A Brief History
On February 19, 2013, management and guests at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles finally found out why their water had been getting worse and worse over the past month.
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find guests complaining of low water pressure, slimy water, foul tasting water, and discolored water.
It was no big surprise then when a dead body was found in the hotel’s water tank that was located on the roof of the hotel! It was that of 21-year-old Elisa Lam. She had been missing for about a month and presumably was in the water tank the whole time! YUCK!!
Authorities say the young Canadian’s death was accidental, but no one knows how she managed to end up in the water supply. Adding to the mystery is the final video footage ever taken of Lam. The images come from a hotel elevator camera and show her acting in a peculiar way, giving rise to speculation that she had succumbed to something paranormal (according to the coroner, drugs were apparently NOT a factor and according to her family, nor was mental illness).
The video is frightening enough, but knowing her ultimate fate just adds to the horror of what we are witnessing in those few minutes of seeming terror. Was someone or something after her, or did she merely think something was out to get her? One is left wondering what ultimately occurred between that video and her drowning in the water tank on the building’s roof.
Sadly, the weirdness just keeps coming at the Cecil Hotel!
A scroungy budget hotel that is largely a home for transients, the Cecil Hotel was built in 1927. Interesting things have happened there since then, such as three murders and several suicides! This Hotel Hell was also the home of two serial killers, Richard Ramirez (1985) and Jack Underwater (1991).
In 2007, the horror film 1408, starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, was released about a hotel with a haunted, evil room (number 1408). In the movie, the room is said have had 56 people die in it over its 95-year existence. Although not directly tied to the Cecil Hotel, it does make you wonder if the hotel had any influence on Stephen King when he wrote the short story the book is based on. In any case, at the Cecil Hotel, you have the real-life horror story!
Question for students (and subscribers): So, do you think Lam’s death was an accidental result of mental illness? Or was it murder or something supernatural? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For the film mentioned above, please see…
Håfström, Mikael, dir. 1408 (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition). Weinstein Company, 2007. DVD.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="1266 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=1266">44 Comments
I think Lam’s death was a murder, because how does someone just end up in a water tank on drugs or not it don’t make sense.
I remember hearing about this incident when it was first discovered. After watching the youtube video in the article and reading that drugs were not a factor, something very questionable definitely occurred and I would not rule out supernatural forces. So freaky!
After reading this article and watching the videos, something supernatural would not surprise me. I don’t think she would have been able to be manipulated as she was in the videos if a real person were taunting her. She seems afraid, but there is no real sense of her fighting back. This is definitely a mystery.
I think Lam’s death was something to do with a murder or her committing suicide because if the hotel was hunted and there were that many deaths that were taken place in it, there was something that possessed her to act the way she did. I would never step foot in a place that was known to be hunted. I found this article to be very creepy.
I think Lam was acting strange. It could have been a variety of many reasons and I am hesitant to claim belief in a single one; however, I do not believe in possession.
That is really creepy, and it was scary seeing how she acted in that video. It definitely could have been something supernatural that caused her to act that way and go into the water tank because if there were no drugs, I don’t know why she would ever act that way. It’s also really gross that people were drinking that water and using it without knowing there was a body in it.
Because of my religious beliefs I do believe in possessions. Even though in the video all we see is her, there is definitely something else with her and controlling her. I do believe that the evil thing that was possessing her did kill her. Evil is all over; even though we can not see it, its there. The only thing that can protect people from such evil is faith in God.
Very true!! ?
I do not believe in possession. I think that Lam was murdered since she was not involved with drugs. This article was creepy to me, in that, it only occurred last year. Omg! that is disgusting to think that people were drinking that water. Ewww!
I do not believe in possessions. I believe that she was murdered, because there would be no other explanation for this weird occurrence. How else would she have gotten into the hotels water supply? I also find it very disgusting that people actually drank that water.
It could be a possession and it also could just be a mental disorder that was never really uncovered. Events like this are sometimes just not explainable. Ending up in the hotel’s water supply too is just wild.
I think this was a murder simply because she was found in the water supply. If she had a drug problem, someone would have to know about it and hopefully they would have told investigators but since nothing turned up she was probably murdered. I think it is disgusting that people drank the water and took showers while there was a dead body in the water tank the entire time.
The lady was probably murdered. That is beyond disgusting that people were using that water while a dead body was just soaking in the water tank.
