CA/Canada - Elisa Lam - 21 years old - Los Angeles/Vancouver - 31-Jan-2013 - #5

[houndstooth]

I am online "friends" with a LA Times reporter. He is expecting her tox results to come back showing a mix of drugs. I also spoke with a historian that was interviewed by major media and she is expecting the same. She thinks there is knowledge that LE suffered from bi-polar disorder and may have been in a manic phase. A friend of this person relates running into LE at the Last Bookstore and was very annoyed by her pesky behavior. Also very easy to buy pills on the street near the local Rite-Aid. Ambien could have been part of the this cocktail too. Wish I could say more, but I can't. I was at the Cecil yesterday. Didn't go inside, but it looked like business as usual. There is a small memorial on the sidewalk just north of the hotel consisting of candles and flowers. These are just people's opinions here, I want to reiterate!

I am glad you brought that up. I read the article and watched the video interview with Katie Orphan. I could not imagine how the manager of such a large bookstore would have known and remembered her name and face of someone she met briefly several weeks before. At least 3.
Most people in that situation wouldn't give their first name to the manager,
when asking about a book, much less first AND last name.
Then to remember their face after seeing who knows how many people in between, I was perplexed at the easy recall of KO to her meeting with EL
and their discussion of whether or not a book would be "too heavy" to carry around. Unless EL WANTED to make a memorable impression at "The Last Bookstore".
Did she ask to speak to the manager?

 

[FutzBucket]

Okay, fine. But you didn't know her

No, I don't, but someone's gotta take her side, and it might as well be me.

I'm sorry, but until this tox report comes back, you all got me. I'm gonna stand here and keep defending Elisa from thoughts that she was some drugy on some trip.

 

[No Joe Friday]

No, I don't, but someone's gotta take her side, and it might as well be me.

I'm sorry, but until this tox report comes back, you all got me. I'm gonna stand here and keep defending Elisa from thoughts that she was some drugy on some trip.

She could have been drugged by someone. She could have had a bad reaction to her prescribed meds, or to being off her prescribed meds. There are plenty of ways that she could have been affected by chemicals without being a "druggie on some trip". Saying drugs could have been somehow involved is not be same as calling her a druggie. Being closed-minded about that is not defending her or helping her.

 

[RhiannonR]

I appreciate the last sentence, RhiannonR, but these are rumors, and rumors are generally not allowed on WS. The threads have been inundated with them already, and I would ask that we all do our best to keep them in check, and refrain from posting them. Thanks.

Okay, will do. I don't think of them as mere rumors, though. But, it will sure be interesting to hear the tox results!

MOO

 

[Wee B.]

No, I don't, but someone's gotta take her side, and it might as well be me.

I'm sorry, but until this tox report comes back, you all got me. I'm gonna stand here and keep defending Elisa from thoughts that she was some drugy on some trip.

Respectfully, I don't think anyone is being judgemental of her drug use, if there was any, except for you. No one is saying if she was on drugs that she was any less of anything. If it does come back that she was on drugs, then you are going to write her off as "just some druggy on sme trip?"

 

[bessie]

I am glad you brought that up. I read the article and watched the video interview with Katie Orphan. I could not imagine how the manager of such a large bookstore would have known and remembered her name and face of someone she met briefly several weeks before. At least 3.
Most people in that situation wouldn't give their first name to the manager,
when asking about a book, much less first AND last name.
Then to remember their face after seeing who knows how many people in between, I was perplexed at the easy recall of KO to her meeting with EL
and their discussion of whether or not a book would be "too heavy" to carry around. Unless EL WANTED to make a memorable impression at "The Last Bookstore".
Did she ask to speak to the manager?

Link to transcripts of the CNN interview:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1302/22/cnr.12.html

ORPHAN: 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.

 

[FutzBucket]

She could have been drugged by someone. She could have had a bad reaction to her prescribed meds, or to being off her prescribed meds. There are plenty of ways that she could have been affected by chemicals without being a "druggie on some trip". Saying drugs could have been somehow involved is not be same as calling her a druggie. Being closed-minded about that is not defending her or helping her.

I think you're over analyzing. What's more likely, that she hit the secret code of chemicals right in front of an elevator and flipped out, or that someone else manipulated the situation?

I'm fully aware that people can flip from a bad medication, and it happens.

This isn't what I see. I see rational behavior under irrational situations.

 

[jetsetsam]

I can't help but see that Futzbucket rubs people the wrong way, and without doubt he is opinionated, to the point of being dogmatic.

But he did make an interesting comment, in that he is a night auditor at a hotel.

