CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #1

[Sillybilly]

She was seen after the elevator event by two hotel workers who said she seemed fine.

<rsbm>

We may have to go back to get some clarification on that aspect TC ... IIRC, it was said to the effect that she had been last seen by a couple of staff members, but it didn't specify anywhere if those sightings were before or after the elevator footage. I remember thinking as I read the references to those sightings that it seemed LE were intentionally keeping that detail close to the vest due to an investigation involving suspicions of foul play and the possibility of hotel staff or guests being responsible for her disappearance.

JMO

 

[24k]

Honestly? I still think she was either on drugs or having some type of episode. I knew someone with schizophrenia, and that dramatic way of moving looks really, eerily similar.

If she was schizophrenic and having some type of psychotic break, she wouldn't need a good reason to go to the roof, and it wouldn't matter whether her friends and family thought that she would have gone up there, because psychotic breaks don't need to make sense. They aren't rational. She could have gone up there, heard water, and thought she could go swimming. It's not rational to us, but to someone in the middle of an episode or high, it could make perfect sense. I mean, people jump off of buildings when they're high because they think they can fly. This doesn't really seem that outside the realm of possibility.

I don't think she was drugged, because typically people use sedatives to drug women when trying to take advantage of them. She doesn't appear to be on a sedative in that video.

As for the door being locked, someone else brought this up to me, and they have a point. At a restaurant we used to work at, the back door locked automatically as soon as it closed. So it 'remained locked' except it didn't, because the guys in the kitchen sometimes put something between the door and the frame so they could go smoke and sneak back in without having to use the buzzer and drawing the attention of management. Could be a similar case here.

JMO.

 

[The Cheese]

<rsbm>

We may have to go back to get some clarification on that aspect TC ... IIRC, it was said to the effect that she had been last seen by a couple of staff members, but it didn't specify anywhere if those sightings were before or after the elevator footage. I remember thinking as I read the references to those sightings that it seemed LE were intentionally keeping that detail close to the vest due to an investigation involving suspicions of foul play and the possibility of hotel staff or guests being responsible for her disappearance.

JMO

I'm pretty sure I posted a link to it earlier in the thread, but I will go back and check as soon as I finish my lunch. It could be I'm mistaken.

Edit to add - Sillybilly, you are correct. I apologize. The article I had in mind says only that she was seen in the late hours of the 31st by hotel staff. All this time I've remembered it as after the elevator event, but it does not say that.

 

[LarkBunting]

It doesn't seem to me that her body could have been in the water tank all this time without more hotel guests noticing concerning things (froth/foam, discolored water, foul-smelling water, etc.). This leads me to wonder (as I believe this was absolutely a crime) if:
1.) Her body was stored elsewhere for a while before being dumped in the tank
or
2.) (This thought makes me ill) She was kept alive for some period of time, held against her will, before being killed.

I am spooked by this case. I definitely see agitation, nervousness, & increasing fear on the elevator tape. She was scared!

May Elisa rest in peace.

 

[InciteRevolution]

I concur that the body was stored in one of the rooms before it was dumped in the tank.

I disagree completely that she looked scared. Unfortunately, I have a friend who died of a drug overdose in early 2012 (extremely smart, successful, good looking guy down in Laguna Beach -- he had everything) -- he did every drug imaginable -- including meth and heroin -- and the behavior she displayed in the tape is highly consistent to his behavior when he was on hallucinogens and/or MDMA (E, Molly, etc.).

 

[wilbee]

sorry i read just read the corrected version.

 

[InciteRevolution]

Key witnesses have certainly been wrong and/or flat-out lied before, so I have trouble accepting that as credible evidence presently until all the preliminary data points (autopsy/toxicology reports, searched of all the hotel rooms including the deceased, formal statements from everyone staying in the hotel during her trip) have been gathered.

If anything, those two guys would be my top persons of interest based on what we know at this point in time.

