At this point, like many of you, I have watched this video a dozen or more times. The first time being fresh, or at least as fresh as "Body found in water tank at the Cecil Hotel" can leave you feeling (especially since I live just a few blocks away from the Cecil); the subsequent times came after reading more and more about EL's case from Googling, and from finding this helpful forum and reading through her Tumblr posts, etc.
We know nothing officially about her state of mind (whether she had any drugs in her system, whether there's any footage from a different camera of someone threatening her, etc.), so I have read all of your theories with great interest. I have my own take:
Let's say, in her
requests for LA meetups or maybe just in the course of being an LA tourist, EL met someone who she was interested in. Somehow, either through exploring the hotel or because of where the person lived, EL and her love interest ended up on the floor where she's seen in this video (which is believed to be the 14th floor? But may be the 15th?). EL goes to the elevator to return to her room or to the lobby. She's all butterflies and nervous from her interaction with this stranger, possibly dangerous, possibly attractive, strange exciting city. She presses more than one floor to play a game of her own, but presses the elevator's DOOR HOLD button, waiting for him.
He doesn't come. Where is he? Should I be doing this? This is crazy! No it's not. Here are the reasons why you're not crazy. (When she's counting on her fingers. Or maybe she's counting the times she just did or said something she thinks is stupid.)
As someone who has been boy-obsessed in my past, I can definitely see EL's "symptoms" of arm waving and finger-counting and maybe slightly obsessive button-pressing as something I definitely would have done, and probably have done (though not in this exact order/manifestation). I'm sure if any security videos had been reviewed after I'd had an encounter with a guy who left me wondering exactly what was going on, people would speculate about me being bipolar/drugged too.
I think she presses DOOR HOLD on purpose. She's waiting for him, and freaking out. And then she pokes her head out of the door. She wants him to follow her, but she doesn't. Finally, after agonizing about whether to go downstairs or not, whether or not he will follow her, she either goes to his room or to where she last left him, OR he calls to her or waves to her from the hallway and she goes that direction instead of heading down in the elevator.
It's also possible she left her glasses behind because (as many women believe) she thought she was more attractive without them.
(My first post, and though it's based specifically on the elevator video, please feel free to move to the "theories" thread if it doesn't quite fit here!)
