Thanks to four_seasons who forwarded me to new video footage of the hotel's interior shot by Chinese amateurs. Not sure if any of you have seen it but I'll post it here with translations.
Video is here : [ame="http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTIwNzg4NTc2.html"]èå¯å¿å¡è¥¿å°é åºæç§ - è¿åèå¯å¿çå½æåæ ç¨æå¨å°âå¨çº¿ææ¾âä¼é ·ç½ï¼è§é¢é«æ¸ å¨çº¿è§ç[/ame]
Now this is video footage taken inside the hotel, going up the fire escape ladder, stairs, etc. but they are all mixed in with Chinese commentary/words.
I think the video footage itself is pretty self-explanatory. So I'll translate the main points iterated in the videos through words/commentary with some markers of time during the video:
"The hotel is pretty empty this time. Feels deserted and cold inside.
We will start filming from the lobby. The aim of this video is not to do sleuthing work but to allow our viewers to have a better feel of what the hotel is like.
(1.24) The hotel was built in 1927 in downtown LA. It is shaped in an E - 1 main corridor/walkway internally linking 3 main parts of the building... etc.
(1.42) Here is the front, side and back view of the hotel.
(1:52) From the back view of the hotel, we can spot the fire escape stairs with the ladder at the top of the stairs leading to the roof.
From the front view of the hotel, we can see how old and dated the hotel looks.
Inside the hotel, it looks just as dated and old. Only the lobby looks good.
Now we will walk into the hotel entrance from the main street. And now when we enter it, we see the lobby, with the mezzanine lounge upstairs and the hotel elevators.
Here we can see there are only 2 elevators in this entire hotel.
Elisa was probably in the left elevator in the CCTV footage, as we can see here.
Entering the lift, and then going to our room.
There is a small wardrobe/storage space in the room. Room is very small, cramped. Shower/toilet facilities are very basic. A big contrast indeed between the condition of the rooms and how the hotel lobby looks.
Now let's exit the room and take a walk around the E shaped formation of our floor walkways/corridors. We have provided a portion of the fire escape floorplan in the corner of the video clip to illustrate to you which part of the floorplan we are currently walking through.
(3:06) We start at the 14th floor, at where the fire escape stairway is located on this part of the floorplan.
Walking from here we pass the numerous rooms and reach the main corridor linking all 3 main parts of the building.
(3.36) None of the rooms on our right are guest/residential rooms. They are all common rooms like toilets, showers, etc. In other words, anyone can use these rooms that we pass by on the right.
(3.39) Here we pass the hotel elevators on our left. and we see that round mirror opposite the elevator.
(3.46) Now we continue walking down the main corridor/walkway, past the elevators on our left, and we get to the stairs. Now we're on the 14th floor, but if this was the 15th floor, these stairs would lead straight to the roof door, which is locked and fitted with alarm and that only hotel staff can access. And we continue walking past the stairs and go past the guest rooms, coming to the end of our walk here.
(4.16) Next we will be exploring the elevators. Finding out how the buttons work, what we can see, etc.
(4.35) We found that the elevator door stays open, not even after we have pressed several floor buttons. The only way to get the elevator door to close is if we press the Door Close button at the bottom, or if someone on another floor has pressed the elevator button outside the elevator to signal the elevator to go to their floor.
(4.50) There are only 2 buttons on the panel outside of the elevator. Up or down.
(5.08) We found that Door Hold button works. Once pressed when the door is closing, the door will open up fully once again.
(5.29) We show you how it'd look to Elisa when she looked out of the elevator to see both sides adjacent to where she was.
As we can see, no matter how far we stuck our head out of the elevator to look both sides, it is still impossible to see everything that is outside the elevator.
(5.33) As we can see here are 2 blind spots on either side of the elevator. So no matter how far I stuck my head out to look both sides, no matter how slowly I did this, no matter how much slowly and carefully I looked, I still couldn't see what was in those 2 blind spots..
(6.10) There are a few possible routes to get to the roof.
(6.21) This is the 1st possible route. I have used a black square on the floorplan to indicate this. It is also the place where we started this video tour of the 14th floor earlier on.
(6.28) This is what the ladder to the roof looks like from here.
(6.37) There are other fire escape stairs and ladders that lead to the roof. This is the 2nd possible route to the roof, indicated by a black square on the floorplan.
(6.40) This is what it looks like.
