Elisa Lam - Missing: 01/31/2013, Los Angeles, CA Age of disappearance: 21 years
I can guarantee that this is one of the most mysterious disappearances I have ever investigated. While this incident may initially seem completely off point from what we've investigated in the past, please be patient. There are specific facts associated with this case that fit the profile we've estabslishe.
The Location
It's unusual when a hotel plays a predominant role in the story. This story is unusual, and so is the location. This even happened at 640 South Main Street, Los Angeles California. The history of the hotel varies from source to source. Some state is opened its doors in 1927, others state 1924. The building has fourteen floors with four water tanks on a platform on the roof. A locked door and an alarm restrict roof access. The alarm activates at the front desk if the door is opened.
When the Cecil Hotel first opened, it was advertised as a location for businesspeople to stay while in the downtown Los Angeles area. The area that the hotel is now located would be considered skid row in downtown Los Angeles.
I have often stated that we study history for a reason. Maybe you will Google the history of the next hotel you stay at after reading this. I don't think I have ever heard of another building anywhere that has the sordid history of the Cecil Hotel. A news.com.au article of January 30 2014, gave the following details about who had stayed in the hotel: the "Night Stalker" killer, Richard Ramirez, was convicted of thirteen killings in the Los Angeles area from 1984-1985. He supposedly was living on the fourteenth floor for $14 per night at the Cecil while he was committing his crimes. Many sites called these satanic killings, and Ramirez made statements in court related to Satan. He was convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, eleven sexual assaults, and fourteen burglaries.
In 1991 Austrian Jack Untweger traveled to the United States and took up residency at the Cecil. He was supposedly a journalist covering crime in the Los Angeles area. During the five weeks he was at the hotel, he murdered three prostitutes in his room, per a January 30, 2014, article on news.com.au. Other unusual facts about the Cecil: in 1964 Goldie Osgood was staying in a room when she was stabbed and raped and died. The case was never solved. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Cecil Hotel obtained notoriety as the location with the most suicides. Here is the list:
- 10/22/54 - Helen Gurnee jumped and landed on the hotel marquee
02/11/62 - Julia Moore jumped out an eighth-floor window
10/12/64 - Pauline Otton jumped out a ninth-floor window and landed on George Gianinni, 65, killing him instantly
Visits from serial killers and suicides have been shown to be common occurrences at various times in the Cecil Hotel history. I think you'd like to know this before you checked into a hotel. The room numbers that the individuals stayed in was never disclosed.
The Story
In January 2013, Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old psychology student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on holiday break from school. She was from a hard-working Chinese family that had emigrated from China and owned Paul's Chinese Restaurant at 4621 Hastings Street in Burnaby, British Columbia. Elisa was known for riding public transportation during her travels; the trip to California was no exception. She rode Amtrak south and arrived in LA on January 26. She got a room at the Cecil Hotel and went to see the area. According to posts on Facebook, she went to the San Diego Zoo and saw the Conan O'Brien show. There are other details of Elisa's activities between January 26 and January 31. Her friends gave statements that Elisa never smoked, drank alcohol, or took illegal drugs.
Elisa Lam was one of those kids that called her parents daily. She checked in with them and explained where she was and what she'd been doing. They heard from her daily until January 31, 2013. The parents immediately knew that something had happened to their daughter and called Vancouver police. Vancouver called the LAPD and asked them to check on the girl. LAPD went to the Cecil Hotel, spoke to managers and staff, and found that she was last seen on January 31. The subsequent investigation into Elisa's disappearance included LAPD bringing in search dogs that scoured the hotel and were taken to the roof. Nothing suspicious was reported. On February 6 the police released some details of the disappearance to the press. You can tell by this release the police had no leads and were looking for assistance from the public. On February 7, LAPD held a press conference and answered questions about the case.
On February 14 LAPD released a CCTV video of Elisa getting on the elevator inside the Cecil Hotel. They claimed that they didn't know the date of the footage. She is wearing black shorts, a red sweatshirt, and some type of sandals. She enters the elevator and starts to press the buttons to various floors. The door doesn't close, and Elisa backs into the corner of the elevator. Some sites have stated that she looks frightened; some have stated that it looks like something is keeping the door from closing. It almost appears that Elisa is saying something at various points of the video. She cautiously approaches the doorway and then quickly peeks outside, apparently thinking there is someone just outside the doorway. Nobody is seen crossing the entry point of the elevator. She again goes outside the elevator and checks the hallway of the hotel. At one point she it out of view in teh hallway and is seen moving her right arm. She reenters the elevator with her hands near her ear, moves toward the buttons, and starts pushing them again. The door still isn't closing. She exits again and appears to be moving her hands around the doorway, slightly crouched. It almost appears as though she is trying to touch something in the doorway and is addressing someone you can't see. She stays in view on the left side of the hallway until the 2:28 mark in the video, and then she walks away to the left. The elevator door stays open until the 3:00 minute mark, and then it closes. It reopens at the 3:15 mark, and she cannot be seen. This video is widely available on the Internet.
