Episode 18
The Elevator Footage Nobody Can Explain
The documented facts
- Elisa Lam, 21, a student at the University of British Columbia, checked into the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles in late January 2013.
- The LAPD released elevator footage on February 14, 2013 showing her pressing buttons and gesturing in an empty hallway.
- On February 19, 2013, worker Santiago Lopez found her body in a rooftop water tank; in a 2015 deposition he swore the hatch was open.
- The coroner ruled accidental drowning; bipolar disorder was a contributing condition and her prescribed antipsychotic was absent from her blood.
The Draugr does not invent. He documents.
The Death of Elisa Lam, 2013
The facts
- Late January 2013Elisa Lam, 21, a student at the University of British Columbia, checks into the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.
- February 14, 2013The LAPD releases elevator footage showing her pressing buttons and gesturing in an empty hallway.
- February 19, 2013Worker Santiago Lopez finds her body in a rooftop water tank. In a 2015 deposition he swears the hatch was open.
The evidence
- The coroner ruled accidental drowning. Bipolar disorder was a contributing condition, and her prescribed antipsychotic was absent from her blood.
- The water tank's hatch was open when the maintenance worker looked inside, on the sworn record.
Sources
The words, as I spoke them.
Transcript
Heh heh heh! Los Angeles, twenty thirteen, the Cecil Hotel. I'm the night guard, reviewing the elevator tape... here's Elisa Lam, twenty-one, stepping into the car.
She mashes every button, heh!, then steps OUT, waving at something I can't see in the hallway. Pleading... as the doors open and close... for no one.
Then, gone! Nineteen days later, guests say the water tastes wrong... and they find her inside the rooftop water tank. Too heavy to open... alone.
Accident, they say, heh heh! But I still work these nights... and her elevator stops on empty floors. Doors wide... for the guest who never checked out. Ah ha ha!
Dramatized for the telling. The facts above are documented; the narration is the Draugr’s retelling of them.
Wear the nightmare
The Dreaded wear the mark.
Enter the shop
