Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Ryan Reynolds here from Int Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices
down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile, unlimited premium wireless. How about you get 30, 30, how about you get 30, how about you get 20, 20, 20, how about you get 20, 20, how about you get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month? Sold! Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes each detail.
The land down under has never been easier to reach. United Airlines has more flights between the U.S. and Australia than any other U.S. airline, so you can fly nonstop to destinations like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Explore dazzling cities, savor the very best of Aussie cuisine, and get up close and personal with the wildlife. Who doesn't want to hold a koala? Go to united.com slash Australia to book your adventure.
To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn. When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was really important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but for my listeners. That's why I choose Podcorn to find sponsorships for Forensic Tales.
Within just a couple short days, I found my first sponsorship. And since then, I found so many more. Podcorn is a marketplace connecting podcasters to amazing podcast sponsorship opportunities, such as host red ads, interview segments, topical discussions, and more.
And because I'm a one-woman show, I need to be able to quickly and efficiently share with you trusted products and services. I just don't have the time to search the dark corners of the internet for trusted sponsors. With Podcorn, there is no middleman, which I love. Podcasters of all sizes can browse and choose opportunities right there on the platform, set their own rates, and collaborate with brands directly.
To learn more about what Podcorn can do for you and your podcast, click the link in my show notes to sign up to Podcorn and start browsing today. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. On January 26, 2013, 21-year-old Elisa Lam rode an Amtrak train to Los Angeles.
She dreamt her entire life of visiting La La Land. She dreamt of new friends, a happier life, and maybe even love. Her chance finally arrived. She somehow convinced her protective parents to let her see the iconic City of Angels. But when she arrived in Los Angeles, she found no glamour. Instead, she found herself in the heart of Skid Row.
And after a few bizarre days, she found herself missing. The Cecil Hotel, home to California's murderers, managed to lure the innocent Canadian tourist. Now, the only trace of her was a creepy, haunting video. Was the lonely Elisa drugged, kidnapped, or murdered? Let the forensics decide.
This is Forensic Tales, episode number 63, The Death of Elisa Lam. ♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, bone-chilling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings. If you're interested in supporting the show,
Getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, ad-free episodes, merchandise, and much more. Consider visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com slash forensic tales. Another great way you can support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review or telling friends and family who love true crime about us.
Now, let's jump right into this week's case. This week's case covers one of the most mysterious disappearances we've ever talked about on the show. 21-year-old Elisa Lam's magical and horrifying trip to La La Land. To understand the full story, we need to understand Elisa. Elisa Lam was born on April 30th, 1991 in Vancouver, Canada.
Elisa's parents immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong. The immigrant family opened a restaurant in Burnaby, British Columbia. In 2010, teenage Elisa started a blog on Blogspot titled Etherfields. For over two years, Elisa blogged about everything from fashion to models to much more personal topics like her struggles with mental illness.
Elisa's blog became her private journal that she shared publicly with the world. In a January 2012 blog post, Elisa shared with her followers that she suffered what she described as a relapse in her mental illness. She dropped many of her classes at the University of British Columbia. In the blog post, she discussed how utterly directionless and lost she felt.
referencing the quote, you're always haunted by the idea you're wasting your life. The relapse Elisa referred to was her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and depression. To deal with a mental illness diagnosis, doctors prescribed several medications, including two antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and an antipsychotic. She battled with mental illness every single day.
Shortly before Elisa turned 21 years old, she started planning a solo trip to the United States. The plan was to travel up the coast of California, stopping at all the major tourist spots. When Elisa first shared her plans with her parents, they were concerned about her traveling alone, a feeling many other parents would share.
After some convincing, Elisa's parents finally agreed to the solo trip on one condition. She needed to call and check in every single day of the journey just to make sure she was okay, a condition Elisa promised to keep. On January 26, 2013, 21-year-old Elisa Lam arrived in Los Angeles, California to embark on her solo trip to the States.
A trip she spent months planning. She spent the first two days in San Diego. She then made her way to LA by Amtrak. The plan was to spend a couple more days in LA and then continue her West Coast tour up to Santa Cruz, a famous tourist city along the state's central coast. On January 26th, she checked into the Stay on Main, a budget and tourist-friendly hotel within the Sisa Hotel Walls.
The 1927 Cecil Hotel became a notorious L.A. landmark. Since its opening, the Cecil Hotel has had a reputation for death. It's the hotel where Elizabeth Short, better known in the true crime world as the Black Dahlia, was last seen just days before her murder. A hotel where serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unawagger became frequent guests.