Also, the more I have watched that video, the more I've considered the possibility that she could have just been flat-out drunk. I've done crazier stuff than that when wasted.

 

[wilbee]

*Behavior consistent with a drugged girl "tripping balls" (I am confident the autopsy will prove this soon)
*Tremendously loud noise heard from her room the night she disappeared
*Naked body, with no trace of the clothes
*The water tank she was found in had an opening slightly larger than a shoebox, and was only 3/4 of the way full

The question is when was the night she disappeared? 31st Jan?

Was the tremendous loud noise heard in her room on 31st Jan?

I'm confused here. Apologies if I can't keep up.

I would opine that keeping her alive somewhere prior to being dumped being my humble pov since dead meat detoriorates the quality of water very very quickly, humid and hot or otherwise.

 

[The Cheese]

now, that would mean speculation about her being drugged or high or teasing or whatever would be of no purpose or value cos AFTER the elevator incident she was still perfectly well and was seen by 2 hotel workers. wow.

Then the next thing is betwwen the last time she was seen by anyone (prob the 2 hotel workers abovementioned) and the time the troubles of the water and the tank and the clogged drains etc started.


As guessed, I do not know understand what the police is trying to show by releasing that video clip because thereafter, whatever she was assumed to be doing in the elevator clipped (drugged, threatened, ghosts.........its immaterial:bangheadshe was still seen by 2 hotel staff and verified to be in proper condition.

I'm sorry, wilbee. Please see my post above to sillybilly. I went back and checked, and I was wrong. I remembered the article as seen by the workers after the elevator event, but that is not what it said. It said she was seen by the workers in the late hours of Jan 31st. My apologies.

 

[dotr]

I am freaked out that one of my comments was #666.

Old superstitions are hard to break.

Welcome to WS Stratford258!

Never mind that your comment was # 666,cause' your post about it was #6 and 258 = 15 1+5=6 lol!

 

[Eileen730]

It looks to me that at least some people in the hotel knew how to get up on the roof without setting off the door alarm.

http://news.yahoo.com/body-found-la-hotel-water-tank-may-missing-010024324.html


There is graffiti on the side of the platform for the towers.

It's not big BABOOM graphics that's intended to be seen from other buildings.

Graffiti is a marker to people other than the person doing the graffiti.

It's small scale, like "buy drugs here from Boozer".

The only other way is the fire escape, which would have to be accessed from the window at the end of a hall.

So there is a recent history of people going up to the roof.

I was wondering if the employees maybe took their cigarette breaks up there on the roof.

 

[wilbee]

If the hotel is able to attest and be *advertiser censored* sure that the door to the roof was surely and always locked and that the alarm was activated and functioning, then it would be a no brainer that the person who put her there would be someone who held the keys or have access to the keys.

Now in a hotel like that, there aren't many suspects are there? Sounds too simple to be true?

In my local case of the maid in the tank, the incident happened in a block of government housing. The procedures of who was allowed access to the roof was strictly enforced and as expected, the killer was the one who held the key.

 

[Sillybilly]

I can't see that we ever had a height and weight on Elisa. I'm looking at those tanks (said to be 1.4 metres wide, so approx 55" wide), and trying to calculate the dimensions of the hatch cover (which would be slightly larger than the hatch itself). At a rough estimate of the cover being 1/4 the width of the tank, that would mean the cover would be approx 13.75" wide. Boy, that's a pretty tight squeeze whether a person went in naked or fully clothed.

 

[Catchew]

This girl didn't suffer from psychosis... no offense, but that's a ridiculous theory if you've done your homework on this case, IMO. If you've done any research at all on her background, those types of serious conditions simply don't fit her profile. "May have suffered from depression" to full blown mania is a pretty freaking steep hill to climb.

She is clearly on some type of hallucinogen, MDMA or both.

This girl was likely given the drugs by the *advertiser censored* who murdered her, and you can't convince me for a second that this was an accidental death.

