This week, Katie tells us all about the strange case of Elisa Lam and her sudden disappearance. For this week’s super weird case, we have a super weird cocktail. It’s just wine. Grab your favorite bottle of wine and pour as much of that baby as you want in your glass. Then drink it up. That’s it! Super easy to figure out, unlike this case.
Elisa Lam was a student at the University of British Columbia who decided to take a trip by herself to California. Lam, being a super independent and smart woman, traveled by herself on an Amtrak train first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles. On January 28th, after being in LA for two days, Lam found the Cecil Hotel located near downtown’s skid row. Initially, she was assigned a shared room on the hotel’s fifth floor, but her roommates complained about what the hotel’s lawyer later called “certain odd behavior” and she was moved to a room of her own after another two days.
It’s important to note that Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. Lam had been prescribed Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor to treat her conditions. According to her family, who supposedly kept her mental illnesses a secret, she had no history of suicidal ideations or attempts. However, there was one report stating that she had previously gone missing for a brief period.
Lam started a blog in mid-2010, which she called Ether Fields. Lam used this blog to post pictures of fashion and give accounts of her life, focusing on her struggle with mental illness. After just over two years, Lam decided to abandon that blog for another one on Tumblr called Nouvelle/Nouveau, which again mostly consisted of found fashion photos and a few posts in her own words. Both blogs highlighted a quote from author Chuck Palahniuk that states: “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.”
On January 31st, Elisa Lam was scheduled to check out of the Cecil Hotel and leave for Santa Cruz. When her family did not hear from her that day after having heard from her every day during her travels, they phoned the LAPD and immediately booked their flight to California.
Hotel staff that saw her that day noticed that she was alone, but besides the workers at the Cecil Hotel there was only one other person that remembered seeing Lam that day. Katie Orphan, manager of The Last Bookstore, recalled seeing Lam on that day and speaking with her. Orphan recalled that “She was outgoing, very lively, very friendly,” and was picking out gifts to bring back to her family.
Police searched the hotel as best they could, without having much probable cause to go through all the hotel rooms, they were limited in the spaces they could look over. They did manage to search through Lam’s room and send dogs through most of the building and the rooftop, but neither the manual search nor the dogs could pick up a trail for the missing girl.
On February 6th, a week after Lam had last been seen, the LAPD decided to call to the public for help. They distributed flyers with her image throughout the neighborhood and online, but no tips came in.
Then, on February 15th, the LAPD released a video of the last known sighting of Lam taken by a video surveillance camera inside one of the Cecil Hotel’s elevators. You’ve probably seen this video before as it immediately drew worldwide interest due to Lam’s strange behavior seen in the footage. I’ll include the video below so that you can check out exactly what strange behavior we are talking about.
While the search for Elisa was going on, guests at the hotel began complaining about low water pressure and some even claimed that their water was coming out colored black and had an unusual taste. Why you would drink black tap water is beyond me, but this is what led police back up to the hotel’s roof to investigate the water tanks. On the morning of February 19, Lam’s body was discovered in one of the four 1,000-gallon water tanks on the roof of the Cecil Hotel.
The tank was drained and cut open since the maintenance hatch was too small to fit the equipment needed to remove Lam’s body. On February 21, the Los Angeles coroner’s office issued a finding of accidental drowning, with bipolar disorder as a significant factor. Later, the full coroner’s report which came out in June stated that Lam’s body had been found naked and clothing similar to those seen in the video footage were floating next to her in the water coated with a “sand-like” particle.
Lam’s body was moderately decomposed and bloated. The body was mostly greenish, with some marbling evident on her abdomen and skin separation evident. Due to how long the body had been in the water, there was no evidence that could be found of physical trauma, sexual assault or suicide. Toxicology tests, although incomplete due to the fact that not enough of her blood was preserved, showed traces consistent with her prescription medication plus a few other medications like ibuprofen and Sinutab and a very small amount of alcohol.
There are tons of unresolved issues with this case and everyone is still asking what happened to Elisa Lam? We may never really figure out the whole truth, but we do know that whatever happened that day caused the loss of a brilliant young woman and that’s why we suggest drinking the entire bottle of wine.
There are so many mysteries like this out in the world. We don’t pretend that we can solve them all, but the more we talk about them the more likely someone is to come up with an answer. Until then, you can explore more by checking out our sources or listening to the episodes in full. Send us your theories and case suggestions, we love hearing from you and remember to drink responsibly!
Bye, mom!
Sources:
deadrunkcrime.home.blog 