Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel

Transcript generated from the episode script.

0:05 What's up guys, welcome back to Crimetime Snacks. A hotel maintenance worker investigating complaints of low water pressure found a missing tourist floating inside a large rooftop cistern. That discovery happened on February 19, 2013, at the Stay On Main Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Guests had actually been complaining about a weird taste coming from the tap water. The maintenance worker, Santiago Lopez, made the discovery. According to a statement by the chief of the Los Angeles fire department,

0:31 the tank had to be drained completely. Then crews had to cut it open from the side just to remove her 5 foot 4 frame. The body in the water belonged to 21 year old Elisa Lam. Elisa was a Canadian tourist on a solo trip around the West Coast. She was originally from Vancouver, where she was a student at the University of British Columbia. Her family had been wary of her traveling by herself. As a compromise, she made sure to check in with her parents every single day to let them know she was safe. Before she became the center of a

0:58 massive mystery, she was just a young woman documenting her wife online. In mid-2010, she started a blog on Blogspot called Ether Fields. She posted photos of models in fashionable clothing, but she also wrote honestly about her daily life and her struggles with mental illness. She used a quote from the novelist Chuck Polanyuk as an epigraph for the site. In a January 2012 post, she used that quote for the title, writing about being haunted by the idea that you are wasting your life.

1:24 She lamented that a relapse at the start of the school term had forced her to drop several classes. She worried her transcript would look suspicious and keep her from attending graduate school. She wrote that she felt utterly directionless and lost. A little over two years, after starting that blog, she announced she was abandoning it for a tumbler she called Nouvelle Nouveau. The content there shifted mostly to fashion photos and quotes, with very few posts in her own words. But she kept that exact same Chuck Polanyuk

1:51 quotation as the epigraph. It was a digital footprint of a student looking for her place in the world right before she arrived in Los Angeles. Alisa's writing about feeling lost wasn't just typical college burnout. The case file shows a very specific medical background. She was formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. To manage her mental health, she was prescribed a complex rotation of medications. The medical history lists several specific drugs. Her doctors had her on bupropion, lamotrigine, quateyapine, dextroamphetamine, and venlafaxine,

2:23 balancing antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics require strict adherence to work correctly. Medical experts note that using antidepressants to treat bipolar disorder can actually risk inducing manic side effects if done without caution. Her family reportedly kept her mental illness private. They stated she had absolutely no history of suicidal ideations or attempts, but the records do show a documented history of medication non-compliance. Alisa had a pattern of not taking her bipolar medications as prescribed.

2:52 When she went off her medication, the consequences were severe. The records show that she suffered from intense hallucinations during these periods. The paranoia would get so bad that she would physically hide under her bed for refuge. These were not mild side effects, they were full psychiatric emergencies. According to the background files, she was hospitalized at least once for one of these episodes. Another report claims she had even gone missing for a brief period during a past crisis. This is what the evidence actually shows about her baseline.

3:18 She was a young woman managing a severe psychiatric condition. It is a vital piece of the puzzle to remember before we look at her arrival in California. So let's look at that trip. Alisa traveled down the West Coast alone, riding on Amtrak trains and inner-city buses. She made a stop at the San Diego Zoo and posted photos online. Her ultimate goal was to make it up to Santa Cruz. But on January 26 she arrived in Los Angeles. Two days later she checked into the Cecil Hotel. The building sits right near downtown Skid Row. At first she was booked into

3:48 a hostile style shared room on the fifth floor, but that arrangement did not last long. Her new roommates started complaining to the staff about her actions. The hotel's lawyer later called it certain odd behavior. According to Amy Price, who managed the hotel at the time, Alisa started leaving notes for the other girls in the room. The notes told them to go home and go away. It escalated from there. Alisa began locking the door to the shared room and demanding a password before she would let anyone inside. After just two days of

4:15 this, management moved her into a private room of her own. The strange behavior was not contained in the hotel. A few days before she vanished, Alisa went to Burbank to attend a live taping of the Conan show. She never got to see the end of it. Security escorted her off the premises because she was being disruptive. The cracks were starting to show, right in public. We just saw how her behavior escalated at the comedy taping and inside her shared room. But the case file shows this trip was originally supposed to be a simple getaway.