On February 19, 2013, a series of residents in the Cecil complained that the water pressure coming from the faucets was very low. A maintenance worker for the hotel took a ladder to the roof, unlocked the door, shut down the alarm, and made his way to the four thousand-gallon tanks. The tanks are sitting on a platform four feet off the top of the hotel. Each tank is four feet in diameter and eight feet tall.
The only way to look into the tank is to get to the top, open a secured latch, and open the small viewing hole. One tank is closest to the side. The maintenance man put his ten-foot ladder against the side of the tank, climbed up, and opened the latch and looked inside the far northeast tank. He saw the body of an Asian female floating face and naked. The maintenance man immediately called the Los Angeles fire department and police departments. LAPD responded with patrol units and detectives from its robbery/homicide unit.
The opening to the tank was too small to remove the body. The top of the tank had a larger hole cut into it, and the body of Elisa Lam was removed.
There were no signs of trauma to the body. Investigators found her sandals and clothing in the tank around her. The body was transported to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Unit. Investigators stayed on the scene for many hours photographing the location, taking measurements, and trying to understand the bizarre incident they just witnessed.
A February 20, 2013, broadcast on CBC Canada stated that they had scheduled an interview with LAPD to discuss the facts surrounding the Elisa Lam incident when the interview was cancelled at the last minute. They were told that higher-ups in the police department had given orders that they couldn't talk about the case.
There was a February 22, 2013, article in the Huffington Post that discussed the coroner's findings: "The results of the autopsy were inconclusive, so coroner's officials said Thursday they will have to wait for toxicological tests to determine a cause of death for Elisa Lam, 21, of Vancouver, British Columbia." Readers of my past books recognize this as a familiar statement from coroners on cases I cover. The Canadian and US media pushed the Los Angeles County Coroner for answers for many months. It takes four to six weeks for the most complex of toxicological tests to be completed.
By early April 2013, nobody understood why the coroner wasn't making a ruling on the death.
On June 20, 2013, the coroner's office released its official finding: accidental death by drowning. They did not find any illegal drugs or alcohol in her system and they did not test for GHB. They did find a .02 percent blood alcohol level, probably caused by the body's decomposition. I requested a copy of the LAPD's report and the coroner's report. I received a twenty-seven page report from the coroner, and
LAPD refused to supply their documents. The coroner's report stated that the same clothing she was wearing in the elevator video was found in the tank around her. It also stated that they spoke to Elisa's sister, who said that her sister was bipolar, had bouts of depression, and was taking four different medications. She had never tried to take her life. The report noted that Elisa had what appeared to be mold on her body, bloating, and skin separation. Livor mortis was fixed, and she had bulging eyes.
One interesting note that I always look for in an autopsy report is the stomach contents. On page 6 of the report is this: "It contains scant red fluid. Portions of tablets and capsules cannot be discerned in the stomach." Not urine was found in the bladder. Her is page 10 of the LA County Coroner's verdict on the death:
The decedent died as a result of drowning. A complete autopsy examination showed no evidence of trauma and toxicology studies did not show acute drug or alcohol intoxication. Decedent had a history of bi-polar disorder for which she was prescribed medication. Toxicology studies were performed for the presence of these drugs. However, quantitation in the blood was not performed due to limited sample availability. Therefore, interpretation is limited. Police investigation did not show evidence of foul play. A full review of the circumstances of the case and appropriate consultation do not support intent to harm oneself. The manner of death is classified as an accident.
Jason P. Tovar M.D. Associate Deputy ME
Yulai Wang M.D. Senior Deputy ME
There was an additional report included in the package. This was titled "Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Criminalist Report," and it had one interesting note: "Several dark hairs or fibers at least several inches in length were noted on a couple of garments. The fibers and debris were left in place with the clothing items." I have seen other cases where notations were made that long hair fibers of unknown origin were found. A body diagram showed a scar on her left knee and an abrasion on her right knee.
Let's think about the cause of death that the LAPD and coroner stated: accident. To believe this finding, you must buy into the theory that Elisa puposely went to the roof of the hotel. Somehow she managed to get to the top of the tank (8 feet tall), to unlock the door to the roof and overcame the alarm system. There are some sites claiming that the roof can be accessed through a fire escape that is also locked. This was never confirmed. After getting on the roof, she somehow managed to get her 5'6", 121-pound frame up onto the platform holding the tanks. She now managed to dow what the police and maintenance men couldn't do - she climbed up the side of an eight-foot-tall tank, opened the latch while holding onto the side, crawled inside, removed her clothes, and closed the lid. To believe the coroner and police, she did this purposely. She accidentally drowned inside the tank according to the report. Is this believable? They stated in their official report that this was not a case of suicide. She had no history of suicide and there were no reports that she was depressed during the trip.
