no discussion on Cecil Hotel? (Los Angeles, Oakland: crimes, how much, money)

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by harhar

But being by herself, getting into the water tank and now the inconclusive autopsy is obviously very suspicious...

Yes, although she didn't climb into the water tank of her own voliton. Only employees had keys and/or access to the roof. Somebody must have drugged her and taken her up there. Horrible.

[Spikett]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Yes, although she didn't climb into the water tank of her own voliton. Only employees had keys and/or access to the roof. Somebody must have drugged her and taken her up there. Horrible.

Yep. No matter how many drugs she'd taken (voluntarily or involuntarily) she could hardly have ended up in the water tank on her own.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Why is it highly unlikely that a homeless/transient person killed her? This area is known for having those types hanging around in bulk...

Because homeless-on-tourist crime is not very common (sort of like gang violence). In fact it would be more likely that tourist would do this to a homeless person than vice-versa.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by harhar

Yeah this is a sad story. It really breaks my heart and it's weird how strange it was with her ending up in the water tank.
When I saw where it was and how she was acting in the video I immediately thought "drugs." Marijuana laced with something stronger. Or some sort of psychotic episode. But I'm betting on the former.

I'm thinking PCP, ecstasy, something that causes you to hallucinate and can also kill you through overdose.

[harhar]

Originally Posted by munchitup

I'm thinking PCP, ecstasy, something that causes you to hallucinate and can also kill you through overdose.

First off we don't know what kind of girl Elisa was; she obviously was an adventurous type traveling alone, so drug experimentation wouldn't be out of the ordinary, however...

The only reason why I say Marijuana (or something that looked like Marijuana) is because who in their right mind would think, "OK, I'm a woman alone with strangers, let's do some PCP."

Meaning, I'm thinking it was a "gateway" in this instance...although alcohol could have done the same thing...unless she was forced to take Acid/LSD, or harmlessly smoked some pot (which can induce some strange behaviors, paranoia, some hallucinations, depending on the strain) then took something else, like Ecstasy then...maybe, like you say...overdose???

Another guess is that she met someone online and met them at the hotel.

The water container/tower really bugs me though.

A plausible situation is that her and another party went up to the roof to view the sights while very high/intoxicated they both climbed up onto the water tower to get a better view. They notice the flap that covers the container and she climbs in. The other party who is also high, panics when she can't get out and so the other party gets out of dodge.

But the inconclusive autopsy results don't seem to bear that out.

...and I think it's going to end up more sinister than that too.

[sushiqueen]

I think an employee killed her and hid her body in the water tower. The video looked like she was hiding and trying to get away from someone. She pressed all the floors maybe with the intention of preventing this person from knowing where she was going. Strangely the doors did not close. It looked like she was waiting for them to close. She peeked her head out quickly as if to check on why they were not closing and hoping not to be seen by the person she was trying to get away from - probably an employee - who else could bypass alarms, control the elevator and get on the locked roof? When she stepped off the elevator it looked like she was waving her hands through the doorway to see what was up with the doors. It looked like she was smiling at one point and did a little wavy thing with her hands. Maybe this person or someone else came by and she was trying to cover? I don't believe she was on drugs or crazy in any way. She looks like a scared person trying to get away. It is horrific what happened to her.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by sushiqueen

I think an employee killed her and hid her body in the water tower. The video looked like she was hiding and trying to get away from someone. She pressed all the floors maybe with the intention of preventing this person from knowing where she was going. Strangely the doors did not close. It looked like she was waiting for them to close. She peeked her head out quickly as if to check on why they were not closing and hoping not to be seen by the person she was trying to get away from - probably an employee - who else could bypass alarms, control the elevator and get on the locked roof? When she stepped off the elevator it looked like she was waving her hands through the doorway to see what was up with the doors. It looked like she was smiling at one point and did a little wavy thing with her hands. Maybe this person or someone else came by and she was trying to cover? I don't believe she was on drugs or crazy in any way. She looks like a scared person trying to get away. It is horrific what happened to her.

I disagree, she didn't look frightened at all. Which is what makes it even more bizarre.

I get what HarHar is saying, I have no idea if she is the kind of person that would do drugs (though I've never encountered pot that would make someone act the way she did in the elevator). Would make sense if the weed was laced with PCP or something. MDMA is used pretty casually these days, I think the typical 20-something would be okay taking that but PCP seems more "hardcore". Ecstasy is also likely to kill you if you take to much or have a poor reaction to it. It is also an easy drug to administer to someone unknowingly.

[sushiqueen]

She was clearly trying to hide from someone. She looked very frightened to me. What you don't see on the video is what was outside the elevator. You also don't hear sound. She could have encountered someone and was interacting with them which looks like bizarre behaviour on the video but which could make perfect sense if you saw the whole picture.

Drugs don't explain why the elevator remained open. Drugs also don't explain how she got to the roof, which was locked with an alarm, and into the water tower which had such a small opening the top had to be destroyed to open it.

[genjy]

It seems like she was panicking when she entered the elevator... as if she was trying to get away from someone without being very obvious about it. Then, she stepped outside not to corner herself inside the elevator while waiting for a passerby or for the elevator to work.

She went back inside the elevator to give it one more try and then stepped out again. Then, at the end, she was talking with someone to her right--maybe passively negotiating or explaining what was going on in before giving up or being coerced to leave.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by sushiqueen

She was clearly trying to hide from someone. She looked very frightened to me. What you don't see on the video is what was outside the elevator. You also don't hear sound. She could have encountered someone and was interacting with them which looks like bizarre behaviour on the video but which could make perfect sense if you saw the whole picture.

Drugs don't explain why the elevator remained open. Drugs also don't explain how she got to the roof, which was locked with an alarm, and into the water tower which had such a small opening the top had to be destroyed to open it.

The elevator seemed to be broken. Long after she (apparently) leaves the scene the elevator doors open and close a bunch. I think it was just broken (it's a crappy hotel, so it makes sense).

I get that there could have been someone outside the elevator but if she was really scared of them, why would she turn her back to whomever it was, multiple times, in the video? I've seen a few people hallucinate and that is pretty much what it looks like.

Some commenter on one of the stories posited that there was someone pushing the "call" button to keep the elevator open. I'm assuming this would be the right of the elevator, because that is the direction she is facing when "talking" to the unseen person. Problem with that is she exits to the opposite side, and then it takes a good 30-40 seconds the elevator doors to close (when unseen person could finally have cross the door out of sight of the camera). That is a lot of time to escape down the stairs and if she was lucid wouldn't she go find help?

By the way I'm not ruling out this is murder, I just think this video is evidence she was drugged by someone and at some point perhaps overdosed. The panicked assailant (who very well could have worked at hotel) shoved her in the water to hide the body. It would be even more terrible / disgusting if it was an employee, who would have known there was a decomposing body in the water for weeks!