4:44 Alisa wanted a break from her studies at the University of British Columbia. We already tracked her route on those inner city buses from the San Diego Zoo up to her arrival in Los Angeles on January 26. She was blogging about her encounters and self-discovery along the way. Her ultimate destination was supposed to be Santa Cruz. Let's talk about where she actually ended up staying. The Cecil Hotel was an old building with a notoriously heavy reputation. It had long been a magnet for darkness in downtown Los Angeles.

5:11 Over the decades, the property was home to serial killers. It was the site of numerous murders and suicides. Alisa could not have known she was walking into one of the most infamous addresses in American history. She never made it to Santa Cruz. January 31 was the day she was scheduled to check out of the Cecil and leave for Santa Cruz. We know she spent time around then at a nearby shop called the Last Bookstore. Katie Orphin, the manager of the Last Bookstore, was the only person outside the hotel who recalled seeing her that day. Orphin later told a local CBS

5:41 station that Alisa was buying books and music. She was getting gifts for her family back in Vancouver. The shop owner noted that Alisa clearly had plans to return home and reconnect with her relatives. That makes what happened next even harder to explain. Alisa contacted her parents in British Columbia daily while she was traveling right up until the day she disappeared. On January 31, they did not hear from her. When that daily check-in did not happen, her family knew something

6:06 was wrong. They reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department. We already established the shift in her demeanor during those early days at the hotel. That was the original plan for her stay in Los Angeles. We also talked about how that arrangement quickly fell apart. She was leaving them notes telling them to go away. That is exactly why hotel management stepped in. We also know this was not just happening behind closed doors. Security had to escort her out for disruptive behavior. When they couldn't find her, they turned to the public for help.

6:34 They released surveillance footage taken from one of the hotel's elevators. It was published six days before her body was discovered. That four-minute video of her elevator episode changed the entire trajectory of this case. The video shows Alisa acting erratically on the day she disappeared. You can see her stepping into the elevator and pushing all the floor buttons. The doors never close. She steps in and out of the car, poking her head out sideways toward the hallways. She peers out a few times before stepping out entirely.

7:01 In the final minutes of the footage, she is standing by the left side of the open door. She starts moving her hands in random, unnerving gestures in the air. Nobody else is captured on the video. She is entirely alone. That footage went completely viral. It crossed international borders, drawing massive attention in Canada and China. It racked up tens of millions of views. Internet sleuths started dissecting every frame, spawning theories about murder conspiracies and even evil spirits.

7:27 The reality of the case file is far more grounded. When her body was finally recovered from that rooftop tank, she was floating lifelessly next to clothing similar to what she was wearing in that elevator video. Hotel staff told authorities she was always seen by herself around the premises. The autopsy results only added to the confusion. The coroner's office ultimately ruled her death in accidental drowning. But they found absolutely no signs of foul play from the evidence processed.

7:53 The toxicology report is where the medical history we discussed earlier becomes critical. The screening confirmed there was a very small quantity of alcohol, but no illegal substances in her system. It did show the presence of her prescription drugs. One summary of her toxicology report was posted online by a Reddit sleuth with an obvious interest in medicine. The summary showed she took at least one antidepressant the day she vanished. She had taken a second antidepressant and a mood stabilizer recently, but not that

8:19 specific day. Most importantly, the report indicated she had not taken her antipsychotic medication recently at all. This brings us right back to her baseline. The record shows a young woman whose medication regimen was completely out of balance. As NBCLA reporter Lolita Lopez put it, we know the who, what, when, and where. But the why is always the question. We already know January 31 was supposed to be her last day at the Cecil Hotel. She was scheduled to check out and head north to Santa Cruz. Before leaving,

8:48 she made that stop at the last bookstore to pick up gifts for her family in British Columbia. The manager of that store, Katie Orphin, gave a few more details to CNN about that specific interaction. She described the young student as outgoing, very lively, and very friendly. It was a completely normal, pleasant retail encounter. The case file shows Elisa was actually worried about the weight of her luggage. Orphin recalled her debating whether the books she wanted would be too heavy to carry around

9:13 as she continued her travels. That is the behavior of someone actively planning the next leg of their journey. This interaction stands in stark contrast to the erratic actions her roommates reported just days earlier. She was lucid, friendly, and looking forward to handing those gifts to her parents. But that evening, the daily phone call home never happened. Her parents knew immediately that this silence was a massive red flag. They did not wait around for her to turn up in Santa

