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Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage

November 24, 2025 / 01:15:37

This episode covers the mysterious case of Alisa Lamb, her disappearance, and subsequent death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. The hosts, Nick and the Captain, discuss the peculiar circumstances surrounding her last known moments, including the infamous elevator footage.

Alisa Lamb, a 21-year-old student from Vancouver, went missing while traveling alone in California. She checked into the Cecil Hotel on January 28, 2013, and was last seen on February 1, the day she was supposed to check out. The hosts highlight the hotel’s troubled history, including its association with serial killers and numerous deaths.

The episode features discussions about Alisa's mental health, her medication, and the strange behavior captured in the elevator surveillance footage. The hosts analyze her actions in the video, questioning whether she was hiding from someone or experiencing a mental health crisis.

They also touch on the investigation that followed her disappearance, including the search efforts by her family and the LAPD. The hosts express their concerns about the lack of additional surveillance footage from the hotel.

Listeners are encouraged to consider the broader implications of mental health and the importance of kindness towards others, especially those who may be struggling.

TLDR

The episode discusses Alisa Lamb's mysterious disappearance and death at the Cecil Hotel, analyzing her behavior and the investigation that followed.

Episode

1:15:37
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[music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with me as always is a man that just
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like the Goonies, he never says die. He is the captain. >> Baby Ruth, it's good to be seen and it's
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good to see you. [music] You crazy freak [ __ ] Got to watch out for those fellies there, Captain. One of the
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greatest evil empires of all time. Tonight we are drinking Dark Force by Elevator Brewing Company. Garage grade
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four out of five bottle caps. Dark Force is well balanced. It has a dark copper color. It's lightly hopped with really
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good drinkability. And Dark Force was brought to us by our garage friends. First up, we have Anna, who says, "Hey
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up, we have Tony aka the Iron Man in Georgia. Tony says, "This beer money is for you guys to try out Stones Crime and
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Punishment." And next, a big shout to Amy [music] from that bastard state up north. Oh, hi.
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That makes it sound like we're the bastard state. >> We might be the bastard state.
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>> Amy is in the snowy upper peninsula of Michigan. So, thanks to Amy. Let's give
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a nice cheers, mate, to D. Morgan from Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. >> Cheers, mate. And last [music] but not
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least, we have Gina, who says she's been listening since episode 2, and she's been hooked ever since.
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>> Well, I'm sorry. I [music] apologize. She wants us to give a shout out to her
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awesome husband, Mike, who's also a listener. Gina and Mike are all the way in San [music] Marcos, California.
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>> We got We got a lot of husband and wife duo teams listening to the captain and
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that other guy. >> So, thanks to everybody who bought us around for this week's show. If you want
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to buy us some beers for next week's show, go to true crimegar.com and click on that donate button. Like your check
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out the new Untapped app. It's for all the beer drinkers out there. And you can check me out, True Crime Garage. And
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check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, True [clears throat] Crime Garage. All right,
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get ready for our second most requested case of all time. So everybody, gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
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talk some true crime. >> [music] [music] [music] >> For weeks, questions have circled about
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Alisa Lamb after the Vancouver woman went missing in Los Angeles last month. Yesterday, police found her body in a
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hotel water tank. That's just [music] raised even more questions. It stretches believability that a young
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Canadian tourist could accidentally end up dead inside a water tank [music] at the top of an LA hotel. And yet, very
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little makes sense about the strange disappearance and death of Alisa Lamb. >> I just feel so bad for her parents. The
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investigators have to be flumxed like this because if it is foul play, you know, why did she act so odd?
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>> The last footage of her in the hotel elevator is perplexing. [music] Why did she press all the buttons? Was
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she talking to someone? Was she trying to hide? [music] Coroner Ed Winter says perhaps the
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autopsy will provide some clues. >> We are conducting an investigation into the death of Miss Lamb. The autopsy is
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scheduled for tomorrow. Either she met with foul play or somehow the 21-year-old would have had to have
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gotten through locked doors onto the roof, avoided tripping an alarm, and then climbed up inside the water tank.
