door key car on her she may have just been thinking of this, not truly sure if she would do such a thing. Could be another reason for going up there, but since she likely had never been up there it’s probable she did not know of the water tanks at all. It’s an area in the skidrow section of L.A. A dangerous location. I would think there could be people or one person up on the roof, not paying for a room but getting away from the crowd of the streets. A place to themselves. They could even be someone not wanting to be found.

    Whatever reason led her up there she could have found she was not alone. Then again, she could have been followed, she seemed when she entered the elevator and the doors did not work, to be immediately thinking someone was pushing the button outside the elevator to stop the doors from closing, and it seemed to put her in a panic.

    If she was found on the roof or followed she could’ve been thrown into the tank after this person removed her clothes and anally raped her. Somewhere I read her anus was erythematic and showed signs of blood in the tissues but I find no mention of this in the autopsy report.

    At any rate, it seems odd she would remove her clothes within the water, though I did consider she was trying to swim, it was I believe 3/4 full. It was not necessary to get into the tank from the building with the locked door and the censor. There was a ladder up to the tank platform, the opening was large, once in the tank no one could reach up and shut that door. I enclose a video taken by a man (who is speaking Mandarin) who went there and was able to get to the roof easily and walk right up to the tanks.

    The other thing is she was only 66 inches high and 122 lbs. Medium sized mens shorts and a large mens top would fall off her, would they not? She also had her own clothes on. Why the other clothes? I think someone put her on there and also their clothes fearing identification? Not sure, she was not dead when she was placed in there, and could not get out. drowned.

    Anyway it by no means is a complete theory but it’s what I have considered.

    https://tieryas.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/elisa-lam-updates/

  38. She presses the button in the centre at the very bottom witch this guy presses to open the door I think its emergency open??

  39. I also don’t understand why the video in the lift was altered if you look on youtube theres a video of the original speed of the film but the ones shown every where else is slowed down

    • Concerning the time stamp on the real-time video on the left. Most CCTV systems will stop recording when there is no change in light and start again when action takes place in the frame (change in light), this is why sometimes time will skip, there is simply nothing happening in the frame so the recorder essentially stops recording, the time stamp will jump to reflect clock time during the event. This is done to save space on the hard drives. The video on the right: they may have blurred the time so that people wouldn’t think the video had been tampered with due to the time skipping. Still really weird! There are other things at play here, such as why didn’t Security have the roof on lock down and how did she get into the damn container?

      • Well, and, as shown on a publicly released video of the LAPD Captain reporting on the episode – he said they looked at “100 hours of video” – 100 hours? From the elevator cam alone? From what other sources? People in security and law enforcement commonly use tricks on suspects where they will dramatically produce a tape recorder, set it on an interview table, and then say, “look, I’m shutting off the recorder.” This, to put the suspect at ease as they continue to record the interview surreptitiously from any of several other hidden sources. One must therefore think of any visible security camera as “an intimidation tactic” and not necessarily indicative of _all_ possible sources of video recording. I find it implausible that the Cecil didn’t have other sources recorded and that perhaps these are being covered up. If the hypothesis is true, that Ms. Lam may have been a guinea pig for some sickos testing inter-skull transmission capabilities, it would be easy to hide this kind of technology under the rubric of many statutes of national security law. It is hard for people to recognize such a possibility and thus they (very unscientifically I might add) immediately place this assessment into the “totally implausible” category.

      • 100 Hours is overkill, there’s no way! They would have been concentrating on the elevator cameras and lobby. Old hotels don’t have CCTV on the floors due to cost of retrofitting long cable runs

      • Not sure what “no way” means in this context as the LAPD Chief is on youtube reporting exactly that – 100 hours of video review. As to “long cable runs” – yeah, good answer, but there are now very affordable wireless systems that could be in use.

      • What I meant was that I don’t believe him. Wireless is terrible through concrete walls,but that’s the problem of management at that building, and we’re digressing. I just find it much more interesting that both the roof and water towers were unlocked. That’s a horrible error, had the access been impeded she wouldn’t get out in the first place. Unless you believe the conspiracy theorists of course, the people responsible for her death is management for not locking down the damn roof

      • Belief is one thing – error is another. There is no reason to believe she committed suicide. And there are so many ways other than taking a circuitous route to the roof (would have almost certainly been via the outside ladder – totally insecure and unsecured). This means that we find it plausible that this woman was so hallucinating or despondent or negative emotional state of your pick… that she goes up many floors – completely unaffected by seeing many stories below her as she ascends a ladder, emerges on a rooftop and says, “I know, I’ll drown myself in those tanks.” Or “I’ll go up even higher and in a much more awkward space and _see_ if killing myself is possible there.” This hypothesis does not stand up to Occam at all. Nor is there any conclusive evidence that she was so depressed.

