CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #4

[samevo8]

Unfortunately, a good part of me feels that whatever results come back from toxicology (no drugs, illegal drugs, prescription drugs), we'll never know for sure what happened. Hopefully toxicology can come up with a gotcha finding. For example, if somehow (I don't know how toxicology works, btw) they find that death occured prior to exposure to the water/cistern, then obviously she couldn't have committed suicide (this ain't The Walking Dead.)

I'm hoping that somehow a credible witness will have some meaningful information. I still would like to know if the security tapes had video of her or other people before her widely viewed video. I'd like to see how she was behaving before going up that elevator or if anyone had go up to the same floor (or with her.)

Can you imagine if the tests come back inconclusive and we still don't how she died? Or if LE writes it off as "death by misadventure" or just leaves it undetermined? I feel like that would the saddest part of all this. (Other than her death, of course.)

 

[walklikeacat]

Ghosts and psychic readers....oh dear, what next!

Yes, but there are cases in time where a medium has been involved to clearify what has happen. And in fact, there are people who have this ability.
I just went out on this site just because I want to read something from these kind of people: http://chelseadamali.wordpress.com/...l-hotel-elisa-lam-reading-with-announcements/

 

[Xavier]

Where did they say this?

Please provide some link where LA PD feels Elisa was placed in the cistern around Feb 14-16 due to her small amount of her body de-comp

Elisa and her parents were said to talk daily while she was in LA, then the calls stopped on Jan 31, the day of her disappearance

It's unverified to me, but if this rumored report says LA PD has a time of death around Feb 14-16, then she was alive between Jan31-Feb16. Where was she is the $64,000 question?

So for about 15 days she was somewhere? Was it a guest room? Was she in an unused, out of the way facilities room? Was she drugged up? It's the Cecil hotel in LA, it has a shady, freaky past and present, anything's possible there

 

[medsleuth]

Well all of these have been discussed a lot on this forum.

1> Elisa Lam is in and outside the elevator on 14th floor.
>>This seems about evenly split between folks who say 14th and others who say 15th.

2> You can get up on the roof by three different fire ladders.
>>That is true. But there was great post by a guy who worked on old building roofs who said that it would take a very bold person indeed to climb one of those fire ladders to the roof as you would have the sensation of being able to plummet straight to the ground the way it is situated and designed.
More likely that a long term resident had the key.

3> We have a lot of long-time residents living at the hotel, a lot of them are just below the state of homeless and at least four of them have been convicted for sexual abuse.
>>There are some offenders living at the Cecil. Confirmed.

4> The security on the hotel has been substandard which former guests have declared.
>>A subjective question. It's a large building and you're not supposed to be roaming all parts of it via the stairs and there are signs to that effect.

5> We know that Elisa has been using a lot of forums on the Net.
>>Tumbler and facebook and maybe a few others.

6> We know - as far from her blog - that she have had some mild depressions.
>>We know from her Tumblr etc page that she suffers bipolar depression. And in other sections we know she has been taking medications for the condition.

That it for me for now!

I think this thread need some kind of break through. What are the facts? The real facts besides all dates?

Elisa Lam is in and outside the elevator on 14th floor.
You can get up on the roof by three different fire ladders.
The hatches were not locked - that is confirmed.
We have a lot of long-time residents living at the hotel, a lot of them are just below the state of homeless and at least four of them have been convicted for sexual abuse.
The security on the hotel has been substandard which former guests have declared.
We know that Elisa has been using a lot of forums on the Net.
We know - as far from her blog - that she have had some mild depressions.

We don´t know if Elisa were staying at 4th floor. We don´t know if she checked in at Stay on Main (correct me if I am wrong).
We don´t know if she was found nude.
We might have a knowledge that she did not drowned because the first autopsy did not get any "results". But that is not certainly.

I would like to know more about them long stay at the hotel on each floor. Who are they? Who are these people in the staff? Who are the cleaning staff? Who are the watchman during the night? Did everybody on that hotel have the knowledge how to get up on the roof? What more actual incidents of a criminal nature has occurred during the past three years on Cecil Hotel?

