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

[margarita25]

Ok, I could be wrong here, but it appears to me that she is possibly on the 15th floor in the elevator video.

 

[margarita25]

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

The autopsy results have not yet been released, correct?

 

[mollymae]

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

:banghead:

That's all I have for now....

 

[margarita25]

Hi, all. Lots of great theorizing going on in this thread. I usually lurk, but since I finally registered for WS due to this case, I thought I ought to share my own two cents worth. Poor, poor Elisa.

I just can't shake the initial impression I had from watching the video of Elisa in the elevator. I think she's frightened and trying to collect herself - I think, like other posters have suggested, she's had a run-in with someone who meant her harm, or disturbed her, and she's trying to calm herself down. I'm also of the belief that if there was foul play in this case, there was more than one perpetrator. I think that when she looks as though she's talking to someone, she is - but that person is obscured by the elevator, so the security camera can't see them. I suspect the person she's talking to is not the person who frightened her, but an accomplice - someone who lured her into thinking they were trustworthy. At the end of the video when Elisa goes out of frame, to the left, she looks as though she's been directed that way. Maybe by someone who told her she could get help if she went that way. If Elisa met with foul play, I think two people, rather than one, would be more easily able to place her in the water tank. I just can't get over her being found in a water tank. I know people who are on drugs or mentally unsound are sometimes able to do things people couldn't do if they were sober or mentally okay, but I can't fathom how she ended up in the water tank by her own doing.

I hope there are answers in this case, and soon.

I think more than one perp if possible (if this is foul play).

 

[tarabull]

Pics:
http://periscopeguide.com/p/Los_Angeles-hotel-Cecil_Hotel/ip/395664547512929526_1303666

 

[margarita25]

ITA I have had nightmares for the last 2 nights after watching the video. I can't watch it again. I don't think anyone was with her at that time but I do think something was way off about her behavior.

I do think someone put her in the water tank.

I remember seeing a Japanese movie called Dark Water that was about a girl in a water tank. It was remade into an American version. Did anyone else see it?

Maybe that has what has me freaked out that it actually happened in real life.

I literally was wide awake all night trying to figure how the heck she ended up in that tank. This case has consumed me. Anxiously awaiting the autopsy results.

If murder is confirmed, then I have some really scary thoughts and theories. Will refrain til we get more information!

 

[margarita25]

Pics:
http://periscopeguide.com/p/Los_Angeles-hotel-Cecil_Hotel/ip/395664547512929526_1303666

 

[jetsetsam]

"I do, however, believe I have solved the mystery as to why she went to Los Angeles in the first place:"

I went to the link, but couldn't see anything that would explain why she went to LA.

Why did she go to AL?

 

[margarita25]

Not sure if this link has been posted already (hotel review):

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/11/03/a-dump-with-a-future-or-my-review-of-the-cecil-hotel-los-angeles/

 

[serenerelief]

Check out Elisa's last post on Tumblr. Eery. http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/post/42001369468/rcruzniemiec-eugene-soloviev

 

[margarita25]

Wondering if someone messed around in the electrical control room, flicking breakers or pulling fuses ect.


http://www.torontosun.com/2013/02/20/mystery-around-students-death-in-la-deepens
"The alarm is a large part of the investigation into how Lam died and why her body was discovered in the rooftop tank, said L.A. Police Department spokesman Officer Christopher No.

“That will play a role to see if that was locked or not or who had access to that,” No said"

Good thinking!

 

[Stratford258]

Check out Elisa's last post on Tumblr. Eery. http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/post/42001369468/rcruzniemiec-eugene-soloviev

Okay - that is just way too dark. This whole case is full of heebie jeebies.

The Chuck Palahniuk quote on her Tumblr, the statement she wrote about "hoping no creep gets me," that she wrote on her Tumblr, the elevator incident, the possibility she was on the 14th floor (really the 13th floor in an old hotel), and the hotel's history with two murderers.

All of this creepiness is hard to write off as coincidence. Makes me think someone got access to her computer after she was killed and posted these to haunt/tease the police.

 

[Marinewonder]

I think more than one perp if possible (if this is foul play).

I think it's unlikely a single person carried her presumed already dead body up the tank ladder to dump her, but not impossible.

