(laughing) (yelling) - Alright, let's fix the camera. So today we're driving to the Stay on Main Hotel or as it was formally known, the Cecil Hotel, as part of an ongoing series where I tell this guy true crime stories and today, we have the privilege of actually going there because it's in LA and this place happens to be the site of one of the most bizarre mysteries I've ever read. Alright, so we're in our hotel room now, I guess it's time to tell this story - [Brent] In a giant red chair that's shaped like a hand.
(laughs) - [Ryan] So on January 26th, 2013, twenty-one year old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. On February 19th, eighteen days from the last time she was seen, Elisa Lam's body was found naked and floating in a four foot by eight foot water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel where she was staying. - [Brent] This sounds horrible.
- [Ryan] You want to know what it was that led to her discovery? - [Brent] Uh. .
. - [Ryan] It was hotel guests complaining about the low water pressure from the hotel. - [Brent] Nice.
- [Ryan] One couple after the fact reported that the water would come out black before normalizing and that it had a bad taste, but didn't complain at the time because they thought that was normal for LA. - Are you gonna drink the water? - No I'm not gonna drink the water.
No, don't drink that, come on man. - Cheers. - [Ryan] You're a savage.
- Tastes clean. - I mean, it has been three years. It tastes just like water but it's too much for me to bear.
I can't. Plus, there's like this weird fucking water pipe thing going on up here. Another interesting piece of info is from a statement from the hotel manager, and apparently when Elisa checked into the hotel, she was originally in a hostel-style shared room, but later was moved to her own private room due to complaints from her roommates of odd behavior.
It turns out the last time she was seen was actually on surveillance footage from the hotel elevator. I'm gonna show you the key points of it. - [Brent] Show me there's footage?
- [Ryan] Yeah, what you're about to see is, I don't know. - [Brent] I don't want to see, is there dead? I don't want to see anything.
- [Ryan] No, no, no, no, it's weird. I'll tell you that, it's weird. All right, so this is the surveillance footage from the elevator.
This is the last time she was seen. So that's her. - [Brent] But why is she.
. . It like looks like she's hiding, I'm not sure what.
- [Ryan] It looks like someone was chasing her. But I feel like you wouldn't get out of the elevator if someone was chasing you. I mean, she appears to be moving her hands in like a really weird, inhuman way.
- [Brent] How has the elevator doors not closed yet? - [Ryan] I have no idea. It almost looks like she's talking to somebody right now, right?
Does it not look like she's talking to somebody directly in front of her? - [Brent] Yeah. I mean, not directly in front of her, down the hall, but.
I mean there's no one in front of her so, yeah, okay. - [Ryan] That's the video. - [Brent] Point one, that's strange, I'll give you that.
- [Ryan] That's super strange, right? - [Brent] But that doesn't really give us any information. - [Ryan] I mean, it gives you some theories though.
One of which was she was on hallucinogens or drunk, and while Elisa was in fact bipolar, and reportedly took four different medications for that disorder, this theory that she was on hallucinogens or drunk was quickly rebuked by the fact that her toxicology test results came back with nothing in her system that could have contributed to her death. - [Brent] Yea, but, if she's bipolar, just right there, that could explain why she was doing that. - [Ryan] It's possible.
- [Brent] Yeah. - [Ryan] Another theory was that she was actually murdered, but the autopsy showed no visible signs of trauma on her body. So if evidence suggests that it wasn't foul play and that it wasn't drugs, many wonder what could have led Elisa to actually climb in the tank herself and that's a good question because nobody knows even how she got up there.
I mean, in fact, to get to the roof, Elisa would have to either A, climb up the fire escape, and there is three at the hotel, but you'd have to go out a window to do that. - [Brent] Mm-hmm. - [Ryan] B, go through a locked rooftop door that would set off an alarm if opened and no alarm was heard that day.
- [Brent] Mm. - [Ryan] Once she even got up there, which, at this point, after seeing that video, I think it's highly unlikely she was able to do that but okay, fair enough, she got up there somehow, she would have to get on the tank platform, climb up a ten foot ladder, open a twenty pound lid, get into the tank, and somehow close the fucking lid after she got in and then you like also got to remember she was naked, so that means she either took her clothes off before or-- - [Brent] Were the clothes never found? - [Ryan] The clothes were found in the tank, so she must have taken the clothes off in the tank.
- [Brent] Or they were thrown in. - [Ryan] Or they were thrown in, exactly, yeah. This whole scenario to me is fishy.
- [Brent] Yeah, definitely fishy. - [Ryan] For her to have done that all herself. Another popular theory, and you're not gonna like this but I have to say it, is a ghost.
If you look at the video, it appears as if Elisa's talking to someone right outside the elevator, which has led some on the internet to believe that she is talking to the ghost of serial killer Richard Ramirez who was convicted of thirteen murders and stayed in the Cecil Hotel from 1984 to 1985. It's also worth noting that Ramirez was a known satanist. - [Brent] Absolutely not.
- [Ryan] So you're saying you don't even think there's even a little bit of a possibility that this place is a little haunted and it can drive people to do some crazy shit. - [Brent] To me, it's basically like saying so you don't believe there's even a little possibility that the spaghetti monster did this, you know-- - [Ryan] There's no recorded history of a spaghetti monster. I don't know where you're getting that.
- [Brent] Show me the scientific journal in which they've posted all these ghost studies. - [Ryan] There is footage of things moving on their own. - [Brent] Footage is not science.
- [Ryan] Well there's no one that's like, "I'm gonna be a ghost scientist". - [Brent] Why not? - [Ryan] Because that's a weird-- - [Brent] There's footage.
- [Ryan] Just think of that title on a business card, that's weird. I'm a ghost scientist. - [Brent] Yeah.
- [Ryan] And that's really just the tip of the iceberg for the Cecil. It also played home to Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger in 1991, was the site of an unsolved murder in 1964, and was also, according to some, one of the last places the Black Dahlia was seen alive. And, to pile it on even more, there have been numerous accounts of people who have jumped to their death from the roof of the Cecil to the point where longtime residents refer to the hotel as The Suicide.
- [Brent] If anything, that goes against the ghost theory because there's already recorded history of it being easy for people to get up onto the roof, therefore, it must have been easy for her to get up onto the roof. - [Ryan] Lemme check to see if it's actually the roof or if it's just jumping. - [Ryan] Oh, okay, now you're changing your story because it doesn't fit.
(laughs) Your designed ghost story package. You see, you can't just-- - [Ryan] I'm gonna check. - [Brent] Change the facts in order to-- - [Ryan] I'm gonna serve you up a fresh truth pancake right now.
We'll see how you like it, hold on. - [Brent] I do like pancakes. - [Ryan] Jumped to their deaths from the building.
Never says the roof. - [Brent] Hmm. - [Ryan] Authorities ultimately ruled Elisa's death was accidental drowning.
- [Brent] I'm just feeling bad for the family who's, people are brick, like-- - [Ryan] And that's exactly what my next point was gonna be. - [Brent] Yeah. - [Ryan] Is like, lost in all the madness is the family.
- [Brent] Yes. - [Ryan] Who also actually filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel - [Brent] Good. - [Ryan] Which was eventually dismissed.
- [Brent] What? - [Ryan] But, like I said before, the real tragedy is to the family.
