Ghost/Paranormal The Mystery of Elisa Lam

[Timmytime]

I checked and couldn't see this posted before and was really surprised, thought I would post the link to the video that is commonly regarded as the most informative, and another to give more scope on the topic.

This is a triple whammy, it's 1 third conspiracy, 1 third paranormal and even 1 third mystery! It literally has everything to intrigue and scare. I have watched a lot of shock videos, "scary" videos and read a lot of disturbing tales but none of them give me the chills like this story has. Instant spine tingles every time I watch it and read up about it.

In short, a female called Elisa Lam went missing in a famous haunted hotel/apartment complex in America and was found dead in the water tank a couple of months later(the water used by the hotel guests and residents in the complex). People believe she may have been a spy with the Thai or American military and was killed off for her knowledge of Invisibility mechanics, others believe she was possessed by a demon and so on etc.

I definitely think you will get some enjoyment/fear out of researching this topic.


Link 1(start here):


Link 2(If you want to just watch a chilling vid on the subject without the full backstory):

 

[The Filth Wizard]

Wasn't this all cleared up with her being identified as mentally unstable?

 

[Bostonian]

Looks like your every day garden variety psychosis going on.

 

[Timmytime]

Wasn't this all cleared up with her being identified as mentally unstable?

Her mental state has been questioned and debated by all. The coroner, after changing his decision multiple times declared it was most likely a psychotic episode, however her family (barring her sister) have all denied ever witnessing symptoms as has her ex boyfriend. The whole thing is very muddy, the hotel itself (The Cecil) has a very long and dark history of murder, rape and the paranormal.

Conspiracy theorists find it eerily similar that the test the government used to check the water for impurities was called LAM-ELISA. Chances of that are pretty astronomical. I find it really interesting that she had ties to the US gov and the Thai military, and a lot of people don't remember that, or it isn't talked about. Very strange case indeed.

 

[The Filth Wizard]

Her mental state has been questioned and debated by all. The coroner, after changing his decision multiple times declared it was most likely a psychotic episode, however her family (barring her sister) have all denied ever witnessing symptoms as has her ex boyfriend. The whole thing is very muddy, the hotel itself (The Cecil) has a very long and dark history of murder, rape and the paranormal.

Conspiracy theorists find it eerily similar that the test the government used to check the water for impurities was called LAM-ELISA. Chances of that are pretty astronomical. I find it really interesting that she had ties to the US gov and the Thai military, and a lot of people don't remember that, or it isn't talked about. Very strange case indeed.

All I've ever seen on the matter was she was a diagnosed bipolar sufferer... generally coroners don't diagnose mental conditions.

The Lam-Elisa test is certainly coincidental... worth noting (and this is after only spending a little while back down in this rabbit hole) that even though it does have it's use primarily in testing water for tuberculosis the water in question wasn't the water tanks at The Cecil as you seem to be indicating, it was the water supply into the homeless heavy Skid Row area that is close to the hotel. I also can't find anything in any newspaper articles etc or online official information that the Lam-Elisa test was the one that was used. That one seems like a conspiracy theorist 2 + 2 = 5, if not a wildly satisfying synchronistic one.

It's a great story though and one that you could lose a day reading about on Reddit but everything that happens, as weird as it gets, can be put down to somebody having a really bad bipolar episode.

At that though, I thought you might like the following link of an alleged ghost photo taken from outside the hotel, aiming at the fourth floor (which incidentally is the floor Elisa Lam was staying in :

http://www.examiner.com/article/cal...st-on-his-iphone-outside-of-downtown-la-hotel

 

[Timmytime]

All I've ever seen on the matter was she was a diagnosed bipolar sufferer... generally coroners don't diagnose mental conditions.

The Lam-Elisa test is certainly coincidental... worth noting (and this is after only spending a little while back down in this rabbit hole) that even though it does have it's use primarily in testing water for tuberculosis the water in question wasn't the water tanks at The Cecil as you seem to be indicating, it was the water supply into the homeless heavy Skid Row area that is close to the hotel. I also can't find anything in any newspaper articles etc or online official information that the Lam-Elisa test was the one that was used. That one seems like a conspiracy theorist 2 + 2 = 5, if not a wildly satisfying synchronistic one.

