Elisa Lam video: What happens in the Cecil Hotel CCTV footage?

Publish date: 2024-05-05

ELISA Lam was a Canadian woman whose death has been investigated in a new Netflix docuseries.

The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel takes viewers through Elisa's disappearance, but what happened to the 21-year-old?

What happened to Elisa Lam in Cecil Hotel CCTV footage?

Elisa disappeared in January 2013 while staying at the Cecil Hotel, which is situated in downtown LA in an area rife with drugs, crime, poverty and homelessness.

Two weeks later, her body was found in a water tank on the top of the hotel.

In CCTV footage, she was seen pressing buttons and hiding in a corner as she waited for the lift doors to close.

She kept peering out from the elevator, which still doesn't appear to move.

She leaves the lift and can be seen standing close to the door.

There are claims that she "conjured spirits" as she was seen making unusual hand gestures.

At around 2.30pm on January 31, 2013, Elisa is seen leaving the lift, and it is here that some claim to see the edge of another person's shoe.

Once Elisa has left the clip, the CCTV kept rolling, but some have claimed the video has been tampered with as the time stamp is blurry.

Some people have claimed she was playing the elevator game.

How did Elisa Lam die?

An LA coroner said her death was caused by accidental drowning.

The Netflix docuseries looks at whether it was murder, suicide, an accident or even something supernatural.

Authorities found no evidence of physical trauma in her autopsy report.

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Additionally, the only notable findings in the toxicology report were different medications to treat her bipolar disorder but there was no presence of alcohol or illegal drugs in her body at the time.

Only one person saw her prior to her death, a woman named Katie Orphan, the owner of The Last Bookstore, which Lam walked into and purchased presents to take to her family back home. 

Orphan told CBS LA: “It seemed like [Lam] had plans to return home, plans to give things to her family members and reconnect with them."

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