Never heard of that, so I searched it.

And found that night auditors quite often don't have a lot to do, don't have to report to anyone and can roam the hotel at will, know most of what goes on in a hotel at night, understand the seamier side of people, have keys to everywhere, watch security videos of everything in the hotel, and for the Cecil, no doubt can turn off the alarm to the roof door, and must have been up there to deal with water problems and rowdy people on the roof at night.

So I starting thinking, the night auditor at the Cecil Hotel could be a prime suspect, and did a search for night auditor, Cecil Hotel, LA.

"Front Desk Agent/Night Auditor (Former Employee), Los Angeles,Ca – August 13, 2012



Pros: n/a

Cons: location



The Hotel Cecil was kind of a scary place to work at. I held on to the job because I was trying to gain as much hospitality experience as I could because I knew that I wanted a career in Hospitality."

Wonder who the new night auditor is?

 

[FutzBucket]

Respectfully, I don't think anyone is being judgemental of her drug use, if there was any, except for you. No one is saying if she was on drugs that she was any less of anything. If it does come back that she was on drugs, then you are going to write her off as "just some druggy on sme trip?"

I don't know what I'm going to do. I honestly think it's clean.

 

[RhiannonR]

No, I don't, but someone's gotta take her side, and it might as well be me.

I'm sorry, but until this tox report comes back, you all got me. I'm gonna stand here and keep defending Elisa from thoughts that she was some drugy on some trip.

I think you are getting way too emotionally involved in this. You did not know her, none of us did. We have little idea as to what she was going through or what she was like.
MOO

 

[FiveFelines]

I can't help but see that Futzbucket rubs people the wrong way, and without doubt he is opinionated, to the point of being dogmatic.

But he did make an interesting comment, in that he is a night auditor at a hotel.

Never heard of that, so I searched it.

And found that night auditors quite often don't have a lot to do, don't have to report to anyone and can roam the hotel at will, know most of what goes on in a hotel at night, understand the seamier side of people, have keys to everywhere, watch security videos of everything in the hotel, and for the Cecil, no doubt can turn off the alarm to the roof door, and must have been up there to deal with water problems and rowdy people on the roof at night.

So I starting thinking, the night auditor at the Cecil Hotel could be a prime suspect, and did a search for night auditor, Cecil Hotel, LA.

"Front Desk Agent/Night Auditor (Former Employee), Los Angeles,Ca – August 13, 2012



Pros: n/a

Cons: location



The Hotel Cecil was kind of a scary place to work at. I held on to the job because I was trying to gain as much hospitality experience as I could because I knew that I wanted a career in Hospitality."

Wonder who the new night auditor is?

Hmm. FutzBucket, not to malign your profession at all, but is that a generally accurate description of the job in your experience? As someone who believes EL was murdered by a hotel employee, I'm interested in your take.

 

[FutzBucket]

I think you are getting way too emotionally involved in this. You did not know her, none of us did. We have little idea as to what she was going through or what she was like.
MOO

Yeah, I am, which is why I think I understand her. I can empathize with her.

 

[AlphaWolf]

- I have been reading up on this fascinating case ( due in large part by finding this great site.....seriously, thank you to everyone who participates)

- always thought that "how she ended up inside the tank" was the most polarizing.

- I'm still not sure if the tank doors had locks on them.

I made a video showing how she could have ended up inside the tank, and how she fit through the tank door

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRa9nDWdmZo&feature=youtu.be

 

[houndstooth]

Link to transcripts of the CNN interview:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1302/22/cnr.12.html

Thanks for supplying the link. I actually saw this on some LA local tv channel and couldn't recall off hand which one.

But, to reiterate my point, I used to work as an MOD at a bookstore, I can't recall a single instance of someone walking up to me and saying, "I am so and so could you help me find a book or do you think this book is too heavy for me to carry?".

I spoke with so many people on a daily basis that to recall a specific one from three weeks prior would be difficult in the extreme unless they gave me a big reason to.

 

[Theforeigner]

Youtube video of Celic Hotel 14th floor.

Videotaped by 2 guys, 1 back guy and one asian guy
They check the water in the hotelroom and comment that the water is brown
They seem pretty aggitaed especially the asian guy who is filming, he seem like he is on speed or somthing,
(I could very well be wrong though concerning the speed thing)


The video was oploaded February 23, 2013, 4 days after Elisa Lam was found dead.

