The Elevator Video: What's your take?

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Someone thought that the video had a skip in it, just as the door closes, at about the 2:57 mark. Some conspiracies that maybe the hotel security guard had paused the tape to keep himself off camera.

We should be able to tell how much of the video is missing if we measure how long it takes the door to close from the last time that she pressed the Hold Door button.

We can use that information to see if the door is held open for a longer period of time after she first enters the elevator and presses the Hold Door button.

So, for example, someone with a stopwatch measures that she waits 1 minute and 30 seconds before pressing the Hold Door button a second time. But they also measure that it only takes 1 minute and 20 seconds for the door to close after the last time she presses the Hold Door button. --- From this we could conclude that at least 10 seconds are missing from the video, for example.

Anyone who has frame-by-frame capabilities could precisely determine how much time is missing from the video.
 
sugarpooper said:
Hey everyone, I was reading through some youtube comments just now & someone pointed something out. A Chinese youtube account uploaded a clearer version of the video yesterday, & at 2:14 - 2:15 what is those black lines in between her hands? They look like fingers. I took a screenshot.

http://i46.tinypic.com/nfc6g.jpg
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The only lines I see are the dark wall seen through her own fingers.

Besides, look at the black lines around the edges of her body and elsewhere... video sharpening can create lot of distortion of an already compressed, low-quality video. It creates black edges, contrasty areas, etc. And compression itself can create what appears to be shadows and movement from frame to frame, which is actually just varying levels of compression messing with the details from moment to moment. I really think people put way too much stock in the little details in this video, and lots of people don't understand how these technical aspects of video work (even though they are obvious and normal to anyone who has messed around with editing/rendering video).

Low-quality video, especially after it's been compressed for the internet, has so many flaws and distortions that it becomes a very unreliable and inaccurate account of reality. It creates "shadows" and "little things" where none actually exist. What's important is her overall behavior, and any other big, distinct things. Because you can read anything you want into all of those pixelated, distorted moments, and many on the internet have had a field day doing so.

Personally, I suspect it's a what-you-see is what-you-get situation. She is acting that way on her own, for whatever reason. People have obsessively fixated on moments that they think represent logical emotions or reactions to real, external stimuli.

But if you look at her behavior across the video as a whole, there is practically no consistency to it, and she repeatedly switches from one seemingly different emotion/behavior to another on a dime. :moo: In my opinion, the only sense to be made of this video is that EL was acting in a highly illogical fashion.
 
The only definite thing I can say is that she doesn't appear to be in fear of her life. At the beginning I think she's a little nervous when she hits all the buttons and the door doesn't close. But as someone pointed out, perhaps she was doing something wrong and she was worried about a security guard or janitor checking her out. But then she does the weird one foot step out to look both ways, which means maybe she was also thinking ghosts?

Why was she pressing all those buttons. Not to hide her floor. I think in her altered mental state, she was thinking that pressing those buttons would make the elevator go down.

She clearly was on the 14th floor, based on the fact she was pressing the middle set, and the top one wasn't lighting up. And she kept hitting door hold, which kept the door open.

We don't know anything about when the video was taken, if she behaved differently during other times she was recorded, or was that really the last time she was seen.

Her family is certainly not speaking about any mental illness, drug issues, etc... From the sounds of people she spoke to prior to disappearing, they all seemed to indicate she was pretty normal.

Also one more thing - the police have not said if they located the clothing she was wearing in the video. Nor have they said they found her in the tank with that clothing, or any clothing at all.

In a nutshell, while the video looks like it could hold valuable information on her final whereabouts, including her reason for being on the 14th floor, we really don't have much to go on from it.
 
sillybilly said:
I see her as nervous also .. a controlled fear.

Someone mentioned in another thread that she was talking to invisible people. I think it's important to note that she was not doing so inside the elevator, so don't know why we would conclude that when she IS talking outside the elevator, the people don't exist.
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controlled fear - that's exactly what i see. every step appears careful and calculated. i see no obvious signs of drugs or alcohol in her behavior. but she has to think quickly on her feet if she doesn't want to be a victim. the stepping around is her trying to find the safest place to stand. i believe she decides the stalled elevator is a trap and exits it, and feels best standing outside of it but with her back to the wall - she doesn't want any surprises from behind. i think she's using the mirror to scan the halls, as she's knows she's being stalked. she's expecting this individual(s) to come from the right, as she always looked to the right first, and sure enough someone appears as she immediately goes into hyper mode with nervous smiling and hand gesturing, hoping to use charm to dissipate any threat.

what i can't decide is if a second person is to the left of her. it almost looks like she turns slightly to her left to speak to or acknowledge someone there - sort of looking back and forth from one to the other. she even does a wide turn to the left when leaving, as if to go around someone.

do i think this video relates directly to her disappearance and death? yes. otherwise, what a strange coincidence.
 
I'm convinced that there is someone to her left. The reason is that at around 1:25 in the video, if you watch the bottom of her skirt/shorts, it goes down about an inch or so. At first I did not see that but close watching shows this happening.

