I can understand what you are seeing. I tried to visualize what you described but it didn't work for me. To me, it seems very like she leaned back slightly thus causing the skirt line to lower an inch or two. You can confirm that by looking at the top line of her raised arm. At that same moment, the arm line also dropped by about the same amount.
The Elevator Video: What's your take?
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I can understand what you are seeing. I tried to visualize what you described but it didn't work for me. To me, it seems very like she leaned back slightly thus causing the skirt line to lower an inch or two. You can confirm that by looking at the top line of her raised arm. At that same moment, the arm line also dropped by about the same amount.
I see it as her red sweater or whatever you call it bending out when she did that little "curtsy" bending her knees and lowering her body.
Excellent post! Thanks!
Of course in a blurry, low-quality video like this, we will see different things. I'm just hoping that enough attention is payed to the ambiguities so that they will be looked at carefully by LE and not just blown off as effects of pixelation. Possibly they have experts who can work on the quality and likelihood of various possibilities for these images. I'm not ruling any of them out at this point.
This is what I could gather from the Taiwanese program and from the Internet. The incident happened almost exactly 5 years ago in Taiwan on Jan 20, 2008.
A 37 year-old woman came carrying her 4 year-old daughter to "Yuanlin Finance Building" that evening. Apparently this building leased out its spaces for stores as well as residences.
Looking "flustered" and "in a hurry", the woman told building security that she was going to the 11th floor to look for her friend. Upon entering the elevator, she was seen on camera taking off her red outer coat and throwing it on the elevator floor. She did the same with the pink outer coat of her daughter.
Just before leaving the elevator, she also took her shoes off and left them behind. She was last caught on camera going into the stairwell with her daughter. But security never saw them coming back out or leaving the building.
Fearing the worst, security called the police. Police found that no one on the 11th floor knew her. They found her motorbike outside the building. Police also found that it was possible she could have gone onto the 12th floor roof but it was not possible to then leave the building from there, except jumping off, but there was no such incident. There was also no possible hiding place on the roof.
Apparently, police conducted two extensive searches of the building, including door-to-door searches and checking the building pipelines. The woman and her daughter were never found and they never returned home. They just "disappeared into thin air". The case was so bizarre it led to all sorts of speculations and rumors about the building.
The woman was separated from her husband and had four children whom she raised independently.
The facts in this account are subject to verification and I welcome anyone to correct any errors or add what he or she knows.
Here's a link to some pics, but text is in Chinese:
http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/tw/twlocal/chinapress/20130302/00494298273.html
Because
A. More than one media outlet reported it as the 4th floor
B. She was registered at the Stay Hostel which occupies only the 4th 5th and 6th floors of the Cecil
C. Some of more intrepid posters here have dome some incredible research and found the 14th floor and a few others are used only for long term residents
four_seasons
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if i remember correctly, it was the Taiwan Apply Daily that got a room on the 14th floor when they stayed there and took pictures.
So the 14th floor can't be just for long term residents.
but yes, i think EL lived on the 4th floor.
sugarpooper
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If you go on youtube there is an account named "MrSporty007." He has a number of videos of the Cecil Hotel from when he was a security guard from a few years back. He explains this in the comments section when one of his Cecil videos recently went viral because of this case. He also has this video uploaded.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbM5Mes9Ch8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbM5Mes9Ch8[/ame]
Apparently thats the other Elevator camera, Notice the numbers are completely readable.
If this security guard was able to sneak off with this "ghost elevator encounter" video a year ago, Imagine what else could have been done? He also mentions that he had to constantly kick people off the roof. Apparently he hasn't worked there for a while.
I understand why you would think that she was booked on the 4th floor. However, I have yet to see any proof that this was the case. I've read the articles (2) and they are all basically pulling and quoting from the same LA Times/LA Now story written by Andrew Blankstein. I wrote to Mr. Blankstein and asked for a confirmation that EL was booked on 4 but have yet to receive an email back.
Also, Smeinzer, a former Stay guest and forum member wrote the following
"I can also verify that rooms on the 14th floor are accessed by key and it appears that "Stay" has to get a key sent over from "Cecil" to access those rooms. The reason I know this is that we were first assigned to a room on the 14th floor that was a single bed room. At that point the people at Stay called someone for a key to that room to be brought over. After we mentioned the 2 bed request they canceled the key request and then used their card machine to make use 2 keycards for our 4th floor room."
you can view the entire post via the link below
[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8930170#post8930170"]Hotel Cecil Rooftop Access Discussion - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community[/ame]
Post #21
In addition to Smeinzer's statement I have located several reviews that have stated the above bait and switch happened to them at the Stay.