If it was a hotel ladder, versus one flat against the tank, one that could be inclined in an angle like the one shown in the recent crime scene pics, it may be possible for a single perp though.

I have not seen any clear evidence her body was found nude. There's mention that her flip-flops were back at the hotel room though, but in this weather I would imagine those were her backup/lounge at the hotel sandals, she would've had other walking shoes with her I think.

As strange as the video looks, both with playful looking antics, and what may seem like fearful moments when she presses up against the touchpanel wall as if not to be seen, I don't think we can conclude she was afraid overall. I think if she were afraid, she would not have lingered at the elevator so long, but taken herself back to her room or to the lobby where a hotel employee would likely have been able to hear her concerns.

My general feeling of the elevator vid is that she was having fun with the elevator, may have had a schizophrenic episode mixed in (only because someone earlier who claims to have known her said she had been in therapy and had done something similar before, could have been using meds). I just feel that a true fear factor overcomes any playful, or even schizophrenic episode one may be under. The flight instinct should make her leave in a much more hurried way than she did.

The fact she ended up in the tank smells more like an inside job. Any random meeting with people, if it had led to her doom with the wrong character, would not lead me to believe such a character would know his way around the hotel enough to dump the body in a short amount of time where it ended up. Unless going up to the roof for fun seems like something a 21year old girl would do alone with a guy she would have just met. It doesnt strike me as normal fun even as a guy, much less able to convince a girl I had just met to join me.

But if she met someone, its also possible she could have developed trust with someone over time before she even arrived in LA (unplanned according to most), a secret meeting, exciting potential romance? This is 2013, it's not rare. But someone, at least a close friend would have known. So I don't think this is likely. That information would already have come out, even if the police were searching for that person and had no idea what he looked like.

I'm unclear about the timeline between the hotel floor flooding reports, when she was last seen or made contact, the thud the man heard, and reports of water pressure issues. I think the flooding reports were unrelated to this case, the thud sound could have been an over-reaction (the intensity of a sound that wakes you can seem amplified due to the fact you're woken up by it, esp from a dream), so i also think, unrelated. If she was found with no bruises, a thud related to a body slamming forcefully on the floor above wouldn't make sense. And the thud relating to the water tank lid closing would be too far up.

The most recent reports in this forum state from unnamed sources close to the case that it may have been accidental? Give me a break.

 

[margarita25]

So some guests elected to stay at the hotel after all this. Who would do that? I'd be looking extra close at these people. I'm not sure why the hotel is still open for business. The whole hotel is a potential crimes scene until we get the autopsy results!

 

[oh_gal]

And look at the theatrical way she swings her right hand around at the beginning of the video, to push the elevator buttons.

Its as if she knows she is performing. On camera.

I thought that, when she first walked in, before pushing buttons...her arms are swinging very big, like she is putting on an act for someone she thinks is watching her.

 

[Eileen730]

Ok, I could be wrong here, but it appears to me that she is possibly on the 15th floor in the elevator video.

Thats what I said also! Only by the buttons she pushed on that elevator
panel.

 

[Eileen730]

Now see i think she pushes all these buttons so this person wont know what floor she gets off on by watching the elevator from outside that car.

 

[The Cheese]

Kristine Lazar ‏@KristineLazar
Autopsy complete on body of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam. Results deferred pending more tests. Full details on CBS 2 at 5. @CBSLA

 

[x_files]

This is a bit off topic, but the first thing that came to my mind when I watched the Elisa Lam footage was this:

Raw Video: Tape Shows Bush Aide Before Death - YouTube

Anyone else remember the story of John Wheeler, the former Bush aide, wandering around the parking garage with his shoe in his hand, clearly confused. He was later found in a landfill. No arrests made to date. This was a brilliant guy on his way to a meeting - no history of drug use or mental issues.

I hope Elisa will meet a better fate. It sure makes you wonder what happens to these "normal" people when away from home...so strange.

yes it did remind me of this video. Either drugs or mental illness are at play or both. Elisa could have been drugged without her knowledge or given strong alcohol that did not mix well with her medications. My guess is she was drugged possibly against her knowledge will, bad reaction with her medications.
The video is eerie.

 

[The Cheese]

Jason Proctor ‏@proctor_jason
LA coroner says autopsy done on Elisa Lam but final cause of death not yet determined. Toxicology tests will take 6 to 8 weeks. #cbc