The Death of Elisa Lam — Cecil Hotel Mystery

Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student, was found dead in a rooftop water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles on February 19, 2013, having been missing for three weeks. The last known footage, from an elevator camera, showed her behaving erratically — pressing all buttons, hiding in corners, appearing to interact with someone outside camera view. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled her death accidental drowning, with bipolar disorder as a contributing factor. The eerie elevator footage sparked massive internet speculation about foul play, the supernatural, and the hotel's dark history, and the case was the subject of a Netflix documentary in 2021.