9:37 Cruz. They booked flights to California to join the search themselves. The LAPD started their investigation right at the Cecil Hotel. Officers searched a private room and brought in tracking dogs to sweep the massive building. The official timeline notes those dogs even went up to the rooftop. The search dogs were completely unsuccessful in detecting her scent up there. Sergeant Rudy Lopez later explained that officers legally searched the hotel to the extent that they could. They did not search every single room in the building. Lopez stated they

10:05 could only enter other guest rooms if they had probable cause to believe a crime had been committed. So the rest of the hotel was left untouched. A full week went by with absolutely no sign of the missing student. On February 6th, the police decided they needed to escalate their efforts. They printed flyers with her face and plastered them around the downtown neighborhood. They also posted her image online to drum up public awareness. That decision brought the local media into the fold. It took the case out of the hotel and into the public eye. The search for a

10:34 missing tourist was about to become a global obsession. We already established that Alisa missed her scheduled checking call. When her parents did not hear from her, they contacted the Los Angeles Police Department. They did not just wait by the phone in British Columbia. The family flew to Los Angeles to help with the search. They were living through the worst moment of their lives. Years later, documentary makers noted that the family refused to participate in television shows about the case. They did not want to deal with narratives

10:59 that exaggerated the circumstances of the tragedy or claimed an evil presence took control of the city. They just wanted to find their daughter. The police started their physical search inside the hotel. They went through Alisa's room looking for any clues about where she might have gone. But the building was massive and they were restricted by the law. The CESA was set right in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. That specific neighborhood has a massive homelessness problem. The hotel itself had a split purpose. Some floors were reserved for visiting tourists

11:26 like Alisa. Other floors were utilized as short or long-term accommodation for people living in the Skid Row area. The police were dealing with a property filled with permanent residents. Sergeant Rudy Lopez went on the record about those limitations. They could not just kick down every door in the building. That legal wall frustrated the public. Fingers were immediately pointed at the long-term residents and the hotel staff. Former hotel manager Amy Price later called those accusations stressful and heartbreaking. Price stated she genuinely thought Alisa had

11:54 simply gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd. She noted that would not be hard to do in downtown Los Angeles. Because of those legal guardrails, the physical search was limited. The dogs were led to the building and eventually taken up to the roof. That roof was a sprawling space housing the hotel's massive water tanks. That rooftop sweep turned up absolutely nothing. The dogs failed to detector scent up there. The immediate search of the premises yielded no trace of the missing student.

12:19 The lack of evidence left a massive void in the investigation. Webb's sleuth stepped in and developed severe tunnel vision. They focused on strange coincidences like a tuberculosis test literally named Lama Lisa. They compared the case to the plot of a horror movie called Dark Water. But those ghost stories and conspiracies did not help the actual investigation. The fact remained that the physical search hit a dead end. The physical search of that massive hotel went as far as the law allowed.

12:44 Police searched Alisa's room and they sent dogs through the building including the rooftop. But they did not search every room. Without probable cause to believe a crime had been committed they could not push any further inside. That legal barrier meant a week went by without a single major break. By February 6th the LAPD knew they could not solve this quietly. They took Alisa's face to the streets hanging flyers across the neighborhood and pushing her image onto the internet. That decision changed everything. The investigation was no longer

13:14 confined to the walls of the Cecil. The media took hold of those missing person flyers and the search for the young student became a very public obsession. We already talked about that pixelated elevator video. They officially released that security camera footage to the public on February 13. Investigators needed a break in the case. But when the LAPD put that elevator clip online it went further than asking the community for tips. It brought massive public and media attention to the case overnight. The footage immediately went viral online. It was reposted

13:43 widely across different platforms and crossed international borders. It was uploaded to the Chinese video sharing site YOKU. In just its first 10 days on that site the clip accumulated 3 million views and 40,000 comments. People found the video deeply unsettling to watch. The internet started tearing the footage apart and viewers quickly argued that the video had been tampered with before being made public. They pointed to a few specific details to make their case. Allmind sleuths claim that parts of the clip had been intentionally slowed down.