*Behavior consistent with a drugged girl "tripping balls" (I am confident the autopsy will prove this soon)
*Tremendously loud noise heard from her room the night she disappeared
*Naked body, with no trace of the clothes
*The water tank she was found in had an opening slightly larger than a shoebox, and was only 3/4 of the way full

BBM
I'm not pointing fingers at you because I know we have all been speculating, but I think we need to be careful as to what we state as fact. According to reports I have read, the noise was said to come from the 4th floor, but I don't believe we were ever told that it was from her room.

Bernard Diaz, 89, a 32-year tenant of the Cecil, said he heard a "tremendous" noise the night before Lam was missing in the fourth floor above him.

He also said there was flooding on the fourth floor the day after Lam went missing.

"They said there was some obstruction to the drain between the third and fourth floor," Diaz said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...er-womans-body-found-in-hotel-water-tank.html

Can anyone find a source that says the noise came from her room or that she was found in the nude? I just think we need to be careful when separating fact from speculation.

 

[margarita25]

Does anyone else think we are seeing this horrible crime take place in this video? The police probably have tons of video of Elisa in the elevator during her stay, but they chose to release this one. I think that she is being attacked at the end, from behind. Her feet are jumping and really unnatural looking (more so than the hand movements) while she is flailing her hands. At 1:53 -2:25 if you watch her legs and feet they are doing very weird jerky movements. Perhaps someone behind her holding her hair or neck... scary as heck! I definatley think she is struggling with someone.

What I also find odd is when she in gesturing, she seems to be talking to someone to the right, yet when she is last seen, oddly as you mention, she leaves to the left...

 

[dotr]

I can't see that we ever had a height and weight on Elisa. I'm looking at those tanks (said to be 1.4 metres wide, so approx 55" wide), and trying to calculate the dimensions of the hatch cover (which would be slightly larger than the hatch itself). At a rough estimate of the cover being 1/4 the width of the tank, that would mean the cover would be approx 13.75" wide. Boy, that's a pretty tight squeeze whether a person went in naked or fully clothed.

http://www.missingpersonsofamerica.com/2013/02/elisa-lam-canadian-missing-in-los.html
5'4 approx. 115 lb.

 

[summer_breeze]

Thank you everyone! Elisa please, rest peacefully! Many prayers for you, family and friends!

Reminder:

If you quote from social media or other sources you must provide a link. (It's only fair to everyone else)
And you are only allowed to link from the victim's social media resources. (At this time, as there is no suspect or named person of interest)

Otherwise, don't talk about it or post about it at all if you don't feel it belongs here in the public eye.

Posts that have violated this rule, or posts that quoted a post that violated this rule have been removed.

Thank you in advance for understanding
~Summer_Breeze

 

[Joe Friday]

Sources close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing said Lam's death might have been accidental. Detectives were looking for any signs of trauma on her body or other clues at the hotel. An autopsy was planned Thursday.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...anadian-tourist-found-dead-in-water-tank.html

 

[margarita25]

I wonder who "Moore" is. His name doesn't appear anywhere else in the article. I don't see any ladders that are permanently affixed to the tanks ... just regular run-of-the-mill movable ones.

Here's a pic from a different angle which shows windows from an adjacent tower in close proximity to the tanks:

http://i.theloop.ca/imageproxy/imag...lt.png&signature=X90qoqxirCPVLLpU10RB9NObXRI=


ETA: Okay, found out that "Moore" must be Captain Moore of the Fire Department.

Now this is weird ... how come this pic from approximately the same angle doesn't show the same windows/buildings?

http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/elisa-lam-death.jpg?w=620

Maybe i'll just head to bed and it will all look different in the morning fftobed:

??? Ok, confused.

 

[Joe Friday]

I think that it is pretty apparent that Elsia was not found with significant trauma to her body such as bullet wounds or ligature marks around the neck making this a sure fired case of foul play. If she had been found with injuries consistent with being killed LE would have already said this is a homicide investigation.

JMO