Elisa Lam by Alandra Alanis

            Cecil Hotel is the host to many tourists, serial killers, murder victims, and Elisa Lam, but she never checked out (Hilk 1). On January 31, 2013, Elisa Lam was last seen in the Cecil Hotel in security footage of the elevator. The 21-year-old was on her own in California, in what she described as her “West Coast Tour” trip in her blog. After footage of her on the elevator was released, theories began to circulate, why wasn’t the elevator shutting? Who was she talking to? How was she able to get into the water tank on her own? Then came the conspiracy theories: Lam had tuberculosis called Mycobacterium tuberculosis leading to a government cover-up, Lam was murdered, that she was playing the elevator game/dealing with the paranormal, or it was all just an accident (Swann 1). Many possibilities, yet so few answers; we’re going to dig deeper into the death of Elisa Lam.

     Elisa’s internal struggles were massive with her dealing with her bipolar disorder and depression and taking a number of prescriptions for it. Through her blog, we see a side of her which we hardly see in people; she spoke of her struggles with depression and at times it was hard for her:

Depression sucks.

I have no control over my emotions. I will be angry for two minutes and then sad again. I will be happy for half an hour and then emotional again.

So far all I've done is lay on my bed and watch episodes of Chopped.
I'm just waiting for it to pass.

I haven't felt "fine" in over 3 years. This relapse makes me feel as though I haven't made any progress at all.
I'm not sure why I'm being so candid about my depression but I suppose if someone else who has depression reads this, we can feel less alone. I have been only told a few people. Unfortunately in the last 3 weeks most of these persons have disappointed me.
I have severe trust issues I think. Nobody is infallible. I thought I chose friends carefully but turns out not really.
But really my behaviour is pathetic. Reading about Daul Kim. Listening to MCR. It is as though I'm imitating myself from 2007. Next I'll be wearing studs and guitar earrings.
I just wish...someone around me could understand what it really means to be depressed.

You know the internet is where people express themselves. But everyone complains. So when there is a serious complaint, a serious plea for help, for sympathy, it goes unnoticed. Most people just dismiss it as a plea for attention. We aren't heartless, it's just so many have grown immune and de-sensitized. I'm desensitized from reading things like this  being told over and over again.
Just so much pain.
It's pretty bad this relapse though. Tumblr and Colbert aren't helping and I always thought they would remind me this world is capable of greatness.
Nope.
Still numb. (Lam 1)

Elisa had a darkness in her which she attempted to conquer through her writing; this darkness may have been to the fact that at seventeen—the perfect time for every girl just starting their lives, she was instead raped. This may have led to her trust issues, her paranoia that people would turn on her. . Overall, Elisa Lam was a stereotypical Tumblr girl, she had guy troubles and the excitement of meeting guys, the worries of a teenage girl, the betrayal of friends ditching her for their boyfriends, obsessing over TV shows, and the fashion of twenty-year-old ready to set out for the world and travel, while also expressing her internal conflicts on her blog and Tumblr. When she wasn’t traveling, she was a college student at University of British Columbia.

Elisa Lam’s friends described her as caring and considerate and level-head. Her love for books and fashion were expressed on her social media, especially her love for The Great Gatsby and aesthetic pictures. Her fashion also came through on her blog, Tumblr, and Instagram, posting pictures of her favorite fashion lines, of her fashionable shoes, her dog, and her latte art. Elisa traveled in her short-time to New York, lived in Canada, visited museums and art galleries, and went to California as a part of her “West Coast Tour”.  One of her friends spoke saying, “This is the last person I expect out of all my friends to have something like this happen to her,” (“Autopsy Performed on Elisa Lam Provides No Answers.” 1).  She lived her life by the quote, “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life” —never wanting her life go to waste even when times were hard and she couldn’t find the will to get up and function (Palahnuick).

            Elisa Lam came to California to have fun and explore, she instead died in mystery circumstances. From this came, four conspiracy theories circulating Elisa’s death. The first conspiracy theory that came was a government cover-up. During the time in which Lam came to California, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis, “This is the largest outbreak in a decade”, nearly 4,650 people were exposed to it (“Tuberculosis Outbreak in Downtown L.A. Sparks Federal Effort.”). . The first conspiracy theory is that Elisa Lam contracted tuberculosis and the government covered up her death. The reason for this was that a test in which tests for tuberculosis is called LAM-ELISA, this led people to believe that her death was cover-up by the government. Seeing as her name backwards was the test for the strand of tuberculosis. However, seeing in which the way Elisa Lam was found, it would have been easier for her death to have resulted from tuberculosis and no evidence points to government involvement. 

