Elisa Lam and the Dreadful Tragedy at The Cecil Hotel

When Elisa Lam went missing from the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, nobody could have predicted the controversy that would ensue. Strange circumstances cloud this devastating mystery. Ghost stories, paranormal games, conspiracy theories, a mutant disease and a murder investigation, pepper this story.

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TRIGGER WARNINGS: Bipolar disorder, Mental illness, Mental breakdown, Mental distress, Suicidal ideation

Quick Disclaimer Before we Delve into the Case of Elisa Lam

So just to kick this blog post about Elisa Lam off, I want to say that I’m going to do my best to make sure this case is scrutinised with some dignity. We may cover some true crime cases on the podcast, but we’ll be trying to go for older stories. In this case, the devastated family and friends of Elisa Lam are still alive and struggling with their loss. What that family has gone through is unimaginably sad and I wish them nothing but good things and peace.

Elisa Lam Becomes a Household Name After Her Untimely Death at the Cecil Hotel

You’ve probably heard of Elisa Lam (藍可兒). There’s even a Netflix series about her death at the Cecil Hotel.

The Cecil was not a fancy place. It was cheap accommodation for travellers, and part of the hotel was split out into the Stay on Main. Stay on Main was advertised as a hostel with shared rooms and bathrooms. In between the reception area, Stay on Main and the Cecil Hotel proper were two floors that acted as cheap, but permanent places of residence for down-and-outs. Some people had been living there for over 50 years. And oh man, had they seen things. But the situation was about to get much worse.

On the 19th February 2013, the body of Elisa Lam was recovered from a water cistern on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. She had last been seen on 31st January and her parents had reported her as missing on the 1st February. She had been gone for 19 days.

Water From the Taps is Grimy and Smelly… And Has a Foul Taste

In the interim period between the disappearance and discovery of Elisa Lam, the water at the Cecil Hotel was behaving very strangely. It began with a vile smell and taste. All the guests that stayed at the hotel during this time reported the same issue to reception.

So there was no real rush to rectify the problem of slightly smelly water. Guests at the hotel soon realised that they had got what they paid for. And permanent residents of the Cecil knew better than to kick up a stink.

It was only when the complaints became more insistent and the new issue of water pressure was raised that the hotel finally sent a maintenance worker up to the roof to figure out what was going on. That’s when poor Elisa was finally found, floating face down and naked in the filthy water with her clothes on the bottom of the tank.

Who Exactly was Elisa Lam?

Elisa Lam, born Lam Ho-yi, was a 21 year old Canadian national who was taking some time out to tour the US. Elisa was an avid writer and had started a blog called Ether Fields on Blogspot. The blog is still live and you can read her beautifully poetic musings on her depression and mental illness. If only enough of us could reach out through time and aether to give this poor young woman a hug and tell her there’s a whole world of people struggling with the same feelings. Maybe she’d still be alive today. Probably that’s wishful thinking.

The strapline for Elisa’s blog was a quote from Chuck Palahniuk, “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life”. And at the beginning of 2012, Elisa had written about a relapse in her mental health that had led to her dropping several classes at school. She said she felt directionless and lost, and was worried that she’d be unable to finish school.

After two years of writing on Ether Fields, Elisa Lam moved her blog over to Nouvelle-Nouveau on Tumblr. Here she seemed to concentrate more on fashion. But her epigraph was the same. She was an open book, sharing stories of her daily struggles in a beautiful stream of consciousness.

Official Diagnosis for Elisa Lam

The Cecil Hotel & the Stay on Main

The Cecil Hotel was built in the 1920s as a destination for travellers. Back in the day, it would have been a relatively posh place to stay. But over the years, it has become more run down and boasts a chilling reputation for murder, suicide and accidental death. It probably has something to do with the fact that shortly after it opened its doors, the Great Depression hit. Although it managed to operate as an upmarket hotel until the 40s, it was doomed from the start.

A Grand Hotel for the Down and Outs of Los Angeles

In the decades after its decline began, an area known as Skid Row became increasingly populated by transients. Over 10,000 homeless people occupied an area with a mere four mile radius. This brought the desirability of the area down completely, and the people with the cash weren’t willing to stay at the Cecil Hotel anymore. It began to sink into disrepair.

During the 50s, the suicides started. There are at least three clear accounts of people throwing themselves out of the high windows. One of these cases included a woman who jumped to her death and landed on a pedestrian walking by on the street below. Both were killed.

It’s also claimed that Elizabeth Short, more commonly referred to as The Black Dahlia, was often seen drinking in the Cecil Hotel bar.

