CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #3

[jon999]

Okay, let's consider the basic options; she's alone or someone's there in the hall.

If she's alone, then she's crazy, or on drugs, or ghosts. I don't really believe any of those. If this was the case, I don't think anyone would really be making a big deal about this case.

Which means someone's in the hall.

Even if there's someone in the hall, it's entirely possible that this person has nothing to do with Elisa's death.

 

[medsleuth]

Where did you see that quote about the body language. It appears as if she is being coy and amused at times. Interesting.

Doesn't mean she has a gun to her head. A "body language expert" thinks it means she wanted to be "sexually available". It could also mean that she was thinking, "what should I do now?"

 

[FutzBucket]

[/I][/B]



This is what I believe to be happening behind the scenes. The killer was well aware of the camera in the elevator. I believe the killer ran up and jammed something into the side of the call button in the hallway. Thus keeping the button pressed, and the door open.


Did the perp have a drug?

I don't think so. I'd suspect an older man with mental illness and a possible military background.

 

[Ravenz]

Where did you see that quote about the body language. It appears as if she is being coy and amused at times. Interesting.

It was a rather interesting analysis I agree with certain parts since I am rather interested in body language myself..

http://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2013/02/nonverbal-communication-analysis-2313.html

 

[FutzBucket]

Even if there's someone in the hall, it's entirely possible that this person has nothing to do with Elisa's death.

True. I could be completely misunderstanding the video, but if my interpretations are correct, I highly suspect the suspect simply marched her to the tank and ordered her inside and sealed her in.

 

[Xavier]

This case really is getting weirder

There is a huge drug resistant TB outbreak in LA and the strange thing is the test for TB is called LAM-ELISA. Another strange thing is Aleister Crowley used to stay at Hotel Cecil and he would talk to a demon named Lam. Just something to think about.

This is too strange, I have to share it. Currently across the Los Angeles area, there is a widespread outbreak of TB; thousands of people may have been exposed to it in a deadly downtown LA outbreak. Coincidentally, or not, a woman was recently found dead in a water tank in a hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Her name? Elisa Lam. The name of the test for TB? Lam Elisa. Is this some kind of 'test' run for a water borne 'false flag' across America? The first line of the linked CBS LA story alone should give us pause:
"The feds are descending on downtown Los Angeles to combat a dangerous outbreak of a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis."


http://thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com...s-tuberculosis.html?showComment=1361850745605

 

[Xavier]

True. I could be completely misunderstanding the video, but if my interpretations are correct, I highly suspect the suspect simply marched her to the tank and ordered her inside and sealed her in.

good theory FUTZ....Do you think she was drugged by this new powder wonder drug that incapacitates people

 

[Borris]

Hi, I saw these photos and that review on a website. I believe it was written some time ago and from the looks of it before the renovation.

No, the photo of the shower,sink, toilet is of a private bath room. The showers and toilet in the hall are in separate rooms

Some of the rooms have shower and toilet - they are the most expensive. Other cheaper rooms do not have shower or toilet - the hall showers and toilets are for those rooms. We don't have confirmation of which type room Elisa had.

The importance of the photos to me is their solidification that an 'aggressor' would be a guest or a worker, not an outsider according to the sign and discussion of their harsh treatment against visitors.

They are also important to me because it is suggested that the the water pressure is kept low probably to avoid messing up the tiny bathrooms, which means they probably had a steady stream of complaints about the water pressure. Why would one day be any different from the next?

The other reason is that the red plaque door - does it say "maintenance"? Did someone come out from that door. I'm not cool with this notion, in that it depends on this video as the last moments before she meets her killer, which would be too much of a coincidence.
---

Someone wanted to know why she was staying at the Cecil Hotel in the first place. I think the reason is that the Fashion District is located right behind the hotel, and this would help to explain the comment made by an acquaintance of hers in an earlier post, that she would never wear such fancy heels as seen in the elevator.

The hard part about this case is that the Hotel does not want to be sued so a lot of information that is critical isn't going to be admitted, or else they will cover it up, or the workers will not be honest with the LAPD on crucial details in order to cover up their mistakes to prevent losing their jobs.

"Was the lid on the water tank before you inspected it?"