        Further, the hand writing on the pump valve in between the tanks says: “Fecto c*!nt her summa” – apparently meaning, “in effect she was a total c*!nt.” Wouldn’t seem like her words somehow. There is also graffiti in the background on the roof that is obviously by the same hand. And, apparently one investigator found this handwriting on her website — except it was posted after she was dead.

        At some point, one has to open his mind to other possibilities. She was isolated and alone – had made her life very visible on Facebook, and it is not-at-all inconceivable that she could have inadvertently made herself subject to a weapons test. Investigage “voice to skull” technology. My reading of history suggests that conspiracy (call it planning if you like) is the _norm_ and not the exception.

      • Couple of “by the ways” for you specifically. You expressed doubt about the Captain’s public statement (on youtube) that they reviewed more than 100 hours of video. I find your comment “no way” to be quite suspicious in that I’m wondering how you could develop a rule of thumb or other guidance to suggest what the LAPD investigation time _should_be_ given a major murder mystery wherein the residents at a hotel have been drinking poisonous water for several days? Also, your explanation of the time-code discrepancy is casuistry – looks very plausible – what you say, but actually SMTP time code has the fixed time of recording and the TOD (time of day). These, whether edited or not, would be synched appropriately whether the camera was functioning or not. In other words, what would be available at all times would be a comparison reference of the time of day relative to the SMTP index. There is no reason to obscure this for any reason.

  40. What was she doing on the 14th floor? Her room was on the 8th floor. I would hope the police made a list and investigated everyone on that floor.

    As for her committing suicide, there have been some who say the elevator camera recording was made just before midnight, last night she was seen. Next day for her was checkout from the hotel. She never did.

    So that means if you were of the belief she was going to commit suicide in the tank on the top of the building she was then entering the elevator which did not allow her to get off on the roof. Why then enter the elevator at all. If she was going off to commit suicide she’d (1) have to have some plan for the roof where she was found, either jumping or (2) suicide by drowning in the water tank. Why would she have knowledge of these tanks on the roof?

    Was there a ladder in place for her to get up to the top of the tank? I cannot find that anywhere. I cannot see a way a person going into that water and be able to pull the lid over themselves. whether it was light or heavy, the lid flips back on what appears to be a piano hinge. The water was about 8 feet deep likely, she would sink a bit and not be able to reach lid. Was the top closed when they found her? Could someone have closed it then or later instead of Elisa? I’m speaking innocently unaware of a body in the tank prior to the finding of her.

    When she hides in the elevator at first it is in the back. She seems to be aware suddenly she could be viewed in the mirror and changes to the innermost corner next to the elevator panel. Is this so as not to be seen in the mirror? Who is she afraid of?

    She does obviously peer around the right side of the elevator toward the hall that branches off where someone could hide. Why does she choose to think it is from this direction she must worry of a the entrance of an intruder. Is there some significance to this or is it just that this direction affords the most logical place to be unseen.

    It is also said when she enters the elevator she presses all the buttons. I’m not sure I see that.

    • I like all of Barbara’s questions. Yes suicide makes no sense. You asked a critical question about access to the tanks. First off, there was a fire escape ladder to the roof. But as you point out, why mess with the elevator. And why push all the buttons. Second, there are no ladders on the roof-top images of the tanks except those placed there by fire and rescue after-the-fact. And wouldn’t it seem odd and obscure to drown yourself when an easy jump would do the job? Further, as I have mentioned before, the LAPD Chief said they watched 100 hours of video. Hunh? 100 hours? From only the elevator? I don’t believe that. It means that there are likely other video sources that are being suppressed.

  41. I wonder if maybe she threw her clothes over the side of the hotel? surely a transient would grab those up if its that close to skid row. but then you wonder why would she even bother to take her clothes off to “float” if she was planning on killing herself anyways? wouldnt she rather it be quick and not sit in that tank? plus, if she was checking out the next day wouldn’t the hotel staff find it odd she didnt? was there no belongings left in her room? no maid went up and cleaned it out for that many days? either way i found it very ODD and people are definitely hiding things. also, did they ever say if she had a prescription made out to her for her bi polar disorder? just curious as to how often it was refilled and used. if she was regularly taking it im sure it would have showed up in the toxicology report if they had done one the day they found her which im sure is like a protocol. and just to let everyone know, i am newly introduced to this case. i was aware of it awhile back but never took the time to really research it so any answers to my questions would be great.

