User blog:Mute Winter/Elisa Lam

I've returned here thanks to the true life case of Elisa Lam, an unsolved mystery that I can't shake out of my head. It's a creepypasta that actually happened, and like the best pasta, utterly lacks a satisfying explanation. I hardly need mention that the story is spooky as hell.

If you haven't heard of Elisa Lam, here are the undisputed facts: Elisa Lam was a 21 year old Canadian student, vacationing in California. She disappeared while staying at the seedy (and now shut down) Cecil Hotel in a sketchy part of LA in Jan. 2013 when she disappeared. In spite of thorough searches, no trace of her was found... until three weeks later, when other hotel guests began to complain of low water pressure, and the water's strange colour, smell, and taste. A maintenance worker found her decomposing body in a water tank on the hotel's roof, creating quite a stir in the media. The autopsy results were inconclusive, her death was ruled accidental, and the case was closed.

If this sounds like a movie to you, you're right! The excellent 2002 Japanese horror movie Dark Water, and its '05 American remake, have too many parallels to the Elisa Lam case for comfort.