14:12 They also pointed out that the timestamp on the video was completely obscured. Most importantly they argued that nearly a minute of footage had been removed. These amateur investigators theorized the edits were made to protect someone's identity. They believed someone else was in that hallway, either related to the disappearance or just a bystander. The missing time fueled a massive wayless speculation. Other theories emerged to explain her unusual moves and gestures. Some viewers suggested she was trying to get the elevator car to move to escape from someone

14:40 pursuing her. Others guessed she might be under the influence of ecstasy or another party drug. We already know the later toxicology results ruled out any illegal substances, but in mid-February the public did not have those medical records. They just had a strange video that blurred the line between a real human tragedy and an internet ghost story. The release of that footage changed the entire scale of the investigation. Millions of people were now watching the Cecil Hotel, waiting to see what the police would

15:06 find next. You already know the search ended on February 19. Guests were also complaining about low water pressure, but the case file shows the situation was actually much worse. People staying at the stay on main reported that the water was coming out colored black. There were also complaints about flooding in parts of the building. That is what finally sent him up to the roof that morning. He needed to check the building's water supply system. The rooftop housed four massive water cisterns. Each one of these

15:32 tanks held a thousand gallons of water. These tanks were vital to the daily operations of the entire building. They did not just supply the bathrooms and the guest rooms. The water inside also fed directly into a kitchen and a coffee shop on the property. Lopez went up after responding to complaints about low water pressure and a weird taste coming from the tap water. When he checked one of the tanks, he noticed the maintenance hatch was open. He looked down through the opening and made a horrific discovery.

15:57 Alisa Lam was lying face up in the water. We talked about how fire crews had to drain and cut the tank open to get her out. The records explain exactly why that drastic step was necessary. The open hatch at the top of the cistern was simply too small. Rescuers could not fit the heavy equipment they needed through that narrow opening to safely recover her remains. The full coroner's report details exactly what investigators found once they finally removed her from the stay on main rooftop. The official file adds that those garments

16:25 were completely coated in a sand-like particulate. Investigators also found a few of her personal items inside the tank. Her watch and her hotel room key were recovered from the water, but Alisa herself was found entirely naked. The medical examiner carefully documented the physical state of her remains. Because she had been in the water for nearly three weeks, her body was moderately decomposed and bloated. The report notes her skin was mostly greenish, with visible marbling on her abdomen and clear signs of skin separation.

16:54 It was a devastating scene for the recovery crews, but despite the severe decomposition, the coroner was actually able to conduct toxicology tests. The blood analysis results revealed that she had not been taking her medication properly. The official autopsy was performed on February 21, and it was inconclusive on how she died. You already know the harsh physical reality of her remains from that water tank. Her body was moderately decomposed and bloated. The coroner's office was dealing with a high-profile tragedy. Alisa was born Lam Ho Yee to parents

17:22 who had immigrated from Hong Kong. She was a daughter, not just an internet mystery. The public thought of her as an active college student on a break. But what the evidence actually shows is she was not registered for classes at the University of British Columbia at the beginning of 2013. The coroner needed to figure out exactly how she died. But the initial autopsy results were completely inconclusive. The medical examiner could not immediately determine the manner of death. They had the physical evidence we just unpacked,

17:49 but it was not enough to make a final ruling. The pressure for answers was massive. The Cecil Hotel already had a deeply dark history. We talked about the murders and suicides. We know serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterveger were past guests. The building's reputation was so heavy that it later inspired a season of the television show, American Horror Story. The physical exam could not answer it, so the chemistry had to. Toxicology tests were run and a blood analysis followed. Ultimately, they ruled the death

18:18 in an accident, but they specifically listed her bipolar disorder as a significant contributing factor. That medical conclusion did not stop the legal battles. In September 2013, Alisa's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel. They claimed the property operators failed to inspect for hazards and presented an unreasonable risk of danger to the guests. The physical investigation at the hotel had essentially hit a wall. Now, detectives had to step back and let the medical professionals do their jobs. Investigators waited for those

18:47 blood results to come back from the lab. They needed that data to finally understand what happened to her. The hotel defended itself in court against the family's lawsuit. Their lawyers argued they could not have reasonably foreseen that a guest would get into the rooftop water tanks. Because nobody knew exactly how she got into them, the hotel claimed no liability could be a sign for failing to prevent it. A judge agreed, and the suit was dismissed in 2015. Other guests also sued the hotel over the incident. The aftermath of this tragedy

19:15 changed the building itself. The Cecil Hotel tried to shake its infamous past by rebranding and changing its name. In 2021, the property reopened as an affordable housing complex. But the financial troubles continued. By 2024, the building was placed right back on the real estate market. The legal system closed the books on the case, but the internet never really moved on. Those lab results were the final piece of the medical puzzle. The autopsy on its own had been inconclusive about how she died. It was the bloodwork that the coroner's office would