But Elisa didn't stay at the Cecil. She booked a room at the Stay on Main. Several years before she arrived in LA, the Cecil had converted half its floors to the Stay on Main, attracting travelers looking to stay somewhere on a budget. The other half of its floors remained the Cecil Hotel, where many of the building's low-income and long-term residents stayed.
The hotel decided to split the floors between the Cecil and the Stay on Main. Apparently, housing serial killers was bad for business. They also had their fair share of drug dealers and sex workers who checked in for extended periods. Under the remodel, travelers and tourists booking rooms at the Stay on Main were separated from Cecil's long-term residences.
Hotel management did their best to separate these two properties. Each had separate entrances, separate lobbies. The only thing the stay on Main and the Cecil Hotel shared were the elevators. Elisa would never find out the Cecil's dirty little secret. On January 31st, five days into her stay in LA, Elisa's parents didn't get their regularly scheduled phone call.
Elisa was also expected to check out of the Cecil Hotel and head to Santa Cruz. Once January 31st turned to February 1st, a full 24 hours, and Elisa's parents still haven't heard from her, the Lambs contacted the Los Angeles Police Department to report their daughter missing. For Elisa not to call and check in was entirely out of character. She made a promise.
A handful of LAPD police officers arrived at the Cecil Hotel. The hotel staff informed officers that Elisa was scheduled to check out of the hotel the day before, but she hadn't. Because Elisa was scheduled to check out, staff let LAPD officers into her room. Inside Elisa's hotel room, officers made their first disturbing discovery. Inside the hotel room were her ID, medication, luggage,
all of her personal belongings, but no sign of the 21-year-old traveler. This discovery meant that Elisa was not only missing, but she's gone missing without her needed bipolar and depression medication. Once LAPD officers discovered that all of Elisa's belongings were still inside her room a full 24 hours after she was supposed to have checked out,
A search party of additional police officers and canines arrived at the hotel. Elisa's case is one where law enforcement took this missing persons case very seriously right from the get-go. From a forensic psychology and victimology standpoint, Elisa's case checks all the right boxes to get law enforcement's attention. That's because police officers knew about her history of mental illness.
They knew she was traveling alone. They knew she called her parents every day up until this point. And they also knew that this part of Los Angeles wasn't exactly the safest. The Cecil Hotel is situated right in the heart of Skid Row. Skid Row is an area of downtown LA that's existed for over 100 years.
Within its 56-block radius, there are between 8,000 and 10,000 homeless people that occupy the streets and sidewalks on any given day. Skid Row has become the dumping ground of Los Angeles, a place to dump people recently released from incarceration, a place for the impoverished to be separated from the glamour of L.A.,
Given Elisa's vulnerability, she represented a prime target. After arriving at the Cecil, the police turned the property upside down, looking for any sign of Elisa. But the search turned up empty-handed. The police even used canines to comb the streets, the hotel's hallways, and even the roof, hoping to track her scent to a particular location. But nothing turned up.
Elisa was nowhere. The police also spoke with hotel staff who interacted with Elisa. They started to put the pieces together on the days leading up to her mysterious disappearance. The police learned that Elisa became a problem for the hotel staff and a problem for other guests staying at the Cecil.
Just a couple days into her stay at the Cecil, the hotel moved Elisa from a shared room to a private room after her roommates complained. Elisa's hotel roommates complained that her behavior was bizarre, that she was doing things like writing them strange letters, telling them to leave. But even after management moved Elisa to a private room, her bizarre behavior escalated.
Amy Price, the manager of the Cecil Hotel, told police about one afternoon when Elisa was escorted out of the hotel's lobby after an outburst. When the officer asked the manager why she didn't call them if her behavior was so erratic, the manager just simply said, Hey, this is the Cecil Hotel. We see crazy things happen every day.
After Elisa had been missing for a couple days, her parents and sister flew to California from Vancouver. They were desperate to find her and help the police in any way possible. Once the Lambs arrived in Los Angeles, the LAPD released a bulletin urging the public to come forward with any information, urging anyone to come forward if they had seen or heard from Elisa.
The bulletin mentioned that the missing 21-year-old girl spoke English as well as Cantonese, used public transportation, suffered from mental illness, and was ultimately headed up to Santa Cruz. For almost two weeks, the search for Lisa turned up nothing. It was as if the case was cold right from the start. As the days went by, the urgency to find her grew. The police knew that wherever Lisa was,
She didn't have anything with her. No ID, no money, no wallet, and most troubling, no medication. And after 14 days of searching for her, the realization that something terrible might have happened started to set in. On February 14th, two weeks into Elisa's disappearance, the police released a bombshell piece of evidence in the case.
