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E011 Elisa Lam
2.2k Plays5 years ago
College student Elisa Lam left for a west coast trip to unwind, but her disappearance (in addition to the bizarre final sighting of her caught on an elevator camera at the Cecil Hotel) has led to too many theories to count. Maggie and Allison explore several of those mind-boggling theories in this week's episode.
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Transcript
The Pressures of College Life
00:00:01
Speaker
College can be a stressful time. I remember countless nights spent studying, sitting through class with little to no sleep, and struggling to get all my assignments completed before the due date. There were days when I needed a break and escape. All college students feel this way. In fact, I think we can all agree, most adults feel this way.
00:00:21
Speaker
Sometimes we feel the world resting on our shoulders and we need that break just to relax and to let our minds just cool down.
Ernest Jabawa's Advice for Stress Relief
00:00:29
Speaker
Ernest Jabawa said free your mind, disentangle your mindset from what can set your mind from your true purpose.
00:00:36
Speaker
dare when you have to, enjoy when it's a must, relax when there is a need to. The story I'm bringing you today started off as just that, a relaxing break from the chaos of school. A trip to explore the West Coast quickly turned into questions left unanswered
00:00:53
Speaker
and a grieving family. We like to think that we're untouchable, that riding that train alone at night is fine, that women and men disappearing only happen in movies, that it could never happen to us. We trick ourselves into saying, I'll just call my mom, my boyfriend, whoever, until I get back to the hotel
00:01:11
Speaker
Then I'll be safe.
Alyssa Lamb's Disappearance
00:01:12
Speaker
We let people know where we're going and when we'll be back. We keep in touch. We check in. We never think it will be us. But as today's story points out, it could be us. Think of all the trips you went on as a young adult. All the things you did that now, looking back, you're shocked nothing bad happened. As much as we plan and we plan, the unexpected and the unimaginable still happen.
00:01:37
Speaker
Despite all the planning, all the details we've put into place, things can still be out of your control. As much as we want to say, not me, it will never happen to me. How can we be sure? Our victim today, I'm sure, thought the same things. But her well planned out trip left her family heartbroken and left us wondering how.
Hosts' Mission for Awareness and Justice
00:01:59
Speaker
This is a story of Alyssa Lamb.
00:02:16
Speaker
So
00:02:36
Speaker
Welcome to coffee and cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement.
00:02:52
Speaker
So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
College Struggles and Alyssa's Parallels
00:02:55
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. I'm not gonna lie, this story kind of left me a little spooked out.
00:03:18
Speaker
It left me with a lot of unanswered questions, and when we get into the meat and bones of this episode, I think you're gonna see why. Alyssa Lamb was just like most college students, Allison. She was a hard worker, but like so many others, she felt, at times, overwhelmed by her workload. Oh, that was me. Yeah, I know we've all been there. Oh my gosh, I pulled so many all-nighters. It was ridiculous. I would take like
00:03:41
Speaker
What is it, 12 or 15 hours is like normal full time? I would take like 18, 21, yeah I was crazy. I think Anthony said that one time his freshman year he was pulling an all nighter and fell asleep standing up in front of his parents
Alyssa's Solo Trip Concerns
00:03:57
Speaker
refrigerator. Oh I totally believe him. He had been so tired. Yeah.
00:04:00
Speaker
I know that we have all been there. I think back to my last year in college and how stressed I was to make sure that my grades stayed up. I was really striving for a 4.0 and I wanted to make sure that I had my life prepared for, you know, after graduation, which I didn't anyways. Well, Alyssa wasn't desperate need of a break. She was dead set on making a trip from Vancouver where she attended college to explore the western coast of the United States. Not really sure what drew her there, but she wanted to go.
00:04:29
Speaker
And like many other college-age students, she felt that she could manage the trip alone. Her parents, though obviously, were dead set against the idea of her traveling to the United States and touring the western coast alone. See, this is, I guess I'm torn on this because I get it.
00:04:46
Speaker
why a parent would be super nervous because obviously your kids going to another country. Yeah alone. But like during college I did study abroad and so then I think you know that was an awesome experience and well I guess I technically wasn't alone because there were a couple of other
00:05:05
Speaker
Students from my college who went at the same
Arrival in LA and Hotel Check-in
00:05:08
Speaker
time. It's not like your best friends right like that right So and that was a great experience, so I guess I'm a little torn on this, but I get their concern so She is really insistent upon going as we all would have been at that time and finally her parents agreed to let her go as long as she promises to call them Daily to check in and she agrees and so she goes oh
00:05:32
Speaker
Daily, that's a big promise because you know you can get caught up and stuff, but I mean Well from what I've read she does seem pretty responsible. Okay, so that's good Yeah, according to the unsolved mystery behind the disturbing death of Alyssa Lamb We know that Alyssa arrived in LA on January 26 2013 Okay, she had just come by an Amtrak train from San Diego and was headed to Santa Cruz as part of this solo trip
00:05:58
Speaker
Have you ever taken a train? Um, I've been on a train once and it was like kind of like a historical thing. Like they hadn't done it in a long time back in Eastern Kentucky. So my family went, but Anthony and I always do the Metro when we go to like Washington. Yeah. I mean, well trains, I don't know about the West coast, but I know on the East coast in the Northeast trains are big and they're nice. So this was like not a sketchy, it doesn't seem like,
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah. Travel. It seems safe first. Yes. From several articles I read, it appears that the hotel Alyssa checked into that night and never checked out of.