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[music] The hotel itself has not made a statement, but it did send guests this letter telling them to check out
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immediately, which this British tourist did, but not before she drank the hotel water for 8 days.
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>> And the water for first two seconds or 3 seconds would was coming black. And then
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after a while, we would drink it. But it had strange funny sweet taste. It's disgusting.
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>> Utterly horrible. Surely that will add to the notoriety of the Cecil Hotel. It
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was already on tour operator Kim Cooper's [music] crime tour of LA. Thanks mostly to the infamous
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Nightstalker serial killer Richard Ramirez who killed 14 people. >> And during his spree when he was doing a
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lot of home invasions for satanic purposes, he was actually staying as a resident of the Cecil up on the 14th
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floor. More relevant to Lamb's case is why was she staying in a hotel in such a dodgy part of LA? Here in Vancouver, it
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was difficult to find anyone who knew her well. No one could explain why she went on a California holiday by herself
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or what her state [music] of mind was when she left. Tonight we are covering the
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disappearance and mysterious death of a young woman named Alisa Lamb. This was a
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this still is a very popular case. I know that sometimes we cover very popular cases and we have also got a bit
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of a reputation for covering the lesserk known cases. >> I just wanted to take a quick minute
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here and kind of pull everybody into the garage and do a little behind the scenes
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moment regarding case selection. Uh this is not a task that we take too lightly.
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Uh case selection is something we are both very much involved in. The true crime garage army are very much involved
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in this as well even if they don't know that they are. Uh so case suggestions here listener requests are the number
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one factor in our determination of case selection. So we we get on average about
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three or four case suggestions a day. Believe it or not, we do collect that information and compile it. We have a
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master list that would make your head spin uh if I were to show it to you. Uh I mentioned this just because we have
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had a time or two where I'm sure someone thinks that their requests have fallen on deaf ears, but that is simply not
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true. Just because we haven't covered your case does not mean that we never will. But by getting three or four daily
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requests, we would have to do three or four shows a day. And I don't think that there's enough beer on the planet to
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fuel that kind of crime garage. So when we get a case with multiple suggestions,
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we fully take that into account. This being a a major reason why we chose this case for tonight's show. Alisa Lamb is
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one of our most requested shows by far. It I mean it's up there with Jean Benet Ramsay, Brandon Lawson, and a couple of
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others that I won't mention because we will be covering them very soon. Another big factor is does a particular case
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have enough information that we can discuss it for a full show. >> Yeah. >> Sometimes this is especially true with a
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lot of the smaller hometown type cases where the invest in investigation quickly went nowhere. You know, there's
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no suspects or few leads. There's just not a whole lot of stuff to talk about. And while we're on the subject, I want
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to throw this out there as well as far as suggesting a case to us. Many many of the cases suggested are great ideas.
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However, this is rare, but it does happen on occasion. You know, maybe more like once a week, we get some kind of
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suggestion that sounds something like this. And this is totally made up, but it's a good example. You know, the
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suggestion will read, "I live in Taylor Town, and back in the '9s, there was this guy that went missing, and it was
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totally weird, and I think you'd love to do a show on it." Well, that that's not
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really something that we can there's no information in in that suggestion. We can't really do much of that.
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>> Well, they gave you a city, man, and they gave you a rough time. >> They gave me a decade to choose from.
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>> Yeah. So, >> do some do some research, man. >> So, if you send in a suggestion, make
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sure you include, you know, a person that's involved in the case, their name. Yeah. A link would be great.