Digital forensic evidence would send the public and the internet into a complete frenzy. Over 14 days since Elisa was last seen or heard from, the police released a four-minute video of surveillance tape footage taken from the cameras inside of the CISO Hotel's elevators. The elevators were shared by both the Stay on Main and the CISO Hotel.
where long-term residents and Elisa stayed. The police released the surveillance tape footage as the last attempt at generating any leads in the case. Up until this point, the investigation into Elisa's disappearance has gone nowhere. But after the police released the four-minute video, that's when things just get bizarre. Every time I watch this video, it sends a chill down my spine.
The hotel surveillance tape shows Elisa in one of the hotel elevators on the same day of her disappearance. What stands out about the video is Elisa's unusual behavior. The video is taken from a camera inside of the elevator and begins with the elevator doors opening. A few seconds later, Elisa, wearing what looks like either a black dress or skirt with a red sweater, walks into the elevator.
She goes to the right side of the elevator, bends over towards the elevator floor buttons. Elisa doesn't just press one button. She begins pressing every floor button down the middle. After pressing several floors right down the middle, she steps back and stands in the elevator's back right corner. What's strange is that even after Elisa pressed several floors,
The elevator door doesn't close. It stayed open. After a few seconds, Elisa slowly creeps up to the elevator door and quickly peeks around the corner, looking right and left, outside of the elevator into the hallway. It looks like someone's chasing her. Someone's following her. She jumps back into the lobby and leans up against the other corner closer to the elevator's buttons.
She's hiding from someone or something. After the buttons are pushed, the door still doesn't close. For a second time, Elisa peeks her head out the door and looks down the hallway to the right. Then after a few seconds, she takes a cautious step forward outside of the elevator. Leaning against the elevator door, she takes two steps to the left.
The camera manages to capture her right arm as she stands just outside the door. For a moment, it appears she may be waving to someone, maybe telling someone to get away from her. She gets back into the elevator with her hands up in distress and pushes every floor button down the middle for a second time. The doors still don't close.
For the third time, Elisa gets back out and appears to be talking to someone in the hallway. She's got her arms up, almost as if she's in a defensive stance. She's virtually crouching down in fear. Who is she talking to? What is she saying to them? Finally, after several minutes standing just outside the elevator door, Elisa turns to the left, walks down the hallway out of the camera's view.
This would be the last footage of Elisa. Less than a minute later, the elevator doors finally shut. 30 seconds later, they open again. Elisa nowhere in sight. The elevator doors shut for a second time, and this time they shut for good. The release of the elevator footage sent the internet and public into a frenzy. People watched the video, and nobody could make sense of it.
Everything about the video was disturbing, from the elevator doors not closing, to Elisa pushing all the floor buttons down the middle, to her random arm movements, to her appearance of being frightened and scared of someone or something. And the strangest part was that the video captured no one else except for Elisa.
People in LA weren't the only ones watching this strange video of Elisa inside the CISO hotel's elevator on the day of her disappearance. Tens of millions of people across Canada, China, and the rest of the United States quickly viewed the video. Everyone watched the video had so many burning questions. Was Elisa running from something? Was someone following her in the hallway?
Why weren't the elevator doors closing? Maybe someone was intentionally holding them open. And where did she go after she made that left-hand turn down the hotel hallway? When we first meet someone, our smile is often the first thing people notice about us, whether that's on a first date or at a job interview. A smile can tell a lot about a person.
But you can't just trust your smile with any teeth whitening company. That's why I turn to Smile Brilliant for my teeth whitening needs. Smile Brilliant and their teeth whitening system is backed by decades of research and is created by hygienists and dental professionals. So I know what I'm putting on my teeth is both safe and effective.
Made right here in the U.S., Smile Brilliant is a leading lab-direct oral care company that specializes in custom-fitted teeth whitening trays done from the comfort of your own home. And right now, Smile Brilliant is offering the listeners of my show a very special offer. You receive 30% off your entire order.
Simply enter the code tails at checkout and you'll save 30% off your order and get wider teeth. To check them out and start achieving a wider, brighter smile, visit smilebrilliant.com.
