The Conspiracy Theory of Elisa Lam

“In 22 years plus of doing this job as a news reporter, this is one of those cases that kinda sticks with me because we know the who, what, when, where. But the why is always the question,”-Lolita Lopez, NBC (Ishak).

In 2013, at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California, a discovery had made in the hotel’s water tank after complaints made by the tenants of low water pressure, discolored water, and a rancid smell (Berlinger). The body identified as the missing 21-year-old bubbly Tumblr blogger, Lam Ho Yi, introduced to the world as Elisa Lam. The video that LAPD released became a viral sensation across the world as the last known sighting of the college student behaving erratically on the hotel’s camera surveillance footage in the elevator of the hotel (“Elisa Lam” 1). The surveillance footage would prompt the world to develop conspiracy theories surrounding her death:

How did she end up in the water tank undressed?
Who had Elisa Lam’s attention in the hallway as she entered the elevator? Why did Elisa Lam push all the buttons on the elevator? What took so long for the elevator door to close?
Did Elisa Lam suffer from any mental disorders that possibly when undiagnosed?

Let us explore Elisa Lam’s life as and the conspiracy theories of what could have happened to her in the infamous hotel with a dark reputation, with one logical explanation that her death was a homicide.

Search Elisa Lam in the Google browser and a photo of a happy, dark-haired young woman with glasses would appear on the page. She appears with pale skin, small almond-shaped eyes, black hair that looks as if a subtle wind whipped through her hair, and a smile that could light up a room. She was a student at the University of Columbia in Vancouver with big goals for herself for her future. Elisa fits the description of a doctor, a lawyer, or a scientist with parents who were very proud of her. She looked to be the student who excelled in everything she did. The look of a freedom-seeking and inquisitive woman. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving sometimes, masking pain, trauma, and despair.

Who was Elisa Lam? She was a daughter and a sister loved very much. She had a close bond with her sister Sarah. Kriti Mehrotra from TheCinemaholic wrote, "The two siblings shared an intense love for fashion, so they always sought each other out whenever they needed to talk" (Mehrotra). She was the daughter one would describe as a young woman who enjoyed everything that life had to offer her. Elisa set out to plan a trip to Los Angeles, California, booking a room at a hotel. Still living under her parent’s roof, she informed them of her plans of wanting to venture to the west coast. Her parents were not fond of her going alone and worried about her, but she assured them she would stay in touch. This would be an exciting time for her. The thought of exploring a new place and enjoying the freedom of taking a break from her studies was exciting. As they agreed, she landed in Los Angeles in January 2013 and kept in contact with her family (Mehrotra). Upon her arrival, her first post would be documented in her blog, “arrived in LaLand” followed by “monstrosity” of a building next to the hotel” (Mehrotra). The building she described to her followers would be the Cecil Hotel.

Elisa’s desires and thoughts were documented like an entry in a diary and in this adventure, she made sure her followers were up to speed. Elisa was a beautiful blogger full of adventure, but full of mystery, a loved young lady amongst her family and friends. Tumblr became Elisa’s “platform of choice” (Soen). Here, she was known as “nouvelle-nouveau” with what could seem to be her favorite quote from Chuck Palahniuk’s Diary, “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life” (Smith). There was nothing off-limits Elisa would not share with her followers, including her mental health. Lam documented her history of bipolar, depression, anxiety, and her struggles with her mental health. There have been reports that Elisa also had a Blogspot account, in which she wrote about struggling with depression and spending days in bed (Soen). She is said to have left this account after she preferred Tumblr (1). Elisa posted about going out enjoying the city and even “meeting strangers” (1). Elisa seemed to be taking in all the sights, sounds, and people who call Los Angeles their home. Elisa was anxious to share a new chapter in her story with her followers.

Elisa has been described as a caring, loving, and adventurous blogger, so it is implausible to her family and friends that someone could want to cause harm to Elisa. Elisa’s high school classmate and friend Alex Ristea, said, "This is the last person I expect out all my friends to have something like this happen to her" (Nair). A Facebook post is uploaded by another friend reading, "Miss you Lisa" (1). As Elisa's classmates, family, and friends deal with the loss of Elisa, many of her friends continue to share their moments with her uploading pictures, posts, and funny memes to keep her memory alive (1).

Elisa Lam's death had become a fixation on the world with suggestive inputs on how she died. One theory is that Elisa opened the lid of the water tank jumped in to take a swim and unfortunately drowned. The second theory is that paranormal activity occurred while Elisa Lam was on the elevator playing the Korean elevator game and the appearance of Elisa was a paranormal spirit (Brown). The final theory is Elisa had taken a psychedelic drug which caused her erratic behavior on the elevator (1). All conspiracies suggest that something happened to Elisa by someone or something. Let’s investigate each theory with an explanation of how these three theories emerged from her disappearance and death.

The first theory of Elisa Lam’s mysterious death was that she voluntarily wanted to take a swim. The theory goes on to point out that Elisa managed to find her way to the rooftop of the hotel, undressed, and climbed into the water tank where she drowned (St. Clair). During an interview with CBC, Detective Wallace Tenelle states, “At the time, I think that the water tank was maybe full. But as people used the tank, used water, unknown to her, the level was dropping to a point where she could no longer reach out and escape, and she died that way” (Elliot). Elisa Lam’s followers compared her swimming death to a 2002 Japanese horror film, “Darkwater” based on Koji Suzuki’s short story “Floating Water” (Back). These two films detail a story of a mother and daughter who find dark water leaking from their bedroom ceiling (1). They soon find out that the apartment located upstairs had flooded and the family living in the unit disappeared mysteriously (1). At the end of the story, the daughter finds a little girl's body who lived in the apartment above them abandoned by her parents and drowned by accidentally falling into the apartment building's water tower (1). Perhaps, this theory developed due to the similarities in the movie that mimicked Elisa’s death, for instance, the LAPD being led to search the rooftop of the Cecil hotel after the guest complained of the black tainted water coming from their hotel room faucet but, this could not be a feasible theory (1).