 

[anansie]

My translation of Chinese forum http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-free-3077181-100.shtml#ty_vip_look[VB调查]

Now for the first question, is it easy to get to the roof?
Answer : Yes. If you dare to attempt it.

From the information the LAPD provided, saying that there are only 2 ways to get to the roof :

1) Through a door at the roof that is only for staff use - this door is permanently locked and only hotel staff have the keys to unlock it.

2) Through a safety door that is alarm-protected - the alarm will sound if anyone tries to open this door.

But is it true that these are the only 2 ways of gaining roof access?

Maybe not.

Let's look at the picture below of the roof.

http://img3.laibafile.cn/p/m/134563140.jpg

In reality:

The roof entrance circled in red is the entrance you will get to if you climb up stairway number 1 in the common areas of the hotel right by the elevators (see hotel floorplan)

The roof entrance circled in yellow is a doorless/non-accessible entrance that you will get to if you climb stairway number 2 in the common areas of the hotel right by the elevators (see hotel floorplan)

The roof entrance circled in green is the hotel's rooftop utiliy/storage room door, and the picture shows the door does not lead to the rooms on the 15th floor.

Therefore from the picture, we can see that the only way to get to the roof of the hotel is via the entrance circled in red, which is the entrance reachable by climbing stairway 1 within the hotel floors. So if we climb up stairway 1 all the way up past the 15th floor, we would get to this door here.

http://img3.laibafile.cn/p/m/134563624.jpg

On this door, it clearly states on the signage that opening this door would trigger an alarm. But would the alarm really sound if the door was opened?

Considering the fact that we have only started our investigation today not long before we reached the roof door, me and Brandon decided not to risk sounding the alarm for now. For fear of being driven out of the hotel if the hotel staff were alerted.
We will attempt doing this later after we have completed our other investigations in and around the hotel.

Epilogue : After we finished our investigations of the hotel, me and Brandon decided to go up to the roof to try opening the alarmed roof door. The door was locked and no alarm sounded when we tried opening it.

Therefore where is this other roof entrance mentioned by the police before? We never found out. After Elisa's body was found, we realised there was only one entrance to the roof and that was it.

Right from the beginning, we figured that the fire escape stairs may be another way of gaining access to the roof.

Me and Brandon inspected the fire escape stairs on several floors in the hotel. We discovered that some of the doors that lead to the fire escape stairs were left open.

http://img3.laibafile.cn/p/m/134564003.jpg

On the 14th and 15th floor, the doors leading to the fire escape stairs were closed however. We gently gave the door a push.

http://img3.laibafile.cn/p/m/134564157.jpg

The door opened up. And after waiting around for 5 minutes or so, no hotel staff came up to us. It is evident that the doors leading to the fire escape stairs are not security-alarmed. At that point, we even had on hand a lighter and some cigarettes just in case we get confronted by hotel staff for opening these doors. If we were confronted, we could then claim that we opened the door because we wanted to smoke and were trying to ventilate the place. In fact, none of us actually smoke.

Without further ado, we climbed up the fire escape stairs.

http://img3.laibafile.cn/p/m/134565332.jpg

It was beautifully sunny outside, but our moods could not be lightened up. What could be lurking on the roof? Could the roof be locked? Could it be undergoing renovations? Could the murderer be loitering about the roof? Could there be more dead bodies up there?

Let's take a break for now. We will continue this in a while...

In response to some questions posed by our friends on the Web :

1) the 14th floor is actually the 13th floor. In our investigation, there is no 13th floor on any of the hotel's floorplans, elevators or signages. Because in reality the 13th floor is the designated 14th floor in the hotel, and the 14th floor is the designated 15th floor in the hotel.

2) I'd like to make clear that we would never consider taking a particular course of action in our investigation without careful consideration. So please don't worry about our safety. In addition, if we manage to find the murderer as a result of this, then the risks posed to us by conducting the investigation would be worth it.

 

[FutzBucket]

good theory FUTZ....Do you think she was drugged by this new powder wonder drug that incapacitates people

Nope. I think some crazy guy thought she was a threat, so he marched he by gunpoint to the water-tank and ordered her inside. He then closed her in. After that, he probably went back to watching reruns of Laverne & Shirley.