This was followed by a brutal murder in 1964. An elderly woman was killed and the room ransacked. Her murderers were never caught. Things just generally went downhill from there… unbelievably. There are so many murders and serial killers associated with the Cecil Hotel that I don’t even know where to start. The Elisa Lam case is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Cecil Hotel Tries to Segment the Situation

By 1985, the hotel had developed a reputation as a flophouse for transients and drug addicts. This is also the year that infamous serial killer, Richard Ramirez, checked into the Cecil Hotel and used it as a base for his Los Angeles killing spree. Jack Unterweger, a crime journalist from Australia, also stayed at the hotel. He claimed this was so he could report on the situation in the area, but then casually killed three sex workers himself.

After changing hands a couple of times, the Cecil Hotel rebranded a section of the building. What people might not know is that The Cecil Hotel has two reception areas. One is for the main entrance to the Cecil Hotel itself. The other is for the Stay on Main. The two areas have a very different look and feel to them. But no amount of fluffy orange cushions can cover up a history so dark and brutal.

Stay on Main became known as a hostel, rather than a hotel. It offered rooms at knock down prices to travellers. This is the state the hotel was in when Elisa Lam booked her stay in 2013. The hotel has changed hands, rebranded, closed and reopened its doors several times since Elisa Lam’s death.

In late 2021, the hotel reopened as an affordable housing complex for low-income residents. This is operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust.

What Do We Know About Elisa Lam’s Last Moments?

In the days leading up to her disappearance, Elisa Lam was seen in a couple of places doing touristy things. Eventually, she ended up in a shop called The Last Bookstore. Worried that she wouldn’t be able to carry all the books she bought herself, the bookshop happily arranged for her purchases to be delivered to her. The Last Bookstore is the last confirmed location that Elisa Lam was seen.

Elisa was initially placed in a shared room in the Stay on Main hostel. But her behaviour became so erratic that the front desk was inundated with complaints about her. She was being disruptive – leaving strange notes for people telling them to get out. Everyone around her was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable in their already uncomfortable accommodation.

Elisa Lam was moved to a private room in the Cecil Hotel part of the building, three days after checking in. The day that Elisa Lam was moved rooms was the last time anyone from the hotel saw or heard from her.

The Situation Escalates in the Elisa Lam Disappearance

On the 1st February 2013, Elisa Lam was due to check out. When she didn’t return her key to reception, staff checked the hotel, but she was nowhere to be seen. The LAPD were called out to check on her. They had also recently been contacted by Elisa’s parents. They found all of her possessions still in her room.

The police released a statement on the 6th February giving some physical descriptions of Elisa, plus the little information that was available about her last known whereabouts. They were concerned that her disappearance was suspicious and may be connected to foul play. Which isn’t a stretch, given the hotel’s reputation.

Police dogs were brought into the hotel and they searched high and low for the missing woman. They even went up onto the roof, and officers attending said that the lids to the water tanks were firmly closed at that point.

Hours of video footage was sifted through. Until eventually, on the 13th February, police released surveillance footage of Elisa Lam entering a lift in the Cecil Hotel. Her behaviour in that video is very odd indeed.

Could The Elevator Game Explain the Mysterious Disappearance of Elisa Lam?

The elevator game, or Elevator to Another World as it’s also known, is a paranormal ritual that has roots in Korea and Japan. Exactly where this game came from, how long it’s been around and who was the first to play it, nobody really knows. Before 2011, reports are hazy. But presumably, the longest it could possibly have been around is since the widespread adoption of electronic lifts.

How to Play the Elevator Game / Elevator to Another World

What You Need

Min. 1 person
A building with 10 floors and a lift that goes all the way up
Nerves of steel

Method

The player(s) enter the elevator. Make sure nobody external to the game is in there. You will not be able to leave the elevator for some time once you’ve entered, so make sure you’ve had a pee beforehand.
Press the buttons to the following floors in order and travel to those floors: 4th > 2nd > 6th > 2nd > 10th > 5th. Do not get off at any of the floors.
Where this comes a cropper is when you look at the floors of buildings on an international scale. In the US, what is considered the second floor is the first in the UK (and the 1st in the US is the ground in the UK). After extensive research (perfunctory Google), it seems that Korea follows the US numbering convention. So we’ll follow that logic for this situation.
When you get to the final floor (5th) you may encounter a mysterious woman. Do not look at her, or engage with her in any way. If you try to interact with her, you may never return to your world.
Whether the woman is there or not, press the button for the 1st (ground) floor. This is where shit gets real… apparently. If the elevator takes you to the 1st floor, you must get out of the lift and leave the building. Do not pass go, do not collect £200. No talking, no looking around. Just go.
However, if the elevator doesn’t go down, but instead begins to go upwards, then you’re in for a treat. You are being allowed access to another world. You can now leave the elevator.

