Elisa Lam Mysteries

    Ranging from the odd display of movement in the elevator, to the fact that she ended up in a water tank with no signs of trauma, Elisa Lam is one of the most popular and confusing mysteries in the conspiracy theory world. It is possible that she was possessed and killed herself, and that she was trying to enter another dimension through the elevator, and it all went wrong. The death in the end was ruled as an accidental death, but there are many theories on how this couldn’t be the truth. As mentioned in The Wrap, “Lams death was ruled as an accidental death due to drowning, and her bipolar disorder was a factor” (Verhoeven 1).   

 

      To begin, Elisa Lam was born on April 30, 1991. Lams family immigrated to Canada and attended school at University Hill Secondary (“Elisa Lam” 1). She ended up visited Los Angeles alone because she really wanted to see the city. The Cecil Hotel she planned to stay at was open in 1927 and had a lot of speculation around from locals due to the history of the hotel (Wahi 1). The Hotel was blamed for its odd persona because of how close it was to Skid Row, being a place where lots of homeless people would stay and how high crime rates are in that area. In total there have been 16 deaths at the Cecil Hotel, whether they are murders or unexpected death people find this place to have an odd vibe altogether. The Hotel has become a spot for crimes and drugs, making it more dangerous. Even the famous serial killer known as the ‘boogeyman’ Richard Ramirez, stayed here during his massive killings at the time.  Elisa Lam was an odd and mysterious person who had an overall confusing case surrounding her death.  

     

 Continuing, Elisa Lam was perceived as an odd person due to her actions in the elevator on her last day of living. Through the grainy video the Cecil Hotel released after the conclusion of the case, when Lam enters the elevator, she presses down on a column of buttons, and she steps her foot outside and inside the elevator, she then begins to do odd motions with her hands (Nguyen 1). It is thought that she is hiding from someone or something or having a manic episode. It is stated in the autopsy reports Elisa Lam had a lack of her medicine in her system when her body was found; this means she wasn’t taking her medication for her bipolar disorder which may have contributed to the odd display of actions. It was also proven that she had no illegal drugs in her system, and she wasn’t drinking. Through an autopsy report, doctors say that she was having a psychotic episode before her passing, however the autopsy ended up giving inconceivable results and showed no signs of trauma (Dean 1). This means that there was no sign of any force for her to go into the water tank and may as well be perceived as a willing action.   

 

     Elisa Lam also spent lots of her time on her social media blog. It is said that she posted on this blog about a dozen times a day (Oxygen Official Site 1). Elisa Lam spent time posting about how people shouldn’t be asking ‘why’ someone has depression, and more so spend the time to try and lend them a hand and help (1). She’d also try to promote a positive mental health by saying “Your mental health is more important than your GPA”, or saying “I’m not a professional depressed person, and you guys remind me of that” (1). Elisa Lam seemed like a sad person who just wanted people to admire her or to have friends. Judging from the amount she spent on her social media, she must’ve had a lot of thoughts going through her mind and trying to have a positive look on life, so it was very confusing how she ended up drowning herself.  

 

     Elisa Lam was deemed a mysterious person due to her disappearance and how she ended up in the water tank undetected. Her time at the Cecil Hotel was very limited, and she didn’t leave much for anything. Her room showed no signs of forced entry, and everything seemed to be in normal places. Police saw that she had only been to the bookstore and the hotel, not having been many places the speculation on where Elisa Lam could’ve been while she was missing. Days later she was found dead in the water tank. (Claire 1). Most of the popularity on Elisa Lam’s case came from the grainy video the Cecil Hotel came out with.  Lam was seen as an odd and mysterious person. 

 

     A lot of ideas are brought onto how Elisa Lam managed to make it into the water tank on the hotel’s roof without getting caught, or how Elisa Lam made it on to the roof, when it should’ve been locked in guests. An interior staircase that led to the roof had an alarm that supposedly worked, however no alarm sounded when Elisa made it on to the roof.  Police said that it was odd how she managed to make it onto the roof without alerting any staff, but there were no signs of fingerprints, and it would have been difficult to do such a crime with no trace of fingerprints. People are also confused about how she managed to slip past the alarms, climb up a 10-foot ladder, and lift the heavy water tank lid while going undetected, hotel staff say the lid is 20 pounds (Torres 1). It was also indicated Elisa Lam undressed herself before getting into the tank because she was found with her undressed clothes in the tank next to her.   

 

       Elisa Lam’s case was an odd and mysterious case due to different details within her life and the case itself. Some questions remain on Elisa Lam and how all these events happened so perfectly without her getting caught by hotel staff, or about why Elisa Lam acted in the elevator video as she did. The main theory for Elisa Lams case was due to Elisa’s lack of taking medication, where she experienced a manic episode that led to her unfortunate death. On Elisa’s Tumblr she would talk about how frustrating her mental illnesses and her trouble with her medication. Some of her web followers suggested that she should skip her medication during her trip in order to feel “normal”. (Torres 1) Another question from followers are how the police managed to not find Elisa Lams body, despite searching all the hotel including the roof with dogs. I think that something else may have initially happened, but not a murder.   