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>> City, state, those things are all very helpful. >> All right. So, like with everything with
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this show, you know, if you donated to the beer fund, we appreciate it. We're a little behind on that. If you mention a
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case, you know, we we get a handful every day. So, be patient. It's just two guys in a garage. And because of you and
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because of you spreading the word, the show has taken off. It's just out of it's out of freaking control. I mean,
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we're top 10 and on Stitcher. I mean, this thing is blowing up. I mean, so just be patient with us. We're we're
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trying and and we both have drinking problems, so that doesn't help the business at all. Well, and as we said,
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this case has been on our list for quite some time. It is it is one of our most requested cases uh since we've been
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doing the show. Uh and this is about Alisa Lamb. So, January 26th, 2013, 21-year-old Alisa Lamb, she's recognized
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as a University of British Columbia student. Uh she was going on an international trip. She was calling this
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her West Coast tour. She would be traveling to California by herself. Uh her means of travel, she was using
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public transportation. She had traveled by way of Amtrak and she was also taking
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buses as well. Uh she intended to travel to several California cities before her
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trip concluded. She arrives in Los Angeles, California on the 26th. She then checks into the Cecil Hotel which
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is in downtown Los Angeles. This is on January 28th. She is set to check out February 1st. During her travels, a
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regular habit that she was doing was she was calling or emailing, reaching out to
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her parents daily to kind of check in and let them know that she's doing fine and she's enjoying her trip.
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>> Mhm. >> Well, the Cecil Hotel where Lisa was staying has a has a long history as
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being a place of terrible happenings. >> Uh a little bit of a checkered past. >> Yeah. Yeah. very checkered. Uh it
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certainly has a history of suicides and murder. [clears throat] >> Um in 1931, the hotel experienced its
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first suicide. Um after that, the hotel would see at least eight or nine more suicides that I could find reportings of
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>> and a couple of strange deaths as well occurred in its history. Uh there was certainly a murder or two uh before
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Alisa's stay at the Cecil Hotel. And this checkered past really adds to the folklore of the Lisa Lamb case.
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>> And I don't want to go through all the the suicides, you know, the bleakness of
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that. Uh there a couple of the strange deaths or or possible murders that took place there. Uh there there's a story of
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a of a woman who who gave birth at the hotel. Uh she gives birth in in one of the in the bathroom
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>> and she threw the newborn baby out the window. >> Yeah. Okay. Look, before you say stuff
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like this, maybe you could give us a little bit of a warning. >> It's right on there. When you click on
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true crime garage, it warns you that you might hear something terrible >> that at some point you might talk about
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a baby being thrown from a window. >> Well, she claimed that the baby was was born uh dead and then they did an
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investigation and they quickly determined that they didn't think that that was the same thing. But before she
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could be convicted of of that murder, she was ruled to be not competent to stand trial.
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>> And there was the one suicide where the lady jumped out of the window and she
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actually landed on somebody walking by and killed him as well. >> Uh so we a bunch of suicides, but what I
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thought was interesting was that there was uh two serial killers that actually stayed at the Hotel Cecil.
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>> Yes. Yeah. We have Richard Ramirez, the the famous nightstalker from 1985. >> Uh he murdered 14 people. He did live
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there during a portion of of uh his career, let's say, as a serial killer. >> But some of this folklore is kind of
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blown out of proportion, don't you think? >> It's romanticized a little bit. Uh because we have the situation uh where
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Elizabeth Short, you know, the Black Dalia, which we've discussed on our show, you know, there's rumor that that
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was the last place she stayed at before she was killed when actually we can't find any actual record of her having
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stayed there at all, let alone it being the last place she was seen or stayed before her death. So, it does get a
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little romanticized with Richard Ramirez. Kind of a similar situation. He did live there on and off for a period
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of time, but he also lived in like three or four other hotels, sometimes sleeping
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in his car. He was he he was a guy that moved around quite a bit. >> And he would typically stay at a place
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just for a night or so. Um, depending on how much money he had stolen or or stolen objects that he had fenced that
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day, whatever he received as far as cash went. >> Right. Right. And I think a lot of
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people would go, "Well, how can somebody afford to stay at a hotel?" Mhm. >> Well, this hotel was broke up in like
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sections. So, like the lower floors were pretty much like a normal hotel, >> you know, a little more pricey. And then
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the top floors, they kind of used those as like pay by the day >> type rooms. And they also had uh rooms
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that they used for like youth host >> where you could just kind of stay in a collective group, you know, a bunch of
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strangers, but your room would be a lot cheaper. And to give you an idea, back in the mid 80s when Ramirez would stay
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there, I believe he was typically only paying about 14 or $15 a night to stay there, which is I mean relatively cheap.
