Unexplained demise of Elisa Lam – part 2

Unexplained : True Tales of Unexplained Mysteries with Bestselling Author Steph Young - A podcast by Steph Young

In the elevator, Elisa Lam wore a red hoodie and a white shirt. In the elevator of the Cecil Hotel, we can see she is wearing this outfit. Very strangely, this is identical to the outfit a character called ‘Cecilia,’ wore in the horror movie ‘Dark Water’, where a woman ends up dead in a water tower on the roof of a building. There is also a very creepy elevator scene in the movie, with a young woman dressed identical to Elisa Lam in the elevator. What happened to Elisa Lam is almost identical to this horror movie; yet the movie was made before Elisa’s death. Elisa died in 2013. The movie was released in 2005. It is a remake of a Japanese horror movie made in 2002, and the story originates from a book by Koji Suzuki who also wrote ‘The Rings.’ The American version of ‘Dark Water’ stars Jennifer Connelly as ‘Dahlia,’ who has a young daughter called ‘Cecilia.’ They move into a run-down apartment. Not long after they move in, water begins to drip from their bedroom ceiling. The elevator in the building is prone to malfunctioning, like Elisa’s elevator. Cecilia sneaks up to the roof one day and finds a back-pack sitting next to the water tower. In time, Cecilia and Dahlia cannot help but notice the dark water which starts to run out of their taps and toilet. Dahlia goes up to the roof and to her horror, she finds a girl’s dead body floating in the water tower; just like the real-life case of Elisa Lam at the Cecil hotel. How can it be that a movie released before Elisa vanished, seems to mimic so precisely the last known hours of Elisa’s life; even down to the exact outfit she is wearing in an old elevator that malfunctions just like the elevator in the movie? Naming one character ‘Cecilia,’ and the other ‘Dahlia,’ we also cannot but help think of the infamous ‘Black Dahlia’ case in LA, and indeed there seems to be many similarities between Elisa Lam and the ‘Black Dahlia’ victim, Elizabeth Short. Many believe that the Cecil Hotel where Elisa vanished was the last place Elizabeth Short was seen. Elizabeth Short was a young aspiring actress who was found mutilated in January 1947. Her face was carved into a ‘Glasgow Smile’, her body drained of blood, and cut in half, then washed in gasoline. When a local resident happened across her body, at first, they thought it was a store mannequin. Her body was left on display, deliberately to be found and seen. The notorious case of ‘The Black Dahlia,’ as Elizabeth Short came to be known, is an as yet still-unsolved murder-mystery that has beguiled so many. Elisa was ‘washed clean’ by the water, and some believe she too had been drained of blood, because there was so little blood left in her body that it was not even possible to carry out many of the necessary forensic tests. There are other striking and unsettling similarities between Elisa Lam and Elizabeth Short, whose severed body was found on Leimont Park. Both Elizabeth and Elisa were petite, brunette, and pretty, both were called names that derive from Elizabeth, both were in their twenties, and both sadly suffered from depression. Both were known to travel alone and both had travelled from San Diego to downtown LA just prior to their deaths. Both Elisa and the Black Dahlia vanished after last being seen in a downtown hotel, and many say this was the Cecil Hotel. Both were not reported missing for a number of days before their bodies were found, and both died horrifying, inexplicable deaths that would become notorious. Both appear to have been drained of blood. Both cases ‘went viral.’ Newspapers around the world and armchair detectives have been fascinated with the mystery of who killed ‘The Black Dahlia’ for decades, and now Elisa too. Notably as already said, the movie ‘Dark Water’ has a central character called ‘Dahlia,’ and ‘Dahlia’s young daughter is called ‘Cecilia’; so similar to the word ‘Cecil,’ Elisa’s Hotel. It would almost seem as though this movie ties the Black Dahlia and Elisa Lam together in a way that is impossible ...