That's the End of the First Part of the Ritual

At this point, you will be released from the lift. But things will be different to how you remember. The light may be different. It could be dark and spooky. The power might not be working in the building and it’s likely to be deserted. Players of the game have also reported that they have looked out of a window and seen nothing but darkness and a glowing red cross in the distance. A bit like Sedona, really.

How to Get Back from the Mysterious Other World

To get back from this strange, new world, you have to follow as many steps as you did to get there. If you don’t follow them to the letter, you may be stuck there forever.

Return to the same elevator you arrived in. it might take you a while to find, because the layout of the building will not be the same as the one in the world you left behind. You have to find the right lift or you might not return home.
Once you’ve found your lift, repeat the same steps as you did to initiate the Elevator to Another World. Hit the buttons in the same order 4th > 2nd > 6th > 2nd > 10th > 5th. Don’t get out of the lift.
Once you’ve reached the 5th floor, again press the button for the 1st (ground). If the lift starts going up instead of down again, hit any other button until it stops. You can even hit the emergency stop button and call for help.

And that’s it. Pointless, no? The other world sounds to me like a false awakening dream I have, so I can get there without a lift. Or like the Upside Down from Stranger Things.

The Elevator Game and elisa Lam

Elisa Lam’s behaviour in the lift drew people to the conclusion that she might have been playing the elevator game and didn’t know how to get back properly. And her behaviour is very odd, that is undeniable.

A Strange Way to Get a Lift to Move

Elisa Lam enters the lift, hits all the buttons down the centre of the control panel and then steps back into a corner. Things seem fairly relaxed at this point. But the lift doesn’t move. Odd though, that she would hit every button. Almost like she doesn’t care which floor it takes her to as long as it takes her away from the one she’s on.

After a few moments, the doors are still open and Elisa starts to move towards the doors. Then she pauses as if listening. To me it looks like she’s heard something in the hallway. She goes to the lift doors and checks the hallway in either direction quite frantically.

Scooting back into the lift, Elisa stands still for a moment, as if wondering what to do and then backs into the wall. She then cowers in the corner that would be most hidden from the hallway. She looks scared – just like she’s hiding from someone. When the lift still doesn’t move, she goes back to the doorway, but doesn’t fully stick her head out. As if she wants to check someone’s whereabouts, but doesn’t want to be seen herself.

When nothing happens, Elisa pokes her head into the hallway again and then does a little jump with both feet out of the lift. To me, that looks like she’s realised whoever she was hiding from has gone. Then she steps neatly backwards back into the lift, but then steps out again and sidesteps to the left of the frame. She is obscured from view for a few minutes, but you can see some movements from her, so you know she’s still there.

In, Out, Shake it All About

Eventually, she gets back in the lift with her hands on her head. Without any additional information for the watcher, it looks like she’s suddenly panicked. There is a moment of frantic button pushing that follows and then, when nothing happens, Elisa again leaves the lift and stands with her back against the wall in the hallway. That’s what you’d do if you wanted a full view in both directions without anyone being able to sneak up on you.

This is where the real weirdness starts. She moves away from the wall and faces to the right of the frame. Her hands seem to contort into strange shapes, as if she’s gesturing to someone. At one point, it looks like she’s miming swimming. But there’s something very unnatural about the shapes her hands are making. As if they are bending at strange angles. And then it looks like she’s arguing, making points and ticking them off with her fingers.

Finally, Elisa Lam walks away from the lift and away from whoever she was gesturing to. This is when people say they can see another shoe, but when you look carefully, it’s just the back of Elisa’s shoe as she’s leaving. Play it backwards and that’s really obvious.

After this, Elisa Lam was never seen alive again.

Amateur Sleuths Nancy Drew the Shit Out of It

Security was on high alert after the disappearance of Elisa Lam, but she had fans. Not only was she much loved on Blogspot and Tumblr for her raw, poetic posts, but her case had garnered much attention in the media. Despite being overrun with security guards, people flocked to the Cecil Hotel to conduct their own investigations.

