The Peculiar Case of Elisa Lam
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Photo: LAPD
The mysterious death of Elisa Lam has puzzled everyone from armchair sleuths to bonafidefide detectives. Her manner of death, along with the video of her final moments, made the case go viral in 2013. Internet sleuths came up with conspiracy theories to try and make sense of the strange events – going as far as saying it was a government cover-up of a tuberculosis outbreak. But the reality of her death, detectives would say, is a heartbreaking case of mental illness.
Her disappearance
Elisa Lam, a Canadian university student, disappeared from Los Angeles during her stay at the Cecil Hotel in January 2013. She was on a trip up the coast when she stopped communicating with her parents. Her parents were worried about her travelling alone, so Lam was supposed to check in with them daily by phone. When she didn’t call on January 31st, the day she was supposed to check out of the hotel, her parents filed a missing person’s report. Her personal belongings, including her medications, were still at the hotel. Police searched the hotel and the surrounding area but found no sign of Lam. That’s when the viral footage was released.
The Elevator Footage
The elevator footage is part of what makes this case so confounding. Lam is seen on camera in the elevator, popping in and out of the doors and hugging the wall as if hiding from someone. Halfway through the video, she seems like she’s talking to someone in the hall in front of the elevator, but there’s no one else in the footage. She makes strange hand movements that had some sleuths theorizing that she was high or drunk. This is the last time Elisa Lam was seen alive.
Discovery
According to the LA Times, on February 19th, 2013, guests at the Cecil Hotel complained that the water pressure was low and it was coming out brown. A maintenance worker checked the water tank on the roof, only to discover Elisa Lam deceased inside one of the tanks. She was found naked with her clothes beside her in the tank. There was no evidence of injury or trauma that would’ve suggested homicide.
What Really Happened?
Photo: KTLA
These findings don’t take away from the peculiarity of this case. For Lam to make it into the tank, she would have had to climb one of the three fire escapes after climbing out of a window or go through a locked door to the roof, which would have set off an alarm. The maintenance worker at the hotel stated that the alarms were in working condition on the day she died, and they did not go off. She then would’ve had to open the 20-pound lid to the tank and close it behind her. With all of this in mind, people were skeptical that she would’ve done that all herself. An army of web sleuths tried to crack the case.
Theories
Theories on Elisa Lam’s death ran rampant from the moment the investigation went viral. Many speculated that it was a cover-up by the hotel staff or the police. Since the only door to the roof (other than the fire escapes) had an alarm that went off without a key, one of the main theories was that a hotel worker murdered her. In the Netflix series The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, former LAPD officer Greg Kading explained that theory was not likely as Lam’s body would’ve sustained injuries from being carried up a ladder and shoved into the tank. The show covers one of the wildest theories, in which the US government was experimenting with tuberculosis on Skid Row, where the Cecil Hotel was located, and Lam was meant to start an outbreak. This sparked because the tuberculosis test was named “Lam-Elisa.” There was no evidence for this in the autopsy report.
The main contributing factor was that Lam had bipolar disorder. Many people argued that she took medication for her disorder, but according to the autopsy report, she was not taking her medications at the correct dose. Judy Ho, a clinical psychologist, stated in The Vanishing that this could easily lead to a psychotic episode. Detective Tennelle, the lead investigator, theorized that Lam fell off her medication, causing her to hallucinate and act erratically, which explains her behaviour in the elevator. He continued that she most likely climbed into the tank when it was full, but as guests used water, the water level went down, making her escape from the tank impossible. Despite these theories, we still don’t know what happened that night to make her climb into the tank.
Shannon Brownell is a student in the Professional Writing program at Algonquin College who lives in Ottawa, Ontario. She’s originally from Calgary, Alberta, and has her horticulture technician certification. She loves horror movies and writing about anything spooky. Her favourite horror movies are Scream, Midsommar, and The Others.
