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Traveling to a foreign country is something most college kids dream of. From visiting iconic locations to trying new food, traveling is on the bucket list of many. Unfortunately for Elisa Lam, her dream experience didn't end with bringing home souvenirs. It ended with her tragic loss of life. The Cecil Hotel seemed like a cheap and iconic place to rest for a few days, despite the public knowledge of its history.
Now rebranded and renamed to "Stay on Main" due to its unfortunate past, nothing will erase the dark tales that live on within the century-old walls. The lodge served as an inexpensive hostel on the infamous Skid Row, known for drugs and violence. The Cecil Hotel is famous for being the hub for a number of high-profile people.
including the Night Stalker in the mid-1980s. It was said that Richard Ramirez lived on the top floor around 1985, before being found out about his killer past. While the murders were not known when he was staying there,
The timeline of his killing spree pinpoints the Cecil Hotel's location as one of his potential starting points during his stay. The 1980s wasn't the first time death lurked over the hotel though, as rumors have swirled around since the late 1940s regarding Elizabeth Short and the Cecil Hotel.
Elizabeth Short, the epicenter of the Black Dahlia murder, was a stunning young woman who tried to make it in Hollywood after she left her mother's home in Massachusetts. She was a regular around the area, visiting bars with her friends and meeting new people. But witnesses state that the last place she was seen was the Cecil Hotel. Just a short time later, her body was found dismembered on a patch of grass near a vacant lot. However,
Others have tried to disprove her final appearance at the haunted hotel. Murders and missing persons cases weren't the only things that surrounded the hotel. In fact, at one point, the building was nicknamed the Suicide Hotel, as many people killed themselves in their rooms or jumped from a high point to kill themselves. A website called The Room Spook has documented each suicide at the hotel, listing at least a baker's dozen.
While there are many explained deaths at the hotel, there are more than 16 that are unexplained. Paranormal hunters have tried to visit the souls that haunt the Cecil, and many have had luck, although the weary have had their doubts on the legitimacy. Elisa Lam was a college student from Vancouver, and her parents were incredibly weary of her traveling alone in a new country.
young, bright, and ready to see the world, it had always been her dream to explore and travel. Her parents initially objected to her traveling alone as a way to gain leverage with her parents to allow her to go. She promised to check in every single day and keep them updated on her travels. When she arrived in Los Angeles, it was January 26th, 2013. Little did she know,
she would be reported missing just a few days later. Her stay started in late January at the Cecil Hotel, the infamous true crime ridden lodging location. Confirmation from the hotel's lawyer states that her roommates complained about her rather odd behavior, so she was forced to switch to another room shortly after arriving. It wasn't long after that, no one heard from Elisa.
which was penned as odd from her parents, who state that she was in touch with them every day of her trip. The once communicative Lam who promised her parents was now silent with no explanation. Lam was set to check out on the 1st of February, as Santa Cruz was the next destination on her traveling itinerary.
Unfortunately, she wasn't around to check out of her room. And that's when suspicions rose amongst the hotel staff, occupants, and those who know her. Lam's parents, Yena and David Lam, wasted no time reporting her disappearance to the local police department. The couple feared her mental illness or a crazed serial kidnapper had put her in harm's way. Despite being in a heavily populated area of Los Angeles,
Very few people saw Elisa Lam towards the end of her stay. Police were able to confiscate the hotel's CCTV footage to review her last steps, but they quickly realized that this wasn't going to be a typical missing persons case. Since they were unable to find any leads on her case, they decided to release the footage to the public in hopes it would spark interest and aid in finding more answers.
Soon after, the elevator footage of Elisa went viral, but not for any predictable reasoning. The footage, which took place mostly in an elevator, showed Lam acting very skittish and paranoid.
The elevator door rarely shut for some minutes, prompting viewers to believe something paranormal may be going on. Elisa was caught on camera, mouthing words to herself, and appearing as if she was looking or waiting for someone to come in the elevator door.
Despite selecting every button in the elevator, the door didn't shut, allowing Elisa to walk out and back into the elevator. She peered around the corners of the elevator as if she was looking for someone. Other theories on the infamous elevator video include tampered evidence to protect someone's identity and Elisa potentially trying to get someone to stop following her.
Because of the unsettling vibe to the CCTV videos, they racked up millions of views on a Chinese sharing website called Youku and millions on various sites in the States. Many viewers played it off as her being on some sort of drug or blaming her past mental health struggles, but internet sleuths wouldn't take that for an answer.