When amateur sleuths visited the hotel to investigate, they realised that every time Elisa Lam hit the elevator buttons, she was hitting the Hold Door button, which holds the elevator doors for a minute. But given how many times she hits it, it’s no surprise that the lift doesn’t go anywhere.

The TB Test Conspiracy

By itself, the elevator footage is weird. But given that Elisa Lam was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with paranoid episodes, it could be written off as a psychotic break. Nonetheless, the elevator isn’t the only strange thing about this case. In fact, it’s one of many bizarre synchronicities. There’s that word again.

Shortly after Elisa Lam was retrieved from the water tank, Downtown LA, particularly Skid Row, was hit by an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Measures were taken to test and treat people to stop the disease spreading, especially amongst the homeless population.

Public health officials had been sent to Los Angeles to track down around 4,500 individuals who had been exposed to the disease. And, naturally, they found themselves at the Cecil Hotel.

The test that authorities used for TB is called a LAM-ELISA.

Obviously, conspiracy nuts took to the internet to give their opinion on the subject.

Was Elisa Lam Testing a TB Medication for the Government?

There have been some theories that Elisa Lam’s erratic behaviour was as a result of experimental medication for TB. That she disappeared so suddenly and remained undiscovered for over two weeks could have been as a result of the Government trying to silence a test subject that knew too much.

How exactly this was a safe test environment is pretty hazy. Was the plan to release the disease into the general public and then send in test subjects who had been treated with this new drug and told what the Government was up to? Seems a bit too far fetched for me. Were all of the subjects called Elisa Lam? Presumably Lam Hi-Yo had been going by Elisa Lam her entire life. Why would a Government name a test for a deadly disease after her?

Unless, for some reason, Elisa had shown some sort of resistance to TB throughout her life. There is absolutely no evidence of this, however. And the LAM ELISA is the test for TB, not the treatment.

It also stands for Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Which would take some textual jiggery pokery to make the two names match.

Could Elisa Lam Have Been a Biological Weapon?

There is also a theory that Elisa Lam was being used as a biological weapon. Strangely the University of British Columbia, where Elisa Lam was studying, has a very well known TB research centre.

The theory is that Elisa was sent to Los Angeles as an experimental weapon to cull homeless people in the area. Rather than being “taken out” for “knowing too much,” this line of thinking theorises that Elisa was always meant to die in the water tank. Having been infected with a drug-resistant strain of the disease, Elisa was sent to LA. Unbeknownst to her, she would be killed and placed in the water supply for the Cecil Hotel, where many poor people could be infected and spread the disease all along Skid Row.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey Stupid!

I’m with everyone else on this. Nobody can say for a single second that all of this is not very very strange. But where it loses me is the same place it got my attention. The name. What Government body or terrorist cell is so clever it can instigate an outbreak of a deadly disease completely under wraps. And yet so stupid that it calls the test by the name of their own biological weapon?

And this is the problem with conspiracies in general. They may come from a place of truth, but there’s no way on earth the diabolical truth about what the Government is up to is completely under wraps… except for Reddit. If you “know” about it, it’s not a thing. And if it was, you’d really know about it… or you’d be dead. And Reddit is an online forum that anyone can access and make any old thing up to post.

Synchronicity in the Elisa Lam Case

Still… the Synchronicity is hard to ignore. We touch on synchronicities in Episode 2, Bolling Hall. This is an entirely new concept to me. Whenever someone said: “There’s no such thing as a coincidence” I used to think: “Well, that’s bollocks. Weird shit happens all the time.” And talking to the lady at Bolling Hall was no different. Until, minutes later, what she had described came true for us.

Sammi McEwan and I will be digging into this in more detail with a whole episode on synchronicities, so maybe she can shed some light on what might be going on here from a spiritual perspective. But all I can say is that it’s really flipping weird.

Strange Similarities Between the Elisa Lam Case and Dark Water

The film, Dark Water, starring Jennifer Conelly, was released in 2005. Eight years before Elisa Lam’s untimely death. It’s a remake of a Japanese horror film by the same name that was released in 2002. Both films are based on a short story called “Floating Water” by writer Koji Suzuki.

In the film, a mother (Dahlia) and her daughter (Cecilia) move into a grim apartment complex. On the first night, they notice a strange, black damp patch on the bedroom ceiling. When the landlord is called, he takes Dahlia up to the apartment above and they discover that it’s flooded. Blaming naughty teens, the landlord turns off all the taps and explains that the family who had lived there had done a runner.

More strange things start to happen. Cecilia finds a pink backpack, obviously belonging to a little girl. Dahlia starts to hear footsteps coming from the empty apartment above. And then Cecilia begins talking to an imaginary friend called Natasha who is very controlling. Both mother and daughter are plagued with visions of a little girl.

