Elisa Lam was a bright, thoughtful, and imaginative student with a bizarre death.
On February 19, 2013, the body of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam (born Lam Ho-yi ) was recovered from a large cistern atop the Stay on Main hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where she had been a guest. She was last seen alive on January 31 and was reported missing by her parents on February 1. Her body was discovered by a hotel maintenance worker investigating complaints of flooding and low water pressure.

Interest in Lam's disappearance increased on February 13 when the Los Angeles Police Department released security camera footage of her behaving erratically in a hotel elevator on the day she was last seen alive. The video went viral. While an autopsy performed on February 21 was inconclusive in determining the manner of Lam's death, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office subsequently ruled the death an accident with bipolar disorder being a significant contributing factor.

Guests at the Stay on Main sued the hotel over the incident and Lam's parents filed a separate suit later that year; the latter was dismissed in 2015. Some of the early Internet interest noted what were considered to be unusual similarities between Lam's death and the 2002 horror film Dark Water. The case has since been referenced in international popular culture and been the subject of several creative works.