Hi, I am a long time lurker an have finally decided to register due to this very intriguing case.
People are expecting ordinary behaviour out of a situation which is not ordinary. I could see why anybody would think she was having a bad trip if she were a woman going to work in a conservative suit, but a 20-year-old coming back to her room at 2am? Frankly, I think she is acting like a normal college student having fun. Why do I think this? Because not long ago I was also a college who liked to do silly things while on vacation... I wonder what people would think of me if they saw the stupid things I got up to when I went out with my friends at that age. But I disgress.
According to the "Cecil Tour" Video on Youtube, there are two sets of stairs that lead to the lifts: one on the left and one of the right. It also has very long narrow corridors that split into even narrower corridors at certain points. The first thing that I thought of when I saw this video is "I would have definitely played hide n seek with my college friends here." I can imagine us running around and playing with the lift in the same way she did, and we would most probably be incredibly loud and obnoxious due to excessive alcohol consumption.
So here's my problem with the video: where are the friends with whom she is playing?
Let me start by saying that I do not believe in the psychotic break (by either mental illness or drug use) and consequent suicide theory simply because it makes no sense. Even if she was on drugs, why would anybody get naked, get rid of her clothes, remove the heavy lid, get into the tank, put the lid back and then drown herself when the easiest thing would be to jump off the rooftop?
To me, the only thing that makes sense is that she was with somebody she thought she could trust, and she was playing hide n seek with this person. This explains why she seems so relaxed yet so anxious at the same time.
Let's go through the video:
Elisa enters the lift from the left. Her demeanour suggests that she is pretending (emphasis) to be casual but she is in fact nervous. In my opinion, she hits various buttons because she wants to get off at a random floor and confuse whoever is chasing her. Her body language is not that of somebody who is drunk, but somebody who is smirking and thinking to herself "I'm going to outsmart you!"
A lot of people are saying that she presses the door hold button but at around 0:09 the doors start to close slightly, only to open up. This is what a lift will do when somebody presses the call button outside. She gets confused by this and steps out looking to the right at 0:20, giving her chaser 10 seconds to run away (which is more than enough to hide around the corner, based on the "Cecil Hotel Tour" video on Youtube).
She remains in the lift but can hear her chaser run, hence her cornering on the right side. To me this suggests that she knows where he is coming from. But she isn't trying to flee! she is just hiding like a child playing hide n seek would do. She steps out and looks to the right again at 0:36 and stands by the door for a few seconds, then looks to the left at 0:42. She cannot hear her chaser anymore so she thinks he must have gone downstairs and is coming from the left, maybe to give her a fright? At 0:45 she steps out quietly towards the left. She doesn't see anything, so she steps back into the lift. She then hears something, so she comes out to the left again. She is out of frame now at 1:01.
At 1:06 you can see her arm drop. She is completely relaxed. Would a person in danger drop her arm like this? At 1:09 she bends her arm and places it behind her head. Maybe she is scratching her head wondering where he is, but at 1:24 she turns round and you can see both her hands are behind her head. A lot of people do this when they talk to a friend or person they feel attracted to. Whatever the reason, to me her body language is that of somebody relaxed.
It is at this point that I believe she starts to freak out. She gets back into the lift in a hurry and seems scared. A lot of people are saying that she tumbles at 1:26 perhaps due to intoxication but to me it looks as if somebody told her to get into the lift in a threatening manner. Perhaps she got caught by hotel staff or another guest, who told her to be quiet. Regardless of which the way she enters screams to me "I need to get outta here!"
From 1:36 to 1:44 she presses a lot of buttons. Is she still playing or is she just trying to get away from the situation?
She steps out again at 1:46 and goes straight to the left side of the lift. Did somebody tell her to get out? She takes the time to put her hair behind her ears. I know I do this when I want to get my hair out of my face because I foresee the need to see everything around me. Again, to me it is clear that her demeanour has changed from relaxed to frightened.
Her strange hand movements start at 1:53.
First she extends the left hand and touches her right shoulder with her right hand. I have no idea what this means, so I copied her mannerism to try and get a clue and somebody who is in the room with me (and not watching the video) got alarmed and asked whether I was OK. Maybe she is telling him that her arm hurts. She then certainly looks as if she is screaming at somebody. Maybe she is telling him to back off, or maybe she apologising. Whatever it is, this is a completely unnatural gesture. Perhaps she was slightly intoxicated after all.
At 1:56 she starts gesturing as somebody who is blind and is tryig to see through touch? Maybe she wasn't scared after all. Maybe she is laughing at her own inability to function the lift. It's as if she's saying "oh my god can you believe I was touching everything and the thing just won't work, I'm such a ---"
At 2:01 she moves slightly to the left and makes a new type of hand gesture, which to me suggests she is trying to explain something.
Now the even weirder part.
At 2:04 she turns to the left. Did she hear something? Whatever it was, it must have been unimportant because at 2:07 she turns back to the right and continues on with her hand gestures. If she was under duress, wouldn't she have done something more than just turn her head? Something like jump off her feet? So maybe she just looked to the left to make sure there was an escape route. So she starts placing one finger in another. To me this suggests she is saying to the other person "well you have done this and that and this and that." Maybe she is telling him the game isn't fun anymore.
At 2:16 she stops and just stands there. I think she turns her head to the left but I am not sure. I don't understand how somebody who is in fear of her life could just stand there. Maybe her chaser got mad and left, and she was waiting for him to come back.
At 2:22 she puts her hands behind her head again and calmly walks off to the left, where she came from.
So how could a game of hide n seek end up with her naked body in a water tank?
Maybe she died accidentally and her friend hid the body after freaking out. But who hides a naked body in a water tank? Whilst I agree that people will do anything under stress, stripping a dead friend off her clothes before hiding her body in a water tank requires logical thinking and planning. This invalidates the theory that her friend was scared. Also, putting a dead body in a water tank could potentially poison the residents of the hotel. So maybe the person who hid the body there was one of those people that can remain calm in such a situation and clearly don't give a fly about other people. Something like a psycopath.
There is also the fact that her killer doesn't appear in any images. I remember going to an exhibit once and wanting to take pictures in a room where photos were not allowed. The first thing that I did was look out for security cameras and then I positioned myself in an area where I "knew" I was safe, only for my friend to tell me that there was a camera right in front of me! So the person who chased her must have had the time to go around the hotel and check where the cameras were. Maybe I am being naive, but wouldn't this be obvious when going through the film? Wouldn't it show a person looking at the cameras and trying to work out angles?
Now let's go back to the fact that Elisa seemed very innocent. Woudn't this make her the perfect target? No, I am not saying that she attracted the killed with her actions, but that the killer looked out for somebody like her. It is very possible that he may have befriended her with the intention of doing unspeakable things to her. But why would they play hide n seek? Maybe this was a random killing and unfortunately she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Perhaps the person chasing her is not her killer. So she is playing hide n seek with a friend she had just met. It's all flirtatious and he causes the lift doors to stay open to be funny, and he runs off. At this point somebody comes out of nowhere and tells her to go back to the lift (1:46). She feels embarrassed / scared that she got caught, and the person who told her off goes back to his room or to work. She tries to leave but can't seem to mak the lift work. Her friend comes back and se gets mad at him for getting her in trouble, and they have a fight from 1:53, he gets mad and leaves her alone to her fate.