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>> Just because the rooms are cheap doesn't mean that there's going to be all these
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tragic things that happen. But I think it's because the Hotel Cecil was around for so long and it also had 600 rooms.
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>> Yeah. And it it's a very old hotel. It was it was built in 1924. it opened up shortly after that. So,
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it's been around for a long time and it's in Los Angeles. You know, a popular place to travel to. Um, so you got a
00:15:03
high probability of seeing crazy things happen in this area. That's for sure. Um, and of course, you know, like in the
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1950s, that area, that street in particular became pretty rundown and it became known for drug users and transate
00:15:19
lifestyle. Uh, people that were kind of in and out. It was basically a seedy part of town.
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>> It's technically in downtown Los Angeles. But Los Angeles is a widespread town. So, as a tourist, if you go there,
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there's there's just so many different parts, you know? So, if your buddy says, "Well, I live downtown." Then it's like,
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"Yeah, but which part of downtown?" And she could have been staying there for the for the cheap rent, or it could have
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just been for the the convenience of being in downtown Los Angeles. When she first started off staying there, she was
00:15:52
sharing a room. As you had mentioned, you can share some rooms, >> right? Like a youth hostel.
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>> Yeah. And she shared a room with a couple of other people. I don't know that I could ever do that or feel
00:16:03
comfortable doing that. Um, but that's what she did. And after a couple days, through complaints by these other
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people, she's eventually moved to her own room. >> Do you have any idea what these
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complaints were? I would love to know specifically what they were, but we're hearing these third hand. You know,
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you're hearing these from from the hotel workers that this was reported to. And so basically what is explained to them
00:16:30
is that she was behaving strangely or they they found her to be weird or acting odd and these people didn't want
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to share a room with her anymore. So, not not a great detailed description of how she was behaving or things she was
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doing or saying, just that they didn't feel comfortable sharing a room with her.
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>> And you mentioned earlier that she's recognized as a student. >> Yes, she's recognized as a University of
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British Columbia student. However, technically at this point in time in 2013, she was not taking any classes.
00:17:02
She was basically kind of on a break from school. Um she had mentioned to people that uh she had to drop classes
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because of her disorders uh that she was relapsing and that this caused her not to be able to go to school.
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>> This is actually a really hard case to cover because of the misinformation that's out there.
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>> Yeah. Yeah. The the the crazy thing, Captain, is that this is such a widely reported story. You think it would be
00:17:32
easy to come up with information. >> Mhm. The problem being is that most of the reporting on this case are these
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kind of smaller web, you know, internetbased news websites, >> kind of clickbait stuff.
00:17:46
>> Yeah. And a lot of them have an agenda. Some of them want to discuss paranormal
00:17:51
activity or they want to talk about psychics and things like this and and and things that aren't really true
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crime, uh, so to speak. Even though we've had some psychics on or we've talked about some psychic stuff, we
00:18:03
don't know how much we actually believe in that stuff. >> I I find it fascinating. I just don't
00:18:08
know anything about it. Um but you know, if you were to if this were to be an unsolved mysteries type show, uh this
00:18:17
would be, you know, when you see that they play the creepy music and it says unexplained death, that's what this case
00:18:23
would be. It's it's an unexplained death. It's a it's a girl that unfortunately was out on her own. She
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disappeared and and then we have this weird unexplained death afterwards, >> right? And like you said, this is, you
00:18:36
know, you're a true crime dork, so this doesn't really fall in your wheelhouse of
00:18:41
>> Not at all, >> you know, and but let's go let's talk a little bit about her mental state. I
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mean, like we said that she was diagnosed bipolar. Uh I have some experience with this. Uh being diagnosed
00:18:53
bipolar is a very tough thing for a therapist to do. Mhm. >> Uh they can treat you as bipolar and
00:19:02
basically it takes years and years and years, but there's no like blood test. They can't take your blood and run it
00:19:08
through some system and say, "Oh, we know for a fact that you have bipolar and we're going to treat you as such."