  42. PLUS where is all the extra footage of that elevator and the other elevator?? and the rest of the hotel? surely that wasnt the only time she showed up on a camera… and why only that one video released? and why was it (possibly) altered with?? just too many things dont add up for someone to make the conclusion that it was accidental and THATS THAT.

  43. Strange Connection: “ConfusedTree”

    There may be a link between Elisa Lam’s disappearance and Josh Macedo aka “confused tree.”
    1. On Elisa’s tumblr page, http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/, filled with impersonal, commercial posts and videos, there is only one personalized video of a young man wearing a green sweater – that person is Macedo.
    2. In Macedo’s video on Elisa’s tumblr, he performs a dance similar to the movements that Elisa did in and out of the elevator.
    3. Macedo is from Canada as was Elisa. Although they may not have met in Canada, they obviously had a connection online. There is speculation that Elisa took a detour to the Cecil Hotel to meet an “online friend.”
    4. Macedo has a history of preying on young, vulnerable women as documented on this page.
    5. The words “Fecto Cunt Her Suma” are written on the water tank next to the water tower she was found inside. The Latin words translate into “In fact, she was a cunt.” The choice of words reveal a personal focus on one person. Perhaps a scorned lover?
    6. There are no reports that Macedo studied Latin, and there are no reports of where Macedo was in early 2013. However, the above coincidences are worth investigating. Does Macedo know anything about Elisa’s death?

  44. Her whole behaviour since she gets into the elevator seems completely odd to me. I’m not talking about pressing all the buttons or trying to hide, I’m talking about her body gestures.
    Please focus on these things : the way she raises her right arm at 0:05, her hands swinging at 0:14, her whole body at 0:24 (plus, is that the way someone would inspect the place when they are scared and trying to hide from something ?), they way she jumps outside of the elevator at 0:43, her legs’ position at 0:56, her hands swaying again at 1:09, then the most horrifying thing in this video : They way she waves her hands from 1:58 till 2:21. Her legs as well. It doesn’t look like she was having a conversation with someone. I don’t think she was waving her hands (that weird way) because she was in a state of panic either. It looks like she’s fixing her hair a few seconds later. Would someone in a state of panic worry about their hair ?

    I don’t know if that kind of weird body gestures can be associated with a psychological disorder. I’m in the medical field, but I haven’t seen something like that. (I’ve seen exagerated body movements, involuntary radom body movements but never something like that) But I haven’t studied psychiatry yet, so I can’t be sure of anything.

    But honestly speaking, her body gestures just remind me of a totally crazy experience I lived with 3 of my friends last november. We were celebrating a birthday and then we decided to try the Ouija board thing. That worked. Then one of my friends and I ended up doing abnormal body movements. We were conscient but couldn’t have full control of our bodies. I know that really is hard to believe, I wouldn’t believe it myself it I read such a story somewhere on the internet. But that just happened to me. And I wasn’t alone, nor having mental desorders. Those things do exist, people… We ended up receiving an exorcism, 2 days later. I hope no one ever lives such an awful experience, please never play such stupid crazy games.

    To go back to our topic, I’m not saying Elsa was possessed, I’m just saying that seeing her abnormal behaviour, it can also be a plausible hypothesis.

    I personnally think her death was accidental, wether she had full control of her body or not.
    May her soul rest in peace. It’s a very sad story, indeed.

  45. I just read about this for the first time and I have a theory myself. What if she did actually have a psychosis and someone played a sick game with her? Like, he saw her acting all strange and maybe as if someone followed her so he started following her and scaring her on purpose? And maybe he also followed her on the roof and found it funny that she wanted to climb in the tank, but when she didn’t come back out, he panicked and threw her clothes in there and got away. He could’ve easily taken her phone and continued his sick game through posting on her blog.
    That’s just my idea, but what do you think?