The damp patch on the ceiling is patched up, but then gets worse and spreads, dripping filthy, black water into the apartment. Eventually, foul smelling, dirty water begins oozing out of the taps. Determined to investigate, Dahlia heads up to the water tanks on the roof, where she discovers the body of a little girl, Natasha.

The Last Bookstore Postcode Takes You Straight to Elisa Lam

There’s another strange coincidence to consider.

The Last Bookstore was the last place Elisa Lam visited outside of the hotel before she disappeared. Online sleuths discovered that if you put the postcode for the bookshop into Google maps, the pin doesn’t land in Los Angeles. It doesn’t even land in the US. It pinpoints exactly the grave of Elisa Lam.

The zipcode for the bookshop is CA 90013, which takes you to the address of the shop. Makes sense. But the postcode registered under the WhoIs data for the website is V5G 4S2.

Some More Bizarre Unanswered Questions

The Door to the Roof

The door to the roof of the Cecil Hotel was always locked to prevent people from being able to wander up there. If any unauthorised people went through it, a loud alarm sounded in reception. On the day that Elisa went missing, no alarm was heard and the door to the roof was locked when the police first conducted a search for the missing woman.

From here, there are only two logical conclusions. Either Elisa Lam was taken to the roof by someone who worked at the hotel and had keys to the roof. Or she got up there in another way.

On the top floor of the hotel, where Elisa Lam was last seen exiting an elevator, there is a window that you can open with a flimsy fire escape leading up the side of the building to the roof.

Neither of these options is straightforward. The fire escape is a very thin, metal ladder, entirely exposed to the elements and very high off the ground. I suspect that even people without a fear of heights would find the climb unsettling.

If Elisa was let onto the roof (or carried there), then someone at the hotel knows what happened to her and has got away with it.

Which leads us neatly to…

Timestamp on the Surveillance Camera in the Lift

If you try to read the time on the footage from the security camera on the night that Elisa Lam met her maker, you will see that it’s completely scrambled and impossible to read. This is slightly suspicious in itself, because not all footage from that camera. However, some amateur sleuths have managed to clarify the timestamp somewhat and they claim that there is a period of time of about two minutes before Elisa leaves the lift for the last time where the time stops. Essentially, the camera stops rolling for a period of time.

How anyone can see that is beyond me, but then I’m not entirely convinced that Elisa was completely alone when she was struggling with her mental health.

Lid to the water tank

The lid to the main water tank for the Cecil Hotel, where Elisa Lam was found, is very heavy. People have argued that the slight woman would not have had the strength to lift it on her own. Now, I have a counterargument to this that I am freakishly strong, even though I don’t look it. Mental illness can also cause something that can come across like superhuman strength. So I think she was perfectly capable of getting into that tank on her own.

However, when the police dogs were taken up to the roof in the early days of the search for Elisa, they didn’t smell anything anywhere on the roof. They did note, however, that there were beer cans and cigarette butts up there. Indicating that staff would sneak up there for a smoke. It had to be staff – nobody else could make it up there…

Unless there was a secret culture of partying on the roof and one of the more permanent tenants also had a key.

The Coroner’s Report in the Elisa Lam Case

However, there is something off about the initial coroner’s report too. Initially, the coroner marked the cause of death as “Unknown,” but that was crossed out and the word “ERROR” was written next to it. Officially, the cause of death is now drowning.

Although another strange thing about the Elisa Lam case is that she was wearing men’s clothes that were far too big for her. This is listed on the death paperwork.

The Netflix Show - The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

If you get chance, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is well worth a watch. They interview people who worked at the hotel, including the maintenance man and the manager. They also interview some absolute fuckwits who were still bathing in and drinking the filthy water, despite it stinking to high heaven of death.

“It tasted really bad,” complains one guest. Yeah, no shit, sunshine. Why would you be drinking tap water in a foreign country anyway? It’s like Brits abroad 101 – buy bottled water! And especially don’t drink tap water that oozes slowly out of the tap in the form of dark sludge that smells and tastes of death. FFS. Honestly! Just clueless.

Scaredy Cat’s Take

I… have no idea.

Psychotic Break

Being the sceptic I am, I’m leaning towards the most obvious scenario, which is that Elisa Lam had a psychotic breakdown after she failed to take her meds correctly. But I feel like this was a combination of unusual factors that led to this tragedy. It reminds me of Burn After Reading in a way.