I think that this girl was murdered and placed in the water tank. I can’t believe they didn’t think to check their water once it started to get slightly gross. People were using this water for months before she was found, wouldn’t that cause people to become very sick? This article was very interesting to read though.
I am not usually one to think that supernatural things cause events but after watching the video something was definitely wrong with this girl. She seemed rather frantic and she was moving her arms in very strange ways. I am not sure that I can say it was a supernatural event but something defiantly was wrong.
There really is no way of telling whether this person was just mentally unstable or actually possessed. Regardless this was some pretty crazy stuff.
I think something was after her by her final actions in the elevator. Whether or not it was a human being or something supernatural we’ll probably never find out. One thing I do know is that I will be staying as far away from that hotel as possible.
It is hard to tell just what happened based on the video. It is a very interesting and tragic story.
We can not be sure what was wrong with this. She acted like someone was following her but she may have just been paranoid. Has there ever been any proof of murder? She may have fell into the water. Just imagine drinking the water. Yuk!
I wish it was easier to tell what happened. Very interesting situation!
hmmm….. i wonder what did happen to her i think that maybe she was paranoid and maybe ran up the fire escape and slipped and feel in. i just cannot believe that it took them a month to figure out the water pressure problem.
Cant believe it took them a month to find her. She is acting strange throughout the video so maybe someone was following her? Did any of the people get sick and did they refund the people for staying at this hotel for using water that had a dead body in there?
I think it had to of been murder. It just seems really fishy how she ended up there. On a side not I find it to be very DISGUSTING to think people were drinking that water.
Scary to think something paranormal caused her to take her life. But I believe in that kind of stuff as odd as it may be.
WOW this story is CRAZY!!!! Truly creepy and extremely disgusting! That video legitimately gave me chills..
That video is extremely disturbing. You have to wonder how no one knew she was there for over a month. I can’t even imagine people’s reaction when they learned why the water had been so bad. So tragic for the family, but so gross and creepy at the same time.
it is crazy to think that she was there for that long and no one noticed. And on top of that, people were drinking that water. That is so disgusting.
The video is crazy. I don’t understand why the door of the elevator took forever to shut? Also, towards the end it, it looks like she is talking to something in front of her, even though nothing is there. I would NEVER stay in that hotel given how much history it has.
One of those stories where a lot of things don’t seem to add up- unfortunately at the end of the day there is a death and a very serious health code violation.
I am glad I don’t have to drink that water.
This is a very interesting story. The most likely case was she was murdered, but we may never know. I’d really like to see if there’s footage of the hallway the elevator is in to try and find out what it is she keeps looking for.
Not only is that disgusting but the video of her in the elevator is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen!
1408 was a great movie but Lam must have been mentally ill just by looking at the video. Who knows why she died or how, but she definitely appeared to be mentally ill.
Very strange. Unfortunately, I think she was battling something mentally wrong. If she was “hiding” from someone why would she keep walk in and out of the elevator?
It seems to me like she was possibly murdered by someone who knew exactly where the camera was and was able to taunt her and corner her.
Of all the theories listed, I don’t think that mental illness was listed as one a possible reason. She very well could have thought that an entity was following her, but it likely wasn’t real.
It would be interesting to find out what was really going on, though I always found it curious that she pushed all of the buttons the way she did. It seems like an odd way to hide from a potential attacker; almost more similar to a game of hide and seek.
As it is fun to speculate as to what happened, based on the video we watched in class it seemed very likely she was on drugs at the time.
I’m of the opinion that she was either mentally ill or under the influence of drugs.
The craziest thing i have ever watched/read, most likely on a hallucinogen though.
I really think she either had a mental breakdown and went insane or someone in the hotel murdered her. What I find fishy is that there was no way for her to be able to lift the water tank herself and that there is a missing clip of the elevator surveillance video.
I think this lady was psycho. I don’t really buy that she was possessed or being chased by a ghost. Maybe she is in a better place now. Also isn’t this where the new American Horror Story is based off of? Even though this season is awful it’s still pretty cool.
This story is SO STRANGE. I was only moderately informed about it until we talked about it in class, but I honestly do not know what happened to this girl. That elevator behavior was so bizarre it is beyond creepy to watch.
This story blew my mind! The elevator footage is so strange. I cringed when I found out she tainted the water in the hotel and people actually drank her dead body fluids EW