 

[littlegreycells31]

Absolutely. And I, too, believe she was murdered.

And to littlegreycells31 - I posted quotes from two different sources I found here on the forum. Yet, the video you shared repeats that they're zeroing in on an employee as a suspect. My question is, "Is the LAPD taking it back?"

I don't know what's going on. There is a lot of conflicting information in this case. I'm ranting, I guess. We may (or may not) find out what happened when the tests come back.

Yeah the video I posted I have no idea where they got their information from...you're right.... so many questions and so few true answers. :banghead:

 

[Xavier]

It was late night when Elisa was on the 14th floor elevator

Does anyone know if she was visiting someone on the 14th floor, a booty call, or a casual meet-up for drinks in their room?

Is the 14th floor where the sex offenders are grouped?

Anyone know if LAPD has interviewed everyone on the 14th floor?

Because if she was talking to someone on the elevator and left with someone, it might the person she hooked up with

And if LAPD believes Elisa was dead between Feb 14-16, it sounds likely she was in someone's room that housekeeping or the hotel staff would not visit daily

 

[littlegreycells31]

It was late night when Elisa was on the 14th floor elevator

Does anyone know if she was visiting someone on the 14th floor, a booty call, or a casual meet-up for drinks in their room?

Is the 14th floor where the sex offenders are grouped?

Anyone know if LAPD has interviewed everyone on the 14th floor?

Because if she was talking to someone on the elevator and left with someone, it might the person she hooked up with

And if LAPD believes Elisa was dead between Feb 14-16, it sounds likely she was in someone's room that housekeeping or the hotel staff would not visit daily

Maybe additional surveillance video will give more insight into the pattern of movements that night....I just hope that law enforcement is really looking into that. There's got to be something on there that shows what she was up too that night/day (unless someone destroyed some of the footage or something)

 

[tapu]

I imagine you can rest easy on that one.

LE can mess up, of course, but I'd figure they have definitely thought of looking at security tapes.

Often law enforcement doesn't release everything they're doing. Their focus is on what's best for investigation and not providing info the public wants to know.

 

[Peace777]

While searching for reviews on Yelp about the water situation, I came across this review from 2011. I thought his comments about 1) the key/room issue and 2) the 14th floor were interesting. (Sorry if this has already been posted! I've been following since day one but didn't remember seeing this.)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/cecil-hotel-los-angeles

"Upon my arrival, I was told that although they received my reservation, they had no rooms with showers left. Their system only showed 2 rooms which were dirty. So I asked for a refund so I could be on my way but they said their system was unable to process that request and that I would need to go through http://kayak.com to get it. So I gave kayak a call, and they called the hotel only to find that the front desk mysteriously found clean rooms! Walking back to the front desk, apparently their system was not working correctly and that the dirty rooms were actually cleaned. So I took the room key and went upstairs to check out my room. When I got to my room, I tried opening the door but it was latch locked from the inside. Grumbling, I went back to the front desk and they offered me the other room and they also sent a security person to check out the room. The security guy kept asking me if I had went to the wrong room which is just funny because how many keys open the same room? The room door had opened, it was just that there was a security latch preventing me from opening it up the whole way so I could walk in. Regardless, when we got there, the key opened up the room this time and there was no locked latch. I thought to myself, maybe that was room service cleaning the room?

Speaking of the room. It was one on the 14th floor which I was told was one of the better areas to get a room. The 9th floor was my other option and I was told that it would not be as nice. The room was small, the queen sized bed had one of those really old and nasty bed covers that have those weird muddy color patterns. Underneath though, were plain white bed sheets which I thought was good since they could just bleach everything they'd wash, killing any bugs that might resist a normal wash cycle. Bathroom was the same with white towels everywhere. The shower and sink was a very interesting element though. The sink was IN THE SHOWER opposite the shower head. Just really had not seen that before...