I really don't think this is that complicated. I really don't think there's any conspiracy, or some master plan. I think she ran into the wrong guy in the wrong way at the wrong time.

I read in some report that most of the residents moved out except 11 (no idea how true this is). I guarantee that the killer is one of these 11.

 

[four_seasons]

Hotel Cecil Warning Sign - "Awful place! Just got escorted out by security because I was visiting a friend in a room. Apparently there's NO VISITORS ALLOWED ANY TIME. They told me I had to just show my ID downstairs and I would be fine. And then they told me I had to leave and wouldn't even let me go back for my bag!"

View from the Elevator - Common area shower / bathroom, and another door with red plaque. What's it say?

Room bath - "Make note of the shower curtain rod. The rod and curtain are what demarcate the shower area from the rest of the bathroom. That’s right, at the Cecil Hotel, you no longer have to choose between showering and pooping! Actually, that’s not true. The shower nozzle is angled away from the toilet and towards the back wall. Even if it weren’t, the water pressure isn’t sufficient to reach the toilet."

apparently that's not the case. Mr Ren/Mr Yam went and stayed at Cecil to carry out his own investigation (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2179533681?see_lz=1&pn=2 post #1343)
he was able to call 2 of his friends over at 5am and play UNO in the room. i don't think security was THAT tight.

 

[Borris]

This case really is getting weirder

There is a huge drug resistant TB outbreak in LA and the strange thing is the test for TB is called LAM-ELISA.

And this link says it's a test for children, doesn't her name translate as blue (TB infected) children?

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00512330

 

[GlobalGirlyGirl]

Interesting that she's having that animated "conversation" to the right side of the hallway, which appears to be the direction of the hallway shower/toilet. Wonder if someone came out of the shower or toilet at some point (right before she starts that animated hand waving/finger counting thing.)

Great observation. Maybe at first someone spooked her (to the left). When she gets out again, a person coming out of the bathroom startles her, but she talks to them, gives up on the elevator, and goes to the left...the direction where she first encountered someone.

 

[Xavier]

The importance of the photos to me is their solidification that an 'aggressor' would be a guest or a worker, not an outsider according to the sign and discussion of their harsh treatment against visitors.

They are also important to me because it is suggested that the the water pressure is kept low probably to avoid messing up the tiny bathrooms, which means they probably had a steady stream of complaints about the water pressure. Why would one day be any different from the next?

The other reason is that the red plaque door - does it say "maintenance"? Did someone come out from that door. I'm not cool with this notion, in that it depends on this video as the last moments before she meets her killer, which would be too much of a coincidence.
---

Someone wanted to know why she was staying at the Cecil Hotel in the first place. I think the reason is that the Fashion District is located right behind the hotel, and this would help to explain the comment made by an acquaintance of hers in an earlier post, that she would never wear such fancy heels as seen in the elevator.

The hard part about this case is that the Hotel does not want to be sued so a lot of information that is critical isn't going to be admitted, or else they will cover it up, or the workers will not be honest with the LAPD on crucial details in order to cover up their mistakes to prevent losing their jobs.

"Was the lid on the water tank before you inspected it?"

Good job Borris -- and it's against the health code for a water cistern to not be sealed/locked

 

[noodled1]

I know there's many here who don't live in LA so for those not familiar with the area Skid Row is actually about 6 blocks to the east of the Cecil Hotel maybe a mile.

The Hotel is not in a great area but it's not horrible. A lot of that area is undergoing a revival. Old hotels/apartment buildings are becoming revamped and sold rented as upscale living in the heart of the city. In a few years places like the Cecil will be gone. the building will stand but the clientele will be replaced.

 

[Sillybilly]

This case really is getting weirder

There is a huge drug resistant TB outbreak in LA and the strange thing is the test for TB is called LAM-ELISA. Another strange thing is Aleister Crowley used to stay at Hotel Cecil and he would talk to a demon named Lam. Just something to think about.

