Elisa Lam

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A body believed to be missing Vancouverite Elisa Lam has been found on the roof of the downtown Los Angeles hotel where she was last seen.

The 21-year-old University of British Columbia student has been missing since January 31st – and was last seen at the Cecil Hotel, near the city's notorious skid row.

LAPD Officer Diana Figueroa told The Associated Press officers responded to the roof just after 10 a.m. Tuesday. The body is a woman in her 20s, but a positive identification by the coroner is required, officials said.


The body was discovered in one of the hotel’s four water tanks by a maintenance worker after investigating complaints about low water pressure, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Videotape released by police after Lam’s disappearance showed the young woman acting strangely in the hotel elevator the night she was last seen.

The two-minute security tape footage showed Lam pressing buttons for multiple floors in the elevator before she darts out quickly, looking side-to-side before moving her arms around wildly.

Her reason for going to California is unclear, but authorities say Lam intended to travel to Santa Cruz as her final destination, which is about 563 kilometres north of Los Angeles.

Police suspect foul play in her disappearance.

Investigators say Lam was in daily contact with her family in Vancouver until she vanished. She never checked out of the hotel.

The last people to see Lam, a hostess and desk clerk at the hotel, said they never saw her with anyone else.


[link to bc.ctvnews.ca]