That's Smile Brilliant. Teeth whitening for everyone. Shop today. SmileBrilliant.com. And don't forget to use the promo code TAILS for 30% off. The single piece of digital forensic evidence in the case was the elevator's surveillance tape taken on the day of Elisa's disappearance. As soon as the internet got its hands on the Elisa CISO Hotel surveillance tape,
Possible theories about her disappearance spread like wildfire. Immediately, people speculated that someone had edited or altered the tape. One idea was someone slowed the footage down. Some people who viewed the video thought that the timestamp on the bottom of the video didn't quite match Elisa's movements.
Other internet theories swirling around were that the timestamp was intentionally blurred, and someone had completely removed an entire minute of the tape. The next question became, if the elevator video had been edited or altered before it was released, who could have done that? Who could have edited the hotel's surveillance tape before turning them over to the police?
Well, the obvious answer was possibly one of the CISO hotel staff was involved in Elisa's disappearance. The hotel staff has access to the hotel's surveillance cameras. This theory could also explain why the elevator doors didn't close after Elisa pushed all the middle buttons. Hotel staff can alter the elevators. Maybe someone who worked at the hotel disabled the buttons.
Police also searched the rest of the hotel's videos to see if they could spot Elisa on any other camera the day she disappeared. But they found nothing. No surveillance camera captured Elisa ever leaving the CISO hotel that afternoon. People who viewed the elevator video didn't just theorize that hotel staff was involved in her disappearance. Internet sleuths also worried about the homeless population surrounding the hotel.
Maybe she encountered someone on her way back into the hotel. Others worried she met someone earlier in the trip who may have wanted to harm her. That would explain her behavior in the elevator, where it looks like someone might be following her, chasing her.
Some people watched the video and thought that her behavior was consistent with someone on drugs, specifically ecstasy. And this type of drug can explain her odd behavior by having a bad trip. But all of this was pure speculation. Internet sleuths are taking their crack at the case. As the internet sleuths did their jobs, LAPD detectives performed theirs.
The police may have had only one piece of digital forensic evidence, the elevator's surveillance video, but they had a lot more in the way of forensic psychology. The hotel elevator video served as the final puzzle piece into Elisa's mindset during her disappearance. Investigators working the case knew about Elisa's erratic behavior in the days leading up to her disappearance, from interviews with hotel roommates and hotel staff,
It was apparent Elisa wasn't acting like her usual self. She displayed unusual behavior by writing crazy notes to her roommates. Elisa seemed manic in front of hotel staff when they escorted her out of the lobby. She seemed paranoid inside of the elevator. All this behavior led investigators to look a little deeper into her past mental illness episodes.
Investigators knew that Elisa had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and major depression. One of the items found inside her hotel room were her prescription medication. Elisa took four medications at the time of her disappearance, all of which were common prescriptions to treat bipolar and depression. But it wasn't just the fact that Elisa was taking these medications that troubled them. It was the fact that her bottles didn't appear to have the right amount of pills left.
Meaning, based on the pharmacist's date, there should have been fewer pills inside the bottles, leaving only one explanation. Elisa hadn't been taking her medication as prescribed. When a person diagnosed with bipolar stops taking their medication, they risk increased manic as well as depressive episodes, key symptoms.
If Elisa wasn't taking her medication, she might have been experiencing mania when she started writing notes to her hotel roommates and when staff escorted her out of the hotel lobby. She was also taking the prescription Seroquel, a common antipsychotic medication prescribed for bipolar disorder.
If Elisa abruptly stopped taking her antipsychotic medication, she may have been at risk for experiencing auditory hallucinations as well as extreme paranoia. Skipping her medication also put her at risk of becoming a crime victim. Someone she met in or out of the hotel could have noticed this young 21-year-old tourist having a manic episode and took advantage of her.
Unfortunately, if an individual isn't in the right mindset, they become vulnerable. They become easy targets for people who want to harm them. After the police released the elevator video, another two weeks went by without any signs of Elisa. But by February 19th, a discovery took the investigation in a completely different direction.
On February 19th, a maintenance worker made a shocking discovery on the hotel's roof. Santiago Lopez, a Cecil Hotel maintenance worker, responded to guests' complaints about low water pressure and weird-tasting tap water. On the roof, the hotel had four 1,000-gallon water tanks.
While investigating the water complaints, the maintenance worker noticed the hatch to one of the hotel's main water tanks was open, and when he opened the lid, he saw the floating body of a dead female. The female body floating inside of the hotel's water tanks was identified as missing 21-year-old Elisa Lam. After 20 days without any trace, Elisa had been finally found.
