Research Project

The Cecil Hotel has it’s dark reputation as the home of countless serial killers, murders, and suicide deaths. On February 19th, 2013, the body of “Lam Ho Yi”, or better known as Elisa Lam, was discovered in the hotel’s main water tanks on the top of the hotel (“Elisa Lam”). The public was given very little about the case, except for the surveillance recording of Elisa’s extremely strange behavior in the elevator (Berlinger). She would walk in, press multiple buttons and hide in the corner, peek in and out, and even walk out, talking and gesturing wildly with her hands (Romero). This left immense room for speculation, such as it was a suicide attempt, an accident during a manic episode, or someone from the hotel was behind it all. Let’s look into what we know about the event, and the most likely cause being an accidental death.

Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman from Vancouver, British Columbia, who was traveling the West Coast of California in search of a new university opportunity. In the middle of her journey, on January 31st, 2013, she was reported missing, and her body was later found in a water tank atop the Cecil Hotel on February 19th, 2013 (LAPD Online). Elisa was an open person, posting on her blog about her life and mental health issues. She was also a worried individual who struggled to find her own abilities and self-worth. According to her peers and family, she was described as a bright person.

Elisa Lam was an open person, and as mentioned in multiple articles and documentaries, Elisa had a blog website she would frequent. It’s still preserved today, and you can see a wide variety of emotions such as her “excitement to travel” to a new city or to talk about a “looming feeling” she can't help (Lam). She reposted a lot of fashion, art pieces, quotes, and expressed her love for the internet, saying “Bless the internet. All those who wish to find a way to express their sadness can go there and feel less alone” (Lam, Either Fields). During the case, her Tumblr blog was an essential tool to understand her as a person and proved she allowed the public to view who she really was.

Elisa often expressed that she felt like she didn’t have a purpose and that she didn’t have talents. She would post on her Ether Fields blog saying “I wish I could draw, I wish I could take photographs, I wish I could paint, I wish I could write lyrics and sing but since I have none of those talents I'd rather just tumble away and use other people's talents to express myself” (Lam). Elisa Lam suffered from Bipolar disorder, which helps connect why she felt “useless” (Dean 1). She expressed how she was angry at her parents for babying her, and that she had to figure things out on her own because she is an adult (Lam). She also voiced her hatred for having so much medication to take, saying they made her feel numb for periods of time, which helps connect her undertaking of medication in her toxicology report (Lansing).

Many friends of Elisa Lam were shocked to hear she had tragically passed on what seemed like a “holiday” trip to California (Nair). There are many photographs of Elisa and her friends when browsing through Facebook profiles, making it hard to believe that a normal college student was drugged or mentally disturbed when she originally went missing (Nair).

Although it’s hard to believe that such a sweet and determined young woman would have had a bad mental day, it isn’t impossible. Bipolar disorder isn’t simply “being two-faced”, but a “Manic-depressive illness… that results in significant and severe changes in mood, energy, activity levels, and ability to carry out routine tasks” (“Bipolar Spectrum Disorder Treatment”). With Elisa’s constant expressing that she did have her bad days, irregular medicine dosage in the toxicology report, and overall being alone on her trip, it isn’t too much of a stretch to say it was an accidental drowning. “Water has been shown to have natural calming properties” (Crowell), and although it doesn’t explain why Elisa ran to the rooftop, she was possibly seeking out something to help calm her down and wasn't thinking about the consequences afterwards.

In the case of Elisa Lam’s death, there are a variety of conspiracies that have unfolded. The first theory is that this was a successful suicide attempt. The second theory is she accidentally drowned herself during a manic episode due to her Bipolar disorder. The final theory is someone inside the hotel was out to get her and succeeded. Let’s look at the evidence we have and dive into each theory further.

The first theory is that Elisa Lam had attempted to commit suicide and succeeded. Elisa would post on her Tumblr page that she felt out of place, that she needed “to be removed from society,” and that she had “nothing to offer the world” (Lam). She even went further to express “I don’t care very much about what happens to my life anymore. I stopped caring” (Lam). These seem to help lead to an obvious death of suicide, but her posting about this type of thing was not an everyday occurrence. Elisa suffered from Bipolar disorder, and this includes having “depressive episodes that result in a loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities to thoughts of death or suicide” (“Bipolar Spectrum Disorder Treatment”). Although she hadn’t been taking her full dosage of medication, the coroner suggests that “a full review of circumstances of the case and appropriate consultation do not support intent to harm oneself” (Dean, 10). This theory has a lot of give and take, and depending on what evidence is used will help determine if this could be the answer or not.

The second theory is that it was an accidental drowning during a manic episode. The video footage the day she went missing shows a clear image that she wasn't in a healthy mindset. She was frantic, hiding, and exhibiting gestures like she was talking to someone, but there was never anyone else shown in the footage (Romero). The toxicology report only helps this theory more, revealing she was undertaking the appropriate dosage of her medication (Dean, 20). It has been thought that she went to the rooftop to escape from something her mind was showing her. That she was “possibly worried that someone was following her, and hid in the water tank for safety” and simply didn’t think of the consequences afterwards (Brown). When her body was discovered, “the lid to the tank was open”, suggesting it could have been one person around at the scene (Berlinger). But a piece of evidence is what makes most people throw this theory out of the window. When Elisa was discovered in the tank, she was fully naked. This piece is why this theory isn’t approved by internet sleuths, but it still proves to be the most reasonable answer.

The final theory is that someone either from the hotel or the streets followed her around, showing why Elisa was visibly uncomfortable in the video and possibly explaining who she was talking to. This person either murdered her within the hotel and carried her body to the roof, or followed her to the rooftop and murdered her up there. They then dumped her body in the tank and escaped. This theory was debunked for a couple reasons.

There was no foul play listed on the autopsy report (Dean,10).
There was no evidence of another party when her death happened, including fingerprints and camera footage. (Berlinger)

With these two main pieces, the coroner established a second party was not involved. To suggest someone murdered Elisa, there would have to be more evidence of it.

While the exact details of Elisa’s case remain a mystery, her death was ruled as an accidental drowning. Due to lack of cameras in the building and lack of witnesses there won’t be much more evidence brought forward about the subject. Elisa’s case will remain “solved”, despite internet sleuths saying otherwise.

Elisa Lam’s body was found in a hotel water tank on February 19th, 2013, but how did it end up there? The death of Elisa resulted in three conspiracy theories:

She committed suicide
She accidentally drowned during a manic episode
Someone murdered her, and dumped her in the tank

Although the coroner has established Elisa’s death as an “accidental drowning”, the true details of the story will never be unraveled (Dean, 15).

Research Project

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