00:19:15
Now, her list of medications that she's on, they're pretty extensive. Yeah, she's on four different uh types of
00:19:22
prescriptions and it looks that she had filled those prescriptions on January 11th of 2013. So, just a few weeks
00:19:31
before her trip. >> Uh, and she was found, her possessions that were found contained a lot of those
00:19:38
prescriptions. And if you look through this list, some of the stuff is kind of odd because it tells you the number of
00:19:45
pills that were issued to her, >> but it also says the number that was remaining in her possessions.
00:19:51
>> Mhm. >> Uh once they found the possessions, the weird thing is that when she had the
00:19:57
prescription filled, she had leftovers, >> right, >> of other prescriptions. So, we don't
00:20:02
know how many that we know how many that were were issued, but we don't know how
00:20:05
many she had remaining. So, like for example, one of the pills, it was a mood stabilizer. I I'm not going to try to
00:20:12
even pronounce what it is. >> Oh, this isn't the fun part of the show where you and I butcher these. Uh
00:20:17
>> yeah, I we could I I don't even know if we should attempt it. I think we we looked them up and and just to go over
00:20:24
one of the things was a mood stabilizer. She was issued 60 pills and the number remaining was 70.
00:20:31
>> Mhm. >> So, obviously higher. So, we should just assume that she had more. So, it's just
00:20:37
really tough to know because we don't know how many she had prior to this, right?
00:20:41
>> So, we don't know if she was actually taking the medication. >> And the prescriptions were basically uh
00:20:47
there was one for ADHD, uh a mood stabilizer. >> Yeah, it was well the ADHD medicine is
00:20:54
very similar to like um aderall. >> Okay. There was a mood stabilizer as well as an anti-depressant.
00:21:03
Uh, and she did have some over-the-counter drugs in her possession as well. These being things like Advil,
00:21:10
Sinutab. Um, and they found along with her possessions, they found a pill cutter, two pill cases, one divided pill
00:21:18
case, five prescription receipts, and a personal med medication history. Right? So with the aderall or the ADH medicine,
00:21:29
you know, basically to stay focused, she had a medicine to stay focused. The other with the anti-depressants, and
00:21:35
again, I'm not a doctor. I'm just going off of my own experience. U the anti-depressant is to bring your mood up
00:21:42
higher, >> right? To kind of get your baseline to be above depression, right? And then the
00:21:49
mood stabilizer is kind of like a compressor. It takes all your lows and makes them higher, but it also takes all
00:21:55
your highs and makes them lower. So, it it tries to keep you right in that middle, the sweet spot. A lot of people
00:22:02
that take a mood stabilizer will have almost a zombie effect sometimes. Um, and that's something that as you're
00:22:10
getting on this medicine, you have to kind of adapt and kind of see how your body reacts to different kinds because
00:22:17
obviously you don't want to go through your life, you know, especially like let's say they put you on lithium, you
00:22:22
know, some people can are on lithium and they just feel like they're in a fog and
00:22:27
just nothing matters. >> Mhm. Yeah. And people have poured through these this information and
00:22:34
looked through it and tried to decipher, you know, judging by the number of pills
00:22:38
issued, judging by the number of pills remaining, was she overdoing it? Was she not taking what she was prescribed? It's
00:22:46
you really can't tell because we don't know. There was nobody traveling with her. There's nobody to back up if she
00:22:51
was staying on schedule with these med medications. >> Yeah. And and I want to be very clear
00:22:56
about this. I mean, mental health issues are something that I think this country
00:23:00
needs to talk more openly about. >> And so, in doing so, back in 2012, uh I was actually being treated uh for well,
00:23:11
it was it was kind of a messed up situation, but one of the things was I was having a lot of depression almost I
00:23:19
would categorize it as maybe severe depression. Um, instantly they started treating me for bipolar.