(6.47) This is the 3rd possible route to the roof, marked by the black square on the plan. It is the 3rd fire escape stairs.
(6.50) This is how it looks like.
It seems quite difficult for someone to go up these stairs and ladders whilst carrying a corpse.
(7.02) The 4th route to go up to the roof is much easier than climbing fire escape stairs and ladders. It is this one - the main hallway stairs that lead to the roof via an alarmed locked door. Also this roof entrance is the entrance that is closest in proximity to the water tanks. We reckon this may be the most probable and easiest route taken by the perpetrator.
(7.12) Now we shall ascend the main hallway stairs that lead to the roof. We start going up the stairs from the 15th floor now. But we couldn't open the door as it was locked..
(7.33) We decided to take the fire escape stairs and climb up the ladder.
(7.39) After reaching the roof, we looked down the ladder and this was what it looked like. As you can see, it may be quite difficult for some to try to get to the roof like this.
(7.42) From the fire escape ladder, we had to walk about 30s to reach the water tank. It really is quite a distance. If someone was carrying a corpse doing this, it would take longer, and there would be a risk of being seen doing this.
(8.09) We caught sight of a pair of brown double doors on this building. We decided this couldn't be the same door as the locked, alarm-fitted roof door that we accessed earlier on via the main hallway stairs. Because that door was a single door, not a pair of double doors.
(8.26) We continue scouting around the rooftop and now we believe this little building here with a single door must be the locked. alarm-fitted roof door that we came to earlier on. We estimated this door to be about 25 metres from the water tanks.
(8.36) We turned back and saw that the building next to the water tanks has a red door at the top of a flight of red stairs, and this door is only accessible by hotel staff. There is a ladder right next to it, which we climbed up.
(8.49) We reached the top of the ladder and this is the view. This is a good vantage point of the entire rooftop of the hotel, as well as the top of the water tanks.
(8.59) It can be seen from this vantage point that to attempt to lower a corpse into a water tank from here isn't that hard. In fact it seems easier than to attempt to dispose of the corpse in the tank by climbing up the wooden ladder lying next to the water tank. So this could be a possible place where the perpetrator had disposed of the corpse into the tank.
We hope this video has helped you get a better idea of the hotel and help form your own judgment about what might have happened to Elisa."
Video is here : [ame="http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTIwNzg4NTc2.html"]èå¯å¿å¡è¥¿å°é åºæç§ - è¿åèå¯å¿çå½æåæ ç¨æå¨å°âå¨çº¿ææ¾âä¼é ·ç½ï¼è§é¢é«æ¸ å¨çº¿è§ç[/ame]
Now this is video footage taken inside the hotel, going up the fire escape ladder, stairs, etc. but they are all mixed in with Chinese commentary/words.
I think the video footage itself is pretty self-explanatory. So I'll translate the main points iterated in the videos through words/commentary with some markers of time during the video:
"The hotel is pretty empty this time. Feels deserted and cold inside.
We will start filming from the lobby. The aim of this video is not to do sleuthing work but to allow our viewers to have a better feel of what the hotel is like.
(1.24) The hotel was built in 1927 in downtown LA. It is shaped in an E - 1 main corridor/walkway internally linking 3 main parts of the building... etc.
(1.42) Here is the front, side and back view of the hotel.
(1:52) From the back view of the hotel, we can spot the fire escape stairs with the ladder at the top of the stairs leading to the roof.
From the front view of the hotel, we can see how old and dated the hotel looks.
Inside the hotel, it looks just as dated and old. Only the lobby looks good.
Now we will walk into the hotel entrance from the main street. And now when we enter it, we see the lobby, with the mezzanine lounge upstairs and the hotel elevators.
Here we can see there are only 2 elevators in this entire hotel.
Elisa was probably in the left elevator in the CCTV footage, as we can see here.
Entering the lift, and then going to our room.
There is a small wardrobe/storage space in the room. Room is very small, cramped. Shower/toilet facilities are very basic. A big contrast indeed between the condition of the rooms and how the hotel lobby looks.
Now let's exit the room and take a walk around the E shaped formation of our floor walkways/corridors. We have provided a portion of the fire escape floorplan in the corner of the video clip to illustrate to you which part of the floorplan we are currently walking through.
(3:06) We start at the 14th floor, at where the fire escape stairway is located on this part of the floorplan.
