Style Living Self Celebrity Geeky News and Views
In the Paper BrandedUp Hello! Create with us Privacy Policy

8 years after her mysterious death, Elisa Lam’s Tumblr blog is still viewable online

By JUSTINE PUNZALAN Published Feb 20, 2021 6:04 am Updated Feb 20, 2021 10:17 am

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel has certainly pulled viewers into its riveting plot. Although the mystery is seemingly solved by the end, many fans were still left wondering what really happened to Elisa Lam.

If you would like to unlock the detective in you, you might want to check out Lam's Tumblr account. Turns out, it is still viewable online eight years after her mysterious death.

Lam, a 21-year-old Cantonese Canadian student, was found lifeless in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California on Feb. 19, 2013. How she managed to get there remains a mystery up to this day, as the door leading to the water tank is kept locked with an alarm. 

A viral security camera footage also showed her strange behavior on the night of her demise. She was seen getting in an elevator, pressing all the buttons, and poking her head out of the door several times. Toward the end of the video, she was waving her hands and making random gestures.

Netflix’s true-crime docuseries probes into that fateful night with reference to her Tumblr blog titled “Nouvelle-Nouveau.” The webpage chronicled Lam’s California trip—from departure in San Diego and Santa Cruz to arrival in Los Angeles—that was mentioned in the show.

"I have arrived in Laland… and there is a monstrosity of a building next to the place I’m staying,” Lam wrote in her blog just before her disappearance. “When I say monstrosity, mind you, I’m saying as in gaudy,” she continued. “But then again, it was built in 1928, hence the art deco theme so yes it IS classy but then since it’s LA it went on crack. Fairly certain this is where Baz Lurhmann needs to film the Great Gatsby.”

Posts prior to her trip suggest that the college student may have been having a hard time. One of them read, “It’s upsetting to find out that if you care enough for a person and see them in need, they don’t want your help and they get angry if you do help. Having depression seems to mean that you’ve lost the ability to even help someone else in trouble. I don’t want to end up bitter and resentful and angry at everyone, much more judgmental?”

She also wrote things like "I’m a bit down these days” and "feeling really alone and lonely.”  All of which, you can read on her blog here.