Keeping an eye on Communist, Totalitarian China, and its influence both globally, and we as Canadians. I have come to the opinion that we are rarely privy to truth regarding the real goal, the agenda of Red China, and it's implications for Canada [and North America as a whole]. No more can we rely on our media as more and more information on China is actively being swept under the carpet - not for consumption.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Water: Significant Threat, Elisa Lam Mystery
Elisa Lam Video Is Bizarre, Body Found Turned Hotel Water ‘Black,’ Guests Say
Posted: February 21, 2013
Video footage of Elisa Lam in the last moments she was known to be
alive have been circulating the web, and it has also been reported that
the Canadian woman’s body posed a significant and horrifying health
threat to hotel guests as Lam lay undiscovered in a rooftop water tank. Elisa Lam’s death
was only discovered this week, but the Canadian disappeared at the end
of January, likely the time her body came to be in the water tank at the
Los Angeles hotel.
In the wake of the gruesome discovery, an Elisa Lam video from CCTV
has been circulated, but the clip is the quintessential “raising more
questions than answers” bit of evidence, as the young woman presses
buttons in a lift that won’t close before stepping out and silently
(there is no sound) gesturing dramatically with her hands before
stepping off screen.
Elisa Lam was never seen alive again. But this week, her decomposing
corpse was found in the tank, and along with it, a grim realization —
guests at the hotel had been bathing, drinking and brushing their teeth
with water from the tank turned tomb.
As the discovery of Lam’s remains was reported, many were horrified
to learn of it — and in turn, reported some upsetting observations in
the weeks leading up to the finding. Gawker quotes British hotel guest Sabrina Baugh, who says:
“The water did have a funny taste … We never thought
anything of it. We thought it was just the way it was here … The shower
was awful. When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first
for two seconds and then it was going back to normal.
Baugh’s spouse Michael said the discovery of Elisa Lam’s corpse in
the hotel water supply was incredibly upsetting, and adds that the
couple are distressed by the finding:
“The moment we found out, we felt a bit sick to the
stomach, quite literally, especially having drank the water, we’re not
well mentally.”
After Elisa Lam’s body was discovered and the contamination of the
water tank revealed, 11 of the hotel guests opted to stay on in the
building — and reportedly were “required to sign a waiver in which they
acknowledged being informed of the health risks and were being provided
bottled water.”
British tourist Michael Baugh and his wife said water had only
trickled for days as they brushed their teeth, showered and drank from
the taps at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, but they could not
have imagined the disturbing reason.
The body of Canadian Elisa Lam, 21, was later discovered at the
bottom of one of four cisterns on the roof of the historic hotel near
Skid Row. The tanks provide water for hotel taps and would have been
used by guests for washing and drinking.
"The moment we found out, we felt a bit sick to the stomach, quite literally," Baugh said.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials were expected to release the results of tests on the water Thursday.
Risk of fecal contamination
When
the body was discovered Tuesday, they issued a do-not-drink order while
a lab analyzes the water, said Terrance Powell, a director
co-ordinating the department's response. The disclosure contradicts a
previous police statement that the water had been deemed safe.
Powell said the water was also used for cooking in the hotel; a
coffee shop in the hotel would remain closed and has been instructed to
sanitize its food equipment before reopening.
"Our biggest concern is going to be fecal contamination because of
the body in the water," Powell said. He said the likelihood of
contamination is "minimal" given the large amount of water the body was
found in, but the department is being extra cautious.
Powell said the hotel hired a water treatment specialist after the
department required it to do so to disinfect its plumbing lines.
A call to the hotel was not returned.
Lam's body was found by a maintenance worker. Police detectives were
working to determine if her death was the result of foul play or an
accident. LAPD Sgt. Rudy Lopez called it suspicious and said a coroner's
investigation will determine Lam's cause of death.
Strange behaviour
Before
she died, hotel surveillance footage showed Lam inside an elevator
pushing buttons and sticking her head out the doors, looking in both
directions. She was later found in the water tank.
Lam, of Vancouver, travelled alone to Los Angeles on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the hotel.
Lopez said the hotel has four cisterns on its roof that are each
about three metres tall, 1. 4 metres wide and hold at least 3,785 litres
of water pumped up from city pipes.
Lam's body was found Tuesday morning at the bottom of one cistern that was about three-quarters full of water, Lopez said.
A
maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day
after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)(Nick Ut/Associated Press)The
opening at the top of the cistern is too small to accommodate
firefighters and equipment, so they had to cut a hole in the storage
tank to recover Lam's body. The cisterns are on a platform at least
three metres above the roof.
To get to the tanks, someone would have to go to the top floor then
take a staircase with a locked door and emergency alarm preventing roof
access. Another ladder would have to be taken to the platform and a
person would have to climb the side of the tank.
Lopez said there are no security cameras on the roof.
Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 560 kilometres north of
Los Angeles. Officials said she tended to use public transportation and
had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
Historic hotel
The 600-room Cecil Hotel was built in the 1920s and refurbished several years ago. It charges $65 a night.
The hotel is on Main Street in a part of downtown where efforts at
gentrification often conflicts with homelessness and crime. It had once
been the occasional home of infamous serial killers such as Richard
Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, and Austrian prison author Jack
Unterweger, who was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe
and the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.
By noon Wednesday, the Cecil Hotel had relocated 27 rooms used by
guests to another hotel, but 11 rooms remained filled, Powell said.
Those who chose to remain in the hotel were required to sign a waiver in
which they acknowledged being informed of the health risks and were
being provided bottled water, Powell said.
Baugh and his wife, who were on their first trip to the U.S., had
planned to go to SeaWorld on Wednesday. Instead, they were trying to
find a new hotel. Their tour agency placed them in another downtown
hotel with a less than sterling reputation, from what they heard.
"We're just going from one dodgy place to another," Baugh said, resigned, "but at least there's water."
Firefighters work to remove a body found inside a
water tank on the rooftop of Hotel Cecil in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
(Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters )
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