Tourist's body found inside hotel water tank
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police were trying to determine Wednesday if the death of a Canadian woman who was missing for weeks before her body was found wedged into a water tank atop a Los Angeles hotel was the result of foul play or an accident.
The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was discovered Tuesday by a maintenance worker at the 600-room, downtown Cecil Hotel after guests complained of low water pressure.
Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled to California alone on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel near Skid Row that offers rooms for $65 a night.
Police initially called her disappearance suspicious. Investigators are now considering the possibility of foul play because of the location where the body was found. It was unclear what water from the tanks was used for.
An autopsy could be performed as early as Thursday to determine the cause of death.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
Hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and at one point sticking her head out the doors and looking in both directions.
A call to the hotel seeking comment was not immediately returned. It was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. Police said there have been reports of crime at the site.
The hotel had once been the occasional home to infamous serial killers such as Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and Austrian prison author Jack Unterweger, who was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe and the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.
The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was discovered Tuesday by a maintenance worker at the 600-room, downtown Cecil Hotel after guests complained of low water pressure.
Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled to California alone on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel near Skid Row that offers rooms for $65 a night.
Police initially called her disappearance suspicious. Investigators are now considering the possibility of foul play because of the location where the body was found. It was unclear what water from the tanks was used for.
An autopsy could be performed as early as Thursday to determine the cause of death.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
Hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and at one point sticking her head out the doors and looking in both directions.
A call to the hotel seeking comment was not immediately returned. It was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. Police said there have been reports of crime at the site.
The hotel had once been the occasional home to infamous serial killers such as Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and Austrian prison author Jack Unterweger, who was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe and the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.
Suspicious? you dont think? how else did she get in there?
This is so incredibly sad and icky....
Are the POLICE in L.A. really asserting that she might have accidentally got herself wedged inside of this water tank on top of a hotel? Come onnnnnnnn x infinity with that one.... accidentally.
Sheâs been missing for weeks and weeks â she is a tourist from another country - and just now, after hundreds of paid hotel room customers have come and gone and USED the water source at this hotel - we all get word from the police that FOR WEEKS AND WEEKS AND WEEKS a dead and decomposing body was inside of this water source at a downtown L.A. Hotel?
LA Police and LA Medical Examinerâs office - you need to be contacting hundreds of hotel patrons at the Cecil Hotel and dealing with the very real PUBLIC HEALTH issue here that is unraveling â along with this suspicious death that no way/no how was âaccidentalâ â at all of a foreign tourist.
Ewww... And really sad.
I hope my wife didn't watch KATU tonight. 30 years ago, my sister in law passed away just like that, the different was her body was found the next day. Police never found the killer. 2 weeks after that, my father in law followed her, he was long time ill and gave up hope and joy. This incident happened on august luna year, 1982.
Rest in peace miss Lam.
Police calling the death suspicious...  Is there any other natural way that a person could wedge them self in a hotel water tank? LA just continue to suck.
the CNN story has many more delicious details:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/20/us/california-hotel-water-corpse/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
@Mipsfer Was afraid that was going to be the case.
My first girlfriend was Chinese, now I'm sad...
Thoughts and prayers with you.
@PeterAWolf feel sorry for ya, man
Definitely looks like she is hiding from someone and talking to someone outside of the elevator at one point. How sad. I hope they are able to find the guilty party ASAP.
That would explain why even after drinking water, an hour later you're thirsty again.
@Iast boyscout Oh wow I just got that. DOPE! I'm slow..Â
I think I'll be taking bottled water to hotels from now on..Â
This definitely sounds like someone in the hotel did it. Also, there are gaps in the elevator video. There may be more information from that (like another person) that the police know about but are not giving out any information yet.Â
This could be god's work. He is given credit for everything.
@lovescardboard As He should.. He created it all so He owns it ALL.
This bothers you because??Â
Give me a break.
I bet that water tastes good
@LostSoul lol
ewwwwwwww yuck yuck
Ok, first thing...ewwww, I feel bad for those that used that water. Secondly, watch the video, they show her and she seems to be acting very odd BUT her actions appear to be like she's trying to lose someone that might be following her, peering out the elevator, pressing a bunch of buttons, etc...I know these actions because a friend of mine accidentally told a prostitute he'd "party with her" outside of his hotel, only to realize that it was a prostitute, then he tried to lose her in the hotel, she was persistent and followed, watching this girls actions in the video reminded me of his story about how he lost her, hiding, pushing a bunch of buttons , etc...
Murder, inside job by someone who had access to the roof and water tanks.
Sounds so familiar. Oh yea. An episode of CSI had something very similar where a man shoved his dead wife in their apartment building's water tank. I hope they don't find that someone got the idea off of TV and did it in real life.Â
Right..so she was confused..stopping at different floors and looking out, until she somehow climbed into the water tower, thinking that was what? The Hotel Pool? And the spooky history of a couple of killers making that place their dwelling is pretty eery as well.
Accident?? Come on...Â
And sorry for the woman & her family but I have to say YUCK! Guests were using that water since Jan.. Ewwww!Â
Okay, after watching the video I can see why they are even entertaining the scenario of "a very, very strange accident". Very sad, nonetheless.