This is too strange, I have to share it. Currently across the Los Angeles area, there is a widespread outbreak of TB; thousands of people may have been exposed to it in a deadly downtown LA outbreak. Coincidentally, or not, a woman was recently found dead in a water tank in a hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Her name? Elisa Lam. The name of the test for TB? Lam Elisa. Is this some kind of 'test' run for a water borne 'false flag' across America? The first line of the linked CBS LA story alone should give us pause:
"The feds are descending on downtown Los Angeles to combat a dangerous outbreak of a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis."

This outbreak of TB is not new. While I don't believe there is any huge conspiracy related to the tuberculosis cases in LA, there is one possibility that i would consider as it relates to the TB outbreak on skid row.

from:
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/22/local/la-me-tb-outbreak-20130222

Officials say 11 have died since 2007. Sixty of the 78 cases were among homeless people who live on and around skid row ...

Health workers have identified about 4,650 people who were probably exposed and are trying to track them down for testing and treatment

I believe Elisa's name in Chinese would be reversed to Lam Elisa (ie the case of Magnotta's victim Jun Lin was actually Lin Jun), so yes .. the same as the
Lam~Elisa that is contained in articles regarding the TB testing.


A possible scenario is that the perp is someone, possibly deranged, and either infected with TB or having been one of those exposed (or had a relative/friend die of the disease). This person met Elisa and, knowing that in Chinese her name was the same as that related to TB testing, they came to believe that Elisa was in fact a demon that had set about this unfortunate outbreak. That perp could possibly be of Asian descent themselves, in order to have made a connection to the reversal of the christian and the surname.

 

[Xavier]

Great observation. Maybe at first someone spooked her (to the left). When she gets out again, a person coming out of the bathroom startles her, but she talks to them, gives up on the elevator, and goes to the left...the direction where she first encountered someone.

A body language expert suggested possibly EL was "sexually available" in her gestures...on the floor's a shower, if some guy comes out of the shower with a towel or less, naked, maybe she was turned on??

and then someone else hears the commotion and confronts her...she walks away appearing with her hands on her head like she's being controlled to follow orders

 

[FutzBucket]

Here's what gets me; if there were no signs of trauma on the body, then why the water-tank? It would be so much easier to just toss her from the roof, especially if she was still alive.

The only motive I have left for the water-tank was not to hide a body, but to contain a threat. If he considered her a threat, then why didn't he just take her down to the lobby and turn her in? Well, he wouldn't if he believed they weren't trustworthy either, meaning he's a paranoid schizophrenic, and Skid Row just happens to be filled with them.

He had this threat, and didn't know what to do with her, so he locked her in the water-tank.

In his mind, he didn't do anything wrong. His defense would be, "hey, I told her to leave. Heck, I gave her 20-seconds. What was I supposed to do?"

 

[ecco]

Yup, you can queue posts in advance on Tumblr. The Hermit card is a reblog of a post made in October 2012 (I followed the thread of reblogs). So a likely explanation is that she queued up several posts/reblogs in advance.

I think we can rule out that this is a shared Tumblr account. The bio/etc. page is written in first person and makes no mention of another person attached to the account.

From what I've gleaned looking back at her older entries, Tumblr was an important part of her life, so I guess I can understand her wanting to have posts queued up in advance, especially if she knew she'd be traveling afk. Still, it's kind of bizarre to see these posts popping up now.

I'm late but I wanted to point out that I'm pretty sure that it's not a reblog of a post made in October but a reblog of a post from two days ago (which itself was a reblog of a post made in October). This post is the one reblogged, it's a pain because they don't have dates on their layout but when I look at where it would be on my dashboard it comes up as February 25th. So yes, someone else must have reblogged it.

I also wanted to add that I don't find it odd that she had so many posts in her queue, I know people who have their queue filled or scheduled posts for months in advance but as I said it's not possible with this post.

 

[morphee]

A body language expert suggested possibly EL was "sexually available" in her gestures...on the floor's a shower, if some guy comes out of the shower with a towel or less, naked, maybe she was turned on??

and then someone else hears the commotion and confronts her...she walks away appearing with her hands on her head like she's being controlled to follow orders

I'm still wondering if she definitely had a single room, and if that room contained a sink, toilet, and/or shower (as the shared bath has been implied). Does the shared bath mean no plumbing at all in the room?