The position of her hands behind her head makes it unlikely that she tugs her skorts down. Both hands seem to be behind her head. We know she never lowers her right hand because that elbow is in view. It is not likely she lowers the other hand either, because of the position of her arms when she enters the elevator. Therefore, there is someone there who tugs her skirt/shorts down slightly.

I interpret this as someone reaching into her pocket, perhaps looking for her room key, which he may obtain. Her room key is probably in her pocket since we never see it in her hand and she is not carrying anything.

I can't remember seeing much discussion on why/how her shorts go down in this way. I see it a clue that there is probably someone there. My opinion, but I'm reasonably certain of this one.
 
I'm convinced that there is someone to her left. The reason is that at around 1:25 in the video, if you watch the bottom of her skirt/shorts, it goes down about an inch or so. At first I did not see that but close watching shows this happening.

The position of her hands behind her head makes it unlikely that she tugs her skorts down. Both hands seem to be behind her head. We know she never lowers her right hand because that elbow is in view. It is not likely she lowers the other hand either, because of the position of her arms when she enters the elevator. Therefore, there is someone there who tugs her skirt/shorts down slightly.

I interpret this as someone reaching into her pocket, perhaps looking for her room key, which he may obtain. Her room key is probably in her pocket since we never see it in her hand and she is not carrying anything.

I can't remember seeing much discussion on why/how her shorts go down in this way. I see it a clue that there is probably someone there. My opinion, but I'm reasonably certain of this one.
 
Sorry for double-post. Tried to delete the entire post, but could only delete most of the text.
 
paint said:
controlled fear - that's exactly what i see. every step appears careful and calculated. i see no obvious signs of drugs or alcohol in her behavior. but she has to think quickly on her feet if she doesn't want to be a victim. the stepping around is her trying to find the safest place to stand. i believe she decides the stalled elevator is a trap and exits it, and feels best standing outside of it but with her back to the wall - she doesn't want any surprises from behind. i

do i think this video relates directly to her disappearance and death? yes. otherwise, what a strange coincidence.
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Brilliant description! Controlled fear is what I see too. My take is that she knew the perp in some capacity. He was charming, seemed educated, so either there was an attraction or at least thought "normal". I have thought she may have been attracted to him and/or he seemed to need her for some reason (think Ted Bundy feigning a broken arm), but her gut was telling her something else entirely.

In the video, I think she was expecting someone to follow her, so she pressed the "door hold" button intentionally and expectedly so she shows both feeling rational and relaxed but also tense and uneasy at the same time. I think that she was trying to convince her self that all was okay and normal, but her instincts were telling her something was very off and to run for her life, but the guy was nice so she told herself to run would be too silly.

I cannot believe people do not see any fear in EL. Notice how she closes in on herself, arms tightly at sides, body stiffened when she "exposes" herself to look out of the elevator. The biggest show of fear is that she will not turn her back. Notice how she backs into the elevator twice. That is not relaxed behavior. Once this person arrives and starts talking with her, she is able to move relaxed and fluidly again because she is rationalizing her fear. Seems like she is trying to talk her way out of something but then gives up.
 
I don't know a lot about this case, but I watched the video twice, and here are my observations:

1. She appears intoxicated. She gets on the elevator, pushes the wrong button (hold or door open button) and the elevator does not close. She gets paranoid because she thinks she hears something outside the elevator. She may think someone is messing with her.

2. She jumps in and out trying to see what's happening.

3. Feeling like there is no one outside the elevator, she steps out to think about where she is and what floor she's on...maybe just to take a deep breath because she realizes she's intoxicated and isn't acting right. She waves her arms into the elevator to try to get it to close.

4. She then starts to count the floors using her hands...once again, assuming she was intoxicated and acting a little strange.

5. She presses all the buttons to try to make it move. She gives up and goes for the stairs.

6. Every time she moves through the elevator doorway, she resets the hold time of the door, so it stays open for a long time.

I absolutley mean no disrespect in saying that she appears intoxicated. I say this from experience...I have been intoxicated (in my younger years) and acted like this. What happened after that is a mystery.

Also, elevator hacks do exist. I was on an elevator with our building manager, and she pressed a series of buttons to take us to a floor that wasn't accessible without this code. But, I do not believe she was trying to do that in this video.

She does not appear nervous except for a few seconds in the beginning. Someone may have been following her, but she thought she was safe when she stepped outside of the elevator and was making hand gestures.

Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
 
sillybilly said:
I see her as nervous also .. a controlled fear.

Someone mentioned in another thread that she was talking to invisible people. I think it's important to note that she was not doing so inside the elevator, so don't know why we would conclude that when she IS talking outside the elevator, the people don't exist.
Click to expand...

I believe it. I've been seriously intoxicated before and I saw things that weren't really there. Once I even saw a three-eye monster with a long tail chasing me but it turned out the drugs caused my vision to blur and my imagination to go wild and I had mistaken my friend for the monster. What's so fantastical about EL hallucinating?
 