Alyssa's Odd Behavior and Room Change
00:06:34
Speaker
Oh. Was not in the best part of town. Oh, so the travel there was fine, but the hotel... Not so much. Not so much.
00:06:42
Speaker
Which I guess we can think about it like as a college student, you're touring the West Coast, you're staying in places that probably aren't five-star hotels because you want to be able to do things. That's true. So she probably wasn't staying in the Knysus Hotel, and we really know that she wasn't. The Cecil Hotel was once a very happening place, but now that part of LA is kind of ran down. It's considered a rougher part of town. It actually has earned the nickname Skid Row. Oh, heard of that.
00:07:12
Speaker
Oh, see I had never heard of it before. Yeah, this is not a place where it's safe. Like you would just want your child to go. No. So Alison we know from Hotel Records that Alyssa checked into a shared room. Okay, now I've never heard of that in a hotel, but when I studied abroad
00:07:31
Speaker
My mom came with me at the beginning of it to just kind of travel around for a little bit before classes start and we went to Paris and we stayed in a hostel. Well that's what they compared this to. Okay. It was like a hostel. And so in it there were just like bunk beds all around the sides of the room. I would never stay in one again. No offense to people who own hostels but it was not what we're used to as Americans and maybe that makes me sound really conceited but I did like having some pregnancy and that was a little
00:07:57
Speaker
Well, it's funny that you say that because literally the next thing I was going to say was, you know, in a shared room, you obviously, I guess, are paying a cheaper rate, but you are staying with strangers, which is something that I would never do. Yeah. And like I said, the one I stayed in, it was, I mean, there were bunk beds all around the room, so there were many, many people in this one room. No.
00:08:20
Speaker
So staying with strangers is definitely a no for me, but she wasn't scared of anything and checked into her shared room on January 26th.
Alyssa's Writing as Emotional Outlet
00:08:28
Speaker
I know we talked last episode quite a bit about mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, and I had to bring that up again this week, Allison, because Alyssa had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was taking medicine to help her, but she had started
00:08:44
Speaker
missing pills or just not taking them all together. Okay, so it's kind of like we talked about in our bonus episode on Monday, that if you're in that manic state, then you're feeling fine. In fact, life is great. So you're thinking, why would I take medicine if I'm feeling wonderful? It's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. And she used that to rationalize skipping doses and sometimes stopping her medication altogether.
00:09:09
Speaker
Alyssa, though, after check-in, ended up moving into a private room because I guess the people she was staying with complained to hotel staff that she had been showing some quote, odd behavior. Oh no. That sounds a little ominous. I don't know what that's gonna be but that's, hmm.
00:09:28
Speaker
So, I looked and looked, and I never could find exactly what one would qualify odd behavior as. But I mean, if you're staying in a room with people you don't know, I feel like the littlest things could be construed as odd, you know? I mean, that might be true, but I feel like it would take a lot to freak me out enough, because maybe I'm just too...
00:09:52
Speaker
kind of a person like I don't I wouldn't want to complain on somebody unless it were something that I thought was like you really got creeped out right so it might not have been a lot but maybe it was something that was like significantly creepy oh yeah so nothing like super big but like something like
00:10:10
Speaker
So, Alyssa did have a tendency to stay to herself and she could be shy, especially when she was feeling overwhelmed. And to try to combat those feelings, several news articles stated that she would often take to writing to deal with her emotions.
Family's Growing Concerns
00:10:24
Speaker
Okay, I mean that's something that we can
00:10:26
Speaker
Suggest a student yeah write it out. It's super therapeutic I mean and just even for me like that really hit home for me because that's something that I mean I don't write as much as I want to because I feel like I just never have time and I can never make the time But you know when Anthony and I had our miscarriage this past year I needed to you know talk to someone but I wasn't ready to talk to anyone and so I
00:10:52
Speaker
I poured my heart and soul out in that Word document because it was just a release for me. And so I can just picture her spilling her guts, her worries, her anxieties into a blog. Right. According to The Peculiar Death of Alyssa Lamb by Heather Monroe, Alyssa found comfort writing through the highs and lows on her blog, Etherfields, where she expressed disappointment in herself for relapsing into her illness. She abandoned this blog, though, in favor of her Tumblr account where she continued to write about her struggles.
00:11:20
Speaker
with her depression and things associated with her bipolar disorder. I'm not gonna lie though, I didn't look into her Tumblr account or into the blog because I honestly just did not want to go down that wormhole. Because I knew if I opened up her blog, I would be lost inside of her world and I just really wasn't ready to handle all that went into that. I feel like that could be pretty heavy. Oh, it definitely could. Today wasn't the day. This week wasn't the week.
00:11:48
Speaker
So maybe she was beginning to enter some sort of like manic state of mind and her odd behavior could have been explained by her bipolar disorder going unchecked.
The Mysterious Elevator Footage
00:11:57
Speaker
It could have. I mean again just so many we don't knows. So regardless we know at this point that something is up and her family realizes it too when on January 31st
00:12:08
Speaker
they receive zero phone calls from her. Oh, so she'd been pretty good up until that point about calling home. Yeah, so up until that point, we know that she had been consistently calling home every day because, I mean, I feel like she promised she had to beg to go on this, so I think she would make that a priority. Right, and that'd been nearly a week, like five days she'd called, called, called, called, called. And then she just doesn't call, and so I know in their minds
00:12:34
Speaker
they're thinking that something is up, and they quickly call the LAPD to report her as missing. Well, that's good. So at least we're getting law enforcement involved. Quickly. Right. Yeah, time is everything. So LAPD do search the property of the hotel where she's staying. But Allison, the weird thing is, and maybe it's not weird, but I think it is, they don't have search warrants. So sadly, they can just search the property, but they never can go into rooms.