It's a great story though and one that you could lose a day reading about on Reddit but everything that happens, as weird as it gets, can be put down to somebody having a really bad bipolar episode.

At that though, I thought you might like the following link of an alleged ghost photo taken from outside the hotel, aiming at the fourth floor (which incidentally is the floor Elisa Lam was staying in :

http://www.examiner.com/article/cal...st-on-his-iphone-outside-of-downtown-la-hotel

I definitely agree with you regarding how things can become 5 from 2+2, too many times peoples imagination takes over from reality. I'm just drawn to this story, the video is so chilling knowing what eventually happens to that poor lady. It gives me shakes just thinking about it.

I also find it very strange that such a smart woman electively chose to stay in such a notorious hotel, in such a bad part of town. Looking at the video it's certainly easy to see that she is having some sort of episode, or maybe acting out of pure fear at what/who is out of shot.

Thanks for the photo link, that's an amazing shot! Some of the incidents reported at the Cecil really are disturbing.

 

[The Filth Wizard]

I definitely agree with you regarding how things can become 5 from 2+2, too many times peoples imagination takes over from reality. I'm just drawn to this story, the video is so chilling knowing what eventually happens to that poor lady. It gives me shakes just thinking about it.

I also find it very strange that such a smart woman electively chose to stay in such a notorious hotel, in such a bad part of town. Looking at the video it's certainly easy to see that she is having some sort of episode, or maybe acting out of pure fear at what/who is out of shot.

Thanks for the photo link, that's an amazing shot! Some of the incidents reported at the Cecil really are disturbing.

Yeah, no doubt whatever the true story, a really terrifying and sad ending to her life. I tend more to err on the side of sensibility which saddens me more on this story because that means she got herself into a massive panic and ended locked in a water tank with no escape and inevitably drowned fully aware of her imminent death.

 

[Paul Kersey]

Just watched the series on Netflix. Ridiculous documentary full of clowns who appear to be giving near scripted responses and stretched out over close to 220 min. I think she had an episode and accidently killed herself. The hotel manager is a character though.

 

[radiojake]

Just watched the series on Netflix. Ridiculous documentary full of clowns who appear to be giving near scripted responses and stretched out over close to 220 min. I think she had an episode and accidently killed herself. The hotel manager is a character though.

my housemate was watching this too - she said she got 3/4s of the way through this story before realising it was pretty obviously a case of psychosis/mental health issues and was annoyed she spent so much time watching it

 

[BonzaRam]

I have only just seen the video that was released by the LAPD. it is obvious that video is edited (time lapse out of sync) that was either done by the LAPD or Hotel Security. I suspect it was the latter...
The second video which i haven't seen they say she was filmed walking into the hotel with two men who handed her a box. If that is true where is the box in the released video?
The first question which came to my mind whilst watching the video is who is controlling the door on the lift? It failed to close way too many times, which brings me back to Hotel Security...

To climb the fire escape to the roof she would have had to do it from the ground floor because she never went up in the elevator. That is one hell of a climb UP... the other way would set off an alarm unless someone with access was with her, heading back Hotel Security with this one too...

Let's assume she got all the way up there by herself, yes i can see someone taking their clothing off and trying to go for a swim in water tank (many fools have died jumping into grain silos in a similar manner) but why would they throw their clothes into the tank before getting in? and how did she manage to close the tank lid without the ability to climb back out of the tank at all?

This case reeks of lazy investigating (LAPD - possibly too many suspects) and evidence tampering (Hotel Staff) in a hotel renowned for housing sex offenders and serial killers, where many many crimes have been committed.

Even if she was having a mental episode that doesn't mean a third party or parties didn't take advantage of that. Too many unanswered questions in this one... i would be looking more closely at the hotel staff.

oh and lets not forget the coroner who made the report had previously been convicted of falsifying reports.

 

[Jamie007]

I have only just seen the video that was released by the LAPD. it is obvious that video is edited (time lapse out of sync) that was either done by the LAPD or Hotel Security. I suspect it was the latter...
The second video which i haven't seen they say she was filmed walking into the hotel with two men who handed her a box. If that is true where is the box in the released video?
The first question which came to my mind whilst watching the video is who is controlling the door on the lift? It failed to close way too many times, which brings me back to Hotel Security...

