CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #2

[anansie]

No inconvenience, but I just don't know how to do what you are asking.

If you just keep doing CTRL+ (hold the Ctrl key down and press the + sign maybe 15/16 times), it should be very clear. The chain goes underneath the top rung of the ladder and is seems affixed to a fitting atop the tank (underneath something that looks like blue cloth wrapped around the horizontal pipe).

PS: When you are done, do CTRL - (minus sign) to get back to normal size.

I tried and the picture just looks very blurry. I really can't see anything fixing the ladder to the tank at all. I'm sorry I have to just admit defeat - I can't see it.

 

[kingsway]

I would say that the message by the tank is typical "tagging"--graffiti marking that shows up all over L.A. and in that distinctive style. It's almost a font--certainly there are real fonts based on it. It's a learned way of writing, very stylized. I would be gobsmacked to find out a 21-y-o Asian-Canadian girl would be able to tag that, and I venture to say that the content isn't likely hers either.

The graffiti may be irrelevant, or the perp may have deposited it. The former seems most likely to me but I keep an open mind.

Well the graffiti looks relatively fresh, so assuming that it is, there are a few sexually aggressive people with access to the roof. While they may not be the perpetrators, they may have knowledge of other people who frequent the roof.

 

[anansie]

I have got a very sick theory concerning the grafiti. I know some think its irrelevant but im gonna post it... Its kinda bizar, and big.

I have also thought if the graffiti was somehow done by the killer or the killer made her do it - for some reason I just don't believe Elisa was the sort to write these things if the meanings were as dirty as some posters said earlier! - then it could be like some twisted way of describing his opinion of her after having sexual relations with her or something.

But we don't know if the graffiti is relevant to this case so, that is just another of those theories...

 

[Sillybilly]

There is an aluminum ladder tied off to the tank beside the one that the body was found in. A strap. No chain.

In the video below, the firemen are using a shorter wooden ladder that doesn't look like it is tied to anything.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/art...ody-found-water-tank-top-hotel?nclick_check=1


So if the body was dragged up a ladder, wouldn't the killer have used the tied-off aluminum ladder, and put the body in that tank?

You can also see in the video where the fireman puts his left boot. Right where the scuff marks are.

You see strap, i see chain links

 

[anansie]

There is an aluminum ladder tied off to the tank beside the one that the body was found in. A strap. No chain.

In the video below, the firemen are using a shorter wooden ladder that doesn't look like it is tied to anything.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/art...ody-found-water-tank-top-hotel?nclick_check=1


So if the body was dragged up a ladder, wouldn't the killer have used the tied-off aluminum ladder, and put the body in that tank?

You can also see in the video where the fireman puts his left boot. Right where the scuff marks are.

Oh right, okay! I see it now! Sorry I was looking at the wrong thing all the time. I was looking at the tank in which Elisa was found. So actually the ladder mentioned by Sillybilly is the one tied to the tank next to the one Elisa was found in, yeah?

Is there a similar ladder tied to the tank Elisa was found in? Obviously in the pic, the fireman's using his own wooden one?

 

[kunibob]

My 2 cents on the graffiti -- I live in an area East Vancouver where there's graffiti everywhere, and we get a ton of rain... Graffiti sticks around pretty stubbornly. A lot of it seems to be written with some sort of paint or some sort of grease-pencil-type stuff. It doesn't fade or wash away easily, and it's a pain to clean up. I'm not confident saying that this graffiti is new. I'm no expert, but that's my feeling based on what I've seen around here.

As for the "E", I have an E that looks like that on the graffiti that some of the neighbourhood punks left on my trash bin, so it doesn't look too distinctive to me. That, and the "E" in the graffiti and in Elisa's writing are a bit different (look for the lip at the upper right corner in Elisa's postcard).

JMO, but I don't feel the graffiti is related.

 

[anansie]

You see strap, i see chain links

Looks like a chainey strap

 

[commspecialist]

Young, healthy fit college aged-teens/young adults would easily use a fire escape w/o a second thought.
I did the same in NY to see the sunset with buddies.

Without her glasses, though?

And in such an altered state? (she barely looked coordinated enough to walk in that elevator video!)

That graffiti is disturbing, but it looks almost too fresh

 

[hopeitcanhelp]

Why would there be only one ladder to one tank? From what I can see, the other tanks have none.

I think if there was no ladder, the people went up the ladder on the maintenance building against which the tanks are, which HAS a ladder, 100% certain. They can just drop down on the tank from there.

Isn't is possible that if someone went up there, and dropped the body on the top of the tank from there (to then go down and put it inside), it would have caused a loud reverberation throughout the pipes? It could explain the sound heard by the man on the 3rd floor, but then again you'd think people on other floors would have reported it too, although we have no idea if they heard it too or not, the media didn't go out and interview everyone nor post a video of all of them speaking.

Also, about her glasses, there are more than one photos of her without them. She could be wearing contacts. People should not automatically assume she needed them.

 

[fred&edna]

There is an aluminum ladder tied off to the tank beside the one that the body was found in. A strap. No chain.