But that date is just the date the video was oploaded on Youtube, so I wonder what day exactly this video was made, and in what exact timeperiod thise two guys stayed at the Cecil Hotel?
The name (or nickname?) of the asian guy, I presume, is linked to the video profile.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy-DCkM1Ntk

 

[FutzBucket]

Hmm. FutzBucket, not to malign your profession at all, but is that a generally accurate description of the job in your experience? As someone who believes EL was murdered by a hotel employee, I'm interested in your take.

Personally, if I understand the Cecil, they would need to pay me quite a bit of money and give me a gun to Night Audit there. At night, I would run the place like a prison.

 

[cluciano63]

I think you're over analyzing. What's more likely, that she hit the secret code of chemicals right in front of an elevator and flipped out, or that someone else manipulated the situation?

I'm fully aware that people can flip from a bad medication, and it happens.

This isn't what I see. I see rational behavior under irrational situations.

My opinion is that a drug reaction from meds is very likely indeed.

 

[FiveFelines]

Personally, if I understand the Cecil, they would need to pay me quite a bit of money and give me a gun to Night Audit there. At night, I would run the place like a prison.

Thanks, but I didn't mean whether you thought it was a safe place to work (it is certainly unappealing to say the least!). I meant: Is that description of what night auditors do/have access to fairly accurate, in your experience? Can you tell us a little more about this line of work? (Not that I'm trying to pin EL's death on a night auditor per se, mind you, but I do lean toward the theory that she was killed by an employee.) Thanks for your insight.

 

[RhiannonR]

I felt perfectly safe around the Cecil during the day. Skid Row is south of there. I don't think I'd want to be wandering around alone after dark. With my boyfriend I would feel more secure. But, MOO, the neighborhood is not THAT scary. Plenty of yuppieish couples were walking their little dogs and visiting the cafes yesterday

 

[paulhellion]

Since much — maybe too much — has been made about Elisa's Tumblr posts, I went in and used a program that stripped her Tumblr to just its basic code and found dates + times for posts published after her disappearance.

The times in which she posts are almost all perfectly on the hour mark, which strongly suggests they are all queued posts.

Please note: Although there's no real logic behind why her blog would stop emptying its queue on Feb 18 and then suddenly restart at Feb 27, the Tumblr queue function isn't well known for being very reliable.

I'm a Tumblr user of nearly four years and the auto-queue still breaks on me all the time, ie posts meant to be scheduled for 8.35pm on Feb 14 suddenly become 4.35am on Feb 17. Note also the possibility of posts being manually scheduled, a feature that Tumblr allows you to do with specific dates and times as well as more abstract ones like "this friday" or "next month", which in my opinion is the simplest explanation to why the blog is still posting.

So, times and dates of the last ten most recent posthumous posts, sorted from the newest to about three weeks ago:

1. "Gentlemen of Bakongo" photoset
2013-03-02 08:00:42 GMT

2. Virginia Woolf quote from Night and Day
2013-03-01 08:00:32 GMT

3. "The Hermit" tarot card
2013-02-27 08:00:32 GMT

4. "Human Identity In An Urban Environment" book cover
2013-02-18 08:00:29 GMT

5. B&W photo by Rene Groebil
2013-02-16 02:27:48 GMT

6. Parks & Rec photoset
2013-02-16 02:05:50 GMT

7. "Rare words"
2013-02-16 01:44:00 GMT

8. "all the harry potter books from hagrid's perspective"
2013-02-16 01:22:18 GMT

9. Illustration of a girl sleeping
2013-02-15 08:00:19 GMT

10. Harpers Bazaar Anne Hathaway photos
2013-02-15 04:38:41 GMT

...and so on. I can't do dates for them all because Elisa posted over 120 posts in February, all of which are reblogs. You may think that's some pretty prolific output, but believe me, that's nothing compared to many Tumblr power users. Reblogging, queueing and scheduling are simple actions that require one or two clicks max.

You'll see that many of her posts were published 08:00 GMT, which translates to midnight Vancouver time. These were posts she most probably manually scheduled. She may have intended them for specific dates ("February 15"), or she may have not ("next month").

As for the posts not published on hour marks (see: #5, #6, #7, #8), those bear the hallmarks of auto-queued posts rather than schedule-queued posts. It seems like she had a pretty extensive queue that kept posting multiple times a day fairly randomly even when she was traveling and beyond her disappearance, but the auto-queue exhausted its final post on February 16 (#5). All posts after were posts she had manually scheduled and thus were waiting for their intended turn.

In conclusion, IMO Elisa Lam was an average Tumblr user who went on frequent reblog sprees setting up dozens or even hundreds of queued posts, some of which were set on auto-queue and some of which were manually scheduled. Nobody hacked her account.