To climb the fire escape to the roof she would have had to do it from the ground floor because she never went up in the elevator. That is one hell of a climb UP... the other way would set off an alarm unless someone with access was with her, heading back Hotel Security with this one too...

Let's assume she got all the way up there by herself, yes i can see someone taking their clothing off and trying to go for a swim in water tank (many fools have died jumping into grain silos in a similar manner) but why would they throw their clothes into the tank before getting in? and how did she manage to close the tank lid without the ability to climb back out of the tank at all?

This case reeks of lazy investigating (LAPD - possibly too many suspects) and evidence tampering (Hotel Staff) in a hotel renowned for housing sex offenders and serial killers, where many many crimes have been committed.

Even if she was having a mental episode that doesn't mean a third party or parties didn't take advantage of that. Too many unanswered questions in this one... i would be looking more closely at the hotel staff.

oh and lets not forget the coroner who made the report had previously been convicted of falsifying reports.

Ok. If you watch the doco on netflix it explains everything.

She was already on the top floor. She went out a windows and up the fire escape.

The lift stayed open because she pressed a button that made it stay open for 2 minutes. Its a button these lifts have.

The coroner has put the same date on the form in both spots it just you had to zoom.in to read that both dates were the same so nothing was falsified.

The reason the lid was on the tank as the guy who discovered her put the lid back on before he went to inform the police. When he first went to examine the blockage in the tank he saw the lid was off.

They also speculated that her clothes may have been removed when she realised she couldn't get out and was in trouble so she removed them to make it easy for her to tread water.

 

[faible]

Too many unanswered questions in this one

Which questions? You surely don't mean all the ones you raised that have actually been answered?

 

[PoppedCorn]

Case closed then lol

 

[BonzaRam]

Ok. If you watch the doco on netflix it explains everything.

She was already on the top floor. She went out a windows and up the fire escape.

The lift stayed open because she pressed a button that made it stay open for 2 minutes. Its a button these lifts have.

The coroner has put the same date on the form in both spots it just you had to zoom.in to read that both dates were the same so nothing was falsified.

The reason the lid was on the tank as the guy who discovered her put the lid back on before he went to inform the police. When he first went to examine the blockage in the tank he saw the lid was off.

They also speculated that her clothes may have been removed when she realised she couldn't get out and was in trouble so she removed them to make it easy for her to tread water.

How come police didn't find her on the roof initially?
how did a team of investigators and tracking dogs not find her even though searched the roof?

Was She really alone?
yes it can be assumed she was having a manic episode but it can also be assumed that she is acting in manner that implies she was trying to hide and/or get away from someone.

How do explain the erratic timestamp on the video?
She walks into the elevator and presses a button, it will be an other minute and a half before she goes back in and presses more buttons but the door had not closed yet. Does it take over a minute and a half for the doors to close when you press your floor button ?(what happens if someone presses the outside button to call the lift?) Then after re-entering the elevator and pressing many buttons it will be another minute and a half for the door to close. We have an issue at this point, the timestamp can be seen to stop on several occasions as the door closes, why?

Why didn't the hotel not do more after being made aware of her "erratic" behavior?
So if someone is reported as behaving erratic what the hotel does is move them to another room and that is the end of it? yes i know what the excuse was from hotel management, being that because they house many criminals and drug addicts erratic behavior is normal and is ignored after moving them to a new room. That is pathetic.

Why did the police state the lid of the tank was open when she was found but in the netflix doco the maintenance person changed his story and claimed it was closed. Conflicting accounts of what the situation really was.

""I noticed the hatch to the main water tank was open and looked inside and saw an Asian woman lying face-up in the water approximately twelve inches from the top of the tank," he said."
12inches? a foot? but couldn't reach up that far? did she have very short arms?

Cecil Hotel Employee Explains How He Found The Body Of Elisa Lam

Lawyers for the hotel want the wrongful death suit filed by Elisa Lam's parents dismissed, saying the hotel could not have reasonably thought anyone could get into the water tanks on the roof.

laist.com

The coroner’s report
Why did the coroner change his ruling?
http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/lam, elisa_report.pdf (page 15)

it's not the first time he done that.

