Tourist's body found inside hotel water tank
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police were trying to determine Wednesday if the death of a Canadian woman who was missing for weeks before her body was found wedged into a water tank atop a Los Angeles hotel was the result of foul play or an accident.
The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was discovered Tuesday by a maintenance worker at the 600-room, downtown Cecil Hotel after guests complained of low water pressure.
Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled to California alone on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel near Skid Row that offers rooms for $65 a night.
Police initially called her disappearance suspicious. Investigators are now considering the possibility of foul play because of the location where the body was found. It was unclear what water from the tanks was used for.
An autopsy could be performed as early as Thursday to determine the cause of death.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
Hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and at one point sticking her head out the doors and looking in both directions.
A call to the hotel seeking comment was not immediately returned. It was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. Police said there have been reports of crime at the site.
The hotel had once been the occasional home to infamous serial killers such as Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and Austrian prison author Jack Unterweger, who was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe and the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.
The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was discovered Tuesday by a maintenance worker at the 600-room, downtown Cecil Hotel after guests complained of low water pressure.
Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled to California alone on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel near Skid Row that offers rooms for $65 a night.
Police initially called her disappearance suspicious. Investigators are now considering the possibility of foul play because of the location where the body was found. It was unclear what water from the tanks was used for.
An autopsy could be performed as early as Thursday to determine the cause of death.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
Hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and at one point sticking her head out the doors and looking in both directions.
A call to the hotel seeking comment was not immediately returned. It was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. Police said there have been reports of crime at the site.
The hotel had once been the occasional home to infamous serial killers such as Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and Austrian prison author Jack Unterweger, who was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe and the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.
Why does the elevator take about 2 minutes to close? Then it opens and closes repeatedly?
Based on the term "wedged", and the pic of the roof, I'd say most definitely foul play!
Well sheesh did anyone else catch the obvious mistake they made... firefighters had to use a saw to 'DRAIN the tank' ... that hatch on top is for maintenance... sheesh come on! | The hotel did TEST the alarmed door was actually working right?.... this sounds like a real bad and sick rape and the person then throws the girl in the water tank so either she cannot get out and drowns or killed her before she went in.. I'd have a hard time believing someone would commit suicide by jumping in a hotel water tank!...
At first she looks scared, and curious as to why the elevator door wouldn't close for ages. Then she looks as if she was checking to see if someone else was pushing the elevator doors open from the outside of the elevator.  Then she looked like she was talking to someone and gesticulating ... I don't see anyone messed up on drugs really...or mental. Maybe she was drunk or something ...but I don't see the hallucinating ... I see her possibly engage i nconversation with someone outside of the elevator. Someone that perhaps knew about the camera in the elevator ...and avoided being filmed. At any rate, sad. Young girl, a horrible way to be discovered, but I am glad she finally was found and can now give closure to the family
Watch the video. That woman was tweaking like Scotty getting beamed up to the starship enterprise.
The Cecil Hotel is not your typical tourist accommodations. It is and has always been LA's downtown drug hotel. Their efforts to clean up were purely superficial a few years ago and everything remains the same. The hotel caters to the drug crowd, day laborers, weekly stays, various state/federal transition housing programs.Â
Imagine any of the hotels in SODO or on Aurora that have been tagged, targeted, and identified as public nuisances because of criminal, drug and prostitution activity... The Cecil is 173 times WORSE!
Sometimes cheap places are not safe to stay.Â
Whenever there is low water pressure I will always have this in my head now.Â
Watching her on the elevator it is obvious she is fearful of being followed. Pushing many buttons would not serve to get her away from someone quickly, what with having to stop at each floor - very bizarre. Plus, the door remains open. Then the arm waving; that just makes her looked like she is on some sort of hallucinogenic drug. Which of course could cause all the paranoid/bizarre symptoms you see on the video. Drugged AND afraid of someone? Or just drugged and paranoid from the drug? Who knows. Â
And how DID she get into the water tank if they had to cut it open to get her out.Â
All and all it is a sad end to such a young life.Â
@Thunder Maybe some crazy person drugged her at a bar so he could fulfill a sick fantasy of chasing a paranoid chick around town? You never know. Our society is full of sick animals that should be killed.Â
"Police were trying to determine Wednesday if the death of a Canadian woman who was missing for weeks before her body was found wedged into a water tank atop a Los Angeles hotel was the result of foul play or an accident."
Really? Hey Columbo, how exactly does a person accidently wedge themselves in a water tank?
@Nitroxman
I was thinking the same thing. Unless her body bloated enough to become "wedged" ..Either way, very sad ending to the story... Beautiful girl
@Nitroxman Suicide?
@SeaPW @Nitroxman not in a million years. I have friends who know this girl. Something went very wrong that day.
Hope they will catch the killer soon.RIP young lady !
This comment has been deleted
I just threw up a little.
Serial killer on the lose in L.A....get with it
@reelin21Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ_E6l1P86U Â Not sure why this isn't being shared. Â This changes the whole story. Looks like she was on some serious drugs.Â
@SeaPWÂ @reelin21 Yep, definitely hallucinating - either drugs or mentally ill. Schizophrenia can manifest like this too and at this age.
Hopefully for the other patrons, the water was a grey water supplyâ¦. but doubtful.
uh oh...
Not just her body in the hotel's water supply, but her excrement as well. Kinda makes you want to barf.
@Magic 8 Ball ... yeah. Bodies tend to bloat and come apart. When people die, the bowels and bladder .. everything that is controlled by involuntary systems lets go ...
I just did.
This comment has been deleted
@thatsjarrod2 you can also just keep it to your racist self
That poor woman, that is just horrible.
A dead body in the water supply... wow.
Well, I guess they can add this to the other stellar reviews on tripadvisor... http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g32655-d276208-Reviews-Cecil_Hotel-Los_Angeles_California.html#REVIEWS
So wait, if you were at the hotel, and you were saying brushing your teeth, you were doing it with the water that has a dead person floating in it???
In the video where she's at the elevator she looks high that or she's off her meds. Really odd behavior. Hope they find who did it or why, if it turns out she did this on her own.Â
@PrairieDawn I have friends who know this girl from back home. She doesn't take meds. Please do not jump to conclusions when it comes to the death of a young woman you don't know.
@PrairieDawn Or she could have been drugged by the perp. It happens.
EEEEWWWW.... glad I wasn't staying at that hotel... nothing like taking a shower with contaminated water..
@Mr. H well it's all organic
@Mr. H Double nasty, just beyond creepy and brushing your teeth just entered my mind because of Howard's comment.... UGH!!! :(