- In February of 2013, guests of the Cecil Hotel
in Downtown Los Angeles complained that their room's
tap water tasted funny. More than that there were
water pressure issues, the water smelled strange and sometimes it came
out of the faucet black. While some guests thought
"Ah, downtown Los Angeles! "You glittering cesspool. "Of course your water is foul and black." Enough people complained that maintenance employee Santiago Lopez went up to the roof to check
on the hotel's main water tank. Unlocking the rooftop door
and disarming the alarm, Lopez climbed the ladder leading
to the top of the platform where the tanks stood, then
climbed a second ladder to the top of the main water tank. When he reached the top he noticed the hatch to the tank was open. Peering under the 20 pound lid he found a corpse of a
woman floating face up, approximately 12 inches
from the top of the tank. Lopez had found the body of Elisa Lam, a guest of the Cecil who had
last been seen on January 31. While Elisa had been reported missing, police had not searched the
water tanks on the roof. And while Elisa herself had been found, her discovery only raised more questions. How did she get to the roof? Why did she go to the roof? Was she a victim of foul play? And what about that bizarre
surveillance video footage from the elevator? (dramatic piano music) Before we get into it,
it's important to remember that Elisa Lam was a human being. She had, and still has, a
family that cares about her, she had friends, she went to school, she was interested in art
and fashion, she had a blog. She was also a Chinese Canadian woman who lived with anxiety,
depression, and bipolar disorder. We're not trying to offer an
expert opinion on this case. I'm more interested in what the death of a beautiful young woman with a high profile weird corpse situation does to the media, and the internet. This case has spawned
countless amateur sleuths claiming to know what
really happened to Elisa. The truth of the matter is, there are very few facts in this case that offer much clarity. Here are the basics we know. Elisa, a 21-year-old student at the University of British Columbia, was staying at the Cecil Hotel while on vacation in California. The Cecil is one of downtown
L.A.'s historic hotels. It opened as a business hotel in 1927 before falling into a dismal state after the Great Depression. Besides being the site of
several deaths and suicides, frankly, what Depression era hotel still in operation hasn't been, the Cecil was home to serial killers Jack Unterweger and Richard Ramirez A.K.A. the Night Stalker. So even before Elisa
set foot in the Cecil, it had a dark pedigree. Which of course the
internet is going to be like "Dark pedigree, yes!" Elisa checked into the
Cecil on January 28, 2013. It was reported that she was
originally in a shared room, but then switched to a
single room due to quote "Odd behavior." Elisa was last seen alive at
the Cecil Hotel on January 31. During her trip she had
called her parents everyday, and when they stopped hearing from her, they called the L.A.P.D. The L.A.P.D. searched the
Cecil Hotel for Elisa, but could not find her, or probable cause that a
crime had been committed. A week later, on February
6, the police went public with information about
Elisa's disappearance, and more than a week after that, detectives released surveillance video of Elisa behaving unusually in and around one of
the hotel's elevators. This is the footage that
set the internet ablaze! In it Elisa enters the hotel elevator and carefully presses multiple buttons before cautiously peeking
out of the elevator, as if being pursued. Her behavior is agitated, cautious, she hides in the corner of the elevator as if waiting for someone
to come down the hallways. Some have described it as an uncomfortable game of hide-and-seek. At one point, she exits the elevator and is seen gesticulating wildly, like she's speaking to
someone out of frame. Mental health experts have said she seems to be in the
midst of a psychotic break. Weirdly, during the four minute video, the elevator doors don't
automatically close. They stay open for almost three minutes, only closing after Elisa
walks down the hall, away from the elevator. Some speculate a hotel employee must have been manually
keeping the elevator door open from the front desk. Others say the elevator got jammed because of all the
buttons that Elisa pushed, which seems like the most
likely scenario in an old hotel. And of course, there's the theory that the dark ghosts of the
Cecil Hotel held the door! And I don't think that's what... (breathes deeply) Whatever it may be, the
surveillance video of Elisa gives us a clue to her mental
state before she disappeared, but unfortunately it
doesn't offer much else. Elisa's body was found in
the Cecil's main water tank on February 19, almost three
weeks after she disappeared. One of the interesting things in the internet sleuth community was the obsession with the
coroner's cause of death and toxicology report. Where are they? Why haven't they been released? What are they hiding? My friends, the L.A. Coroner's office is not on your schedule! They are not on much a schedule, period! It's just like, "When we get
em, we'll let you know, maybe." Eventually her death was
ruled an accidental drowning with her bipolar disorder
as a contributing factor. The medical examiner found evidence that she had consumed her
prescribed medications, but the autopsy report indicated no alcohol or illegal drugs in her system. The big question was how Elisa got from the elevator incident onto the roof of the Cecil? It was originally thought
the only way to the roof was through a locked
door with a loud alarm, and only hotel staff have
a key to the roof door. No alarms were heard the
night Elisa disappeared, so did a staff member
take Elisa onto the roof? Was she forced up to the roof? How Elisa got to the roof
has never been determined, although it has since emerged that there is an un-alarmed
fire escape up to the roof. For a determined person
it would be pretty easy to climb up there and to the water tanks. In 2015 I visited my friend Colin who was staying at the Cecil,
re-named the Stay on Main as a public relations move. He wouldn't let me climb up
to the roof, thanks Colin, but it was pretty obvious it would not have been difficult to do so. It was also originally thought that Elisa was found
inside the water tank, with the 20 pound lid closed. How did she get the lid
closed while already inside, floating in the tank? A much later interview with maintenance employee Santiago Lopez revealed the tank lid was
open when he found Elisa, meaning she could have opened the lid, gone inside, and drowned. In 2015 a judge dismissed
a wrongful death suit filed by Elisa's parents
against the Cecil Hotel, stating that Elisa's
death was unforeseeable due to the fact she had
died in a section of a hotel off limits to guests. It's understandable that
people continue to speculate on the death of Elisa Lam. Videos and blogs similar to this always seem to have to involve ghosts, sex offenders and murder. My pragmatist view of, young
women with mental illness, climbs up fire escape to a hotel roof, gets in a water tank, is
unable to escape and drowns? This is not a popular one on the internet. But part of facing death is
looking for the realistic, not sensationalized answers. Especially since it's her her loved ones who still have to grapple with the case's unanswered questions. What do you think happened to Elisa Lam? Do you still suspect foul play? Was it a tragic accident? Was it the ghosts of the serial killers? It wasn't. Tell us in the comments! And also tell us any
other Morbid Mysteries you want us to talk about! This video was made
with generous donations from death enthusiasts just like you. (gentle, melodic music) Dark pedigree, yes!