 

The 3 main theories that were interesting and I felt like a possibility were Elisa was a tuberculosis subject, Elisa was trying to open a portal into another dimension, or Elisa was misusing substances. The main theory ruled by police was that she was undertaking her medication which made her go through a psychotic episode which unfortunately led her to her death. I think that Elisa may have been a tuberculosis subject due to evidence supporting this claim. 

    After Elisa Lam died, there was a tuberculosis outbreak on the street over from the Cecil Hotel called Skid Row. This affected many of the homeless people on skid row. “The test for tuberculosis was her name but backwards Lam-Elisa” (Nguyen 1). The speculation of this started to begin on Reddit and became a popular theory on what really happened to Elisa Lam.  It was also discovered that Lam was a student at the University of British Columbia, which has a tuberculosis testing center within the facility. The theory is that Elisa was sent to control the homeless population on Skid Row. It is interesting how the testing has her name backwards, which makes it hard to say it had nothing to do with Elisa Lam. It is said that the motions she was doing in the elevator is like the side effects of the drug “Isoniazid’ which is confusion and abnormal behavior.  

            Another theory surrounding Elisa’s death is that she was trying to enter another dimension. The game is Korean, and the object of the game is to try to enter another dimension. How to play the game is: “find a building with at least 10 floors, make sure to be along and that no one else joins you in the elevator throughout the process otherwise you must start over, press the button to get to the sixth floor do not get out, then go to the second floor and tenth floor, if you press to go to the first floor and the doors open do not speak or look back, once you reach the tenth floor if you choose to get off the woman may ask you a question and call your name, do NOT answer her, now you have reached the overworld.” There are similarities between the elevator video and this game. For example, Elisa pressed and arrayed off buttons and went to several different floors as seen in the grainy video. However, Elisa did look back multiple times, indicating that she failed the game which may be why her body reacted as it did. 

To conclude, Elisa Lam was a mysterious person and had a case to define it. It is believed that there was no murder, but something may have initially happened before her unfortunate death, and that it wasn’t an accidental death. The coincidences are too similar when it comes to the tuberculosis subject when it comes to having Elisa’s name in the subject, and how she showed the common side effects of someone who was being used for subjecting. However, the mystery remains on how she made it onto the roof undetected, or why the video the hotel released had lots of cuts or seemed to be in slow motion. One day we may find out what truly happened, and it will most likely not be related to an accidental death. 

  

  

  

Works Cited 

 

 “Elisa Lam.” Biography, https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/elisa-lam. Accessed 27 Sept. 2021.  

“Heartbreaking Tumblr Posts Made By Elisa Lam Before She Mysteriously Died At The Cecil Hotel.” Oxygen Official Site, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/elisa-lam-wrote-tumblr-posts-ahead-of-her-death-at-the-cecil-hotel.  

Clair, Josh St. “The True Story of What Happened to Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel.” Men’s Health, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a35410248/elisa-lam-death-vanishing-cecil-hotel-true-story/  

Dean, Josh. “Elisa Lam’s Autopsy Report.” Medium, 27 Oct. 2015, https://medium.com/@jddean/elisa-lam-s-autopsy-report-98c3ec03c309  

Nguyen, Stacey. “LAM-ELISA Test For Tuberculosis.” POPSUGAR Entertainment, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.popsugar.com/node/48140211. 

Nguyen, Stacey. “Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel: Key Details From the Troubling Elisa Lam Elevator Video.” POPSUGAR Entertainment, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.popsugar.com/node/48128799.  

The Elevator Game: Entrance to the Otherworld – Silence of the Night. https://sites.psu.edu/silenceofthenight/2017/09/21/the-elevator-game-entrance-to-the-otherworld/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021. 

Torres, Libby. “7 Questions We Still Have about Elisa Lam’s Death after Watching ‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.’” Insider, https://www.insider.com/elisa-lam-netflix-crime-scene-vanishing-at-the-cecil-hotel-2021-2. Accessed 27 Sept. 2021.  

Verhoeven Beatrice, “The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel:” 8 Most Shocking Details on the Elisa Lam Case. The Wrap, https://www.thewrap.com/crime-scene-vanishing-cecil-hotel-elisa-lam-most-shocking-details/2021, www.thewrap.com/crime-scene-vanishing-cecil-hotel-elisa-lam-most-shocking-details/    

Wahi, Sukriti. “6 Disturbing True Facts Behind The Infamous Cecil Hotel From Netflix’s ‘Crime Scene’ Docuseries.” ELLE, https://www.elle.com.au/culture/cecil-hotel-history-24660. Accessed 27 Sept. 2021.