On the February of 2013, the body of Elisa Lam
was discovered from the top of a water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los
Angeles. She was reportedly missing for a couple of days prior to her death,
until a maintenance worker discovered her dead body after a guest in the hotel
started complaining about the water supply and pressure.

Five days prior to her death, media coverage—
as well as the public interest— gained intensity as Elisa Lam’s last video
(before her disappearance) got viral. The Los Angeles Police Department had
released the video of her re-entering the elevator and speaking to someone in
the hallway in an eerily strange manner.

The quality of the video was poor and the
elevator seemed to be malfunctioning at the time. Honestly, the video is
unsettling and there seems to be paranormal activity happening. Some suggest
that the video was altered before its release.

In addition to the video, the state in which
Lam was discovered was also questionable. She was naked and most of her clothes
were floating in the water. In fact, it took the police officials four months
to release the autopsy reports. After much delay, it was revealed that the body
had no evidence of trauma and the death was purely accidental.

Not only did Lam’s parents file a lawsuit
against the hotel, but the guest in the hotel did, too. Lam’s circumstances of
death were eerily similar to the horror film, Dark Water, released in 2002. In
fact, her story is often referenced in international pop culture.

There’s much interest in Elisa Lam, as people want
to know who she was and what her story was, since her death was so tragic.

The daughter of immigrant parents from Hong
Kong,she was a student at the University of British Columbia and—during her
last days— she visited San Diego Zoo and took several pictures there and uploaded
them on her social media accounts. She arrived in LA on the 26^th of
January and checked into the Cecil Hotel two days later.

Interestingly, she was assigned a shared room
on the fifth floor but— due to the complaints made by her roommates— she was
shifted to another room, where she stayed on her own. The lawyers of her
roommates claimed that the changes in the room were due to her odd behavior.

It is said that because of the Great Depression,
Cecil lost its market value and faced several financial difficulties from which
it never recovered. Moreover, several high profile murders have occurred at
this hotel.

For example, in 1964, Goldie Osgood was raped
and murdered in one of the rooms and, unfortunately, that investigation never
saw a verdict. In addition, serial killers like Jack Unterweger and Richard
Ramirez have both been known to have committed active crimes in this hotel. In
fact, not just murders, there have been several reported suicides committed at
Cecil.

Lam was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and
depression, and had four prescriptions as treatment. Her family made several
key revelations indicating her state of mind. Apparently, they keep her mental
health issues a secret from everyone. They also revealed that she had no
history of suicidal ideation. But the interesting thing to find out is that she
once went missing prior to her death— but that was only for a brief period.

She started a blog in 2010, where she posted
pictures of various models and clothing designs. However, soon, the blog became
all about her life and her struggle with mental illness. In the January of
2012, she suffered from a relapse, because of which she had to drop a couple of
classes at school. This left her feeling directionless and lost.

One of the posts was titled “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re
wasting your life” which is a quote by Chuck Palahniuk. After two
years, she announced that she’ll be starting another blog on Tumblr called Nouvelle-Nouveau, which would be dedicated to fashion related content. However,
she used the same quotation on this blog.

For more information on the life of Elisa Lam
or the Cecil Hotel, make sure you’ve liked our page on Facebook.

Death of Elisa Lam shocked the world as it was
all over social media – Netflix’s latest true crime series is a testament to
that! Watch the scary last video of hers that went viral because that all you
need to watch to give this crime series a go!