Accident Or Something More Sinister? Inside The Death Of Elisa Lam At L.A.’s Cecil Hotel

A Canadian tourist who was staying at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles suddenly went missing. When her body was found in a rooftop water tank on the property weeks later, police initially ruled her death an accident — but speculation, theories and wild rumors about what happened to her have persisted ever since.

On Jan. 28, 2013, Lam, a 21-year-old student, checked into the Cecil Hotel. The 19-floor, 700-room hotel, located in a rough area of downtown L.A. known as “skid row”, is famous for its often-sketchy history that includes multiple unsolved murders, according to KNBC.

Lam was on a solo trip at the time, and she planned to check out of the hotel on Feb. 1 following a four-day stay.

According to Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, the Netflix documentary by director Joe Berlinger, Lam’s family last heard from her on Jan. 31, her third day in the city. They reported her missing to police the following day.

Investigators looking into Lam’s case obtained surveillance video from the Cecil Hotel. Video later released by the LAPD shows Lam at an elevator possibly speaking with someone and the elevator doors failing to close. She then enters and exits the elevator and appears to behave oddly.

Detectives were unable to determine what happened to Lam based on the video, and a subsequent floor-by-floor search of the hotel turned up no trace of her.

Weeks after Lam was last heard from, the hotel began to receive complaints from guests about shower water pressure as well as discolored and foul-tasting water. A worker scaled a 10-foot ladder attached to the rooftop water tank, moved a 20-pound lid and made the grisly discovery of Lam’s body floating face up.

Lam reportedly was naked and her clothing, which appeared to be similar to what she was seen wearing in the elevator surveillance video, was found in the tank with her.

A coroner ruled Lam’s death an accidental drowning. Police reportedly believed the student, who was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, for some reason hid in the water tank and drowned.

Through the years, multiple theories about Lam’s disappearance have popped up, including one of the most common: She was the victim of foul play. Others believe supernatural activity may be to blame.

Documentarian Berlinger, however, notes that what he considers the more outlandish narratives “are incredibly disrespectful,” the BBC reported.

Amy Price, the hotel’s manager at the time of Lam’s stay, told the Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel documentary that “from the beginning” she had a “bad feeling” about Lam’s disappearance.

“She was traveling alone and I really thought that she must have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd and that wouldn't be hard to do in downtown Los Angeles,” she said.