CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #2

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bessie

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February 20, 2013 8:48 AM

(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - A woman's body found wedged in a water tank on the roof of a downtown Los Angeles hotel was identified as that of a missing Canadian tourist, police said Tuesday.

Lam traveled to California alone on Jan. 27 from Vancouver, British Columbia. She was last seen by hotel employees on Jan. 31.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...rist-found-in-la-hotel-water-tank-police-say/

8983461_448x252.jpg


Friday, February 22, 2013

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It could take several more weeks before we learn how a Canadian tourist, found dead in a hotel water tank, died.
A toxicology report and other tests on Elisa Lam's brain and other organs have been ordered.


http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9002570


By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 7:07 AM EST, Fri February 22, 2013


The decomposing body of Elisa Lam floated inside a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel while guests brushed their teeth, bathed and drank with water from it for as long as 19 days.

A maintenance worker, checking on complaints about the hotel's water, found the 21-year-old Canadian tourist inside one of four water cisterns Tuesday morning, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Rudy Lopez said.

An autopsy was completed, but the cause of death is deferred pending further examination, assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said Thursday. That may take six to eight weeks.


http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/us/california-hotel-water-corpse/index.html


[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198048"]Thread #1[/ame]
 
Please continue the discussion here in Thread #2

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I hope I'm not violating any rules by referring to a certain tumblr page that might or might not have been Elisa's. (See Thread 1.) You can make that page much more readable by setting your browser to not let webpages choose their own colors. You can definitely do that with Firefox. The default color scheme scheme seems to be aimed at straining your eyes. (Though I'm not familiar with tumblr so there may be another way to change the colors.)
 
I hope I'm not violating any rules by referring to a certain tumblr page that might or might not have been Elisa's. (See Thread 1.) You can make that page much more readable by setting your browser to not let webpages choose their own colors. You can definitely do that with Firefox. The default color scheme scheme seems to be aimed at straining your eyes. (Though I'm not familiar with tumblr so there may be another way to change the colors.)

Thank you!!!
 
Brought over from serenerelief:
For those who suspect her actions in the elevator (hand gestures, behavior etc.) are due to Chinese culture I recommend you see this link which compiles and translates Chinese reactions to the video http://www.chinasmack.com/2013/video...reactions.html

brought over from wilbee:
hahah I could never say with 100% certainty but with the internet and globalisation now plus its 2013,

no I'm pretty sure there aren't any dance movements like that.

I was thinking more of the positioning of her hands, the splaying of her fingers are similar to some traditional Asian dance/ritual hand movements, not that she WAS dancing per se, but that the hand movements might be less odd than they seem to my western eye.
 
I would look at residents and staff. LE should. Someone who is familiar with the hotel's past would be drawn to live here. Serial Killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker lived there in 1985, and that attracted another serial killer to move there in 1991 Jack Unterweger he was inspired by The Nightstalker.
 
Posters are still referring to the sighting of Elisa on the street corner, and I’m interested in the rationale as to why anyone is considering that a credible sighting. The ”sighting” was posted on the net Friday, Feb 15. The poster said it was the previous Saturday, which would be Feb 9.

Where do you think she was from Jan 31 to Feb 9, and how do you think she ended up back in the water tanks at the Cecil without anyone seeing her there?
 
I just returned from the conference, and as stated, I would post anything of relevance.

Note that these are individual thoughts, and do not reflect the collective thoughts of either Canadian or American military.

I am just going to list them in random order off the top of my head, and paraphrasing as it was casual talk.

- Elisa Lam was likely alone throughout the video. Taken into account is her overall being throughout the video (ie. her stance does not reflect what we know as the fight or flight posture). Some members have stated this is exactly how they would react given a stressful situation. I would argue (generally) that it is highly unlikely anyone, male or female would display Elisa's actions. A colleague of mine brought this up: Typical control situations demand one of two things, blatant threat to yourself, or to someone you know. Since we can likely rule out threat to others, we are to assume it was threat to her. Given that someone is not visible the entire video, the control level weakens. Again, going back to the fight/flight, it simply is not present. I admit this requires a bit more explanation, but I'm a bit lazy at the moment...