00:23:27
>> Mhm. >> So, they put me on an anti-depressant and they put me on a mood stabilizer
00:23:31
and this was without any therapy at all. >> So, wait, this is a physician. You you
00:23:37
know, you go to a regular doctor and you're getting kind of diagnosed with this and but but ultimately treated for
00:23:45
this. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, not to go into it too much and just uh I mean, we've
00:23:51
talked in the past about mental health and we I always get these comments, oh, you know, thanks for bringing this up
00:23:59
and it's so important and well, it's important to me because I mean, I was I was suicidal. So, I was that's all I
00:24:08
could think about. And it wasn't that I was actually it wasn't to the point where I thought I was going to try to
00:24:13
end my life. It was just everything was so bleak and it just felt like I couldn't get out of
00:24:20
>> this depression I was in. And so I actually uh went to like um uh Net Care I think it's what it's called. And you I
00:24:30
met with the therapist there and they kind of assessed me, sent me to my physician and boom, I'm on on an
00:24:38
anti-depressant and on a mood stabilizer. >> Okay. Uh so now you know then I'm going
00:24:44
okay well maybe this is going to fix everything. Um it didn't uh and it actually got way worse. But in the
00:24:53
process I mean for me and I was on this stuff on and off this stuff for years and it was it's really
00:25:02
you kind of establishing a new relationship with yourself. So I'd have these pills some days I would take them.
00:25:10
Some days I wouldn't. Some Sometimes it would seem like they're working. Sometimes it seemed like it was making
00:25:16
things worse. >> Right. >> So, a long story short, you know, I'm not a doctor, but when looking at this
00:25:23
case, I'm viewing it as somebody that has been treated myself and somebody that has been dealing with some of the
00:25:29
same issues that Alisa has been dealing with. >> Well, or was dealing with. What that
00:25:34
gives me a little insight towards is it's not the, you know, the mental health and the way that we treat it is
00:25:39
not the exact same thing as physical health and how we treat that. You know, if somebody has has high blood pressure,
00:25:46
well, we can put you on this medication and it should regulate that blood pressure after x amount of days. Um,
00:25:54
where with a mental health situation, we would you would you disagree with me? It's a lot of trial and error and and
00:26:01
where some things might work for some people, they're not going to work for others.
00:26:06
>> Now, we have this situation where we have a person out on their own and we cannot figure out is she keeping up with
00:26:12
that medication? Uh was she overdoing it, underdoing it? Uh were there other things that that are factoring in?
00:26:19
>> Well, and yeah, and was she being responsible on that medication? I was on a mood stabilizer called Depeico. Um,
00:26:27
and I was told by uh I was told by some physicians that if you drink on it, I mean, it could you could just actually
00:26:35
die >> from it. Uh, then I actually heard from my therapist that, you know, one or two
00:26:41
beers wouldn't be that big of a deal. I mean, cuz think about it this way. I mean, you're, you know, I, you know, I
00:26:47
had a house, I'd like to grill out, stuff like that. And, uh, what do you want to do when you're grilling out?
00:26:53
Have a beer, >> of course. you know, and so when somebody saying, "Well, if you drink,
00:26:56
you might die." Um, the I had a very negative effect when when I drink, I almost would hallucinate, like I'd get
00:27:07
to this almost uh I've never done LSD or anything like that, but it was almost to
00:27:12
this like trippy state. >> And so looking at this case again, that makes me question, was she taking her
00:27:21
drugs properly? And and if she was, she was still having lapses. We know that she was having, you know, some issues
00:27:29
because of the school stuff. >> Mhm. >> And then was when she was out on her own,
00:27:35
>> maybe she would drink and and how would that affect her? And it affects everybody differently.
00:27:41
>> Yeah. >> Cuz if you then, you know, for me, I did the research, some people that were
00:27:45
taking Depeico >> would could drink a couple beers and be fine or even drink liquor and be fine.
00:27:52
And I just found that once I took one drink, I almost became like a crackhead. >> Like as far as like I wanted all I could
00:28:03
think about was getting the next drink and then get the next drink and get the next drink.