While Elisa Lam was given to not taking her meds correctly and having psychotic episodes where she thought she was being watched, I’m not entirely convinced she was alone. She mentions on Tumblr that men kept hitting on her. Whether she was in real danger from any of these interactions, or whether they triggered a paranoid episode, I don’t think we’ll ever know.

The Water Tank

Personally, I think the police just added the detail about the tank lids being closed to cover their backs, because they should have checked the water tanks and they didn’t. When the maintenance worker was sent up to check what was going on with the water, after the police had checked the roof, he said that the lid was open.

However, if what the LAPD said was true, then between the police investigation into Elis Lam’s disappearance on the 6th February and her discovery on the 19th, someone went up there and opened the lid of the tank. Which means Elisa Lam potentially wasn’t in there when the police first searched for her. The dogs didn’t pick up her scent at all when they were taken up there, so that’s not a huge leap.

Alternatively, if the lid really was closed when the police went up there, it could have been that someone did know Elisa was in there and went back up to check she was still in the tank afterwards.

The Coroner’s Report

It’s strange that the coroner’s report initially stated that Elisa’s death could not be determined, but then later was marked as “Accident.” Maybe it was undetermined because it could have been any of the other reasons on the list. I don’t know how it works, but I would have thought it would be illegal to absolutely state a cause of death in a case so hazy. But then this could simply be a record of the coroner’s best guess as to the cause of death and they changed their mind.

As outsiders to the case, it’s hard to make a proper call, because we’re not privy to all the evidence.

Synchronicities Just Keep Falling Into Place

The coincidences continue to intrigue me. One on its own could have been written off, but there are just so many. And so specific. So bizarre.

I doubt Elisa Lam was playing the elevator game. She seemed to be hitting buttons in the lift at random. And she seemed too panicked. As well as seemingly engaging with someone, which the game expressly tells you what to do. Though she did end up dead…

It seems very far-fetched that she was a biological weapon or test subject for a battle of tuberculosis. Especially given that nothing else ever came of that. Although, Covid is also a respiratory disease, so maybe the evil terrorist organisation decided TB wasn’t the best way to go. The name of the TB test in isolation is a funny fluke. But an outbreak of the disease shortly after Elisa Lam’s death is… so flipping bizarre.

Elisa Lam and Dark Water

The similarities between Dark Water and the Elisa Lam case make me wonder if that was a film she had seen. We file away memories into the back of our minds, even if we don’t consciously remember them. So maybe Elisa had realised (knowingly or unknowingly) that the Cecil Hotel was similar to the apartment complex in the film. Then when she had her breakdown, her brain just began acting out scenes she had already seen. There is something to be said for self fulfilling prophecy.

Another confusing factor is that she was wearing men’s clothes that were much too big for her at the time of her disappearance. But the hoodie matches the one the little girl in the movie wears. Could Elisa have ventured down to the laundry room and purposefully stolen the clothes? In which case, was this really an elaborate suicide? In a psychotic state, it could be seen as poetic.

Could this entire thing have been designed to be a head scratcher as part of the legacy Elisa Lam wanted to leave behind? Something for the fans, maybe?

I don’t really feel like this was suicide, honestly. Without making this about me, I’ve been at rock bottom and it’s very isolating. The only thing you really care about is not being a burden anymore. But then everyone is different.

The Last Bookstore Plays a Role in the Death of Elisa Lam

The postcode of The Last Bookstore is weird. It’s the location that the domain is registered rather than the postcode of the actual shop, but as far as I can see, The Last Bookstore isn’t a chain. There is just one. In Los Angeles. As with all these coincidences, it could just be fluke, but with everything else going on in this case, it adds another layer of mystery.

The Cecil Hotel is Toxic to Its Foundations

Dark and twisted mysteries surround The Cecil Hotel throughout its history. Could it be a case of a buildup of some sort of bad energy? If people were desperately unhappy there, bad things happened and rumours swirled, it could be the case that the place itself has a detrimental effect on your health in general. Particularly when it comes to mental health.

Or is the hotel haunted, like the apartment complex in Dark Water? Or the room in Stephen King’s 1408?

Whatever happened in that place was an awful tragedy and a bizarre mystery. That’s the only thing I’m certain of.

Leave the Metalheads Alone!

Also, I don’t know if anyone needs to hear this at this stage, but leave Morbid alone! Poor chap. He’s a metalhead, not a murderer. We still get a really bad rap! It’s just music – give him a break. Not everyone wants their culture to be all sunshine and lollipops.