Her mental health history included bipolar disorder, and she posted public blogs documenting her struggles for years prior. However, her parents deemed that she was mentally fit enough to travel alone. A snippet of the video that went viral prompted news stations around the country to dive deeper into her disappearance. It wouldn't be until three weeks after that a break in the case would reignite how odd and suspicious her case started out.
Guests at the Cecil Hotel stated that their water tasted odd, and some even had black come out of their hotel room faucets. The staff panicked and immediately called for the on-shift maintenance worker, Santiago Lopez, to head up to the water tanks on the roof. Being a maintenance worker, he was one of the few that had access to these large tanks.
He had been an employee at the hotel for over three years when this incident occurred. So he was very familiar with what it took to maintain the tanks and reach these tanks by himself. It's important to note that the hotel's roof was not a public location that anyone could gain access to. Upon opening the lid to the first tank,
Santiago found Lam's lifeless body floating at the top. Along with her body, Santiago found that she was naked and some of her personal items were floating around her decaying corpse. Horrified, he reported his findings and police were unseen shortly after. They were forced to drain the tanks completely and cut them open as her body proved hard to pull out. Days later, a toxicology report proved the drug pusher's wrong.
She only had evidence of her prescribed medication in her system, and she had a very small amount of alcohol in her badly decomposed body. Because of this, the police could not blame her behavior and disappearance entirely on that, though they had to also include her mental illness as a factor. A local bookstore associate, Kate Orfin, doesn't believe it was suicide, as she was one of the only people to see her before her days of doom.
Elisa bought music and reading materials for her family back home in Canada. And it didn't seem as if she wasn't planning to go back home. More than three years later, the death of Elisa Lam has continued to haunt their mind. The fact that it doesn't feel like a very satisfying conclusion to her story, I think, has helped keep it fresh in my mind. But it also just seems almost a dismissive way of looking at her death and just saying, "Well, it was an accident and we're done."
She went on to further state, "Mysteries like this should not remain unsolved, of course." This new information prompted many new conspiracy theories to start as the toxicology report didn't match up with internet speculation or how she was acting.
Within this toxicology report, it was also noted that she didn't have any trauma on her body and there was no sexual assault documented. It was becoming increasingly hard for her parents to believe that her own behavior and minor consumption of alcohol caused her to act the way she did. After all, there is still no footage or clear proven way as to how Elisa got into the water tank by herself.
While there still has been no new information on how she may have died, the Los Angeles Police Department wrapped up the toxicology report by stating her death was accidental drowning with her mental health being a significant factor in how she passed. It's worth noting that it took four months for the coroner's office to release the report. Of course, local reporters aren't brushing off the story that easily. NBC Los Angeles' Lolita Lopez states,
In over 22 years of doing this job as a news reporter, this is one of those cases that kind of sticks with me because we know the who, what, when, where, but the why is always the question.
As we mentioned, armchair detectives online didn't want to take the released toxicology report as the full truth. This was because it was released online to the public, which allowed the inexperienced and the seasoned to investigate further.
A Redditor created a write-up stating that while she had taken a second antidepressant, it wasn't the same day as she went missing. In fact, she had only taken one the day of her disappearance and another was absent from her body entirely.
Because of the newly released details of her medicine schedule, many believe that a manic episode may have further encouraged her elevator behavior. This, backed up with the lawyer's findings of complaints from her roommates, allowed the staff of the Cecil Hotel to be at peace with the basic how and why questions of her death that their investigation came to.
A manic episode may have played a large part in the surveillance footage, but none of this explains how she got up there to begin with and how she drowned. It's worth mentioning that the autopsy was marked as incomplete, as her body was far too decomposed to examine her blood. While the initial report states that there was no foul play, there has been no clear-cut reasoning on how she got up there to begin with.
The entirety of her demise was up to speculation and she wasn't around to defend herself from those blaming her mental illness.