When Elisa's body was discovered inside of the water tank, she was found lying face up and completely naked. Inside of the tank were her clothes, the same clothes everyone saw her wearing on the elevator surveillance video. Investigators also found Elisa's watch and hotel room key inside of the tank.
By the time the L.A. County coroner arrived to pick up Elisa's body, her body had already begun showing signs of moderate decomposition and bloating. Her body appeared green with signs of marbling across her stomach as well as skin separation, all indicators that Elisa likely had been inside of the water since her disappearance on January 31st.
Word about Elisa Lam's discovery inside of the CISO Hotel's water tank spread quickly. By the time of her discovery, her case had captured worldwide attention. Now, learning that she'd been found floating naked inside of a thousand-gallon water tank on top of the CISO Hotel, well, this case was a perfect recipe for a media sensation. Right away, the public speculated foul play was involved.
Whoever was following Elisa into the elevator was the person responsible for her murder. The only other person to see Elisa's final day was the last bookstore owner, a shop down the street from the CISO Hotel. The store's owner said that Elisa purchased books and music for her family back in Vancouver. She was a girl expecting to go home after her trip.
So between the elevator video suggesting someone was chasing her, as well as the bookstore's owner's account of Elisa buying items for her family, this has to be a case of foul play. Case closed, right? Well, not exactly. Elisa's body was sent to the LA County Coroner's office for an autopsy. But instead of providing closure, Elisa's autopsy seemed to raise more questions.
The toxicology report showed Elisa had the prescription medications she was taking to treat her bipolar and depression in her system. But what the forensic pathologist didn't find was any alcohol or illegal drugs in her system, ruling out the possibility she was on drugs or alcohol when investigators saw her displaying bizarre behavior in the elevator. What was significant about the toxicology report was
was that it confirmed what investigators feared. Elisa hadn't been taking her medication correctly. The toxicology report demonstrated lower levels of her specific medication. The report would have been much different if she had been taking recent doses. This also explains why the pill bottles in her hotel room appeared to have too many pills in them.
Also notable about the autopsy was that the forensic pathologist couldn't find any signs of foul play on her body. Her body didn't display any signs of physical trauma. There weren't any signs of sexual assault. There was nothing remarkable about her body to suggest foul play. But if Elisa wasn't the victim of foul play, how exactly could her naked body end up on the hotel roof inside of the water tank?
and maybe more troubling than the how, is why. Why did she end up in that water tank? Questions about how Elisa could have ended up inside the water tank swirled. To get to the water tank on the hotel's roof, Elisa would have taken the elevator to the 15th floor and then taken the stairs to get to the roof.
Typically, to get onto the roof, an alarm would have been activated, and then she would have had to climb up on a platform where the tanks were. Then, she would have had to climb another ladder to reach the hotel's main water tank, the tank where her body was discovered. For those believing foul play was involved, none of this seemed plausible.
But the idea that Elisa couldn't have gotten up to the roof by herself didn't seem impossible to everyone, especially for the LAPD. The LAPD believed it was entirely possible that Elisa got up on the roof and got inside of the water tank herself. Investigators thought that it made more sense that she got up there by herself versus having someone carry her up there.
It would have been extremely difficult for someone carrying Elisa, whether she was dead or alive, to get up onto the platform where the water tanks were and then climb up that second ladder and eventually get her into the main tank. To investigators, it seemed far more likely that Elisa was able to climb up there on her own. Then there was the why. Why did Elisa end up in that water tank?
Well, those who thought Elisa became a victim believed whoever was following her to the elevator murdered her and then attempted to dispose of her body inside of the tanks. Suppose you're looking to dispose of a body. What better spot than on top of the hotel's roof inside of a water tank? There's one big problem to this theory, the autopsy.
Remember, the forensic pathologist found no evidence on her body suggesting a physical or sexual attack. No cuts, no bruises, no ligature marks, nothing. The forensic pathologist found nothing illegal in her system to suggest that maybe she was drugged. And without any signs of physical or sexual assault, investigators felt like this left them with two possible causes of death.
accident or suicide. Either Elisa accidentally fell in or voluntarily jumped in. Based on the evidence and the autopsy findings, the LAPD concluded Elisa's death was an accident. She died by accidental drowning. The LAPD came to their accidental drowning conclusion based on several key pieces of forensic evidence.