9th Circuit Revives Lawsuit Over Falsified Autopsy

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday denied immunity to a medical examiner who incorrectly classified an accidental death as a homicide – an error that led to the arrest and false prosecution of a prominent U.S. Open tennis referee.

www.courthousenews.com

 

[BonzaRam]

Oh the clothes, yes i can see someone taking their clothes off in the tank in that situation but why the watch? and what were them unidentified white flecks all over them?

 

[Kurve]

What a horrible way to die. It freaked me out that hotel guests were complaining about the water, it's a surprise they weren't really sick.

 

[faible]

How come police didn't find her on the roof initially?
how did a team of investigators and tracking dogs not find her even though searched the roof?

Was She really alone?
yes it can be assumed she was having a manic episode but it can also be assumed that she is acting in manner that implies she was trying to hide and/or get away from someone.

How do explain the erratic timestamp on the video?
She walks into the elevator and presses a button, it will be an other minute and a half before she goes back in and presses more buttons but the door had not closed yet. Does it take over a minute and a half for the doors to close when you press your floor button ?(what happens if someone presses the outside button to call the lift?) Then after re-entering the elevator and pressing many buttons it will be another minute and a half for the door to close. We have an issue at this point, the timestamp can be seen to stop on several occasions as the door closes, why?

Why didn't the hotel not do more after being made aware of her "erratic" behavior?
So if someone is reported as behaving erratic what the hotel does is move them to another room and that is the end of it? yes i know what the excuse was from hotel management, being that because they house many criminals and drug addicts erratic behavior is normal and is ignored after moving them to a new room. That is pathetic.

Why did the police state the lid of the tank was open when she was found but in the netflix doco the maintenance person changed his story and claimed it was closed. Conflicting accounts of what the situation really was.

""I noticed the hatch to the main water tank was open and looked inside and saw an Asian woman lying face-up in the water approximately twelve inches from the top of the tank," he said."
12inches? a foot? but couldn't reach up that far? did she have very short arms?

Cecil Hotel Employee Explains How He Found The Body Of Elisa Lam

Lawyers for the hotel want the wrongful death suit filed by Elisa Lam's parents dismissed, saying the hotel could not have reasonably thought anyone could get into the water tanks on the roof.

laist.com

The coroner’s report
Why did the coroner change his ruling?
http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/lam, elisa_report.pdf (page 15)

it's not the first time he done that.

9th Circuit Revives Lawsuit Over Falsified Autopsy

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday denied immunity to a medical examiner who incorrectly classified an accidental death as a homicide – an error that led to the arrest and false prosecution of a prominent U.S. Open tennis referee.

www.courthousenews.com

Have you watched the show? Literally everything you're asking is mentioned and answered in the show. And has been around on the internet for years.

They said they didn't take the dogs over to the area the tanks were.

She was having a manic episode. If you know anyone who works in any kind of mental health setting, they'd immediately spot a person having a psychotic episode.

The hold door button on that elevator holds it for 2 minutes, people (internet sleuths) checked.

They should have done more, yes, in an ideal world.

The POLICE found the lid closed, the maintenance man said he closed it after finding her body. He said it was open when he went up to check it.

The water level in the tanks vary, so at the time she went in, it may well have been lower.

It's a weird case, no doubt, but sometimes, in the millions of deaths that occur in this world, strange ones will happen for no sinister reason.

 

[megadeth86]

A strange thing happened to me once in a hotel in Singapore. I went to bed drunk and fully clothed. Next thing I knew I was awake and in the corridor outside my room. The door was locked. Fortunately I could just go downstairs and request a spare room key from the late-night desk clerk.

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Too many coincidences for my liking.
Whats the chances of someone who has studied at a University where TB is studied and has a name which is the test for TB with the words reversed, decides one day to go on a journey which within days brings her to a hotel smack bang in the middle of a TB outbreak, who then has a psychotic episode and drowns in the hotels water supply?

