The Mysterious Case of Elisa Lam
Oct 21st, 2013 |
Category: Featured, Vigilant Reports |
There
are mysteries that are so eerie and strange that they boggle the mind for days
on end. The case of Elisa Lam is one of them. In February 2013, this
21-year-old student from Vancouver, Canada, was found dead inside the Cecil
Hotel’s rooftop water tank in Los Angeles. The L.A. County Department of
Coroner ruled the death “accidental due to drowning” and said no traces of
drugs or alcohol were found during the autopsy. However, there is much more to
the story than what is implied by police reports. The first piece of evidence
that needs to be considered is an elevator surveillance tape that recorded
Elisa’s behavior only a few moments before she lost her life.
The
four-minute video posted on YouTube shows Elisa pressing all of the elevator
buttons and waiting for it to move. Seeing that the elevator doors are not
closing, starts behaving extremely bizarrely. Here’s the video.
At
first, Elisa enters the elevator and apparently presses all of its buttons. She
then waits for something to happen but, for some reason, the elevator door
doesn’t shut. She starts to look around, as if she is expecting (or hiding
from) someone. At 1:57, her arms and hands start moving in a very strange
matter (almost not human) as she appears to be talking to someone, something …
or nothing at all. She then walks away. The elevator door then shuts and
appears to start working again.
Right
after the events of the video, Elisa apparently gained access to the rooftop of
the hotel, climbed to its water tank and, somehow, ended up drowning in it. Her
body was found two weeks after her death, after hotel guests complained about
the water’s taste and color. Incredible.
Seeing
the surveillance footage, most people would conclude that she was under the
influence of drugs. However, Elisa did not have a history of drug use and her
autopsy concluded that no drugs were involved. When one looks at the context
and the circumstances of this death, things become even more mysterious.
Cecil Hotel’s Dark History
Built
in the 1920s to cater to “businessmen to come into town and spend a night or
two”, Cecil Hotel was quickly upstaged by more glamorous hotels. Located near
the infamous Skid Row area, the hotel began renting rooms on a long-term basis
for cheap prices, a policy that attracted a shiftier crowd. The hotel’s
reputation quickly went from “shifty” to “morbid” when it became notorious for
numerous suicides and murders, as well as lodging famous serial killers.
“Part
of its sordid history, involves two serial killers, Richard Ramirez and
Jack Unterweger.
Now
on death row, Ramirez, labeled “the Nightstalker”, was living at the Cecil
Hotel in 1985, in a top floor room. He was charged 14 dollars a night.
In a building filled with transients, he remained unnoticed as he stalked
and killed his 13 female victims. Richard Schave, said “He was dumping his bloody
clothes in the Dumpster, at the end of his evening and returned via the back
entrance.”
Jack
Unterweger, was a journalist covering crime in Los Angeles for an Austrian
magazine in 1991. “We believe he was living at the Cecil Hotel in homage
to Ramirez,” Schave said.
He
is blamed with killing three prostitutes in Los Angeles, while being a guest at
the Cecil.
In
the 50’s and 60’s the Cecil was known as a place that people would go to jump
out of one of the hotel’s windows to commit suicide.
Helen
Gurnee, in her 50s, leaped from a seventh floor window, landing on the Cecil
Hotel marquee, on October 22, 1954.
Julia
Moore jumped from her eighth floor room window, on February 11, 1962.
Pauline
Otton, 27, jumped from a ninth floor window after an argument with her estranged
husband, on October 12, 1962. Otton landed on George Gianinni, 65, who
was walking on the side walk, 90 feet below. Both were killed
instantly.
There
was also a murder of one of the residents. “Pigeon Goldie” Osgood, a
retired telephone operator, known for protecting and feeding pigeons in a
nearby park, was found dead in his ransacked room on June 4, 1964. He had
been stabbed, strangled, and raped. The crime still remains unsolved.”
-
Las Vegas Guardian Express, Elisa Lam, Morbid History Of Two
Serial Killers Unfolds At “Cecil Hotel”
Elisa
Lam’s case is yet another sordid addition to the hotel’s history and can lead
us to ask: “What the hell is wrong with that place”?
The Movie “Dark Water”
The
story of Elisa Lam is eerily similar to the 2005 horror movie Dark Water.
Dahlia, the main protagonist of the movie moves into an apartment building with
her young daughter Cecilia. Both of these names are relevant. Black Dahlia is
the nickname given to Elizabeth Short, a woman who was the victim of a gruesome
murder in 1947 – one that appeared to be particularly ritualistic. The case was
never solved. According to LA Observed, it is rumored that Black Dahlia was at
Cecil Hotel right before she lost her life.
“The
Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, is alleged in at least one book to have hung out
at the Cecil and drank at the bar next door before she disappeared in 1947,
though cultural historians Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of Esotouric say
that’s just rumor.”
- LA Observed, Serial Killer Central
In
the movie, the daughter’s name, Cecilia, is, obviously, quite similar to the
name Cecil Hotel.
After
moving into her apartment, Dahlia notices dark water leaking from the ceiling
in her bathroom. She ultimately discovers that a young girl named Natasha
Rimsky drowned in the building’s rooftop water tank, which caused the water to
turn black. The owner of the apartment building knew about this fact but
refused to take action. Elisa Lam’s body was in the water tank for over
two weeks, causing hotel guests to complain about foul tasting “black water”.
The
ending of the movie is also eerily relevant: The apartment buildings elevator
malfunctions and the ghost of Cecilia’s mother braids her hair. Is Elisa Lam’s
death one of those ritualistic murders that are synchronistically mirrored in a
Hollywood movie?
Another Strange Coincidence
Shortly
after the discovery of Elisa Lam’s body, a deadly outbreak of tuberculosis
occurred in Skid Row, near Cecil Hotel. You probably won’t believe the name of
the test kit used in these kinds of situations: LAM-ELISA. That is hardcore
synchronicity.
No Foul Play?
LA
authorities ruled in June 2013 that Elisa Lam’s death was accidental and that she
was “probably bi-polar”. That being said, some questions remain unanswered. How
did Elisa, who was obviously not in her right mind, end up in the hotel’s water
tank, an area that is difficult to access? Here’s a news report describing the
water tank area.
As
the reporter states in the video, the rooftop area is protected by an alarm
system and the water tank is difficult to reach. How did Elisa reach that area?
Also, how did she close the water tank lid?
As
is usually the case for strange deaths, authorities have been incredibly
secretive and non-transparent during this investigation. What truly happened here?
Why are there so many strange coincidences? Why was Elisa Lam acting so strange
in the elevator? Was there a ritualistic aspect to this death? Why is the Cecil
Hotel a hotbed for these kinds of stories? Is there some paranormal stuff going
on there involving dark entities? The mystery appears to be whole and
authorities do not seem to be wanting to probe further. Maybe I should cite
here the slogan that appears on Dark Water movie posters : “Some
mysteries are not meant to be solved”.
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