Suggested this before but many posts and think it is worth trying again - from 2:12 or so on she appears not to be counting.... but to recounting something that has just happened to her - she seems to be miming having her hands tied and being made to sit down. I think she possibly has already been attacked at this point - has made some kind of temporary escape - is traumatized - doesn't know what to do or where to go. (Could be a sick cat and mouse game if they have the exits on her floor controlled and the elevator controlled - a hunt). Of course could be drugged of course could be mentally ill but the idea of making psychiatric diagnoses on this slender evidence - some posts have said they know what is wrong with her "100%" I disagree that is possible.
Not sure why it is cruel to ask her family to ID her body. When a case is very very peculiar then lots of things become possible - they should satisfy themselves that it is her. And not through DNA or dental records. Obviously if she can't be identified visually at this point then it can't be done but it likely can or how would they have identified her already? What worries me is that there was so much speculation about accidental death before they got her body out of the water tank What worries me is there was so much speculation about mental health on the basis of some possibly doctored video.
I wonder why LE assured everyone at first that the water was safe to drink - soon overturned by the health department.
Comments about her staying at this seedy hotel: newcasts show there are foreign tourists on package tours the site even suggests they do conventions! Signs of Beverley Hills and Hollywood on the site as well. Easy to be misled by ads.
However I would very very much like to know where she was staying in San Diego, how she got to LA. If she went to a TV studio in S.D. and is pictured on the G. Stromb. show in Toronto then I would guess she had similar plans in LA.
I think she presses multiple keys on the elevator but many lights are burnt out - and tries to speak into the intercom - could be wrong.
BBM. I assume you are talking about me since I am the only poster who stated I am 100% sure about anything (I said I was 100% sure she was suffering from psychosis in the video).
It's okay to quote me. BTW, I am not making a psychiatric diagnosis. It's a lay opinion based on my experience.
It would seem odd that only one person would notice a woman singing at the top of her lungs in the street. A quick survey of local residence, shop / office workers etc would determine whether it was in fact Elisa. Sightings of missing persons seem to be as erroneous as they are common.
But, I do agree with you - it was the strangeness of the elevator situation that brought this so much attention (before the body was found). Perhaps this was the reason.
Yes but who says only one person noticed a woman signing at the top of her lungs? I live about 35 minutes by freeway from the area of the Cecil hotel. I go to court down the street from there, regularly. Do you know how many people run around that area screaming, fighting, yelling, acting bizarrely? I do. Tons.
Like I said before, most people would ignore it, go about their business, etc. Many would be afraid to look. You have mostly busy business people and attorneys, hard working Hispanics, a few hipsters and an absolute ton of homeless, most on drugs or mentally ill. This is not the suburb. It's five minutes from skid row.
That kind of thing happens daily, several times a day.
fwiw, I showed the video to my 8 year old and asked him "What do you think is going on with this girl in the elevator?"
He said, "I think she has a problem with her brain." I thought it was interesting that he didn't say that she looked scared or was playing a game or was hiding from someone. :waitasec:
Out of the mouths of babes.
Very interesting comments regarding the ladders (both inside and out) for the water tanks...
In reference to the cases of bodies found in water tanks in other states/countries (India and NY, I believe?)....
I wonder if it was ever determined how the bodies found in the water tanks were placed in the tanks by those perp(s)...
It does seem like a daunting task....But I think this scenario makes more sense than Elisa climbing into a water tank by her own volition...
I wonder how Elisa would even KNOW there were water tanks on the roof... I have read posters here that were not aware of water tanks on the roofs of hotels... And I know I had no idea of such...
JMO
But she didn't have to know there was a water tank on the roof in order to decide to go in one once she got up there (if that's what happened).
Interesting. She seems to be very drawn to roof tops.
From the Tumblr posts, she seemed to have be struggling with depression. I saw that in a couple of posts, and its here in the About her section too:
http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/autre
How can you guys read that? When I look, the print is light gray on a white background!!!
No way this was suicide.
You don't go on vacation to die. Plus, all her pictures, she is smiling. She has the blues maybe.
Someone killed her and hid her body in the tank to avoid capture. Water is the perfect place because it washes away evidence.
Another even more sobering statistic? You are three times more likely to commit suicide while abroad than be killed by an act of terrorism.http://www.searchamelia.com/forbes-doesnt-mention-terrorism-as-a-threat
People kill themselves on vacation sometimes. In fact, many suicidal people leave specifically to go to a certain spot to die.
I can;t say that's what happened here at all but I rule nothing out yet. I also find it interesting that a young, culturally Chinese girl would travel internationally with no specific itinerary, alone, to Los Angeles. There may be more to this story. I can't imagine her family being okay with that at all.
its also entirely possible that she had someone else post on her behalf actually, with the amount of posts she makes on tumblr everyday it seems rather strange, you don't take a vacation down the coastline to post stuff unrelated to your vacation on tumblr
Unless you are suffering a nervous breakdown or psychotic split or something.
"An autopsy on Elisa Lam’s body has come back inconclusive, and authorities say it could be two more months before additional tests shed light on how she died.
A Los Angeles coroner revealed Thursday that toxicology tests are being conducted but results could take six to eight weeks."
So no clear signs of strangulation, or being stabbed or shot, right? Or would weeks in the water make it too hard to tell?
It’s worth noting that the latest reblog, 3 days ago, was taken from a blog that seems to belong to a friend of Elisa. So it’s even more likely this is Elisa’s Tumblr.