The coroner held off on releasing their report for three months. Why? Law enforcement was concerned that Elisa might have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs due to her strange behavior in the elevator. They were probably hoping that they would find drugs or alcohol so they could use that to explain the bizarre circumstances. When toxicology showed she was absolutely sober, theories about the incident had to change. The last item in the report that stopped me in my tracks was the coroner's statement that "quantitation" of the blood wasn't performed because of "limited sample availability." How can this be? You have a dead body; where is the blood? The fact that Elisa wasn't injured and didn't suffer severe blood loss from injury, makes the fact that there wasn't sufficient blood for testing an improbability. If you aren't thoroughly shocked about this case, wait. Things are about to get even stranger.
Tuberculosis
Elisa's body was pulled from the water cistern on February 19, 2013. A February 21, 2013, article in the LA Times had the following details about a local outbreak: "The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention have dispatched scientists to Los Angeles to help local health officials figure out why the disease is spreading and how to stop it." Later in the same article is this: "Scientists have recently linked the outbreak to one tuberculosis strain that is unique to Los Angeles, with a few isolated cases outside the area. 'This is the largest outbreak in a decade,' said Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 'We are really putting all of our resources into this.'"
There were several articles that noted the scientists would be using the
Lam-Elisa test on the possible tuberculosis victims to identify the illness. Here is where the name of the test derived:
Lam-Elisa
Elisa-Enzyme link immunosorbent assay, uses components of the immune system and chemicals to detect immune responses.
Lam-Lipoarbinomannan-A mycobacterium-specific lipopolysaccharide.
Let's review this coincidence of time, space, and name. Elisa Lam arrived in Los Angeles on January 26, 2013. She's found in a water tank on February 21, 2013. The LA Times reported on February 21, 20113, that an outbreak of a unique strain of tuberculosis has inundated downtown Los Angeles' skid row that is so serious that the CDC was sending a team to assist. The test they use to diagnose victims is the Lam-Elisa. Is this purely coincidence? Is this even believable?
Floating Water
Just after Elisa was located in the water tank, many websites drew an association between the facts surrounding her disappearance and death and the storyline to the 2005 movie Dark Water. It would appear that not many people decided to dig a little deeper. Dark Water was adapted from a Japanese movie of the same name. The Japanese movie was developed from a story written by Koji Suzuki titled "Floating Water." A website (noelct.blogspot.com/2008/01/current-obsession-koji-suzuki.html) offers the following summary: a five-year-old girl lives with her parent in a small, rundown apartment. They go to the roof to light fireworks and discover a Hello Kitty bag. Yes, a body does end up in a water tank on the roof. Here is a quote from the article about the story: "What follows is a creepy, unnerving story which definitely stands as one of Suzuki's better horror pieces. The bag makes a few return visits, her daughter starts talking to an invisible friend in the bathtub, elevators move on their own, shadows and presences abound... And it all leads to a little girl whose family moved out of the building several years prior following an unexpected tragedy." This article was written January 4, 2008.
Some of you will probably read this story several times in an effort to comprehend all of the coincidences and strange facts. Elisa was Asian. The author of "Floating Water" was Asian. Elisa disappears simultaneously as an outbreak of tuberculosis hits the same area, and researchers use a test identical to her name to diagnose victims. I don't need to recite the facts surrounding her strange disappearance and recovery.
Remember an important point. LAPD canine units were dispatched to the hotel in an effort to pick up Elisa's scent. These same units went to the roof and were unable to pick up a clue that Elisa was there. Was she there when they were on the roof? If she was in the tank, why didn't canines pick up her scent on the platform? If you've read my books, you know about the hundreds of times canines went to an area and couldn't pick up the scent of the victim and the equal number of times searchers comb an area only to find the victim in the same exact location later. Water is a key profile point in many of the cases I have chronicled over the years. Another important key association with my other cases: Elisa was found naked. Elisa is the third University of British Columbia student that I've written about who has disappeared under highly unusual circumstances.
Related Literature
I've continuously told readers of my series that they need to open their minds and read books from different venues. If you are to truly understand the issues, you need to read a variety of literature from credible researchers. Chris O'Brien is a longtime researcher of cattle mutilations. He wrote a stunning book, Stalking the Herd, which offers a global perspective of the issue. On page 440, there is an article from the Argentinian newspaper, El Diario, dated July 2002. Here is the translated story:
On the last Friday of June 2002, an even of truly strange characteristics took place in a field of locality of Suco, located to the west of Rio Carto, very near the border of San Luis Province. In the Cordoban locality, a well-known livestock producer respected by all his neighbors for his responsibility and honesty, found 19 dead animals within an Australian type water tank. Nine of the bovines were dead, according to subsequent medical-veterinary examinations, due to asphyxiation through immersion. The rest were alive, but affected by the low temperatures and near dead due to freezing.
Later in the same article:
What no one could explain is how the 19 animals could have entered the enormous water tank, bearing in mind that they had to cross and electric dover, then a 1.5 meter fence, and finally jump over the wall into the tank.
I put this incident in the book to exemplify the need to read a variety of sources and understand that parallels do exist. Just for readers who do not know - in the vast majority of animal mutilations, the blood of the animal is drained, none is ever on the ground, and the surgery is done with absolute precision. There has never been anyone apprehended for these killings and there has never been a witness to the incidents.