The Cecil Hotel staff were interviewed in the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel; explained that the tanks were not that easy to access (Berlinger). Amy Price was the current hotel manager at the Cecil Hotel at the time Elisa Lam body was found. During her interview, Price was questioned on the water tanks of the hotel. Amy Price stated, “Water for the Hotel is pumped from a main water line at below street level to 4 holding tanks on the roof of the hotel. It is a gravity operated system. Each tank is approximately 10 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. The four tanks sit on a platform on the northern border of the hotel and are difficult to access” (5). Elisa would have to utilize a ladder to climb up the tanks to get inside. Berlinger suggested in the series that it could have been possible for Elisa to access the rooftop by using the fire escape located outside the window of her room. Hotel manager Amy Price stated, “There are only four ways to gain hotel roof access. Three are by the exterior fire escapes on the sides of the hotel. The fourth is through an interior staircase leading from the 15th floor to a locked and alarmed door which opens onto the roof. All escape routes and the roof top access door are clearly labeled that they are for emergency use only” (5). Elisa could not have access the roof top without triggering the fire alarm without help from the maintenance workers of the hotel.

The second theory suggests that Elisa Lam was playing a paranormal game known as the popular Korean Elevator game in video surveillance (Lerner). Elisa can be seen pushing all the buttons to the floors of the hotel, showing her jumping in and out of the elevator as if she was hiding from someone, and acting erratic. Viewers noticed as the timer continues to run in the video, no one ever appears to walk past the elevators. They also notice that the elevator doors do not close the entire time she was on the elevator (Berlinger). A post by U written on reddit but deleted five years ago stated, “However, some people believe something paranormal too place that led to her death/disappearance. One theory is, Elisa is in the elevator for a long time, and the elevator door just won’t close. Some believe it’s because Elisa had actually died earlier, and the woman in the video is actually Elisa’s ghost. Hence why the door refuses to close. The elevator doesn’t recognize her presence due to her being deceased” (1). Followers theorized that Elisa was in the elevator for a long time suggesting that Elisa died earlier that day and the woman viewers were seeing was Elisa’s ghost (1). The game, if done correctly, is supposed to take the participant to another dimension. As the participant journeys to each of the floors, they will encounter a mysterious woman. They cannot speak nor look at the mysterious woman that step on the elevator. If the participant breaks the rules, the mysterious woman takes the participant to her dimension where they are unable to escape. If the participant follows the rules, the elevator will continue to the tenth floor opening the door to another dimension (1). Ghosts and warping to other dimensions are hard to provide evidence for, which is why the second theory sounds more like an urban myth or a scary ghost story, making it hard to believe that this is how Elisa died.

The final conspiracy theory is Elisa took psychedelic drugs which caused her to hallucinate and drown. Elisa’s Tumblr was her soapbox where she expressed her thoughts and feelings to her followers. Here she was known as Nouvelle/Nouveau to Tumblr followers (Smith). She hid nothing from her followers including her mental health. Elisa wrote about her bipolar disorder and depression revealing the pain and isolation she felt (AmenClinics). Amen Clinics provided some of Elisa's posts addressing her mental health. AmenClinic stated on their website some of the post made by Elisa, “Apparently, I'm bipolar. A few good days followed by a week of sleeping. That is the pattern.", "Depression sucks.", "I had a relapse.", "Fellow bipolars, you may be the only ones who understand what this is like.", "It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? I’m just so tired. So very tired”, “I don’t want to live like this.”, “According to some people, I have a chemical imbalance. Can I just inhabit someone else’s brain?” Elisa Lam may have not been taking psychedelic drugs but undergoing treatment for depression and bipolar. After Elisa's body was found, toxicology results found traces of prescription drugs and small traces of alcohol (Kabra). Josh St. Clair wrote in Men’sHealth article: Lam’s sister had revealed to detectives that Lam had a history of not taking her medication. Among her possessions left at the hotel were several prescriptions, and medications, seemingly untouched (1).

“Based on the evidence that we have, Elisa looked like she had Bipolar I”, says Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical/forensic neuropsychologist (1). Elisa had a diagnosis of an extreme form of bipolar disorder that caused her to have mental breakdowns creating delusions and hallucinations (1). During the investigation of her death, pieces of information were not disclosed including how severely she suffered from her mental illness (1). Elisa has had episodes that required hospitalization. Perhaps, Elisa continued to spiral out of control before her trip to Los Angeles, nobody knows for sure if she was compliant with her medications other than Elisa. "I think that people hope there was a killer, or they hope that their own conspiracy theories would come true because the reality of it is much sadder" (1). The evidence provided in this case can be a strong possibility of her death. Unfortunately, the killer in this sad case could have been her thoughts.

After examining the evidence that has been collected and interviews that have been conducted, three theories are still left unanswered:

How did she end up in the water tank undressed?
Who had Elisa Lam’s attention in the hallway as she entered the elevator? Why did Elisa Lam push all the buttons on the elevator? What took so long for the elevator door to close?
Did Elisa Lam suffer from any mental disorders?

Today, nine years later, the loving, caring and adventurous Elisa Lam's death still tears at the heartstrings of the people that loved her. It is a continuous nightmare that possibly continues to haunt her family. However, evidence continues to point to her mental health, and non-compliance with prescribed medication led to her death.