So in the end, was it as bad as other Yelpers claim? Probably not. It felt safe and was reasonably clean. It did feel dated and with everyone making comments about bugs and what not, I even slept with a towel over my pillow. Not my best hotel experience but tolerable if you want to save $100-$150 to spend elsewhere.

Police should talk to this guy as it would be important to know which room on the 14th floor was security latched from the inside! How could it be security latched from inside if nobody was in there, could there be a secret way into that 1 room? Strange Old buildings are known to have secret walls etc I need to contact Msr. Poirot and get his expertise on this case

 

[RhiannonR]

I think I'm out of here now myself, until there is new info. on the case. If I hear about or see anything interesting when I'm down there tomorrow, I'll report. Until then, goodnight and good luck.

 

[FiveFelines]

Police should talk to this guy as it would be important to know which room on the 14th floor was security latched from the inside! How could it be security latched from inside if nobody was in there, could there be a secret way into that 1 room? Strange Old buildings are known to have secret walls etc I need to contact Msr. Poirot and get his expertise on this case

Well, he seems to think it was the cleaning crew. What I find interesting is that the clerk asked him if he went to the wrong room (implying that the key would work in another room).

 

[AnotherCanuck]

I've only read through her Tumblr backwards to early Dec 2012. It's a pain for me to scroll backwards in time and visually filter out her posts. After a while, you get a good feeling which block to click on. Compare this original post: http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/post/41786151020/i-have-arrived-in-laland-and-there-is-a

to this repost:
http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/post/41761471597/calalilies-my-laptop-screen-is-brighter-than-my

The original notes on the right that

"This post has 3 notes
This was posted 1 month ago
This has been tagged with #interwar #what is your opinion on such matters? #caliblah #wheeee it's sunny"

The repost notes on the right that

"This post has 155,495 notes
This was posted 1 month ago
This was reblogged from thatwasntverycleverstempurl
http://calalilies.tumblr.com/post/38594639572/my-l... "

The "reblogged" tells you it came from somewhere else.

There's also a hyperlink to another user above the main text.

As for the L4D/L4D2 (I played a good deal of this 2 years ago), I haven't seen the reference yet, but there's a lot of blog stuff I didn't go through (on her Tumblr and on her older Blogger (http://etherfields.blogspot.com/) ).

I do recall two video game references in her blogs/tumblr. One was about PS3 and her ex-bf/ex-bf's friends.

Oh yeah, I know that about Tumblr, I'm just wondering where people are finding the text-only posts she has posted because when I go through her archive, all I see are pictures she has posted or reblogged.

 

[Socrates]

Yes, but there are cases in time where a medium has been involved to clearify what has happen. And in fact, there are people who have this ability.
I just went out on this site just because I want to read something from these kind of people: http://chelseadamali.wordpress.com/...l-hotel-elisa-lam-reading-with-announcements/

I tend to be skeptical about psychics' claims. Most of them are frauds. They might say something like "I'm seeing an M... Is there someone with an M in your life?" And then the credulous believer says, "Oh yes, it's my brother Mark. He died in a car accident."

But then, who doesn't have someone with an M name in her life? The great Houdini became disgusted with this, and went around the country, confronting supposed psychics, and exposing them as phonies.

But the woman you mentioned made some pretty strong predictions about the case--that the toxicology report would show nothing, for example, and that there was a piece of paper stuffed down the victim's throat. Time will tell whether these predictions turn out to be right...

She started by getting the floor Elisa was on wrong, though, I think. People here have established pretty well that she was on one of the upper floors (14 or 15 seemed to be the consensus, I think) in the video, but the psychic thought she was in the lobby. So that's one strike.

My own attitude toward psychics and ghosts is skepticism. But I wouldn't rule that out entirely. I've never seen a ghost, nor met anyone who clearly had psychic powers, but I can't say that such things definitely don't exist.

Still, when I hear that young woman was traveling alone and staying in a sketchy hotel near Skid Row in LA and ended up naked and dead, I guess right off that she encountered some guy with evil intent, was sexually assaulted and then murdered. There are some strange features of this case, but it's not necessary to resort to the supernatural to explain what happened, at least based on the few facts we have.