    • Sounds like children’s behavior. Three sex offenders were in the hotel. one man was 26 yr resident. If she hid there as a “Hide and Seek” game, it would be a cruel one. Though, knowing the hicks in our world, Petty Coat Junction – the residents may have swam in the tank on very hot days when air conditioner was unable to keep them cool. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-cecil25jan25_pg-photogallery.html I suspect foul play. I read her phone was stolen. That would have left her so vulnerable. Her family should have insisted she not travel alone. We live in a dangerous world where luck seems to determine a lot.

  46. Her phone was stolen. She is communicating with someone who is keeping the elevator door open using the button on the outside (in the hallway). She had to have consciously entered the water tank either by weapon-point or in effort to hide.

  47. So a friend of mine and I were watching some youtube video’s the other night and came across the story of Elisa Lam. I remembered hearing something about it when it happened but I hadn’t recalled very much. Any way I’ve been watching hours of videos and reading dozens of articles and feeds and here is my conclusion as to what I think happened.

    !. Elisa has a past of mental disorders and clear paranoia. She has been on lots of medication for such things and as stated earlier in this feed the police checked her last filled prescription which was sometime in early January, yet when they found her medication it was still mostly full, or at least fuller than it should have been. This would suggest that for whatever reason she hadn’t been taking her medication. The side effects of instantly stopping this medication or having her dosage decreased can result in a regression of her mental disorders and paranoia.

    2. She was visiting LA on a road trip by herself as a vacation. She knew the area was fairly rough when she got to her hotel and maybe even did some research in the Cecil to see how terrible of a history it actually was. For whatever reason she went that night to the 14th floor, possibly to meet with someone, or to see a view of the city from higher up.

    3. When she was ready to head down she walked into the elevator, clearly at ease and enjoying herself at this time, and went to push either her floor or the lobby. (My guess is on the lobby since she pressed a button at the bottom of the panel.) By accident she pressed the door open button, which has been previously shown to keep the doors of this particular elevator open for approximately 2 minutes. After pushing the button she waited in the corner for the elevator to move. But when she realized it wasn’t moving her mental issues began to creep in and her uncontrollable paranoia and she thinks someone is outside keeping it open. She peeks out then jumps out and no one is there so she walks back in. The elevator is still not moving and her anxiety is increasing and her paranoia is increasing so in a moment of panic she hits other floors to get it to move, and then checks the elevators sensors, doing anything she can to get it to close, but nothing she does is working. By this time she realizes that her treated disabilities are beginning to act up so she steps out of the elevator and uses a traditional asian method of tai chi (this is what her and and feet motions are…look it up) to calm herself down. Probably something that had been taught to her to deal with situations such as this. But with the lack of medication the technique is not working and her uncontrollable paranoia is getting to her to the point where she has to run from who she “thinks” is after her. She heads down the hallway and the first thing she finds is the fire exit. So taking it to the roof she looks for a place to hide and eventually finds the water tank. She climbs in and “whether or not she shuts the hatch isn’t important really” and can’t get out. Realizing her cloths are dragging her down she takes them all off, which is completely viable in this situation (as I’ve been a lifeguard and have had to practice this same thing as well as swim fully clothed and I can attest to the huge amount of increased difficulty) She eventually can’t keep her strength up and drowns.

    4. The piece of evidence I can’t place and is still extremely perplexing is the video footage. (There is both 54 seconds missing from the tape and through study of the time stamp the video has been slightly slowed down exaggerating all of her movements.) I don’t have any conclusive explanation for either of these, only some less grounded theories that I won’t explain here.

    5. All in all it is a very sad tragic event. R.I.P. Elisa Lam.

    P.S. Also the coincidences to Dark Water 2006 are incredibly freaky and there always could have been a more demonic force at work here.

  48. I need to get a timestamp on a tumblr post to the second. Can someone please advise how to do this? I have quite a few alredy but need the one posted on the 12th Feb 13 to Gayleaf – ?

    Any assistance appreciated , F12… F5 something

  49. Pingback: The Death of Elisa Lam – examiningenigmas

  53. Pingback: The Bone-Chilling And Mysterious Death Of Elisa Lam - UFO Insight

  56. I think she had a psychose when i saw her in the elevator.
    She was paranoïde.
    And the film of that little girl with the red jacket in the film is in her head.
    She had to do the same from the voices in her had.

    I have a sister who was also missing one day and she was travelling to New York to tell the word of God on the streets for 3 days.
    All this was also based on a film, and my sister was stopped with her medication.
    After a week she returned to the airport Schiphol in the Netherlands.
    The police was waiting there to pick her op.
    No shoes on and she was very dirty.
    So, it happens these strange things.

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