19:45 ultimately rest its ruling on. The bloodwork showed the level of her prescription medication in her system was very low. Investigators and experts took that, along with the number of pills left in her bottle, as a sign she had been undermedicating or had recently stopped taking her medication. With that chemical evidence in hand, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office made their final decision. They officially ruled the death in accident. The autopsy found no evidence of trauma, sexual assault, or foul play, but the pathologists were actually ambivalent

20:14 about their conclusion. But that official story did not sit right with the public. Internet sleuths immediately pointed to the physical barriers on the property. They wanted to know how a single guest could access a locked and alarmed rooftop. They questioned how she could bypass the building's security systems completely unnoticed. They also focused on the cistern itself. People demanded to know how she could lift a heavy metal lid and climb into that massive tank entirely alone. The official investigation never fully

20:42 explained exactly how she got inside. Because the police lacked that specific timeline, the internet filled the gap with folklore, web forums exploded with tales of paranormal elevator games and ghostly presences haunting the Cecil. The legend of the hotel grew louder than ever as people tried to make sense of the tragedy. The medical examiner documented exactly why this accident happened. The coroner's report listed her bipolar disorder as a significant contributing factor in the drowning. This conclusion brings the entire investigation right back to the baseline

21:12 we established earlier. The coroner's findings perfectly align with her history of hallucinations when she went off her medication. We know these hallucinations would cause her to hide under her bed for refuge. What the evidence actually shows is a tragic medical crisis. The erratic gestures in the elevator and the locked doors in her shared room were not paranormal events. They were the escalating symptoms of a psychiatric emergency. She was a young woman battling a massive mental health crisis alone. The official ruling closed the police

21:40 investigation and grounded the tragedy and documented medical facts. The legal system demands evidence, cause, and reason. The blood analysis tells the true story of what happened at the hotel. It stands as a stark reminder of the limits of the law in the face of a human tragedy. You already know millions of people were watching that pixelated elevator footage. Even after the coroner released the final autopsy results, the internet refused to let the official medical conclusion stand. Amateur sleuths began pouring over any

22:08 information they could find, hoping to solve the mystery behind the death of Elisa Lam. One of the strangest details they fixated on was a tuberculosis test. Online sleuths looking for clues discovered suggested links to a test literally called LAMALISA. That bizarre coincidence sent the internet into absolute overdrive. Commentators started spinning wild conspiracy theories and ghost stories based on the name. The online reaction did not stop at conspiracy theories. People also started drawing comparisons

22:36 to the 2005 horror film Darkwater. The plot of that movie is undeniably close to what happened at the Cecil. In the film, discolored water gushing from the building's faucets eventually leads to the building's rooftop water tank. The climax revolves around a body discovered inside that tank. The parallels were definitely eerie and web forums ran with them. But a creepy coincidence is not forensic evidence. The internet built a massive, sprawling mystery that completely ignored the hard medical facts. They focused on movie plots instead of the documented reality.

23:08 This reaction was entirely unhelpful. Real people were living through the worst moment of their lives, while online communities treated the tragedy like an interactive game. The legal fallout did not end quietly. You already know that guests at the stay on main sued the hotel over the incident, but the most significant legal battle came months after the initial shock were off. They were seeking unspecified damages and burial costs for their daughter. Their claim was straightforward. The hotel's defense centered entirely on the concept

23:36 of foreseeability. Negligence laws dictate that you cannot be held liable for a situation you could not foresee. The legal system ultimately sided with the property owners. A judge officially dismissed the parents lawsuit in 2015. There was no trial and no liability was assigned to the hotel for the tragedy. The court officially closed the books on the case, leaving the family without the legal accountability they were looking for. But the public never really let it go. The case continues to be referenced heavily in

24:04 international popular culture. It has been the subject of several creative works, documentaries, and television shows. The internet kept the mystery alive long after the courtrooms moved on. What happened on that rooftop is a stark reminder of how fast documented facts can be overshadowed by folklore. The medical records and the legal rulings tell a very specific story about a young woman in crisis. The web forms tell a completely different one. Read the file, form your own conclusion.

24:29 That's it for this one. Thanks for hanging out with me. This has been Crime Time Snacks, and I'll catch you next time.