 

[GlobalGirlyGirl]

Can you imagine if the tests come back inconclusive and we still don't how she died? Or if LE writes it off as "death by misadventure" or just leaves it undetermined? I feel like that would the saddest part of all this. (Other than her death, of course.)

Horrible scenario as an ending to this case. Especially for the family. I don't even want to imagine them saying, "Our daughter ended up dead in a cistern, and we have no idea how she got there." That, plus her death would haunt them forever.

littlegreycells31
"so few true answers" is right on the money. And it's a lot of the important questions that we have so few true answers on.

 

[AnotherCanuck]

Oh, okay. I lean towards that idea myself. I am near-sighted and wear glasses for distance (I certainly can't drive without them but I can see objects as close as those buttons.) But then that doesn't explain why she would be leaning so close to the elevator buttons, which is the theory of a lot of posters here. Or would it? This case is making me lose my mind. :banghead:

I'm extremely nearsighted. My contact prescription is -7.5 and -8, so that's pretty bad. If she were as nearsighted as I am, she absolutely would have to look that close at the buttons. Without my contacts or glasses, I can only see my hand clearly if it's about 2 inches from my face...

 

[samevo8]

So I reread this post that EL made back in November 24, 2011:

http://etherfields.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-happiness.html

Quite a thoughtful post on human interaction, the internet, Tumblr, etc.

It does make me wonder if she intended (and successfully) met someone or someones on her West Coast Tour. In the posting, she basically states there are lots of idiots around us (in the real world) but that on the Internet (and Tumblr in particular), you get to meet cool like-minded (and presumably "intelligent") people. Sounds like she really wanted to connect with people she felt shared similar views/thoughts. "Maybe one day I will make a real human connection on tumblr and gasp meet in real life?"

Also noted before were her two references on her Tumblr page to wanting to "meet-up" with people in her Tumblr world while she was visiting California.

Lastly, I guess EL liked the hermit imagery (people were freaking out about the Hermit tarot card thing re-posted on Tumblr on Feb 27th). At the end of EL's posting, she says "And then I remember I'm a hermit and only come in contact with people only online. "

 

[AnotherCanuck]

Still, when I hear that young woman was traveling alone and staying in a sketchy hotel near Skid Row in LA and ended up naked and dead, I guess right off that she encountered some guy with evil intent, was sexually assaulted and then murdered. There are some strange features of this case, but it's not necessary to resort to the supernatural to explain what happened, at least based on the few facts we have.

Someone posted the long explanation by the person with the sister who was a Chinese reporter who had spoken with the coroner...In that post, I'm pretty sure he said that the coroner said there had been nothing found in her "lower regions" to suggest rape:

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8949195&postcount=55"]Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Found Deceased CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #4[/ame]

 

[Peace777]

Well, he seems to think it was the cleaning crew. What I find interesting is that the clerk asked him if he went to the wrong room (implying that the key would work in another room).

You would think that the guest could hear some movement in the room and why didn't the security guy call out to the cleaners if they were in there? Tell them to hurry up as a guest wants to check in Usually you get to go into the room you were given only can ask to move if the guest requests to be moved for some reason I would think. Yes strange why the security would ask him if he had the wrong room, as aren't the keys numbered weird to say the least for sure. Still think that room is important in this case JMO

 

[samevo8]

You have to visually search for it I think, although tags can help (those # things). However, I find I have to keep scrolling down and clicking on blocks that look like original postings (don't know for sure until I get into the block.)

Oh yeah, I know that about Tumblr, I'm just wondering where people are finding the text-only posts she has posted because when I go through her archive, all I see are pictures she has posted or reblogged.

 

[AnotherCanuck]

I'm frustrated that we can't hear anything on the surveillance video...I think it's illegal in the States to record people's voices without their permission, so I think that's why a lot of surveillance footage doesn't have sound...(?)