Lam's parents understandably filed a wrong death lawsuit against the hotel, stating that the hotel's most dangerous areas weren't safely secured. Their attorney went on to mention that they would like the hotel to "inspect and seek out hazards in the hotel that presented an unreasonable risk of danger to Lam and other hotel guests." Though anyone in their right mind would agree with this claim,
the hotel was able to fire back with what they believed was a reasonable response and got the lawsuit dismissed. In short, they stated that there was no reason someone would be able to get up there or want to be up there. Basically, because Elisa supposedly managed to get into those tanks on her own, the hotel cannot be at fault. In short, her actions were based on the age-old phrase, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
The maintenance worker who found her jumped through hoops to get into the water tank area, which makes it look even more suspicious that Elisa was able to get in on her own. Elisa was a petite young woman who seemed to be much more fragile than a seasoned maintenance man. So why was it easy for her and so tough for someone who has done it before? Lopez, the maintenance worker.
documented what it takes to actually get onto the roof and then get yourself into one of those tanks. He too thought it was a bit suspicious that Elisa was able to get in with seemingly no problem. To get into this location, one would have to take the elevator to the 15th floor. Simple, right? Not exactly. There were more steps to get to the first water tank.
Once off the elevator, one would have to climb the staircase to the roof and then turn off an alarm completely in order to access the roof. How did Elisa get past this point without being heard or seen? This parameter was put into place specifically to stop occupants from visiting the roof. Once the alarm had been shut off, someone would have to climb on top of the tanks.
the hatch for the tank weighs around 20 pounds. So opening with one hand and having her personal belongings in the other seems impossible. Lopez documents what happened leading up to the events. I noticed the hatch to the main water tank was open and looked inside and saw an Asian woman lying face up in the water, approximately 12 inches from the top of the tank.
Santiago Lopez went even further to say that it would be incredibly difficult for someone to do all of this, especially those who didn't work at the hotel, all while getting away with it. Surely a manic episode would make someone more visible to others. Only those who work at the hotel can deactivate the door alarm that allows people onto the roof. What's even crazier?
is that the alarm sound is triggered at the front desk. So others would have also heard it and they would be forced to send someone up. The alarm isn't a silent buzz either. It's one that can be heard from both the 14th and 15th floors as well. The alarm wasn't going off at all, meaning it's possible that someone was covering it up at the front desk or staff accidentally left it open.
Furthermore, the chief engineer of the hotel elaborated on how many ways someone can access the roof. There are three different fire escapes that can be accessed through interior doors and another staircase from the 14th floor. Despite these ways, there was still an alarm to deactivate to get onto the roof.
For Elisa to get away with all of this, she would have to have some crazy connection that allowed her permission from someone to get in, and then someone at the front desk to okay shutting off the alarm. Because of this, true crime lovers believe someone or multiple people who worked at the hotel were involved in her death.
When the Netflix documentary was released about her disappearance, Santiago Lopez stated that the tank was open, whereas the local police department believed it was closed by a suspect. On the Netflix documentary, Mike Baugh was a traveler that remembered seeing Elisa Lam with his wife Sabina. The two were convinced that someone on staff did something sinister to her.
Mike commented that one of the policemen said that when she was discovered, the lid was shut. But the guy who found her said the lid was open. When the police officer was interviewed, there was some communication error, and he just said something that wasn't true, so that kicked off all of the conspiracies. Dr. John Heizerow, who once worked as a deputy coroner in Pittsburgh, doesn't agree with the toxicology report ruling.
Since he had completed thousands of autopsies during his career, he knew firsthand that this case was far from normal. The fact that they were so quick to rule her tragedy an accident was quite questionable, and he believes that it's possible someone may have strangled her and threw her in the tank naked.
Besides the four ways mentioned, the only abnormal way someone could get onto the roof to get themselves in a tank is to scale a ladder after jumping out of a window onto a platform. To do so without experience and without visible injury would be near impossible. Dr. Heizerow continued, that's why I say the better manner of death in this case is undetermined.
"Anytime someone loses somebody they love, it should mean something. It should matter." The bookstore associate, Kate Orfin, stated with emotion, "People should remember her. Her and others all over the world believe foul play lurked the halls of the Cecil Hotel, and a rebranding wouldn't change a thing."
To this day, there has been no new information on the mystery of Elisa Lam and her parents have kept a low profile after they became heartbroken by a judge's dismissal of their case. After all, the world agreed that something was off. Why couldn't the judge see that as well? Since the 2015 ruling, they've kept incredibly quiet and have tried to get as much peace as possible for what little information they were presented with.
Once her body was found, it was transported back to Barnaby to her parents, where they buried her and found physical closure. Having their baby home was a step in the process, but unfortunately, they were never going to truly get her back. Earlier this year, PopSugar completed a timeline of Elisa Lam's disappearance, but unfortunately, it boasted no new clues and didn't ignite any new leads in her case.
