The bizarre and chilling footage made its way online on February 14, where it quickly went viral. Some theorized that Lam was high on drugs, that she was mentally ill, or even both. Others claimed she was possessed by a demon or hiding from someone – or something – that can’t be seen on the video. Many even said the University of British Columbia student was playing the elevator game. The said game is an urban legend ritual from Korea portrayed to allow the player to access another world. It’s unclear whether the Otherworld to which the elevator delivers you is the Shadowside referred to by FableForge in his various games and rituals, or whether it’s something else entirely.

 

The Cecil Hotel, which has now been re-branded as Stay on Main, is better known for its dark history than its quality rooms and is blighted by tragedy and violence. Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, supposedly stayed at the Cecil before she was murdered in 1947. In 1964 Goldie Osgood, aka the Pigeon Lady of Pershing Square, was raped and murdered in her hotel room. Richard Ramirez, better known as the Night Stalker, and his copycat Jack Unterweger lived at the Cecil while they committed their brutal crimes.

 

The hotel has also played host to many suicides, including Julia Frances Moore, 50, who climbed out of her eighth floor room window and jumped to her death. Most recently, on 13 June, 2015, a body of a twenty-eight-year-old male was found outside the hotel. Many believed he had committed suicide by jumping from the hotel, though a spokesperson for the county coroner informed the newspaper that the cause of death had not been determined and that his name would not be released until his family could be notified. Whatever the case, The Cecil Hotel has been the scene of at least fifteen deaths resulting from non-natural causes – suicide, accident or murder.

 

Two weeks after Lam had been reported missing, guests at the Cecil began complaining of low water pressure in their rooms and brownish sludge-like water seeping out of their taps. On the morning of February 19, an employee named Santiago Lopez, who began working at the Hotel in 2010 as a maintenance employee, went to check on the hotel’s four rooftop water tanks to see what the problem was. He noticed the top hatch to one of the 1,000-gallon water tanks was open. Lopez climbed a set of ladders and peered inside and was horrified by what he saw. Floating face up in the water near the top of the tank was the naked body of a young woman. It was Elisa Lam. He said of his discovery, “I noticed the hatch to the main water tank was open and looked inside and saw an Asian woman lying face-up in the water approximately twelve inches from the top of the tank.”

 

Lopez told the police that no one could access the roof without tripping an alarm. In fact, he had to deactivate the alarm system himself before stepping out. Only hotel staff possessed the keys to the rooftop stairwell and door. According to the hotel’s engineer, even if you did reach the roof without setting off an alarm, you’d have to climb onto the water tank platform, scale a second ladder to the top of the tanks, lift the heavy metal hatch, and jump inside.

 

While hunting for Lam police had checked the roof during their initial investigation, but did not think to look in the tanks. Lopez said that he didn’t notice anything wrong with the alarm on the door to the roof the day he discovered her body, nor had he heard it go off at any point during Lam’s stay. To this day, no one knows how she reached the roof without setting off the alarm system, or how she gained entrance to the tank – and then, how or why she drowned.

 

There are, however, four ways to get onto the roof. Three fire escapes, which you can get to via interior doors, and one staircase from the 14th floor! An alarm will sound if someone attempts to open the door to the roof unless it is deactivated first. If the alarm does sound, it is audible to the front desk as well as the 14th and 15th floors.