00:13:03
Speaker
Is that true of other missing persons? I don't know, because we haven't, we've just kind of covered like how law enforcement got involved. I don't know the specifics about search warrants. I'm not honestly 100% sure and I don't even remember like where exactly I read that. I just know I saw that in a lot of the research that I did. So I feel like they wouldn't be able to find much of anything if they can't even go into
00:13:30
Speaker
Well, that's the thing, they don't find anything. They literally find nothing in this search. The only thing police are able to find is a video of Alyssa entering and leaving an elevator in the hotel. According to Global News, the video was released to the public on February the 14th.
00:13:51
Speaker
Now, I love me some creepy stuff. Right, obviously. Yeah. We do this podcast. Clearly. I like when things give me goosebumps. I like when things kind of freak me out. But this one was different. This one was like an eerie freak out.
00:14:12
Speaker
And I'm not gonna lie, I actually had to stop researching the first day that I started because this video creeped me out that much. So it's kind of like when we did our Dyatlof Pass episodes and Maggie had to stay at school. So scary. And the next day she was like, I had to call my mom in front of my room because I was sitting by myself. I was here until like nine o'clock because we had a ball game and I coach.
00:14:39
Speaker
And so I was so scared and like, and it's scary in a school if you've never been there when all the lights are off and all that's on is the red emergency exit signs. And I was like, mom, I'm walking to the car. So this was the same thing or even worse?
00:14:56
Speaker
a different kind of worse. So I know that all of our listeners have to be thinking that they caught a kidnapping on camera or a stabbing, but no, this video is nothing like what you would expect. Instead of a struggle, you see Alyssa calmly enter the hotel elevator. And as if under some sort of a trance, she slowly starts pressing each
00:15:25
Speaker
individual button for every floor in the hotel. The slow part I think is what's creepy. I mean it's like she leans in and is like three inches away from the buttons and like like a machine presses the buttons. So one that's weird. Yes.
00:15:48
Speaker
but it even gets weirder from there. So after she pushes all the buttons, she slowly starts to poke her head in and out of the elevator. Wait, in and out? Like she's trying to peek around to see if anything's coming. So the elevator doors never have the chance to close. So she's just like,
00:16:11
Speaker
shuffling out a little and then coming back in and at one point it looks like she's hiding in the corner like where the buttons are so that she couldn't be seen but then she goes out into the hall and then it looks like she's talking to someone and she's super animated but we can't see who she's talking to and then she just walks away.
Hotel's Return to Normalcy Interrupted
00:16:38
Speaker
Okay, so there's multiple things about this that are creeping me out. So number one, if you are scared of somebody logically,
00:16:45
Speaker
Oh, I'm pushing the elevator door close. Yes, exactly, yeah. And so I wouldn't be like peeking my head out, pulling it back in, hiding in the corner, peeking out, coming back in. And then second, you said animated. Animated like, what do you mean? Like, if you are trying very hard to get your point across to somebody and your hands are like, just doing all kinds of different motions, like you're talking with your hands, that's what people would call it. That's what she looked like she was doing, except,
00:17:14
Speaker
No one's there that we can see. So she could be talking to herself or there could be somebody who's aware that there's a camera in the elevator, maybe. Or maybe she's talking to something that's there but we can't see it. So the video is weird.
00:17:39
Speaker
And we are gonna post our reactions to watching the video. Cause I need to see the video. Yes. Cause Allison is just going off my descriptions right now. And I know every week that we say, I really wish that you guys could see our faces. So we made your dreams come true. You're welcome. Yeah. And we have a YouTube channel now and we are going to post Allison's reactions to this video as our very first video on our YouTube channel.
00:18:09
Speaker
and we're also gonna post the original video on our Facebook page. So that's it. That's the last that we see her. So this video of her acting super weird on the elevator and poof.
Discovery of Alyssa's Body
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, okay. For a few days, her case seems to be going nowhere. Hotel life slowly starts returning to normal. Cause she could have just, for all they know,
00:18:35
Speaker
gone somewhere else. Yeah. Is it in another town? Yeah, just missed her checkout date maybe or you know forgot to check out something along those lines. So life is going back to normal at the Cecil Hotel.
00:18:49
Speaker
That is until odd complaints start coming in from hotel guests. Okay. Guests start calling the front desk complaining that the water pressure is low. Again, that's pretty common in a lot of hotels, I feel like. Yeah, because you could have a lot of people showering at the same time. Right, right. But then they start calling in that the water tastes odd. Again, hmm.
00:19:15
Speaker
Okay, not to sound like pinky up, but I can tell a distinct difference between sink water and Nestle Pure Life. So, I mean, maybe these people just had well-developed taste buds. I don't know. This does not taste like... This is not Nestle. But then, more complaints come in because the water has started turning black.
00:19:41
Speaker
Okay, now that's gross. Like I wouldn't want to wash my hands, brush my teeth, anything. So I'd be calling about that. Well, more and more complaints roll in because people, you're paying to stay there and you're not paying for black water. No. So finally, the hotel staff decides maybe we should go check out the water tanks and they go up onto the roof on February 19th. So this is
00:20:06
Speaker
five days after the last time that she called her parents.
00:20:12
Speaker
No, the video was released on Valentine's Day. Okay. But she hadn't had contact with her family since the end of January. So we're, we've almost been three weeks. Okay. Since anyone has seen her. Yeah. So it is on that day, Allison, that one hotel worker makes a disturbing discovery. According to the unsolved mystery behind the disturbing death of Alyssa Lamb,
00:20:38
Speaker
two weeks after the video was published by authorities, a maintenance worker. Oh no.