- Drugs under the "date rape" umbrella is highly unlikely. Known effects do not leave you with this much mobility. However, that is not to say Elisa was not under the influence of other drugs, or alcohol.

- One individual noted that the video in his opinion plays a small part in this, and only so much can be derived from reviewing it (behavioural/body linguist required). Key evidence will lie else where.

I actually had more to write, but I haven't reviewed the last 10 pages since I was on last night. So please don't hesitate to ask me something specific.

Sorry for what I thought was going to be a good post - little mundane!
 
Throwing this out there as it just occurred to me. I try to read all posts, but missed it if discussed. Hypersexuality is a common issue when in mania. Might she had hooked up with some poor choices that could have led to her passing intentional or not. Thinking about prison, hides body until it ends up in tank.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypomania"]Hypomania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
I want to think someone put her in the water tank but it seems quite an endeavor after reading this:

"Since the water tanks are on a platform at least 10 feet above the surface of the roof, a person would have to go to the top floor of the hotel, take the staircase to get to the roof, pass through the roof’s locked door without setting off the emergency alarm, use a ladder to get up to the 10-foot-high platform on which the water tanks are located, and then again use the ladder to climb up the side of the 10-foot-high water tank.

Because of the unlikely chance that anyone would even go to the top of the roof, there are no security cameras installed."

http://www.examiner.com/article/elisa-lam-update-body-found-tank-decomposed-for-as-long-as-19-days
 
I hope I'm not violating any rules by referring to a certain tumblr page that might or might not have been Elisa's. (See Thread 1.) You can make that page much more readable by setting your browser to not let webpages choose their own colors. You can definitely do that with Firefox. The default color scheme scheme seems to be aimed at straining your eyes. (Though I'm not familiar with tumblr so there may be another way to change the colors.)

Does anyone know how to fix this with explorer? I can't see the writing b/c it's a really light blue. I don't know anything about tumblr either. TIA
 
In the video, I see her expecting someone to be coming with her on the elevator. Her attitude is playful at first. She hits a bunch of buttons because she's a teen/20s kid and still acts cutesy like that. Totally normal. She hides in the elevator corner so the person won't see her in it immediately. All in play.
Then she's like, where the hell is s/he? She looks but pulls back into elevator because she still wants to jump out and yell boo, or whatever.
Then she's just getting exasperated that the person isn't coming. She stands right outside, does half-hearted dance moves, may be singing or just la-la talking, like "now where'd you go, you?"
To me, she does not appear mentally compromised, by illness or drugs. She's having a good time with someone who she doesn't know very well.
I suppose the most logical thing I can think of from that is that the person turned malevolent or was accidentally violent, killed her, and dumped her. I think he may work in the hotel or have made himself familiar enough with it to have already known about the roof and tanks. Or, the fatal incident may have taken place on the roof and then he used the tank.

(I think a big guy could get her little body into that tank, too, fwiw.)
 
Does anyone know how to fix this with explorer? I can't see the writing b/c it's a really light blue. I don't know anything about tumblr either. TIA

Try highlighting the text. Click the mouse button from the beginning of the text and drag it down.
 
I want to think someone put her in the water tank but it seems quite an endeavor after reading this:

"Since the water tanks are on a platform at least 10 feet above the surface of the roof, a person would have to go to the top floor of the hotel, take the staircase to get to the roof, pass through the roof’s locked door without setting off the emergency alarm, use a ladder to get up to the 10-foot-high platform on which the water tanks are located, and then again use the ladder to climb up the side of the 10-foot-high water tank.

Because of the unlikely chance that anyone would even go to the top of the roof, there are no security cameras installed."

http://www.examiner.com/article/elisa-lam-update-body-found-tank-decomposed-for-as-long-as-19-days

If no one else took her up there, how did she get past the alarm system without it sounding and without a key??? If she went up there on her own, how did she bypass the security measures??
 