In the video below, the firemen are using a shorter wooden ladder that doesn't look like it is tied to anything.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/art...ody-found-water-tank-top-hotel?nclick_check=1


So if the body was dragged up a ladder, wouldn't the killer have used the tied-off aluminum ladder, and put the body in that tank?

You can also see in the video where the fireman puts his left boot. Right where the scuff marks are.

She wouldn't have to be dragged up a ladder... she could have been lowered into the tank

 

[BunnyHop]

Cameras often stop recording when the image doesn't change/no movement. The behavior is not unusual.

Any video experts here? They can also be edited.

 

[jetsetsam]

"You see strap, i see chain links"

I'll meet you half way.

A black chain that is flat,fits flush to the surfaces it is on and bends around like a stip of rubber or a belt, without perferations or links, but which could be called a chain.

 

[commspecialist]

Also, I think it's likely the perp knew she'd be found soon after being placed in the tank. Water tanks are monitored. If they knew the building practices well enough, they could have fled and been confident enough to leave behind a sicko graffiti message.

If that were the case, I'd suspect some lowlife emulating the previous killers in the hotel, and that Elisa's state made her especially vulnerable to somebody like that. I just hope they could track the perp down if that's what happened :|

 

[branwynbreeze]

I'm going to go with theory that she stripped naked, hid her clothes in the garbage, and ran up onto the roof undetected, and decided to masturbate in a tank of water while drowning....because, you know, she's mentally ill. In that moment, she decided to drop her plans to go to Santa Cruz, forget about the gifts she bought her family, and just kill herself in a tank of water, because that has always been a dream of hers during periods of psychosis. She wrote the graffiti prior to entering the tank, because she was referring to herself.

Either that, or she met up with a long lost twin and killed her in the water tank, and she's now on some tropical island living her life in tranquility. We must consider all possibilities right?

Seriously though, it's futile to treat her death as a result of her mental condition, because you can argue whichever way you want, and come up with an infinite number of possibilities. We need to analyze her actions in terms of motives and her past history, as if she was a rational human being.

If you've never had a psychotic break, you may not understand them. I was under a ton of stress, that and break sent into an early retirement. I was not crazy, I could function rather well, I just saw things no one else did sometimes, but did not talk about it. After a really bad day at work I was able to see Dr treating me for depression and it just happened to slip out. I was given a choice, agree to intense treatment or have Dr admit me into hospital. I agreed to treatment.

Edit to add-some breaks are more intense than others. I'm not saying she was having one, but it may be viable contributing factor.

 

[Peace777]

I am starting to wonder if this is linked to something to do with the Occult or some secretive operation? Maybe more involved than just a plain murder as at another forum site they question about a place called Invisible Light Agency which is supposedly at 620 Main St, which would place it in the Stay part of the Cecil Hotel. Getting more shadier and shadier this case. Poor Elisa never knew what she maybe was getting into via some internet group or person?

 

[commspecialist]

I am starting to wonder if this is linked to something to do with the Occult or some secretive operation? Maybe more involved than just a plain murder as at another forum site they question about a place called Invisible Light Agency which is supposedly at 620 Main St, which would place it in the Stay part of the Cecil Hotel. Getting more shadier and shadier this case. Poor Elisa never knew what she maybe was getting into via some internet group or person?

I don't know about the occult, but I do know that my generation (and Elisa's), particulary the net-savvy Tumblr users, are WAY too trusting of strangers. People my age often start relationships online with people they've never met in person, called LDRs (Long Distance Relationships), with plans to meet up eventually. There are Tumblr meetups, Tumblr friends who visit each other. It's worrisome.

I almost slipped into that too, my cautious nature stopped me. Maybe Elisa's impulsive nature made her more vulnerable.

Edited to add: It's been confirmed that she visited a fellow blogger in Ontario, I believe it's mentioned on her Twitter? I think this is another reason that this case is really important to me. My generation's lack of inhibitions/too-trusting nature could lead to danger for many young people.

I'm not saying it led to her death, but that it's possible that she met someone she knew through the internet at the Stay/Cecil. It is a possibility, to me more plausible than the suicide or accident theory.

 

[medsleuth]

What is "RCMP"?

<rsbm>

I have RCMP in the family and know better than to ask questions.

Recognizing that this is an LAPD case, does anyone know how much the RCMP might be involved in the investigation?

 

[commspecialist]

What is "RCMP"?

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

 

[medsleuth]

Did anyone find her clothes? There was some evidence she might have been bi-polar. If that's the case a manic episode could have had her shedding clothes and running around unpredictably.

 

[hopeitcanhelp]

I am starting to wonder if this is linked to something to do with the Occult or some secretive operation? Maybe more involved than just a plain murder as at another forum site they question about a place called Invisible Light Agency which is supposedly at 620 Main St, which would place it in the Stay part of the Cecil Hotel. Getting more shadier and shadier this case. Poor Elisa never knew what she maybe was getting into via some internet group or person?

Probably a resident who had a home-run VFX company from that address. You can see who owned the company. He worked in different places in that area, but is now working at a different company in Santa Monica since May 2012. Really doubt there is any connection. The person in question could match the "style" Elisa refereed to when she wrote about someone she seemed to have a crush on, but I don't want to push further and risk having an innocent person be drawn into this mess.