The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam at The Cecil Hotel

The Cecil Hotel was opened in 1927 on Main Street, Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It has 600 rooms and originally targeted the business traveller and tourist market. However, despite being regarded as a fashionable destination for a number of decades, it had, by the end of the 1940s, been overshadowed by more glamorous hotels in upmarket parts of the city. Notwithstanding the fluctuating fortunes of the establishment, however, it is the hotel’s reputation for murder and mystery that makes it noteworthy.

At approximately 10am on the morning of 15 January 1947, local resident Betty Bersinger was out walking with her three year old daughter, when she came upon what she initially thought was a discarded shop mannequin. To her horror she quickly realised that what she was actually looking at was the mutilated body of a young woman. The corpse had been severed in two at the waist, disfigured and drained of blood. The killer had also carved a grotesque smile on the woman’s face from ear to ear. The body was identified as that of 22 year old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short. The last known sighting of Elizabeth prior to her death had been at the bar of The Cecil Hotel. The case remains one of America’s most brutal, unsolved murders.


Elizabeth Short

In 1964, a long-term resident of the hotel, known as “Pigeon Goldie”, Osgood, was murdered in her room. She had been raped, beaten, and stabbed. This case also remains unsolved. A number of suicides also occurred at The Cecil, leading to it being given the unwanted nickname of “The Suicide”. Serial killers also feature in the chequered history of the hotel. Richard Ramirez, aka the “night stalker”, resided at The Cecil in the mid-1980s, during which time he is thought to have murdered up to thirteen people. Jack Unterweger was also staying there in 1991 when he murdered three prostitutes.

But undoubtedly the most bizarre death at The Cecil Hotel occurred much more recently. In February 2013, 21 year old Canadian student Elisa Lam was recorded on the hotel elevator’s surveillance camera behaving erratically. She entered the elevator and pressed numerous buttons. Perhaps confused by so many conflicting instructions, the elevator stayed put with the door open. She appeared agitated, glancing out of the door as if expecting, or trying to hide from, someone. She exited and re-entered the elevator a couple of times, before standing just outside the elevator door and making weird, unnatural gesticulations with her arms and hands. Finally she walks away. Footage of the recording can be viewed on YouTube by simply searching for Elisa Lam. The clip is just under four minutes in length.


Elisa Lam

Two weeks later, guests at the hotel began complaining of foul tasting water. The water tower on the roof of the building was inspected and the naked, decomposing body of Elisa was found floating therein. Her personal effects were also found in the water. There was no evidence of drug consumption and Elisa left no suicide note, leading the Los Angeles County Coroner to rule her death as accidental drowning, also noting that she was possibly suffering from bi-polar disorder. However, the ruling of the death of Elisa Lam as accidental, raises more questions than it answers. Firstly, the door to the roof was locked and alarmed, and so Elisa ought not to have been able to gain access to the roof area. Secondly, the water tower was high and could only have been accessed via a ladder. There was no ladder on the roof. Also, gaining access to the tower required considerable strength, and Elisa was just 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed only 121 pounds.

Odd circumstances indeed. But there was more strangeness to come, leading some to assign a paranormal explanation to the death. Elisa’s phone was never recovered, but her Tumblr account mysteriously started posting images, and continued to do so for six months after her death. Also, a bizarre coincidence concerned an outbreak of tuberculosis, that occurred near to the hotel shortly after the discovery of her body. The testing kit used in such outbreaks is, astonishingly named, LAM-ELISA.

Another strange coincidence relates to a horror movie released in 2005 called Dark Waters. It is the story of a young woman who drowns in the water tank atop an apartment building. Her body remains undiscovered for some time and begins to decompose, and she is only found after residents begin to complain of foul tasting water. The mirroring of the tragic story of Elisa Lam eight years later is perplexing. An example of precognition on the part of the writers perhaps.

Coincidence or synchronicity? Precognition? Is a supernatural entity trying to tell us something? Did Elisa Lam drown accidentally, or did she commit suicide? Or was she murdered by someone or something? I don’t know, but I think I’ll give The Cecil Hotel a miss.

Sources:
https://cool interesting stuff.com/the-mysterious-case-of-elisa-lam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Hotel_(Los_Angeles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzptaoR5di0