The Stay on the Main Hotel, (Cecil Hotel) is a hotel for travelers from all over the world because of the location’s proximity to famous Los Angeles landmarks and its low prices. However, this hotel also holds one of Los Angeles’ biggest unknown mysteries.
Some of the most notorious serial killers have stayed at this hotel during their killing sprees. The hotel’s creepy past has even inspired this past season of “American Horror Story: Hotel” and has become the home of the “accidental” death of Elisa Lam. But I believe it was not an accident.
There was footage taken one day after she went missing in one of the hotel’s elevator cameras. In the video, she is seen looking frantic as if she was running from someone. She hides in the corner of the elevator and occasionally looks out as if someone was following her.
When I watched the video on YouTube, it was almost unbelievable. How could someone watch that and then be able to say that her death was accidental? They did not find drugs in her system, so they knew she wasn’t just tripping on acid. There has to have been a reason for it. It is also convenient that there are no hallway cameras.
There was also previous footage from hotel cameras of her with two men. They gave her a box and the cameras never saw them again.
Some background of the case is as follows:
· Lam was taking a road-trip in January 2013 from Vancouver, Canada to California.
· She arrived in L.A. on Jan. 26 and went missing Jan. 31.
· Video surveillance of Lam in the elevator acting odd on Feb. 1.
· She was found dead in one of the water towers on the roof on Feb. 19.
· Guests of the hotel complained about the hotel water tasting odd and looking black which led to the discovery of Lam’s body.
· There was no evidence of trauma on her body indicating that she was murdered or committed suicide.
· An employee of a local bookstore saw her the day she disappeared and said that Lam seemed normal, happy and was picking up gifts for her family
The hotel worker that found her reported that he had found her floating facing up. This got me. I researched cases in which it’s possible for the victim to drown face up. And I found that it is HIGHLY unlikely. As in, it almost never happens.
Did the detectives miss this? Or do they have a reason? Because one of the only ways a victim would be found faced up is if they were killed before being placed in the water. Police reports also indicate that someone marked the death as accidental, and then three days later marked it as unknown, which was eventually crossed off. But what made them think differently in the first place?
The hotel had also made claims that it is extremely hard for hotel guests to get on the roof. There is one door that is locked and armed. There is also a fire escape, however, she had to know exactly what window to go to get on it.
The water towers on the roof are also very hard to open. They don’t know how an average-sized girl could get on top of the water tower, open the heavy door and then close it behind her.
The whole incident to me, doesn’t seem like a one-man job and had to be strategically planned out.
How can a case with so many unanswered questions be counted as closed? The whole story is sketchy as the hotel. The Cecil Hotel also does not appreciate the publicity or reporters and even has a problem with American Horror Story basing their newest season off it.
It all doesn’t add up and we may never know what happened to Elisa Lam. Whatever it was, it doesn’t seem accidental.