Pages

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Water: Significant Threat, Elisa Lam Mystery

Elisa Lam Video Is Bizarre, Body Found Turned Hotel Water ‘Black,’ Guests Say

Posted: February 21, 2013
eliza lam video

Video footage of Elisa Lam in the last moments she was known to be alive have been circulating the web, and it has also been reported that the Canadian woman’s body posed a significant and horrifying health threat to hotel guests as Lam lay undiscovered in a rooftop water tank.
Elisa Lam’s death was only discovered this week, but the Canadian disappeared at the end of January, likely the time her body came to be in the water tank at the Los Angeles hotel.
In the wake of the gruesome discovery, an Elisa Lam video from CCTV has been circulated, but the clip is the quintessential “raising more questions than answers” bit of evidence, as the young woman presses buttons in a lift that won’t close before stepping out and silently (there is no sound) gesturing dramatically with her hands before stepping off screen.
Elisa Lam was never seen alive again. But this week, her decomposing corpse was found in the tank, and along with it, a grim realization — guests at the hotel had been bathing, drinking and brushing their teeth with water from the tank turned tomb.
As the discovery of Lam’s remains was reported, many were horrified to learn of it — and in turn, reported some upsetting observations in the weeks leading up to the finding.
Gawker quotes British hotel guest Sabrina Baugh, who says:
“The water did have a funny taste … We never thought anything of it. We thought it was just the way it was here … The shower was awful. When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal.
Body Found Inside Hotel Water Tank

Baugh’s spouse Michael said the discovery of Elisa Lam’s corpse in the hotel water supply was incredibly upsetting, and adds that the couple are distressed by the finding:
“The moment we found out, we felt a bit sick to the stomach, quite literally, especially having drank the water, we’re not well mentally.”
After Elisa Lam’s body was discovered and the contamination of the water tank revealed, 11 of the hotel guests opted to stay on in the building — and reportedly were “required to sign a waiver in which they acknowledged being informed of the health risks and were being provided bottled water.”
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/536017/elisa-lam-video-body/#HIkSuwPXMQSWif8c.99


CCTV Footage..Very Odd


 

L.A. hotel drinking water tested after B.C. woman found in tank

Student, 21, discovered at bottom of one of four cisterns on roof of historic downtown hotel

Posted: Feb 21, 2013 7:48 AM ET

Last Updated: Feb 21, 2013 1:29 PM ET

Firefighters work to remove a body found inside a water tank on the rooftop of Hotel Cecil in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Firefighters work to remove a body found inside a water tank on the rooftop of Hotel Cecil in Los Angeles on Tuesday. (Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters )
British tourist Michael Baugh and his wife said water had only trickled for days as they brushed their teeth, showered and drank from the taps at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, but they could not have imagined the disturbing reason.
The body of Canadian Elisa Lam, 21, was later discovered at the bottom of one of four cisterns on the roof of the historic hotel near Skid Row. The tanks provide water for hotel taps and would have been used by guests for washing and drinking.
"The moment we found out, we felt a bit sick to the stomach, quite literally," Baugh said.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials were expected to release the results of tests on the water Thursday.

Risk of fecal contamination

When the body was discovered Tuesday, they issued a do-not-drink order while a lab analyzes the water, said Terrance Powell, a director co-ordinating the department's response. The disclosure contradicts a previous police statement that the water had been deemed safe.
Powell said the water was also used for cooking in the hotel; a coffee shop in the hotel would remain closed and has been instructed to sanitize its food equipment before reopening.
"Our biggest concern is going to be fecal contamination because of the body in the water," Powell said. He said the likelihood of contamination is "minimal" given the large amount of water the body was found in, but the department is being extra cautious.
Powell said the hotel hired a water treatment specialist after the department required it to do so to disinfect its plumbing lines.
A call to the hotel was not returned.
Lam's body was found by a maintenance worker. Police detectives were working to determine if her death was the result of foul play or an accident. LAPD Sgt. Rudy Lopez called it suspicious and said a coroner's investigation will determine Lam's cause of death.

Strange behaviour

Before she died, hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and sticking her head out the doors, looking in both directions. She was later found in the water tank.
Lam, of Vancouver, travelled alone to Los Angeles on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel.
Lopez said the hotel has four cisterns on its roof that are each about three metres tall, 1. 4 metres wide and hold at least 3,785 litres of water pumped up from city pipes.
Lam's body was found Tuesday morning at the bottom of one cistern that was about three-quarters full of water, Lopez said.

A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) 
A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (Nick Ut/Associated Press)The opening at the top of the cistern is too small to accommodate firefighters and equipment, so they had to cut a hole in the storage tank to recover Lam's body. The cisterns are on a platform at least three metres above the roof.
To get to the tanks, someone would have to go to the top floor then take a staircase with a locked door and emergency alarm preventing roof access. Another ladder would have to be taken to the platform and a person would have to climb the side of the tank.
Lopez said there are no security cameras on the roof.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 560 kilometres north of Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.

Historic hotel

The 600-room Cecil Hotel was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. It charges $65 a night.
The hotel is on Main Street in a part of downtown where efforts at gentrification often conflicts with homelessness and crime. It had once been the occasional home of 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.
By noon Wednesday, the Cecil Hotel had relocated 27 rooms used by guests to another hotel, but 11 rooms remained filled, Powell said. Those who chose to remain in the hotel were required to sign a waiver in which they acknowledged being informed of the health risks and were being provided bottled water, Powell said.
Baugh and his wife, who were on their first trip to the U.S., had planned to go to SeaWorld on Wednesday. Instead, they were trying to find a new hotel. Their tour agency placed them in another downtown hotel with a less than sterling reputation, from what they heard.
"We're just going from one dodgy place to another," Baugh said, resigned, "but at least there's water."


 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments always welcome!