00:20:45
Speaker
Mr. Lopez took the elevator to the 15th floor of the hotel to check into the water complaints. Once he arrived on the 15th floor, he had to walk up a staircase to the roof. Then he had to turn off the roof alarm and climb up onto a platform where the hotel's four water tanks were located. That sounds like a lot of water tanks. That sounds like a lot of work.
00:21:14
Speaker
and you're like, that's a lot of exercise, check this out. And from other articles I read, there was no easy way to get to the water tanks. So like I'm picturing him, I'm on, he's having to like put a ladder up so he can get up there. So it is here he notices something odd, something disturbing. Oh no, okay.
00:21:39
Speaker
So, in that same article, he is quoted in saying, I noticed the hatch of the main water tank was open and looked inside and saw an Asian woman laying face up in the water approximately 12 inches from the top of the tank.
00:21:54
Speaker
So, as I'm sure we can infer, the Asian woman was Alyssa Lamb floating naked in the hotel water
Theories on Alyssa's Death
00:22:03
Speaker
tank. Okay, okay, so I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Number one, she's naked. Yes. Are there any other, do we know, did you see in any reports if there are any other cameras in this hotel or is it just the one we know of in the elevator? The only video that I know of that was ever released
00:22:20
Speaker
was the elevator video. I would think somebody in this hotel, well you're in LA where like security cameras should be on every hotel building. Right and if this is a shared, these have shared hotel rooms right so there's multiple people, I would have thought somebody would be like oh there's a naked lady coming down the hallway unless she stripped on the roof in which case I would think he would have seen her clothes and then if there's a rooftop alarm
00:22:44
Speaker
Now my brain is like, it's exploding. It's exploding. Yeah, because how the heck would she get up there if she doesn't know the rooftop code? Oh, we'll get there. Oh no. We will get there. Okay. So some reports I did read that her clothes were inside the tank with her, just not on her. Okay. Which, weird. She's like, here's the new hotel swimming pool. I don't know. I just went down and dived in. Welcome.
00:23:09
Speaker
According to a statement by the chief of the LA Fire Department, the tank where she was found actually had to be completely drained and then they had to cut open the side of the tank to remove her five foot four frame. That seems extreme. I also kind of thought that. Yeah, but all articles I read said the exact same information. This makes me feel like the opening to the tank would have to be
00:23:35
Speaker
Tiny. Tiny. In which case, I'm not going down in that thing. No. Like, even if it were a swimming pool, but the only way in and out is this tiny hole. Count me out. Nope. Nope. You're not going to do it. So the question is, how did she get into the water tank? Or an even better question, which, Allison, you kind of already brought up. How the heck did she even get onto the roof? Yeah, that's a big question for me. So you guys heard how much work it took for the maintenance worker to get on the roof.
00:24:00
Speaker
Now imagine trying to get onto the roof without knowing any security codes, having any keys to anything. It would be nearly impossible. You would think like alarms will be blaring. I saw one article that said the security system to get
00:24:17
Speaker
onto the roof was tied in with like an alert system at the front desk so they would know. Even if somebody got the code right they would know. Yeah. Okay so either she's magic or she's like a spy. I mean one of the two things and we're gonna talk about it. Okay. Yet somehow Alyssa does manage to make it to the roof. Somehow she did make it into the tank and all of these years later we're still asking how.
00:24:45
Speaker
We know from the coroner report that Alyssa did drown, but what many people, including her parents and me, find hard to believe is the fact that her death has ruled an accidental drowning.
00:25:00
Speaker
So it could be, like we said before, if she's like, oh, the swimming pool and jumps in and then she can't get out. Okay. So as you can imagine, there are many, many, many theories about how she got into that tank. The Reddit forums on this case are never ending. It's like a black hole. Oh, I love them though. I'm like, look at it. I'm like, page 72.
00:25:26
Speaker
So if only I had an infinite amount of time to read up on this case, I mean, we could be here days. Nevertheless, I read a lot about what professionals and amateur sleuths like us and all of you guys think about what happened to her. So I'm going to explore some of those theories with you guys today.
00:25:48
Speaker
So at first there were four major theories that I wanted to talk about. And then when I kind of like dove in to all the theories, there was another one and I was like, okay, I'm going to do five. And I stopped at five. So there are five different theories I want to discuss with you today, Allison. And then I really want to know what you think. Okay. I'm ready. Bring it. So theory number one, Alyssa is simply murdered.
00:26:11
Speaker
Okay. We know that she's traveling alone, and from all of my research, we know she's been exploring LA alone, which I feel like is not a very good move. Yeah, not smart. The Cecil, like I mentioned before, is located in a bad part of town. You don't get the nickname Skid Row for nothing. Right.
00:26:30
Speaker
So she wasn't exactly acting in the safest manner possible, and according to that article again by Heather Monroe, she did mention in her blog that she had lost her phone. Could explain why she didn't call her parents. So exactly. There we go. That's the perfect explanation for why she missed a phone call with her parents. So, but to me, the first thing I was like, okay, so not only are you traveling alone, you're also traveling without a phone, so you have no way to contact people if you needed, like to call 911 or needed help.