Then consider that the area was subject to a cleanup, the hotel changes hands and is earmarked to become swank accommodation only to be stopped in its tracks by an order which prevents the eviction of the very long term down and outs that the cleanup was meant to eradicate.
It then becomes the venue for a strange death which forces its residents out due to the contaminated water supply, re opens and then closes down soon after despite no shortage of bookings from interested thrill seekers/sleuths and is again destined to become swank accommodation with provisions for long term affordable accommodation that i doubt could be had for the $400/mth that was suggested to be the case prior.

Sounds like 911, buy a building, create a crisis and cash in.

 

[faible]

Too many coincidences for my liking.
Whats the chances of someone who has studied at a University where TB is studied and has a name which is the test for TB with the words reversed, decides one day to go on a journey which within days brings her to a hotel smack bang in the middle of a TB outbreak, who then has a psychotic episode and drowns in the hotels water supply?

Then consider that the area was subject to a cleanup, the hotel changes hands and is earmarked to become swank accommodation only to be stopped in its tracks by an order which prevents the eviction of the very long term down and outs that the cleanup was meant to eradicate.
It then becomes the venue for a strange death which forces its residents out due to the contaminated water supply, re opens and then closes down soon after despite no shortage of bookings from interested thrill seekers/sleuths and is again destined to become swank accommodation with provisions for long term affordable accommodation that i doubt could be had for the $400/mth that was suggested to be the case prior.

Sounds like 911, buy a building, create a crisis and cash in.

Nah. You're looking for something that's not there. Coincidences happen. With a few billion people on the planet, some of those coincidences will be pretty weird.

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Nah. You're looking for something that's not there. Coincidences happen. With a few billion people on the planet, some of those coincidences will be pretty weird.

I dont think so, i understand the likelihood of coincidence but this isnt just your run of the mill coincidence, its a string of them.
Where she studied, what they teach, her name, the name of the TB test, the timing of her trip, ending up in a place where a TB outbreak has been discovered, the facts surrounding that area and the desire and subsequent success at clearing out the hotel.
Even the video is as dodgy with obvious editing and manipulation with no verifiable explination of who actually did that
And then a perfectly laid out mental health explination which interestingly never divulged time and date stamps of when she was uploading the events and how they coincided with the timeline of events and therefore could easily be fabricated to suit because heaven forbid anyone questions mental health.
Fairly convenient id have thought.

You know the old saying, looks like shit, tastes like shit and smells like shit, chances are it is indeed shit, thats no coincidence either.

 

[faible]

I dont think so, i understand the likelihood of coincidence but this isnt just your run of the mill coincidence, its a string of them.
Where she studied, what they teach, her name, the name of the TB test, the timing of her trip, ending up in a place where a TB outbreak has been discovered, the facts surrounding that area and the desire and subsequent success at clearing out the hotel.
Even the video is as dodgy with obvious editing and manipulation with no verifiable explination of who actually did that
And then a perfectly laid out mental health explination which interestingly never divulged time and date stamps of when she was uploading the events and how they coincided with the timeline of events and therefore could easily be fabricated to suit because heaven forbid anyone questions mental health.
Fairly convenient id have thought.

Still no.

It's simply a weird, and tragic, string of coincidences.

The universe is chaotic, not everything is pre-planned.

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Still no.

It's simply a weird, and tragic, string of coincidences.

The universe is chaotic, not everything is pre-planned.

Thats cool, we can agree to disagree then.

 

[faible]

Thats cool, we can agree to disagree then.

Ok. There's plenty of information out there if you want to read more, the reddit thread below is pretty good;

FWIW I have a few friends who work in mental health in various forms (psychologists, social workers, NFP workers with at risk families) and they universally saw the elevator footage and said "psychotic episode".

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Ok. There's plenty of information out there if you want to read more, the reddit thread below is pretty good;

FWIW I have a few friends who work in mental health in various forms (psychologists, social workers, NFP workers with at risk families) and they universally saw the elevator footage and said "psychotic episode".

Cool, i have a friend who is an actor, i spoke to him about the case and he watched the video.
His first response was he could do a better job of portraying a manic episode than that, then he asked if there was footage of her in the manic state from any other camera's, i said not that i know of, he said lucky it happened right there where a camera was then..

Oh, the reddit post, perhaps the author should watch the film rather than suggest super human strength as the lid wasnt closed, sloppy work for such detailed analysis.

I'll stick to my theory thanks.