The Strange Case Of Elisa Lam (CCTV Footage)

Elisa Lam inside the Cecil Hotel's elevator

February 2013, a 21 years old student from Vancouver, Canada was found dead inside the Cecil Hotel's rooftop water tank in Los Angeles. The L.A. County Department of Coroner ruled the death "accidental due to drowning" and said no traces of drugs or alcohol were found during the autopsy. However, there more to the story than what is implied by police reports. The first piece of evidence that need to be considered is an elevator surveillance tape that recorded Elisa's behaviour only a few moments before she die.

The four-minute video shows Elisa pressing all of the elevator buttons and waiting for it to move. Seeing that elevator doors are not closing, starts behaving extremely bizarrely. At first, Elisa enters the elevator and apparently presses all of its buttons. She then waits for something to happen but, for some reason, the elevator door doesn't shut. She starts to look around, as if she is expecting (or hiding from) someone. At 1:57, her arms and hands moving in a very strange matter (almost not human) as she appears to be talking to someone, something or nothing at all. She then walks away. The elevator door then shuts and access to the rooftop of the hotel, climbed to its water tank and somehow, ended up drowning in it. Her body was found two weeks after her death, after hotel guests complained about the water's taste and colour.

Seeing the surveillance footage, most people would conclude that she was under the influence of drugs. However, Elisa did not have a history of drug use and her autopsy concluded that no drugs were involved. When one looks at the context and the circumstances of this death, things become even more mysterious. The Cecil Hotel has a morbid reputation as it become notorious for numerous suicides and murder, as well as lodging famous serial killers.