When the elevator footage of Lam was released, people began to jump to conclusions. One of the most talked about conspiracy theory was that Elisa Lam was murdered. Many who viewed the elevator footage thought the footage was tampered by a hotel employee who did not want to be seen. In the footage, Lam appeared to have been hiding from someone and later talking to a person who could not be seen by the camera. Dr. Jack Brown, Body Language & Emotional Intelligence Expert Physician, analyzed the video stating she appeared “relax” and was displaying “sexual interest” (Brown 1). Dr. Brown came to the conclusion that she displayed no fear and the person who Lam was speaking to may have connection to her death (Brown 1). On her Tumblr, Elisa posted that she was going out and wrote that showing the indication would have guys hounding after her, she could of meet someone and brought them back to the hotel (Lam 1). However, Dr. David Baron, Chief Psychiatrist at Keck Medical Center, says the opposite, “It looks as though she might of felt threatened, frightened…”, meaning the night could of gone awry ending with her death (“The Death of Elisa Lam”). If it was a hotel employee, they may have had a key leading up to the water tanks without sounding any alarms and able to avoid the cameras, easy to have killed a person. In the autopsy report, there was blood pooling in the orifice which was written off as a result of being in the water for a long span of time and samples were taken for a rape kit, but it was never processed, leaving questions as to if she had been raped and murder (Tovar). This backs up the claim for having been murdered by somebody she met, a hotel employee, or another hotel guest. Yet there is no physical evidence that the coroner could find and since the rape kit was not processed, no DNA was discovered.  However, since there were no markings on Elisa Lam’s body when she was found and no one was seen with her, leaving her alone in her last hours. 

The Cecil Hotel, rebranded as the Stay on Main, is infamous for its housing of serial killer Richard Ramirez, the Black Dahlia before her death, and its suicides and murders.  A hotel with as many deaths as the Cecil is bound to have some paranormal activity, and her odd similarity to the movie, Dark Water, where a girl dies the same way, leading many to the next conspiracy that Elisa Lam was dealing with the paranormal or playing the elevator game. The elevator game originated in on Korean website, it is meant to take you to another world by pressing the buttons in a specific order, Lam was believed to have been playing in the elevator footage as she is seen pressing the buttons and peeping her head out; however, the way she presses the buttons is not order the game goes in. (“4 Theories: What Was Elisa Lam Doing Just before She Died in This Video?”). Others believe that she was affected/ possessed by a spirit; some think that it was Richard Ramirez ghost who was haunting Lam, but at the time he was not yet dead, not until June of 2013. While the way Elisa Lam was acting in the footage was strange, there is no physical evidence, or any evidence at all that gives merit to Elisa having been in an encounter with any paranormal things. 

The last conspiracy theory is the least talked about conspiracy, that Elisa Lam’s death was an accident. Elisa was seen in the footage as sporadic and acting strangely with hand gestures. As many know Elisa had bipolar disorder paired with depression, with bipolar disorder there’s a range of emotions. Elisa could have been experiencing a mania episode that has the symptoms of being “wired”, thoughts racing thru, talking really fast, and doing risky things/ making poor decisions (“Bipolar Disorder”). These are all traits Elisa exhibited in just the elevator alone, it could be that Elisa was not thinking clearly, but instead recklessly and decided to climb the fire escape and go for a swim in the water tank. For the Tumblr post that continued after her death, on her page she wrote that she had lost her phone at a speakeasy, a person may have found her phone and kept it, using her Tumblr (Lam 1). 

Though it’s possible Elisa committed suicide, it is very unlikely as Katie Orphan one of the last people to see Elisa said, “… whether or not what she was getting would be too heavy for her to carry around as she traveled…”, she would not have been worried about the rest of her tour and going back home (Duke 1).It would have been quite easy for Elisa to have climb up the fire escape and lifted the little hatch on the lid of the water tank and got in, when she was found she was nude and her clothes were floating by her body. It could have been she felt her clothes weigh her down and took them off and typically with not knowing her behavior during her episodes that she crashed from the high that she was on and saw no way out and drowned. Another thought is that she was being paranoid and thought someone was following her always explaining her actions in the elevator; she climbed up the fire escape hid in the water tank and just collapsed from exhaustion. 

In a survey of twenty-five people, 50% of people believed that Elisa Lam’s death was an accident. Countless people have commented on Elisa’s death without really looking into her death and when a death like this happens, many try to find a reason for it or someone to blame for it, but accidents happen that can’t be explained. There may never be a true closing for Elisa’s death and no one will ever know what Elisa Lam was thinking when she was in the elevator or in the water tank.

            February 19,2013, Elisa Lam was found dead in the Cecil Hotel water tanks, ending her “West Coast Tour”.  The elevator footage and her mysterious death led to four conspiracy theories:

                                                                    I.            Lam had tuberculosis called Mycobacterium tuberculosis leading to a government cover-up.

                                                                 II.             Lam was murdered.

                                                              III.            She was playing the elevator game/dealing with the paranormal.

                                                              IV.             It was all just an accident

Four years have passed since her death and no one truly knows what happened to Elisa

Lam. A movie based on the circumstances in which she died is in the works and she is being remembered as the Girl in the Water Tank or the Girl in the Elevator, instead of who she actually was, someone who loved books and traveling. “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life” (Palahnuick).