The Death of Elisa Lam
On January 31, 2013, the body of 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam was discovered floating in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, three weeks after she was reported missing. She had been staying at the hotel alone while traveling. Her body was found only after guests complained about low water pressure and discolored water from the taps — meaning that for some portion of the three weeks, guests had been unknowingly using water from the tank that held her remains.
What made the case internationally notorious was surveillance footage from the hotel elevator, released by police to help identify Lam's movements. In the video, Lam behaves in a deeply unusual manner — pressing multiple floor buttons, peering around the elevator door frame into the hallway, pressing herself against the elevator walls, and appearing to converse with someone not visible in the frame. The elevator doors fail to close for an extended period. The footage spread virally and prompted massive online speculation about paranormal activity, serial killers, and supernatural forces.
The coroner's investigation concluded Lam had accidentally drowned and ruled her death accidental, citing her documented history of bipolar disorder. Investigators noted that her behavior in the elevator video was consistent with a manic or psychotic episode, and that her medication — which she had not been taking consistently — could produce exactly the kind of disoriented behavior visible on the tape. The roof access was determined to be accessible and the hatch to the water tank could have been closed from inside.
Many observers and online communities refused to accept the accidental drowning verdict, pointing to the apparent difficulty of a person entering the water tank and closing the hatch. The case became a defining early example of internet true crime crowdsourcing, with thousands of amateur investigators analyzing the elevator footage frame by frame. The Cecil Hotel, which had a long history of deaths and criminal incidents, was subsequently renovated and rebranded. The case inspired the 2021 Netflix documentary series "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel."