The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam: A Case That Still Haunts the Internet

In early 2013, the 21-year-old Canadian college student set out to travel along the coast of California. But just days into her adventure, things took a dark turn. While staying at the infamous Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, Lam went missing — and was never seen alive again.

Investigators searched the historic property, located near L.A.’s Skid Row, but came up empty-handed. It wasn’t until detectives reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from security cameras that they discovered what may have been Lam’s final moments. In a bizarre clip, Lam was seen acting erratically in a hotel elevator, pushing multiple buttons at once and peering out the door as if she was being chased.

When the footage was released to the public, it ignited a media frenzy and inspired internet sleuths to attempt to uncover the mystery of Lam’s disappearance. Online investigators shared theories that Lam had been the victim of an ill-intentioned hotel employee or a paranormal force, while others pointed to her bipolar disorder diagnosis as the likely cause of her behavior.

But on Feb. 19, 2013, almost three weeks after she went missing, Lam’s body was finally uncovered. After numerous hotel guests had complained of low water pressure, a hotel maintenance worker went to check on the water tanks on the roof. That’s when he made the grisly discovery of Lam’s nude body floating inside the water tank.

Her death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning with bipolar disorder as a significant factor but the conclusion hasn’t quelled the endless speculation about how she got on the roof and inside the water tank.

So what happened to Elisa Lam and was she murdered? Here is everything to know about Elisa Lam’s death and her final moments in the Cecil Hotel.

Who was Elisa Lam?

Lam was a 21-year-old college student who was born and raised in Canada. She was in the middle of her undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, although she had not taken a class at the school since the summer of 2012, a university spokesman told CBS News.

Outwardly, classmates told the outlet that Lam was one of the friendliest people they knew, but internally, she also struggled with mental health issues, which she sometimes chronicled on one of her online blogs. In a post on Blogspot in 2012, Lam shared that she had experienced a “relapse” and felt that she was “wasting [her] time compared to [her] fellow peers.”

Amid her struggles, Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been prescribed several medications to help treat her condition. While she was in possession of prescriptions, homicide detective Tim Marcia recalled in 2021’s Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel that Lam’s family said she had a history of not taking her medication.

In fact, on several prior occasions, Lam had dealt with hallucinations and delusions after not taking her medications. She was allegedly hospitalized at least once to treat her condition.

“We learned from Elisa’s sister that Elisa had a history of not taking her medication and several times previously, that had caused her to have some type of mental breakdown,” Marcia shared.

What is the Cecil Hotel?

The Cecil Hotel, briefly renamed to Stay on Main in 2011, is a historic Los Angeles property that first opened in 1924. Located near Skid Row, the 700-room hotel has faced a checkered history and garnered a seedy reputation with tales of serial killers lurking the halls and rumors of paranormal activity.

For much of its history, the space functioned as single-room rentals with shared bathrooms, rather than a typical hotel, leading to a population of largely transient occupants.

Those tenants allegedly included serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the “Night Stalker,” who lived there around the time of his murder spree. Jack Unterweger was also reportedly a resident in 1991 — during which time he killed three sex workers.

Over the century that the hotel has been open, there have been numerous deaths, including those by suicide, on the property. The hotel’s former manager, Amy Price, claimed in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel that she had seen 80 deaths in the 10 years she worked there, from 2007 to 2017.

In the past decade, the hotel has changed hands several times but is now officially closed for business. In 2021, the property was converted to an affordable housing complex and was put up for sale three years later, per the Los Angeles Times.

What happened before Elisa Lam went missing?

In early 2013, Lam embarked on a trip around California. She spent time in San Diego, posting photos from the city’s zoo on social media, before heading to Los Angeles on Jan. 26 and checking into the Cecil Hotel two days later.

According to The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, Lam’s strange behavior began shortly after her arrival. During her stay, she attended a taping of a late-night television show but according to the police, started acting “erratically” and was escorted off the property by security.

Lam had also been sharing a room at the hotel with several female roommates who grew concerned by her behavior. According to the hotel’s former manager Price, Lam had allegedly locked the other women out of the room and left notes telling them to “go away” or “go home.” She was eventually moved to her own private room.

“I have never spoken about this publicly, but she was being disruptive. She was leaving these notes on other guests’ beds … She was writing, ‘Go away. Go home. Get out,’ ” Price shared in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

Lam was last seen on Jan. 31. That day, she spent time at The Last Bookstore, a shop just a few blocks from the Cecil Hotel. According to the store’s manager, Katie Orphan, Lam purchased gifts to bring home to her family.

“She was outgoing, very lively, very friendly,” Orphan told CNN. “Talking about, you know, what books she was getting and whether or not what she was getting would be too heavy for her to carry around as she traveled or take home with her.”

Later that day, Lam was spotted by staff wandering around the hotel. In The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, Price recalled Lam coming to the lobby and shouting, “I’m crazy but so is LA!” Detective Marcia added that he was told Lam also ended up in an area where guests weren’t allowed and had to be asked to leave. She then walked towards a bank of elevators, marking the last time she was seen by anyone in the hotel.

Lam was set to leave the hotel the following day and head to Santa Cruz, but she never checked out. Her parents, who had grown accustomed to hearing from Lam every day by phone, did not hear from her on the 31st and quickly grew concerned.

What happened during the investigation surrounding Elisa Lam’s disappearance?

Shortly after being unable to get in touch with Lam, her parents contacted the Los Angeles Police Department and she was reported missing. Lam’s parents and sister soon headed to California to help with the search efforts.

According to The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, investigators first checked Lam’s hotel room, which had already been cleared by the housekeeping staff. All of her belongings had been left behind, including her computer, wallet and medications.

“The employee that had bagged up her belongings said that the room was in disarray, as in messy, but not as in foul play. There was no evidence of forced entry into the room. There was no paraphernalia for drugs,” Marcia explained in the docuseries.

Meanwhile, investigators began to piece together Lam’s trip and whereabouts with the help of her blog. The rest of the hotel, including the roof and basement, was searched with the help of scent-tracking dogs, who traced Lam’s scent back to her room on the fifth floor. According to Marcia, the dogs followed the scent to a large window that looked out to the street — and led to a fire escape.

Investigators also began reviewing hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from security cameras at the hotel. While there was no camera on the floor where Lam was staying, a clip of her in an elevator on the night she went missing was uncovered. In the bizarre footage, Lam could be seen acting erratically, almost appearing to communicate with someone.

She then proceeded to press almost every button in the elevator. At times, Lam peered around the corner of the open door before jumping back inside, seemingly hiding in the corner. The door remained open for the duration of her time in the elevator, which Lam eventually exited. Later, the elevator returned to normal working order.

Nearly two weeks after her disappearance, investigators decided to release a clip of the elevator footage to the public in the hopes they could find a new lead. Instead, it opened the floodgates for internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists to formulate their own ideas of what happened to Lam. The video garnered millions of views — along with theories that Lam had been the victim of supernatural forces or was being pursued by an ill-intentioned hotel guest.

While there were now thousands of people looking for Lam, it was not until hotel guests started complaining about the water that her body was uncovered.

Where was Elisa Lam found?

Amid the search for Lam, hotel guests began complaining of poor water quality and water pressure issues. On Feb. 19, a hotel employee, Santiago Lopez, began to search for the root of the problem, eventually checking the water tanks on the roof of the building. He noticed the hatch on one of the tanks was open and when he looked inside, he uncovered Lam’s nude body, her clothes sunk to the bottom of the tank.

“The roof has four tanks. I thought that there was no water in the tanks or it was clogged. The main tank is where the water starts to circulate. I went to have a look,” Lopez shared in a translated interview in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

He continued, “There is a ladder on the roof to get to the tanks. On top of the tank there’s a little hatch. And when I went to look, that’s when I saw her. She floated up. She was white like a ghost.”

The investigation continued as Lam’s body was removed. The area was fingerprinted and searched, but officers came up empty-handed. An autopsy revealed that there was no evidence of a struggle, no injuries that could have led to her death or evidence of sexual assault. Toxicology results also found there were no illicit drugs in her system.

Investigators also ruled out the involvement of a third party, considering it would have been impossible for someone to force Lam’s body inside the water tank without injuring her. With no cuts, bruises or other markings, the police decided that foul play was unlikely.

“We have kind of a strange thing going on here as there was nothing to support a crime of violence occurred. There was no physical evidence found,” Marcia said. “It raised all types of questions. ‘How did she end up here in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel? Do we have a crime here? What actually happened?’ ”

What do authorities believe happened to Elisa Lam?

After extensive testing was completed on Lam’s body, investigators uncovered that the levels of bipolar medication in her system were much lower than they should have been. Then, when Lam’s personal belongings were checked, they found that she had a high number of pills in her possession — indicating that she may not have been taking her medication.

“When we went back and looked at all of the levels in the toxicology results comparing those to the prescriptions that were found at the scene, it also suggests she was undertaking her medications,” forensic pathologist Dr. Jason Tovar explained in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

Based on the toxicology results, Lam’s behavior leading up to her death and her history of not taking her medication, investigators believe she may have had a psychotic episode.

“Based on the evidence that we have, Elisa looked like she had bipolar I, which means that it’s the more severe version of bipolar disorder in which psychotic features can sometimes be a part of that. In that state, you have very disorganized thinking where the logic doesn’t really make sense and it’s hard to separate fantasy from reality,” Dr. Judy Ho said in The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

She continued, “I think that when you look at the reports of her behavior at the hotel to then this TV taping and even the infamous elevator video, that to me is completely consistent with somebody in the middle of a psychotic episode.”

Lam’s sister also confirmed that the actions seen in the elevator video were consistent with previous patterns and aligned with prior episodes where Lam was afraid someone was following her.

“Elisa Lam’s sister said that in the past, she would become frightened, she would become delusional. She would run and hide. She’d hide under the bed,” LAPD detective Greg Kading said in the docuseries. He went on, supposing that Lam could have “made her way up to the roof and it would make perfect sense that she saw the water tank as her place to hide.”

Authorities believe Lam used the fire escape to reach the roof and then climbed the ladder to the water tank. Once she jumped inside, they posited that the only way out was through the open hatch — a task that would be near impossible on her own.

Investigators believe that Lam attempted to stay afloat for as long as possible, even removing her clothing to prevent it from dragging her down — but that she ultimately succumbed to accidental drowning.