A 21-year-old Canadian student went missing at a Los Angeles hotel in 2013. The case became one of the most talked-about missing person stories in recent years. Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel (which has its own dark legacy) in downtown LA on Jan. 28, 2013. She was traveling alone along the West Coast. She was supposed to check out on Feb. 1, but she never showed up.
Lam’s parents called the police after they stopped hearing from their daughter. She had been calling them every day during her trip. Police brought dogs to search the hotel, but could not find her. All her things were still in her room. This included her ID, medication, and laptop. On February 13, police shared security video from the hotel elevator. It showed the last time anyone saw Lam. The video spread quickly online.
Elisa Lam was this 21-year-old student from Vancouver, Canada, saving up for months to take a solo trip down to Los Angeles in early 2013. She checked into the Cecil Hotel, this rundown spot downtown known for its sketchy past, on January 26.
— X Case Files (@XCaseFiles) September 12, 2025
By the 31st, she was gone, no sign… pic.twitter.com/xnrXPdV8Py
According to the BBC, in the footage, the elevator doors won’t close as the student jumps in and out, speaking to someone who isn’t there. She presses many buttons and looks out of the elevator nervously. She hides against the wall. Her actions look strange.
“The water tasted weird”
Things took a sad turn on February 19, 2013. A hotel worker found Lam’s body that day. Hotel guests had been saying the water pressure was low. They also said the water tasted weird. The worker went to check the water tanks on the hotel roof. He found Lam’s naked and decomposing body floating in one of the four water tanks. She had been missing for 19 days.
The autopsy showed no signs that anyone had hurt her physically. There were no signs of sexual assault either. Tests found prescription medications in her body, but no alcohol or illegal drugs. The Los Angeles County Coroner said her death was an accident. They said she drowned.
In 2013, Elisa Lam mysteriously died and somehow ended up in a water tank on top of the hotel she was staying at. Security footage shows her acting erratically and hiding in the elevator. In movies, elevators are commonly associated with demons and other dimensions. pic.twitter.com/f2OnVoejWs
— Nick Hinton (@NickHintonn) October 4, 2019
They also said her bipolar disorder played a big part in what happened. The report showed that Lam had not been taking her medications correctly. Her family later told people that she had stopped taking her bipolar medications on previous occasions and when that happened, she would see things that weren’t there.
Detective Tim Marcia said the family told police about times when Lam stopped taking her medication. During those times, she would see things and sometimes hide under her bed. She went to the hospital at least once because of this. A Netflix show called Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel later looked into the case.
Former hotel manager Amy Price talked about the case publicly for the first time in the documentary. She insisted there was no secret plot or cover-up: “I can say 100 percent in confidence that there is no conspiracy to Elisa Lam’s death.”
Many people came up with theories without knowing about Lam’s mental health problems. One person was even wrongly accused of murder and received death threats. True crime shows that get amateur detectives interested have become very popular. But this case showed how these kinds of investigations can hurt innocent people.