Walking from here we pass the numerous rooms and reach the main corridor linking all 3 main parts of the building.
(3.36) None of the rooms on our right are guest/residential rooms. They are all common rooms like toilets, showers, etc. In other words, anyone can use these rooms that we pass by on the right.
(3.39) Here we pass the hotel elevators on our left. and we see that round mirror opposite the elevator.
(3.46) Now we continue walking down the main corridor/walkway, past the elevators on our left, and we get to the stairs. Now we're on the 14th floor, but if this was the 15th floor, these stairs would lead straight to the roof door, which is locked and fitted with alarm and that only hotel staff can access. And we continue walking past the stairs and go past the guest rooms, coming to the end of our walk here.
(4.16) Next we will be exploring the elevators. Finding out how the buttons work, what we can see, etc.
(4.35) We found that the elevator door stays open, not even after we have pressed several floor buttons. The only way to get the elevator door to close is if we press the Door Close button at the bottom, or if someone on another floor has pressed the elevator button outside the elevator to signal the elevator to go to their floor.
(4.50) There are only 2 buttons on the panel outside of the elevator. Up or down.
(5.08) We found that Door Hold button works. Once pressed when the door is closing, the door will open up fully once again.
(5.29) We show you how it'd look to Elisa when she looked out of the elevator to see both sides adjacent to where she was.
As we can see, no matter how far we stuck our head out of the elevator to look both sides, it is still impossible to see everything that is outside the elevator.
(5.33) As we can see here are 2 blind spots on either side of the elevator. So no matter how far I stuck my head out to look both sides, no matter how slowly I did this, no matter how much slowly and carefully I looked, I still couldn't see what was in those 2 blind spots..
(6.10) There are a few possible routes to get to the roof.
(6.21) This is the 1st possible route. I have used a black square on the floorplan to indicate this. It is also the place where we started this video tour of the 14th floor earlier on.
(6.28) This is what the ladder to the roof looks like from here.
(6.37) There are other fire escape stairs and ladders that lead to the roof. This is the 2nd possible route to the roof, indicated by a black square on the floorplan.
(6.40) This is what it looks like.
(6.47) This is the 3rd possible route to the roof, marked by the black square on the plan. It is the 3rd fire escape stairs.
(6.50) This is how it looks like.
It seems quite difficult for someone to go up these stairs and ladders whilst carrying a corpse.
(7.02) The 4th route to go up to the roof is much easier than climbing fire escape stairs and ladders. It is this one - the main hallway stairs that lead to the roof via an alarmed locked door. Also this roof entrance is the entrance that is closest in proximity to the water tanks. We reckon this may be the most probable and easiest route taken by the perpetrator.
(7.12) Now we shall ascend the main hallway stairs that lead to the roof. We start going up the stairs from the 15th floor now. But we couldn't open the door as it was locked..
(7.33) We decided to take the fire escape stairs and climb up the ladder.
(7.39) After reaching the roof, we looked down the ladder and this was what it looked like. As you can see, it may be quite difficult for some to try to get to the roof like this.
(7.42) From the fire escape ladder, we had to walk about 30s to reach the water tank. It really is quite a distance. If someone was carrying a corpse doing this, it would take longer, and there would be a risk of being seen doing this.
(8.09) We caught sight of a pair of brown double doors on this building. We decided this couldn't be the same door as the locked, alarm-fitted roof door that we accessed earlier on via the main hallway stairs. Because that door was a single door, not a pair of double doors.
(8.26) We continue scouting around the rooftop and now we believe this little building here with a single door must be the locked. alarm-fitted roof door that we came to earlier on. We estimated this door to be about 25 metres from the water tanks.
(8.36) We turned back and saw that the building next to the water tanks has a red door at the top of a flight of red stairs, and this door is only accessible by hotel staff. There is a ladder right next to it, which we climbed up.
(8.49) We reached the top of the ladder and this is the view. This is a good vantage point of the entire rooftop of the hotel, as well as the top of the water tanks.
(8.59) It can be seen from this vantage point that to attempt to lower a corpse into a water tank from here isn't that hard. In fact it seems easier than to attempt to dispose of the corpse in the tank by climbing up the wooden ladder lying next to the water tank. So this could be a possible place where the perpetrator had disposed of the corpse into the tank.
We hope this video has helped you get a better idea of the hotel and help form your own judgment about what might have happened to Elisa."