When watching the video at the 2:13-2:19 point, keep an eye on her stomach. It looks like a dark shadow falls on the floor behind her and then moves away. This is best seen on the smaller size video (not full screen) and not in the new enhanced version, but the original. Does anyone else see this shadow?
 
could it be, not realizing she pushed the hold button, she thought the elevator broke down? I believe she enters calmly, is in a state of controlled fear during the video, just as Silly Billy described in his post. perhaps she is concerned that she will get stuck in the elevator and also she hears a noise in the hall. I believe she at first assumed someone pushed the call button and then heard someone and becomes slightly frightened but thinks perhaps it is her imagination running wild. She appears relieved somewhat that someone is in the hall, maybe asks if the elevator gets stuck often and explains what happened.

I don't believe she was hallucinating or having a psychotic break. Mainly because she does not talk to herself while alone in the elevator or appear to do anything out of the norm then push the middle row of buttons. She pushed them methodically the first time and appears to panic or grow frustrated the second time. Sort of like I just want this thing to go now. Maybe not wanting to walk down the stairs or afraid of the noise she thought she heard in the hall.

Doubt she went to the roof during this video as it seems she needs glasses/contacts and has to lean in to see the buttons. Much to calm to be running away in the beginning. Could be she was just going down a few floors to the kitchen, laundry,lounge area or even to a person she met that was staying on a lower floor. I doubt the last one only because she couldn't see very well and it appears as if this is a quick trip not a social visit. I think she would have at least had contacts on if going to another persons room and wouldn't push multiple buttons if she had a room #.

Also, perhaps she took the stairs then made the return trip back to her room via the stairs.

I'm thinking she was trying to use the Stay on Main facilities and couldn't remember which floor they were on. And yes, I can imagine the scenario that Paint described happening. Frustrating because we will never know the truth.
 
This is hard for me to watch, poor Elisa. What her family must be going through, I can't imagine. My condolences to all Elisa's loved ones.

There seems to be so much conflicting behaviour in this video. She seems relaxed but quite aware of her surroundings as she enters the elevator at first, even maybe a little cocky. I can't make sense of pushing all those middle buttons, but it doesn't seem she was too mindful of any button in particular, but rather the pattern was the focus. So I'm not sure the door hold button was pressed intentionally. To me, she seems surprised that the door was held open and this could be why she jumps out expecting to find someone holding the button from the outside. Maybe she was told the sequence of button pushing would produce some other result, by the same person who she expects to find outside the elevator. My impression is that this person was known to her, but not very well.

I can't decide if the retreat into the corner is her being playful in hiding from the other person or to get a look at the mirrors on an angle that enables her to see more, but I don't see fear. She may then think the person must be to the left of her in the corridor, as she still hasn't spotted them. The attempts to run through the sequence again show frustration to me and I think it's interesting that the last buttons she presses are the 14th and hold door simultaneously. I wonder if the instructions included to make sure she press all in the row, including top and bottom buttons. This could throw her off the scent if someone was trying to trick her into pressing door hold.

I think she is then confronted by the person who asks why she didn't complete the task and she explains in desperation that she has tried, once from top to bottom, then reversing the sequence, then finally pushing buttons simultaneously and nothing would work! So she gives up and takes the stairs.

Alternatively, at the point where she first re-enters the elevator, with her arms out to the side, an alarm has just been triggered and she spend the rest of the video trying to shut it off then eventually explaining herself to an angry security guard and/or long term resident.

The 14th floor has long term residents and I don't think they'd appreciate an apparent prankster, a short term resident at that. I would go as far as imagining that the residents resented the hostel patrons. So what was she doing on that floor? I think either it was a little morbid curiousity (Night Stalker) or she ended up there by accident, possibly wanting to get access to the roof. I don't believe she was alone and I think the other person was either hotel staff, a longer term resident or someone who had been staying there previously.

Sorry it's so long, it's just so complex! It's a real doozy of a mystery. I'm "enjoying" (for lack of a more sensitive term) reading the theories.
 
Hello,

How about this scenario?

Lets say Elisa was staying on the 14th floor instead of the 4th. It was very late at night or early morning. She was just out to go to the bathroom, quickly, which is why she didn't have her glasses. The bathroom on the 14th was not available, so she decided to go to different floors. She pressed all the floors so she can peak out and look for opened doors (maybe unoccupied rooms have the doors ajar?)

When the elevator door didn't close, she got spooked. She heard something and got very uncomfortable. Someone did approach from her right. She was explaining something, using her hands. She was in disagreement with this perp(s). The strangeness of her body movements were due to her extreme fear but she was trying not to show it.

The perp made her go the other way, either to go back to her room or to take the stairs instead. Or, she decided on her own as she wanted to leave this guy. The perp followed her after the elevator closed.
 
Many of the strange things that some of us (including me) are seeing in the video could just be effects of the low-quality pixelation. One thing that cannot be a video effect is the way her shorts go down which is easily observed if you just watch the bottom of them and the way they move in respect to the edge of the elevator door between 1:20-1:25 of the video. I've seen no explanations regarding how this happens, since her hands are on her head, either by command or because she is primping in the mirror. I'd be open to any explanation of this. Otherwise, there must be someone out there who does this (probably checking out her pocket). Maybe taking her key.
 
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