If you’re a fan of American Horror Story then you are probably aware that Hotel was loosely based on The Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel, which is now being renovated and has been renamed as Stay on Main, is notorious for its violence and deaths; including suicides and murders. It’s also known for its connection with the Black Dahlia (a.k.a. Elizabeth Short) and the serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.
Most notably however, is the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Elisa Lam. On February 19th 2013 Lam was found in a water tank on the roof of the hotel after she went missing over a week before on the 1st.
The Canadian born student left her home in January 2013 for a trip to California on her own and on the 26th January she arrived in Los Angeles and checked herself into the Cecil Hotel.
- The first strange thing that was notable about her was her odd behaviour. When she first checked in she was given a shared room but just two days later she moved to a room on her own. The reason behind this was that her roommates claimed that she had a “certain odd behaviour”¹. Her “behaviour” could simply be down to her bipolar and depression diagnosis, however, I’m sure we’ll never know for certain if this was the reason as she had been prescribed medication and these medications had been found in her system during the autopsy.
- There were reports that she had gone missing before². Her parents had kept her mental health a secret all throughout her life and maybe this denial willed her to run away. Maybe she was planning in disappearing in California, for a fresh start.
- The elevator video. Having watched this video multiple times it still makes me uncomfortable. What was happening? Was she being chased by someone or was she being paranoid and why did the door not close for three minutes? It’s not just her behaviour that was strange, the elevator itself was acting strange.
My thoughts on this odd case are that it was a hotel employee that murdered Elisa Lam. She was found in the water tank on the roof after complaints from hotel guests that the water pressure was low. She was then discovered naked in the water with her clothes floating nearby. The roof was accessible to everyone but opening the door would set off an alarm and how was it possible that no one heard this? The only I answer I believe is that whoever killed her must have been able to disable the alarm therefore it must have been an employee.
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