00:27:00
Speaker
Right. But to each their own. To top that off, there are some reports that she was being stalked. Oh. And I saw that in one article I read that it was a hotel worker but I never saw that verified anywhere and that was just something I've read. That's interesting because that could explain a lot like how she got onto the roof and potentially why she was naked. And yeah I mean it could explain
00:27:26
Speaker
everything that you said. So Allison, we don't know if she was a victim of murder, but it's something we have to entertain because we don't know. Right. You can't rule anything out because you can't rule anything absolutely in. Right. Because we literally know nothing. So
00:27:43
Speaker
I think we can all agree that it would have been impossible for someone unfamiliar with the hotel to make it to the roof. We know there were stairs, security measures, everything like that put into place that only a hotel employee could get past. Right, I agree. So this seems a little credible to me.
00:28:00
Speaker
You know, thinking back to the video that we described of her on the elevator, while it does look like she sort of lost her mind, one could also argue that she's hiding. She clearly slips into that corner. She's poking her head out to see if anybody's coming up and down the hall. And to me, that's exactly what someone would do if they were trying to run away from another person.
00:28:19
Speaker
except I feel like she would be rapidly pushing the closed door button and that doesn't happen. I would think that too. But it could be, I mean if, other than the fact that it doesn't make sense that she slowly pushes buttons and keeps peeking out and back in, it might explain if somebody is off camera that she's talking to, they might know that there's a camera in the elevator. And they don't want to be seen. Right. Well that goes on to a lot of people focus on the hand gestures when she's out in the hall.
00:28:47
Speaker
saying she looks confused and all this but I am a super and even right now super animated talker though you can't see it I'm the same and my hands always are moving when I'm talking especially if I'm trying to get my point across or like trying to emphasize something and I could see myself using a lot of hand gestures if I were trying to persuade someone to leave me the heck alone
00:29:09
Speaker
I mean, that's absolutely true. I would be heated. Because even when I'm talking to myself and I'm trying to remember something, I'm talking to you and you're talking to yourself. I totally do. When I'm in the car, I'm like, okay, today I need to do this. And I'm literally counting on my fingers at stop lights. Yeah. So I use it even when I'm talking to myself. So another point I would like to make is that once in the tank, okay, so these are tall tanks, clearly. How does she replace the lid?
00:29:40
Speaker
I didn't even think about that. Because it was closed. OK. OK. I said before, I'm not getting into a tank that has a little way in and a little way out. I'm definitely not plunging myself into complete darkness. And then screwing on the tank lid so you run out of oxygen.
00:29:55
Speaker
Well, you couldn't screw it on. Right. Unless there's some gripper on the inside. True. According to an article called Four Theories, what was Alyssa Lamb doing just before she died in this video? A long title. Yes, it was. The tanks were located on cinder blocks with no easy way to get to. And I know I did mention that before. They were also protected by heavy lids that would be extremely difficult to replace within. Right. So we talked about number one, you can't screw it.
00:30:26
Speaker
I'm actually like putting your hands up on it and just like throwing it up and letting it drop and hoping it lands like on the, like how like. I mean, I guess. Or maybe it's on like a hinge. Oh, maybe. Maybe that's it. Cause you couldn't screw it close. But you also aren't standing. So I feel like it would be really hard for you to like. It would be to reach out over. Yeah. And like tap something to put your weight on it. Yeah. Cause I wouldn't imagine the water would go all the way to the top. Right. So how would you get back up to close it?
00:30:54
Speaker
and it would have to be on a hinge because if I picture tanks as being like domed, and so if you took the lid off and set it would just slide down. Well we're gonna put a picture of this tank on our Facebook page and you guys can let us know. I'm looking for a hinge. How do you think she closed the lid if you are a believer of theory number one. Okay. Theory number two, she was assassinated. So spy?
00:31:19
Speaker
ish. Okay. So I actually found this theory in the same article that I quoted in theory one. And while this one seems a little far fetched, I did think that it was worth bringing up. So this theory does get a little odd, Allison, which I feel like is per usual. Yes, this is what we like. Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker
We talk about a lot of weird things on this podcast. If this is the first time you're tuning in to us, we talk about spontaneous levitation and ball lightning. Right. In the dialogue past episode. And what was it? Electronic fog. Electronic fog. In the USS Cyclops episode. And today's oddity is cloaking devices. Oh, like Harry Potter. Like you're... Yeah! Like a movie cloak. Sort of. Okay. So...
00:32:04
Speaker
I did not think that this was real, but I Googled it. And apparently some people do believe the military has the ability to like cloak things to become invisible. And supporters of this theory believe that Alyssa had knowledge of military cloaking devices.
00:32:25
Speaker
See, I guess in my head, when I think of like realistic cloaking devices, I think more of like kind of camouflage. So like if a plane were painted with like a camouflage pattern, they wouldn't be able to see it. Well, this made it seem like they would be just invisible.
00:32:47
Speaker
like Harry Potter that you could just put over or something like that that would make them be invisible. That's creepy to think there could be somebody in your room right now and you have no idea. You have no idea. So apparently across from the Cecil was a building called the Light Agency and I'm going to post on our Facebook page a picture that shows the proximity of the hotel she was in to this light agency. Okay.
00:33:11
Speaker
And no one from what I can gather really knows what this business is or even does. But people who stand behind this theory say that the company is involved with, quote unquote, visual effects. So could be legitimate, but could be? Like cloaking devices, like visual effects. I know that this does sound insane, but Alyssa had conversations with military members
00:33:38
Speaker
Ann had posted articles about cloaking devices and cloaking technology within the military on her Facebook and Twitter account, all of which have been deleted, by the way. And this all happened before she arrived in LA.
