Horror at the Cecil Hotel: The Case of Elisa Lam
On February 19th, 2013 the body of Elisa Lam, a student from the University of British Columbia, was found on a water tank on the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Now 8 years later Netflix is releasing a 4 episode documentary about the case called Crimescene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel on February 10th, 2021.
Elisa Lam
Elisa Lam, or Lam Ho Yi, was a student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She traveled alone to California arriving to Los Angeles on January 26, 2013. Two days later she checked into the Cecil Hotel. Elisa was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, having 4 medications prescribed. Her family kept her mental illness private but they assured that she didn’t had any suicide attempts history. She was on contact with her parents the whole trip but on January 31, 2013, the day that she was suppose to check out from the Cecil, she didn’t contact them. Right away her parents called the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) and traveled to help on the search of their daughter. Is not until February 15, 2013 that the police released a video that showed Elisa alive for the last time. The video came from the security cameras of one elevator on the Cecil with the date of February 1, 2013. Quickly became viral on the internet and the case gain popularity with 3 million views on the first 10 days.
During this same time guesses from the Hotel complained about the water, claiming that it was black and had low pressure. On February 19, 2013 the body of Elisa was found on one of the water tanks of the hotel. The police declared that was an accidental drowning, having as a factor her mental illness. The report also stated that her body was found naked with her belongings floating around her. Even after the autopsy and many investigations and theories later to this day the case remains unsolved.
Her death has been compare to the plot of the horror movie of 2005 Dark Water, an American remake of a Japanese horror movie of the same name. The protagonist and her daughter move to a building that constantly has black water, eventually leading to the water tank of the building where was the body of a little girl that was reported missing a year before.
Cecil Hotel
The Cecil Hotel opened on 1927, located in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Ever since 1931 unusual events started to happen on the hotel, giving it a death reputation. During the 1930s to 1950s many suicides occurred on the hotel, by the 1960s the hotel had the nickname “The Suicide”. During the 80s it was rumored that the serial killer Richard Ramirez “The Night Stalker” stayed on the hotel for weeks. It wasn’t until the death of Elisa Lam in 2013 that the hotel received that type of attention again.
The hotel served as an inspiration to the fifth season of American Horror Story titled Hotel. Famous serial killers where portrayed, including Ramirez.