00:28:08
>> And that that's been the biggest question mark for me regarding this case when I first looked at it was I wanted
00:28:14
to know how the these these medications would affect what's going on with her internally. I wanted to know because she
00:28:21
is on vacation. She's on her West Coast tour. Was she drinking and partying during this time and was she trying to
00:28:27
back off of medication to drink or was she maintaining that that medication and drinking on top of it and thus having a
00:28:36
different effect, >> right? And that's something we probably will never know. Uh but let's get right
00:28:41
back into the story after this quick beer break. >> [music] >> a [music] a a [music]
00:29:16
All right, we're back everybody. Cheers. >> Cheers. So, we have Alisa Lamb who is
00:29:21
out traveling the US. She's in California all by herself and we know that she has these uh bipolar disorder
00:29:29
and she's on medication for some different things. >> She checks into the Cecil Hotel. She's
00:29:34
there for a couple days. She's moved to a room by herself. And then on January 31st,
00:29:40
>> complaints, >> right? >> On January 31st, Alisa Lamb is last spotted by a hotel worker at the Cecil
00:29:50
Hotel. Uh this would be she's last seen in the lobby of the Cecil Hotel. Um and remind you, she has been contacting her
00:29:58
family up to this point. Uh this is where the contact stops, though. >> Mhm. On February 1st, the following day
00:30:07
was the day that that Lamb was supposed to check out from the hotel. Now, she did not actually check out. And this is
00:30:15
what sparks the the search for Alisa. >> Yeah. And because she's not contacting her family either, her family is going
00:30:22
to fly down to be in LA to help the hotel search for their daughter. >> Yeah. Breaking communication was
00:30:29
something that was that really worried the police as well as her family. Because one of the things I mean she was
00:30:36
in her early 20s and she's traveling by herself and maybe the parents said hey you can go
00:30:43
>> but you're going to have to be in constant contact with us. >> Right. Right. And you would want to be I
00:30:48
mean it's a it's a foreign land you know it's another country. >> Well I wouldn't want to be I'm just
00:30:53
traveling. I'm probably traveling to get away from my family. >> Uh so the police and the family are
00:30:57
working together to try to find Alisa. Now now think about this. So, captain, she could be anywhere. She's in this big
00:31:05
giant city and in in a big giant hotel, first of all, so they're going to have to start their search at the hotel.
00:31:13
Where was she last seen? Well, we know she was last seen in the lobby. And they actually go to her room. They search her
00:31:20
room and her belongings. They do a what what one would consider a thorough search of the hotel as much as they
00:31:28
actually can. You have to keep in mind here um this is not yet a situation where they believe that they they can go
00:31:36
and search every room at this hotel. We're talking about they have like 600 rooms here,
00:31:43
>> right? >> Uh and plus you you have all these back hallways. You're going to have all these
00:31:47
service areas of the hotels where this is not an easy search, >> right? But they can pull surveillance
00:31:52
footage right away. >> Yeah. So what what ends up happening is they search her room. They they can't go
00:31:58
room to room. We have people that are basically living in this hotel. Some people are staying there for a trip.
00:32:04
Some people are staying there on an extended stay. There are people that have lived in this hotel for years.
00:32:10
>> Um they do check all the common areas and they this the search itself provides
00:32:16
no leads to the whereabouts of Alisa. It provides also no leads or no hints of foul play.