00:33:53
Speaker
Oh, so there could literally be, like she could have been hired by some secret agency. She has some secret knowledge of military advanced technology and weaponry, and maybe she came to the West Coast. And then they just offer. Right? Because they're like, we can't have somebody sharing this information with the public.
00:34:13
Speaker
So, like you said, Allison, could her stay at the Cecil in such close proximity to this light agency be purposeful? If you're a believer of this theory, you claim that she is attempting to get an away from an assailant, just like in theory one. But only in this theory, you think Alyssa is trying to get away from someone who is invisible.
Possession and Hotel's Dark History
00:34:34
Speaker
Do you know, I figure if this were it though, if you can make yourself invisible, couldn't you make a dead body invisible and then nobody's gonna find it? Oh! Right? Like that would be the perfect getaway, then nobody's gonna know that you committed a murder. Could you run into it though? Like if it was invisible and- But maybe if you hit it in the corner of the roof? True. We are not planning murder here. I'm just saying, have you had this cloaking device? I would think that the murderer would want to get away.
00:34:59
Speaker
That's true, which I guess they have because... Right, we don't know who killed her. We don't even know if she killed her.
00:35:06
Speaker
So this would explain how she appears to be talking, but we can't see anyone. Perhaps someone argues she wasn't hiding in the corner, but rather trying to fit into a crowded elevator, which really creeped me out. Oh! Because when she first gets into the elevator, after pushing the buttons, she goes directly to the back wall, and then she smooths and kind of slides
00:35:30
Speaker
into that corner, just like you would do if someone else, yes, got onto an elevator with you. Which super freaks me out. I have goosebumps right now. Like I literally have goosebumps. Creepy. Okay, I'm gonna look for this when we watch this video. Creepy. Oh my gosh. So when the video first starts, you know, she's pushing the elevator buttons very deliberately, and some would believe that she's following instructions. I know in the video,
00:35:58
Speaker
that is kind of unclear, you know, you're a little confused. Why does she keep going out to the hallway? But people think maybe she's following orders from someone we just can't see. Or maybe, just maybe, if you can believe it, her disappearance can be explained by something even weirder. I don't know what can get weirder than that.
00:36:23
Speaker
It's getting ready to get a lot weirder. Oh no. So basically get your teddy bear. Don't be listening to this by yourself. Get ready. Theory three. Alyssa is possessed. Oh no. I can't do this. This is what creeps me out the most. Okay. Yeah. These also kind of freak me out and I want to talk about that and my like fear level of this here in just a little bit.
00:36:48
Speaker
So this is a strange case, clearly. Yes. But this is not the only odd thing that has ever happened at the Cecil Hotel. Oh.
00:36:59
Speaker
I, like so much so, I actually even debated on whether I wanted to focus on Alyssa Lamb or on the oddities of the Cecil Hotel. So, could be tuning in, you guys, to a future episode, possibly. On the Cecil Hotel. On the Hotel, okay. Because it's crazy. The hotel in our story today has a long history of murders, serial killers, and suicides. Which makes me feel like the place is haunted. Yeah, just like bad juju. Yeah. It's weird.
00:37:29
Speaker
So just a quick online search of this hotel. I found at least 15 suicides and other deaths dating back to the 1930s. The murder of Elizabeth Short, who is one of the most famous murders that took place at this hotel.
00:37:44
Speaker
Yep, Black Dahlia. Yeah, that's her. And also, two serial killers at one point resided within this area. Oh, wow. So, when you say bad place to stay, you mean bad place to stay. So not only is the neighborhood bad, but- The building. The people beside you.
00:38:02
Speaker
are bad. Right, so you could have been staying in a room with one of these people. Yeah, because you're in a shared room, so you could have been in the room. Okay, you know what, even if I was okay with a hostel before, not anymore. So believers in this theory say that Alyssa, like so many others, was possessed and that she was pushing these buttons as a result of her position. Okay, yeah, no, I'm already creeped out. Like this stuff, I am telling you, I literally will like
00:38:30
Speaker
When I watch those movies, I want to be in possessions. The whole way back, I'm like, dear Lord, please let no spirit just take control of my mind, my body. Honestly, possessions really freak me out. And just in general, I try to avoid topics like possession because I believe that there are angels. So I feel like if I believe there are people or beings doing good in the world, there has to also be beings
00:38:58
Speaker
doing spiritual damage in the world in the form of demons. And so the fact that this could be real just creeps me out.
TB Outbreak Theory
00:39:08
Speaker
And we talked about that in the dialogue episode too, but you're right. I mean you have to admit if you believe in one there has to be the possibility of the other. Right and it's
00:39:18
Speaker
creepy. This is why I would never. You could not pay me a million dollars to touch an Ouija board. Nope. Oh no. I was at a sleepover once in like third grade and they pulled out a Ouija board. It was like three o'clock. I mean like mom come get me. Oh I was. I was like mom.
00:39:34
Speaker
And I need you to come get me, even with a lot of other symptoms awarded. No, no, no. So obviously we do believe in this stuff because I want to avoid that at all costs. We're like negative. So residents of the hotel have claimed, and this is weird,
00:39:49
Speaker
to feel as if they're being choked by thin air. There was even a story that one woman died. What? Died as a result of being choked to death, but her killer was never found. Like they couldn't find any evidence of anything, but she died from being choked to death. Okay, that's good. So maybe a ghost killed Alyssa. Maybe she was possessed and killed herself.