The closest I could find to segregation between the SRO's and hotel guest was an article that stated SRO's lived in the left wing of the hotel from floors 8-15. I never bookmarked it and doubt I will find it again. I'm not sure how much weight I give this, because I only read it in one article.
As for me, I'm open to the idea that she was booked in a room on the 14th floor .. it's very possible and it would explain what she was doing on the 14th floor when we see her in the video.
Xavier
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That's good stuff, why don't you contact LAPD Crime Stoppers to discuss this?
You'd get alot further with your ideas than us re hashing our theories
Go give it a try
Xavier
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Yeah it really looks edited....Hotel security usually has access to the video cams and wonder how long it took before the Cecil handed over this video to LAPD when it was originally distributed to the public weeks ago?
I've heard the video cam machine, editing console is usually a log in procedure by the staff using it
I also wonder if there's a log in on the Cecil video cams?
This would validate someone using/access to the video cams on and shortly after Jan 31st
Xavier
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Anyone have any thoughts on this recent story? I have no clue about any drugs, recreational or otherwise...som eof you seem to be really up to date on drugs, side effects
CCTV footage of Lam in the elevator, released by the Los Angeles Police Department, has now been analysed by club-drug expert Trinka Porrata.
When asked about the possibility of drug use, Porrata told LA Weekly that it is "hard to say." However she said Lam's behavior does show signs of the influence of Ecstasy.
Follow us
"She's "petting" something and then dancing a bit. Could be an Ecstasy pill that contains MDMA plus some other hallucinogen," Porrata said.
"Getting into the corner of the elevator and looking out repeatedly could seem like paranoia or just part of her hallucination. Hard to say from just that little bit. Even harder of course to guess whether it was something she took voluntarily or was slipped to her.
"Ecstasy IS considered a rape drug but so many pills called Ecstasy [are often] a mixture or something else completely that they don't get the desired effects for a sexual assault," Porrata added.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/444322/20130310/canadian-woman-elisa-lam-death-cecil-hotel.htm
CCTV footage of Lam in the elevator, released by the Los Angeles Police Department, has now been analysed by club-drug expert Trinka Porrata.
When asked about the possibility of drug use, Porrata told LA Weekly that it is "hard to say." However she said Lam's behavior does show signs of the influence of Ecstasy.
Follow us
"She's "petting" something and then dancing a bit. Could be an Ecstasy pill that contains MDMA plus some other hallucinogen," Porrata said.
"Getting into the corner of the elevator and looking out repeatedly could seem like paranoia or just part of her hallucination. Hard to say from just that little bit. Even harder of course to guess whether it was something she took voluntarily or was slipped to her.
"Ecstasy IS considered a rape drug but so many pills called Ecstasy [are often] a mixture or something else completely that they don't get the desired effects for a sexual assault," Porrata added.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/444322/20130310/canadian-woman-elisa-lam-death-cecil-hotel.htm
bessie
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Poppycock! That pretty well sums it up for me.
Whether or not she is addressing another individual in the hallway is an unknown, yet the writer ASSumes she is "talking to nobody".
To describe her hand gestures as "petting" overlooks/ignores the context of her other actions, in which we see EL attempting to manipulate the elevator.
Further, the article reads like a poorly executed attempt on the writer's part to pick and choose phrases from the "club drug expert" that fit his agenda. AKA "spin".
JMO, IMO, MOO
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Is she perhaps married to the other "expert" who saw EL as making herself sexually available (or whatever the hell he said)?
If they are married I wanna be invited to the next BBQ. Once the beer flows that backyard has got to be epic :great:
i also feel she was trying to throw someone off with all the button pushing. what has many people perplexed, myself included, is why she kept pressing the door hold button. but as you can see from the picture of the button panel that turk february posted here, [ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8922852#post8922852"]http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8922852#post8922852[/ame], the door hold button is at the very center bottom, in very small words. i haven't used many elevators, but i don't recall door hold buttons. i usually just physically hold the door. but i am aware of the door close button as i almost always press it. in a dimly lit elevator, i can see how she may have thought it said door close, especially since that button is vital and door hold is the only labeled one there. also, the words hold and close are similarly written.
(it would be convenient if there was a thread with all pictures posted there, to make it easier to find what you are looking for, and to put the clues together.) edit to add: just noticed there is an investigator videos and images thread that could work.
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