The Unsolved Death of Elisa Lam – One of the Creepiest Cases in Recent History

Born on April 30, 1991, Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old Canadian student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. On February 19, 2013, her body was recovered under strange circumstances from a water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

She was reported missing by her parents and friends at the beginning of February. The body was discovered by hotel maintenance workers, after the guests complained about the strange odor and taste in water. While trying to find the source of the problem, maintenance workers stumbled upon Elisa Lam’s body inside one of four water cisterns.

Prior to the recovery of her body, police released a video of Elisa Lam which was recorded on the day of her disappearance.

The mystery surrounding Elisa Lam begins at the Stay on Main hotel in L.A., formerly known as Hotel Cecil. Lam reached Los Angeles on January 26, 2013, checked into Hotel Cecil and was scheduled to stay till January 31. Lam was known to have a close-knit connection with her family and even while on tours, she made sure her family and friends knew of her whereabouts. On January 31, the staff at the hotel tried to reach Lam since it was past her checkout time and when they didn’t hear from her, they contacted authorities as that was the protocol to be followed.

Lam’s parents were notified by the police and they soon flew to L.A in hopes to find her. Police joined the search and posted flyers with her details and news stations quickly picked up the disappearance story. When the police failed to retrieve any information about her, they released the last known video of Lam in an elevator of the Cecil Hotel which was recorded on February 1.

The video which is two and half minutes long, left an eerie feeling to the viewers. In the video, Lam could be seen nervously trying to close the elevator doors by pressing random buttons. The elevator malfunctioned and she can be seen leaping out of the elevator and coming back again. The frantic movements left a lot of people concerned and Los Angeles robbery-homicide detectives treated this as a suspicious death for such reasons.

The video sparked attention among paranormal theorists and a lot of theories started speculating on the media.

After the video of Elisa Lam was released by the police, it was viewed by millions around the world. The story received wide attention within just a few days. Along with that came speculations about her disappearance. Some theorists claimed that her psychological problems in the past could have triggered an episode that led to her weird behavior in the video.
While some suggested that she could have been pursued by someone and the frustration of trying to escape them is what’s seen through the video. Among the theories that came out, another one claimed that she could have been under the influence of drugs.

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