Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Elisa Lam By Vanessa Garza



What happen to Elisa Lam? “On February 19,2013,” Elisa’s body was found in a “Cecil Hotel’s water tank in Los Angeles” (Ishak). Police claimed that her death was an accident “Elisa was a 21-year old Canadian student studying at Vancouver” (Van). There are multiple conspiracy theories about what exactly happened to her.

1.      Elisa was raped and then murdered 

2.      “She suffered depression and committed suicide” (Radford)

3.      “She overdosed on her regular prescription” (3)

Lets explore these conspiracy theories and find out what really happened to Elisa Lam.



Elisa Lam was your normal 21-year-old college student at the University of British Columbia, she was born on “April 30, 1991” (Chaos). Growing up Elisa lived with David Lam and Yinna Lam in “Vancouver” (Ferreras). Lams body was found on “February 19,2013” in a “Cecil Hotel’s water tank in Los Angeles” (Ishak). Elisa was described as a depressed yet an independent college student.

Elisa was diagnosed with Bipolar so was no surprise to the parents when they found out that the “blood test of Elisa Lam has shown that she has taken only antidepressant without antipsychotic” (The Elevator Video What Happened to Elisa Lam). Even though her parents were in no shock about the amount of medication the investigators found in her body, were however surprised about the amount they found in her body during the autopsy. Elisa had a blog that many people believed that she showed many signs that she “suffered from depression and was documenting her inner turmoil” (Radford). Many believed, that Elisa should have gotten help all by what she would post on that blog of hers.

Elisa had a blog where she was able to express her true feelings about anything and everything. Many knew, Elisa was depressed, but no one really knew how bad it was until you would read her blog. She wrote on a Monday, “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” (L.I). Although her parents knew about Elisa being Bipolar and obviously being depressed, her parents weren’t aware of how bad it really was. Elisa took it upon herself to try and wait it off. Instead of seeking for help, she felt the need to do it all on her own.

Elisa also seemed depressed when in an elevator in “The Cecil Hotel” (Lowth). All the people who watched the video around the world believed that she “demonstrate behaviors indicating, at the very least, an offbeat and unusual mental state” (Rich). She was in the elevator all alone when “She seemingly presses several buttons on the dashboard, and at one point appears to back away from an apparent invisible presence entering the elevator. At one point, she even leaves the elevator to quietly “peek” down the hall, as if she is looking for someone” (Lowth). Elisa was traveling alone so was no surprise that she would be in there with no one she knew. However, to many people they started to believe that she looked like she was either hiding from someone or that “she was playing hide and seek” by the way she was acting in the elevator (Disappearance & Discovery What Happened to Elisa Lam). Yet, in the video, you don’t see anyone come to actually find Elisa you, just see the elevator eventually close with Lam nowhere to be near the elevator.

Lam was a college student who loved to blog almost everything she did, “Lam had posted to her blog that she'd "relapsed" from something and had been forced to drop many of her classes. Expressing her worry about how the incomplete courses would look on her college transcript to potential graduate schools” (Rich). Elisa grew up being very independent which is why when she posted that she had ‘relapsed’ no one knew exactly what she was talking about. Since Elisa was very independent, she decided to take it upon herself to take a semester off of college and do a “solo trip around the West coast” (Ishak). Elisa was hopeful that her venture would ease her state of mind:

Her family had been wary of her traveling by herself but the young student was determined to go at it alone. As a compromise, Lam made sure to check in with her parents every day of the trip to let them know that she was safe. That’s why it struck her parents as unusual when they didn’t hear from their daughter on Jan. 31, the day she was scheduled to check out of her LA hotel, the Cecil (Ishak)

This led her parents to become extremely worried about her whereabouts and well-being. Elisa’s blog continued to be updated, which not only confused the people but also her parents.

            Lams blog was something that she expressed how she was feeling at that very moment. She would basically say anything on her mind like, “I am much more active on Tumblr This is going to stay as a reminder of what I was thinking” (L.I). Elisa’s parents weren’t really aware of her blog until she went missing. She was known for always wanting to do things on her own without anyone.

Elisa Lam’s death was out of the ordinary, which lead to multiple conspiracy theories. The first being that Elisa was raped and then murdered. Elisa had a Tumblr blog where she would post anything that was on her mind. Elisa had posted the night she went missing “I’m going out tonight I really hope no creeper comes near me seriously though Italian and Mexican guys go after you STRONG show the slightest in culmination and they hound you” (Lam). Expressing someone could have been following Elisa at one point during her “solo trip around the West coast” (Ishak). Also showing that an Italian or Mexican man could have been the one to murder Lam, but also raped her before murdering her. Police said that “If Elisa indeed encountered someone who tried to murder her, she should resist severely and make some loud noise that other guests living on 14th floor could notice if there is indeed someone trying to murder her”, although no one heard Elisa scream for help doesn’t mean someone didn’t murder her (The Autopsy). Lams body was found floating “In the water tank of the Cecil Hotel… floating naked, her clothes, watch and room key in the water beside her” indicating that someone could have raped her before throwing her in the water tank (Brown). Although the Autopsy that was given to Lam’s body after the police found it showed “no evidence of a wound, ‘sexual assault or otherwise’” “The Autopsy”. The people who followed Elisa’s Tumblr still continue to say that she was raped before getting murdered.  In fact, 67% of those polled on Clear Springs campus believe that Elisa Lam was raped and then murdered. 



The second conspiracy theory was that “Elisa suffered depression and committed suicide” (Radford). Lam’s body was found with “only antidepressant without antipsychotic” which was the type of pills she would take for her depression (Paranormal/Suicide?). Which then gave people the reason to believe she committed suicide. Elisa used her Tumblr blog a way of showing her true feelings. So of course, the first thought that popped into peoples’ head was that she just committed suicide. By reading her Tumblr, people came up with “Elisa was experiencing a psychotic episode and her behavior in the lift is symptomatic of visual hallucinations” (Rich). This got many people to believe that while she was experiencing a psychotic episode it became too much for her to handle, so she committed suicide by drowning in the water tank in Cecil Hotel. When you read Elisa’s Tumblr post and the amount of times she would talk about being all alone puts a theory in your own head that she could have committed suicide because the trip could have been too much for her to handle all alone.

The third conspiracy theory was that “She overdosed on her regular prescription” (Radford). Elisa suffered from depression and would always talk about how depressed she was on her Tumblr. The last time Lam was seen was when she was in the elevator at the Cecil Hotel. The video captured that went viral showed that, “Lam mashes elevator buttons, laughs, steps oddly about, gestures with her hands, even appears to converse with some unseen entity. She enters and exits the elevator many times, and finally leaves in the same direction from which she entered the camera's view” (Rich). When the video got leaked, people, who followed Elisa’s Blog, came up with her just overdosing. Elisa posted all the time on her Tumblr that she was depressed and didn’t know what to do about it.  The video showed her playing that a game called “‘Elevator Game’ Originating in Korea” (Rich). When the video got out, an assumption came out that she was all alone during this trip and could have been depressed which then caused her to take more of her medicine than she really needed to.

Currently, the Lams still struggle with the fact that they don’t know the true reasoning for how their daughter Elisa lam died.

“On February 19,2013,” Elisa’s body was found in a “Cecil Hotel’s water tank in Los Angeles” (Ishak). Police claimed that her death was an accident “Elisa was a 21-year old Canadian student studying at Vancouver” (Van).  After going through the multiple conspiracy theories about what exactly happened to her. The most common ones were.

4.      Elisa was raped and then murdered 

5.      “She suffered depression and committed suicide” (Radford)

6.      “She overdosed on her regular prescription” (3)

After researching the many conspiracy no one knows exactly happen to Elisa. Till this day her parent’s grief with the fact that they never got the answers they truly wanted.



Work Cited



Brown, Diana. “How Did Elisa Lam End Up Dead in a Hotel Water Tank?” HowStuffWorks,

HowStuffWorks, 27 June 2017, people.howstuffworks.com/did-elisa-lam-end-up-dead-in-hotel-water-tank.htm.

Chaos, Chris. “The Mystery of Elisa Lam.” The Mystery of Elisa Lam, 1 Jan. 1970, allthingsweird88.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-mystery-of-elisa-lam.html.

“Disappearance & Discovery” What Happened to Elisa Lam 16 October 2019, http://sites.gsu.edu/finalproject-waltzhao/disappearance-discovery/

Ferreras, Jesse. “Parents Sue Over Daughter's Hotel Death.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 21 Sept. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/20/elisa-lamdeadparentslawsuit_n_3965094.html.

Ishak, Natasha. “The Disturbing Death Of Elisa Lam - And The Even More Disturbing Footage         That Preceded It.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 28 Aug. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/elisa-lam-death.

Lam , Elisa. “Nouvelle-Nouveau .” Nouvelle/Nouveau, 27 Jan. 2013, nouvelle-

nouveau.tumblr.com/post/41581697593/im-going-out-tonight-i-really-hope-no-creeper.

L.l., Elisa. “Ether Fields.” Ether Fields, 27 July 2012, etherfields.blogspot.com/.

Lowth, Marcus, and Elle. “The Bone-Chilling And Mysterious Death Of Elisa Lam.” UFO Insight, 21 July 2019, www.ufoinsight.com/bone-chilling-mysterious-death-elisa-lam/.

“Paranormal/ Suicide?” What Happened to Elisa Lam 16 October 2019,     http://sites.gsu.edu/finalproject-waltzhao/bipolar-disorder/elevator/

Post, Drew van der. “Elisa Lam and Her Bizarre Death.” Historic Mysteries, 20 Sept. 2019, www.historicmysteries.com/what-happened-to-elisa-lam/.

Radford, Lyra. “Convincing Theories That Might Explain What Happened To Elisa     Lam.” Ranker,  25 Sept. 2019, www.ranker.com/list/elisa-lam-theories/lyra-radford.

Rich, Jake. “15 Facts And Theories About The Mysterious Death Of Elisa Lam.” TheRichest, TheRichest, 21 Feb. 2017, www.therichest.com/shocking/15-facts-and-theories-about-the-mysterious-death-of-elisa-lam/.

“The Autopsy” What Happened to Elisa Lam 16 October 2019,       http://sites.gsu.edu/finalproject-waltzhao/bipolar-disorder/elevator/
“The Elevator Video” What Happened to Elisa Lam 16 October 2019, http://sites.gsu.edu/finalproject-waltzhao/bipolar-disorder/elevator/

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