Thanks to everyone who revealed so much information about Elisa's Tumblr. I have no idea what it is, but it seems that Elisa revealed too much information about herself on there, especially her travel dates/destinations and at such an early date prior to her actual travelling.

I still think Elisa was trying to lure someone into the elevator. I am beginning to think that since she revealed so much about herself and her itinerary online, her death may be caused by a stalker who tried to befriend her and they later agreed to meet due to "common interests".
One thing I still don't understand is why she pressed those particular buttons in the elevator. She seemed like she had every intention to press those and had to make sure they were pressed. If she simply did not want someone to know which floor she's going, she could've pressed randomly. If she wanted the door to remain open, she could've pressed only the "Door Hold" button or pressed randomly and ended with "Door Hold".

Someone mentioned wanting to know how 'Chinese' Elisa was and I would think that she would be quite influenced by Chinese culture due to her parents owning a Chinese restaurant (Paul's Restaurant on 4621 Hastings st.). Source from https://twitter.com/vancbcmcarthur and http://info.vanpeople.com/?action-viewnews-itemid-241561 (in Chinese, but you can look at the pictures).
 
Thank you !! That was easy (I feel silly)
Terry

Don't feel silly, it's silly that it's difficult to read in the first place. In fact I thought the pages were blank myself until I saw one that had links in them. Then when I clicked and missed, I saw some text
 
Hooray! I'm new to the forum and after waiting for a few hours, am finally authorized to post! I read nearly all of thread #1. Impressed by some of the insight and ideas of people on the forum. I'm drawn to this case because I've travelled alone like her and go to the same school as she did, UBC. And of course the elevator clip is perplexing.

Wanted to throw in my own 2cents so far. I know we all tend to superimpose own experience and upbringing onto the events, which could be hit or miss in terms of accuracy. Despite that, mine would be as follows:

I don't think it's weird that she took the trip alone to L.A. I can think of many female friends in their 20's who also travel alone, some of whom are asian. My own asian mother travelled alone throughout the UK when she was that age (and had just immigrated to Canada from HK), and also encouraged.. nay, pretty much forced me to do the same, ie. travel alone in Europe, where I also stayed in cheap hostels and befriended random strangers, in order to repeat her footsteps, discover the world, etc. True, there are lots of conservative asian parents out there, but there are lots of exceptions to the rule. Elisa's photos, travel habits and tumblr posts (assuming the posts are hers) lead me to believe she is quite 'banana' (very westernized asian).

I also don't think that it is strange she decided to skip a semester at UBC. 'Travel' is students' middle name, and they sometimes take time off in the middle of their studies to do so, to take a break, sort out their life goals, etc.

Next, I don't think her hand or foot movements can be compared to asian dance. Most Chinese here aren't THAT connected to their roots, though I'm sure there are a few exceptions. But I interpret her movements as being more delicate, playful, feminine and articulate which I think is generally something more common to asian females in general, as opposed to caucasian females. I do think there seems to be a strong chance she is in an altered state of consciousness in the elevator clip, be it substance or non-substance induced (fear / sleepwalking / drugs / meds / frustration), but I think her naturally delicate/playful/feminine/articulate mannerisms just persist during and perhaps become exaggerated by, the altered state of consciousness.

Finally, I asked my Canadian-born-Chinese ex-boyfriend's opinion of the clip and he said 'seems like intoxication from some substance.. sketchier than alcohol or GHB.. maybe meth acid or mushrooms.' Which again reaffirms my thoughts that her actions are due mostly to a reason other than ethnicity.
 
Hey, everyone

I'm a frequent reader/rare contributor, but I've been glued to the discussion on this case. Anyway, I have a minor comment I wanted to make in regards to the amateur reporter with the funny hair mentioned on page 38 of the last thread. If you google his name, you'll find a mugshot and a record of some pretty heinous stuff, as well as his address, which is right around the corner from the Cecil Hotel. Probably nothing, but strange to me, nonetheless.

Anyway, stepping back into the shadows now - looking forward to reading more!
 
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