On January 28th, Elisa checked into the hotel with other guests and was placed on the fifth floor. Since the hotel is noted as a hostel, it's not uncommon to share a room with others for a cheaper price.
Once the other occupants reported her odd behavior, she was then moved to another room. January 31st, Lam was last seen two days later at the last bookstore by Kate Orfin. This was the day that she never rang her parents, despite being alive for at least a portion of the day. When her parents contacted police, they flew into Los Angeles between January 31st and February 2nd,
On February 6th, the police held a public press conference noting the details of Elisa Lam's disappearance with her family. Although the family appeared, they didn't make any comments. A week later, on February 13th, the Los Angeles Police Department released footage of Elisa in the elevator. The same footage that went viral and skyrocketed the case into infamy.
It was stated that there was no additional footage of her leaving the hotel, so she was not lured or kidnapped away. Six days later, on February 19th, Santiago Lopez found her body in one of the water tanks, three weeks after she went missing. Once the hotel and police were notified, the local health department sent out an order to the hotel called a "do not drink order."
It wasn't until four months and one day later that the coroner issued their findings. Elisa Lam's cause of death was accidental drowning, with mental illness being a significant factor. Since her body was decomposed rather terribly, there were some tests that couldn't be completed because of the state of her body. Their conclusion was that she must have gone through a fire escape and entered the water tank in an odd state of mind, drowning herself.
Three months later, on September 20th, Yena and David Lam, Elisa's parents, completed filing a wrongful death suit. Unfortunately, this case went on for two years until it was later dismissed.
While her parents have remained quiet since the dismissal of her case, the Ghost Adventures team did a special in December of 2020 highlighting the Cecil Hotel. There was an additional light shown on Elisa Lam's case. Noted as the first and last time the Cecil Hotel had allowed cameras in their establishment for a paranormal investigation, the team hoped to make a supernatural connection. The team hoped this not only for viewers, but possibly for some closure for the family.
Zach Bagans spoke about the hotel and the special they filmed. "We've been trying to get inside these rooms for more than a decade, so this is really a big deal." The first ever paranormal investigation in the Cecil Hotel.
It has a dark history and reputation, and is one of the heaviest places we've ever been in. This is not your average hotel. With its connection to serial killer Richard Ramirez and the disturbing death of Elisa Lam, it's undeniable that there are spirits inside this building. But the question is who or what are they?
During the special, Bagans and the team tried to retrace the final steps of Elisa Lam and brought in extra help from psychic Marty and Michael Perry to assist with the investigation. Not only did they investigate the elevator, but also the room that she occupied, as well as the water tanks. They are sure that there is something sinister lurking that a renovation won't get rid of.
There were multiple instances where the team had been physically hurt from the entities, showing that they had been scratched without a logical explanation. Coupled with their minor physical injuries, the team was also able to capture audio and visual evidence, convincing many that the Cecil Hotel's halls are being haunted by those who've entered another plane of existence. Zach continued,
I wanted to try to explore the theory that she may have been influenced by something, some kind of dark entity, possibly conjured by a serial killer like Richard Ramirez, who was said to have done rituals on the very roof where they discovered her body.
The death of Elisa Lam wasn't the last tragic and odd incident to occur. Just two and a half years after Elisa Lam's death, a 28-year-old man was found on the sidewalk next to the hotel after jumping from a high point at the hotel. While there were clear injuries from falling, yet another coroner from the Los Angeles Police Department stated the cause of death could not be determined.
It was stated that the young man wasn't staying at the hotel, as it was closed for renovations, but was able to get access to a floor high enough to jump. The victim's name had never been released.
During Amy Price's management tenure from 2007 to 2017 at the Cecil Hotel, she believed there had been around 80 deaths. This number has left people divided as it's located on Skid Row, a dangerous area, but also raised questions on safety protocols in the hotel. Since 2015, there haven't been any deaths at the establishment, but only because the renovations for the new hotel have been ongoing since it was sold.
The same year the hotel was closed for renovations, the city of Los Angeles unanimously voted on making the Cecil Hotel a historical cultural monument. Plans for the hotel include completely redesigning the rooftop and allowing guests to be able to visit high in the sky as an amenity.
Around 264 of the units will remain affordable to those on Skid Row, and the other 299 will remain as hotel rooms after the renovations are completed. Although, rumors across travel websites like Yelp have stated the location is closed permanently.
Despite the location being shut down, past occupants are still leaving online reviews to this day to let others know about their possible five degrees of Elisa Lam and their connection to the creepy yet historical location.