The first was related to the unusual behavior she displayed in the days leading up to her disappearance. Investigators believed mental illness could explain this behavior. Elisa could have experienced some manic episodes.
Investigators knew if Elisa wasn't taking her medication, specifically her antipsychotic prescription, she could have become paranoid and even experience auditory and visual hallucinations. The LAPD also believed the elevator surveillance video was a key piece of digital forensic evidence. According to investigators, nobody altered the footage, as Internet sleuths suggested.
It provided the critical evidence to back up their theory. Elisa was experiencing delusions and paranoia the day she disappeared. Because investigators saw no one else in the video, they believed this was proof. Elisa was experiencing visual hallucinations and thinking someone might be after her. Investigators theorized that once Elisa began experiencing delusions,
She attempted to get away from the person she believed was chasing her. After she walked out of the elevator's video frame, she made her way towards the roof of the hotel. Once on the roof, Elisa made her way up on the platform towards the main water tank. She did all this to escape the person she believed followed her.
Elisa then took her clothes off, jumped into the water tank, and attempted to close the hatch for an unknown reason. Once inside, even if Elisa's delusions went away, she wouldn't have been able to get herself out of the tank. She would have drowned. The LAPD also didn't think that this was a suicide.
There was no evidence to suggest that Elisa was either suicidal or that she had suicidal ideations before her death. This was evident in her decision to purchase books and music for her family back in Canada on the day of her disappearance. Investigators didn't believe that this behavior was consistent with someone about to kill themselves. Based on all the forensic evidence, as well as the history of mental illness,
The case into Lisa Lam's death was officially closed. Official cause of death? Accidental drowning. The LAPD's official announcement didn't come without controversy. People on the web couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that Elisa ended up naked inside of a hotel water tank. She accidentally drowned because she was experiencing side effects of missed medication? This story just didn't make sense.
couldn't make sense of the LAPD's official conclusion. Additional rumors began spreading online. Murder was the popular theory. Several possible suspects were named over the years, including a metal rocker who went by the stage name Morbid. If the metal singer wasn't involved, it might have been a Cecil staff member or maybe someone she met in L.A. A second theory was that Elisa was on drugs.
People who point to this theory argue traces of any illegal substance wouldn't have been detectable by the time of her autopsy. It's possible that the levels of substance got to an undetectable level. Another theory tossed around was that Elisa's death was a copycat murder. Supporters of this theory pointed to the 2005 movie Dark Water.
a film in which a girl's body is discovered inside the water tank to an apartment complex. To this very day, the internet isn't short of possible theories surrounding Elisa's death. Following Elisa Lam's death and the LAPD's decision to close the case, the Lam's filed a wrongful death suit against the Cecil Hotel.
The Lambs argued that the hotel had a duty to, quote, When the judge heard the case in court, attorneys for the CESA hotel argued they had absolutely no reason to believe that someone would even be able to get inside of the water tanks. The civil trial was interesting for a couple reasons.
It marked the first time people heard from Santiago Lopez, the maintenance worker who found Elisa's body on the roof. He provided interesting testimony about how difficult it was for him to get to the main water tank, let alone how physically demanding it would have been for Elisa. It was also surprising that no one saw her this entire time. And why didn't the hotel's alarm ring?
But the hotel's head engineer testified that if someone were up on the roof, it would have triggered an alarm, alerting the front desk staff. In the end, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge assigned to the case ruled in favor of the Cecil Hotel. The judge ruled Elisa's death was entirely unforeseeable, adding her death happened in a location where hotel guests weren't allowed.
So, the judge dismissed the entire lawsuit. The internet will forever talk about the death of Elisa Lam. The elevator video has been viewed on YouTube millions and millions of times. Her death has become one of mystery and confusion. Although her case was officially closed in 2013, many still believe the LAPD got this one wrong. Elisa Lam didn't die by accidental drowning.
To share your thoughts on Elisa Lam's death, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales. Let me know if you agree with the LAPD's accidental drowning theory, or if you're one of the people who believe something else happened to Elisa. Also, to check out photos from the case and watch the elevator video, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com.
Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. All right. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to cover.
Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio Production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell. For a small monthly contribution, you can gain access to bonus content and be one of the first to listen to new episodes.
or if you simply want to support my show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. You can also help support the show by leaving us a positive review and telling friends and family about us. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers,
If you'd like to become a producer of this show, head over to our Patreon page or email me at courtney at forensic tales dot com to find out how you can become involved.
For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Please join me next week. We release a new episode every Monday. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
Thank you.