00:40:19
Speaker
Wow, so like, yeah, if you're possessed, maybe that would be like some sort of like inhuman strength too, right? Oh yeah, I didn't even think of that, to be able to do with the lid. Right. Well, the fourth theory of her death is a little more realistic. This theory says that she committed suicide of her own accord.
00:40:41
Speaker
Okay. Which is back to more realistic possibilities. Since Alyssa's death was ruled a quote-unquote accidental drowning, this theory does play along with reports that were given by both the police and the coroner. We know that she was suffering from bipolar disorder.
00:40:58
Speaker
and they did do a toxicology report and there are so many sources that go into detail about her toxicology report that again I could have spent hours but just in short from what I found it seems that her toxicology report showed that she was taking her medicine but taking it sporadically and there wasn't really anything in her toxicology report that was like bad you know she wasn't like on cocaine or anything
00:41:22
Speaker
It was just she wasn't regularly taking her bipolar disorder medicine. Which means like medication can't really work to its full effect if you're not taking it regularly. Exactly. So maybe she had some sort of mental break, maybe the stresses of college and the battle with mental illness became too much. Maybe she felt the only way she could truly let her brain relax was to take herself out of this world.
00:41:44
Speaker
Again Allison, I keep going back though to those security measures that were put in place around the hotel and how hard it would have been for her to get into the tank, take her clothes off while in the tank and close the lid on herself. Right, I agree and I feel like
00:42:02
Speaker
I don't know if this is true, I don't know the statistics on it, but I feel like if someone were gonna commit suicide, I feel like a lot of times when you read those stories, you hear about a letter left behind to loved ones or some sort of contact, and the fact that her parents had no clue, I mean, I'm pretty good at sensing when my child has had an off day, because I'll literally look at her, and I'm like, I can tell, and I'm like, what's wrong?
00:42:27
Speaker
and she'll just start telling me about her day or whatever it is. So I feel like her parents would have sensed something. Yeah, and not let her travel alone if they felt that she was in danger of something. Right. I just feel like there are too many inconsistencies for that to be a plausible explanation. I agree. That's just me. But of course, we always say boo to normal. Yeah, no. So the fifth and final theory, the one that I was kind of like,
00:42:53
Speaker
hesitant about including, but then I said, what the heck? I'm gonna include it. What the heck? Okay. Is tuberculosis.
00:43:01
Speaker
Tuberculosis. I thought we didn't have cases of tuberculosis. Okay, I thought that was true too, but then you know, I guess people stopped vaccinating their kids. Sorry if that's you and we I mean, I guess it's making maybe making a comeback. I don't know. I know like in Kentucky it was really bad because we have a lot of cave systems in Kentucky and those they used to transform those into. Oh, I went. Hospitals. Yeah, famous cave. Yeah, it's a word famous cave on there.
00:43:26
Speaker
You need to go, listeners. And I did their lantern lit tour, and they take you to the hospital where TB lives. But I asked my mother-in-law, who's a nurse practitioner, and she said it would not have survived that long. So we're fine. Oh, right. We won't get it. We won't come down with it. Plus, I was vaccinated. Right.
00:43:44
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I guess it is still around. And like I said, I wasn't even gonna mention this theory because I felt like four was a good number. But when I saw how coincidental some of the issues were surrounding this theory, I knew I had to talk about it. Like what coincidences?
00:44:01
Speaker
You just wait. Okay. So I saw in several articles that there was a TB outbreak in Los Angeles around the time of her death. Oh. And so I did start doing some research and I found a bunch of different things. Allison, did you know that the test that LA used and I like I didn't go so far into this and know if this is like a standard test that people use
00:44:25
Speaker
is called, and it's literally spelled in all capital letters, L-A-M dash E-L-I-S-A. Okay, I'm freaking out. Okay, so this test for TB. Yes. Is literally called Lamb Alyssa. Yes. Okay, that's too, you can't even call that coincidence. That's too creepy. Yeah, it's weird.
00:44:54
Speaker
I googled this because
00:44:58
Speaker
that's weird, but the test has been around for some time. But really though, really? I probably wouldn't name my kid after, you know, some sort of like vaccination. True. I didn't mention this earlier, but Alyssa's real name was actually Lam-ho-ee, and she was called Alyssa. Okay, so I have some students who go by different names than their birth names.
00:45:26
Speaker
Right, but is it a coincidence that her name was changed to the exact same name that the tuberculosis tests? But who would have changed her name? That's what I'm saying. I don't know. Could it have been the government? Could it have been just coincidence?
00:45:45
Speaker
Was this an outbreak that was already there before she got there? Or did it start after she was there? It was like right at the same time. Because that makes me think, you know, we talk about like viral warfare, like using viruses against other countries.
00:46:01
Speaker
if she was involved in some sort of like secret group, could they have named her that because she was supposed to come and spread the disease? Like she's like, oh what is it they call it if you're the first person? It's like patient zero or something like that. Like if she's the one who's supposed to spread it?
00:46:20
Speaker
I mean, conspiracy theories abound about these connections and some people would agree with you. And part of me agrees with them, like it's just too weird. We've all been lost in the wormhole of internet looking up cases just like this one, the bizarre, the unexplained. Why else would you all be listening to a true crime podcast? Why would we be writing episodes about true crime and crazy and bizarre things?
00:46:48
Speaker
This case is one of those that can take you down a lot of different paths. And it was in that wormhole that I found the TB theory and the connection to the name of the test. Yeah, so this is just one of those, you can find a bunch that are like this and just go down into that rabbit hole and just get stuck. Yeah, you'd be lost.