I’m still puzzled by the posting schedule of the queue, however. If you track down her other blog through her about me stuff (a more fashion-focused one), that blog has auto-populated with a more expected queue schedule. Her friend blogged this particular post in December, so it’s possible Elisa dropped it into her queue and put a random indeterminate future date on it because she wanted to add some thoughts or comments or even just save a book rec (I have done this on occasion, rather than saving to drafts.) Or maybe 3 days ago was a date that held special significance for her.
Reading her posts is haunting. I really feel like I could have been buddies with her.
How can you read her posts? I don;t know how to navigate tumblr. Nothing I press does anything!
Wow I am way behind on this thread! Going to go back and try to catch up.....but I'm begging to know who on earth is posting these crazy videos and how are they related to Elisa? Creepy creepy creepy!
Me too!! So confusing!
It was a video a guy made of himself. He was staying at the Cecil Hotel. He had a strange accent, looked to be in his late 20's, early 30's. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail and wore what looked like a black heavy metal band-type t-shirt. He has very pale skin and is otherwise sort of handsome, but is very, very creepy acting.
At the beginning of the video he's lounging on a couch or bed. You can see he has two parallel large slash marks on his upper right bicep. The cuts are held together with rows of white butterfly bandages, like you would get when treated in an ER or clinic.
He's talking about how its about time for him to leave, he gets up and goes to the window telling viewers he's showing them what downtown LA looks like. He points the camera out the window towards a downtown scene. He looks like he's in a room that's pretty high up, maybe several stories high.
As he's talking, he makes a really creepy yell/scream sound, then laughs and says maybe he should quit making that sound, it scares people.
The sound he made in the video is nearly identical to the sound that is made in the Vimeo video "the beast awoke in LA".
The You Tube video showed it was posted a year ago.
Seriously creepy.
Is the video gone?
I don't think she was having a psychotic break, otherwise we would have heard more details about her mental history while she was missing. She called her family every day while in California, so that shows she was maintaining a fairly consistent line of communication. There was nothing in the news about her being prone to disappearing for days at a time, which is what some depressed people will do.
Does anybody know what time the elevator footage was taken? Was it late in the evening, early in the morning? I'm just wondering if perhaps her behaviour may have been a form of sleepwalking hence the strange gestures. I've seen some videos on youtube of people sleepwalking, and they sometimes act in an odd manner.
No explanation as to why she'd be up on the 14th floor if her room was on the 4th floor. Interesting, for the chinese, the number 4 is considered bad luck, like how westerners consider 13 bad luck. It's because it sounds like 'death' when pronounced. She was staying on the 4th floor, and the video was of the 13th story of the building.
No mention of the state of her room, or if the clothing she was seen wearing in the elevator footage was found in her room or if she was wearing it.
There was mention of depression in the news, IIRC and then bi polar disorder on her tumblr, it appears. But schizophrenia has its onset at about the age Elisa was when she died. There is a lot of information about it but apparently the first psychotic break of a schizophrenic person is the most dangerous.
A first psychotic episode (FPE) typically occurs in a person's teens or early 20s and may develop into bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The incidence rate of FPE is estimated to be 15-20 cases per 100,000, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/early.diag.htm
Some typical and early warning signs of psychosis include
- Worrisome drop in grades or job performance;
- New trouble thinking clearly or concentrating;
- Suspiciousness/uneasiness with others;
- Decline in self-care or personal hygiene;
- Spending a lot more time alone than usual;
- Increased sensitivity to sights or sounds;
- Mistaking noises for voices;
- Unusual or overly intense new ideas; and
- Strange new feelings or having no feelings at all.http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=First_Episode
Besides deciding to travel alone out of the country, I find it interesting that Elisa was not registered for the next semester of school. IMO, something was going on with her long before she got here.
If Elisa killed herself or fell in the tank then her COD would have been drowning, right? She'd have had to have been alive to get into the tank. Then she would have to drown.
The only other COD I can think of from suicide or falling in the tank would be possibly exposure if it was cold that night? Fell in and couldn't get out because there are no ladders inside, and died of exposure?
I'm just thinking if she drowned, there should have been a COD today. So I'm trying to think if it wasn't homicide what other COD should they have.
Does anyone know how a ME would tell if someone died of exposure? I can look it up but I had noticed a few nurses posting in the thread earlier.
Thanks for any info!
Great questions.
As I thought doors are locked - she is trapped in the video. Elevators controlled no egress by doors.
Strange coverage by media unbearably so. Clear attempt to make her look crazy. Clear attempt to dehumanize her cf. the incessant comments interviews and videos now about the supposedly repulsive drinking water. Almost certain LE is going to wash their hands of the case. 6-8 weeks now to get things to die down. Then will probably come back with more inconclusives. No I don't know why she is being treated in this inhumane fashion. Elements of xenophobia, racism misogynism primitive understandings of mental health - some other purpose or some reason unknown to avoid the obvious conclusion of homicide - no idea what is going on.
Why nothing yet on her time in San Diego? I think (possibly) something began there. Why endless commentary on the drinking water in media - in the excellent video Hazel linked to (for which thanks!) it shows how nice the bookstore she visited nearby is - but the commentators smirk and giggle in an unseemly way about the drinking water. Why not get on a bus and figure out what happened in San Diego - and of course her first days in LA.
I see nothing to suggest xenophobia, racism, misogynism or primitive understandings of mental healthcare present in the manner that LE is investigating or the reporting by the media.
I also find this a tad bit insulting. I have yet to see one mental health professional say it looks like Elisa was free from some sort of mental issue when in that elevator. And I think people who have witnessed a few psychotic episodes are justified in coming to the conclusion that that is what is happening to Elisa Lam, without being deemed xenophobic, racist, misogynistic or having a "primitive" understanding of mental health.