00:47:07
Speaker
So, Allison, I did not know this, but did you know that TB can cause hallucinations? I did not know that. Did neither, but Google says it can. Google saved ya, right? You gave me some info. So, a lot of people use that to explain her behavior in the elevator. Right. How, like, manic she was acting and kinda just, like, lubey.
00:47:28
Speaker
You know, so it might not have even been her bipolar disorder, especially because I would think if they found any sort of trace of medication in her system that would mean she had taken it fairly recently. Right. So it could be something else that's causing hallucinations.
00:47:43
Speaker
So, you know, was she just a victim and she caught TB and she was having this hallucination and somehow ended up on the roof in the tank? Or even still, could it be something crazier than that? I don't know what can be crazier than all these theories. So some people speculate that Alyssa was used to boost TB vaccination cells.
00:48:09
Speaker
I feel like this is a little morbid. And you know me, you know I trust the government. And so I'm just like, they would never do that. But a
Community Engagement and Seeking Justice
00:48:19
Speaker
lot of people believe in that. That is what happened. Because where was she found? In the water tank. Okay, well let me ask you this. How is TB spread? Is it spread through ingestion or? Well, I looked that up too.
00:48:38
Speaker
Her body had been in there for almost three weeks. Wow, so it had decomposed a lot. Yes, and according to an article I read, this would have been the perfect incubation time for TB to be transmitted through the hotel guest digesting water. Oh.
00:48:59
Speaker
So another coincidence. Yeah. So if she was indeed infected with TB, those at the hotel could also have been infected. Hmm. So was this some type of government ploy on the behalf of the United States? On the behalf of where she's originally from, like you said? Canada? But I really wouldn't suspect Canada. I love Canada.
00:49:19
Speaker
They seem pretty go with the flow. I would never really expect a deadly outbreak from Canadians. So there are those though that say this was a government ploy. So Allison, I feel like I've given you and the listeners a lot of information. What do you think happened?
00:49:47
Speaker
Whoo, this is a hard one for me, but I keep going back to, and I know you mentioned it several times, the fact that Mr. Lopez, the hotel worker, had to know to go to the 15th floor to then get up to the roof. Do the code. Do the code, which the front desk would be aware of. Yes. Then had to be able to get this heavy lid off of the water tank
00:50:17
Speaker
and somehow replace the lid that this was not of her own accord. Like this is not, I do not believe that this was suicide. I don't either, I've ruled out the suicide. I have a hard time believing the cloaking device. It's creepy, but I just have. Again, I trust the government. Right, yeah, I have a hard time believing that one. And I mean, she could have been possessed
00:50:45
Speaker
and therefore had that inhuman strength that we talked about but it doesn't explain knowing the code. And I would think if you don't even know the code you're not even getting into the door. But if she was possessed maybe the demon knows the code?
00:50:58
Speaker
I mean, that's super creepy. I mean, I don't know. Oh my God. That did not go through my head, but now it is. Now it is. So I think I would say that someone in the hotel was stalking her. I think that now she could, it could be a combination of things, like with the hallucinations. She could have been, and maybe the hotel worker had noted that she was acting erratically because the guest had said she was acting odd and saw her as,
00:51:26
Speaker
an easy
00:51:44
Speaker
either her disorder or hallucinations, even if she had TB, right? And those could be true, that when she's kind of standing off to the side, like making the hand gestures, a hotel employee would know that there's a camera in the elevator, I would think. Yeah, and you only see like part of her body in the video. And a hotel worker, I would also think, would know how to get her up there without other people knowing.
00:52:10
Speaker
Yeah, without tripping any alarms. And that's what makes me think that theory number one
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, I go with that one as well, and I think it just makes the most logical sense. I mean, of course we're always one to be like, alien, or the Yeti. Spontaneous levitation. But I really do think number one makes some sense. I think so. So you guys let us know what you think on our Facebook page. Yeah, we would love to hear it. Because we would love to hear your theory.
00:52:43
Speaker
Like so many of the cases we give you, we don't have any answers. Sadly, after all these years, we still don't know what happened to Alyssa. We're left with a video that brings more questions than answers. Was she suffering from a mental break? Was she possessed? Was she sick? There are so many theories about what could have happened to her, but those are just theories and we need answers.
00:53:13
Speaker
Alyssa was a tourist. There must have been people out there that saw her, talked to her. After all these years, only one single bookstore clerk has come forward saying that they saw her in the days before her death.
00:53:27
Speaker
There has to be more. Year after year, her family is left with heartbreak as their daughter's death still goes unexplained. We've all been there before. We've all needed a break from the world to disconnect, to relax, to unwind. How many trips have we all taken to just get away? We like to think it will never be me, not my trip.
00:53:50
Speaker
But who's to say it couldn't be us? If the cases we talk about each week teach us nothing else, they at least teach us that danger, death, and destiny wait for all of us in every shadowy corner and every alleyway.
00:54:06
Speaker
Just as Alyssa thought, nothing would happen to her. So many of us go on about our lives thinking the exact same thing. We ignore that voice in the back of our mind telling us that something's wrong. We go on about our business. We walk down that seemingly empty street alone.
00:54:24
Speaker
We take the bus to that part of town even though we know we shouldn't. We dismiss that voice telling us to check over our shoulders, to run, to hide. Could Alyssa still be with us today if she had heeded those warnings or like so many others speculate? Were there voices talking to her?
00:54:44
Speaker
that caused her demise. We rely on that inner voice to keep us safe, but we can't always trust that little voice in the back of our head. Maybe that voice saying run when you feel scared is actually telling you to run right into your own questionable end.
00:55:05
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:55:35
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.