00:32:23
>> Mhm. On February 6th and February 7th of 2013, the LAPD, they start to release to
00:32:31
the public details about the suspicious disappearance of Alisa Lamb. Uh they hold a press conference during this
00:32:39
time. This is when you start to see on on the news footage as well that they are putting up posters calling for
00:32:45
action. They're putting her face out there trying to get people to, you know, come forward if they've seen her or know
00:32:51
of her whereabouts. I know a lot of people wonder why the heck would uh LAPD, you know, make such a big deal
00:32:58
about this girl going missing. There's probably a lot of missing persons cases, you know, presented to the public during
00:33:04
this time. But one of the major reasons is it's, you know, she is not from the United States,
00:33:10
>> right? >> And so that becomes a little bit bigger of a deal. >> And the missing person's alert that is
00:33:14
sent out by LAPD, it, like I said, it includes her picture. This is important to LAPD as her family because there are
00:33:23
certain things about this disappearance that have not been fully released to the
00:33:27
public at this time. One of those being that she does have this bipolar disorder. Um, I'm thinking here,
00:33:34
Captain, that the investigators as well as the family are wondering is has this led to her disappearance and therefore
00:33:41
we need to put her picture out there because if if she's if something's happened to maybe she doesn't know where
00:33:47
she is, >> right? because she could be in a manic in a manic state and if she's in a manic
00:33:52
state then >> who knows she she is maybe not capable of getting back or being in contact with
00:33:59
them on her own. >> Yeah. So they the the details that they list are basically you know a general
00:34:06
description of her you know as well as where she was last seen that's at the Cecil Hotel 640 South Main Street in
00:34:14
downtown Los Angeles. Yeah. Um their their additional information simply just states that possibly suffers from mild
00:34:22
depression. >> They also include where she was traveling from and her means of travel.
00:34:27
Again, that's public transportation using Amtrak and buses. You know, hoping that maybe if she ended up back using
00:34:34
buses that she would be spotted there, as well as stating the cities in which she intends to go to. And this leads us
00:34:41
up to February 14th where the LAPD is going to actually release the surveillance footage, the famous
00:34:48
surveillance footage. >> Yeah, we have this is the very famous surveillance footage. This is taken at
00:34:54
at 8:31 a.m. on February 1st, the day that she is supposed to be checking out of the hotel. Now, here's what the claim
00:35:03
is, which is very strange to me, Captain, is that we >> fishy. >> Yeah. We have the footage that's taken
00:35:09
place in the elevator itself, but there's no other surveillance footage to go along with it. You know, there we
00:35:16
don't have footage from the hallways or from any of the other common spaces in this hotel. Yeah. And nothing from the
00:35:23
entrance as well. To me, I just find that very fishy. And obviously, we have lawsuits in this case, so you know, one
00:35:31
could assume that are they hiding these things? Well, you should find it fishy. And I'll tell you why. So, the deal is
00:35:40
they had other cameras. Their claim is that these cameras were either not working or not working to the point that
00:35:47
they were recording anything. Um, having a background in this, I can tell you that this would this really
00:35:54
>> Well, what's your background? Because most people wouldn't know. >> Okay. So, I was a security administrator
00:35:58
for a high-rise building in downtown Columbus, Ohio for several years. Now, mind you, the building that I worked at
00:36:06
was built in 1999. So, it's very different from a building built and constructed in the 1920s.
00:36:13
>> Right. Right. But as technology advances, then people put in new cameras and stuff like that.
00:36:18
>> Yeah. We had, just to keep things short, we had just under 100 cameras throughout
00:36:23
this building. It was, it had 27 stores, uh, 27 floors as well as a rooftop. >> Um, we had four elevators. It's my
00:36:32
understanding that the Cecil Hotel has two elevators. Um, we would have had a camera in any of
00:36:40
those common areas, meaning any place that you could step off of the elevator, there would be a camera that would go
00:36:45
and coincide with one that would be in the elevator as well. >> Right >> now, the thing here is we would conduct,
00:36:52
you know, we would routine security checks of everything. These cameras were being monitored at our front desk. We we
00:37:00
had six different monitors. Uh two of them were scrolling monitors where they would bounce from camera to camera on
00:37:07
the same cycle. >> Uh the other four were actual monitors where you could uh pick which camera you
00:37:14
chose to watch, right? >> And or a multi- view and you could also move and manipulate those cameras to see
00:37:21
certain things and and point the camera in different directions. We were recording on those monitors. So what
00:37:29
that means is that if something was not present on the monitor or at that time it was not being recorded.
00:37:37
>> Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> So we were only recording what was being
00:37:41
monitored. Now I currently work in a different building that is under a different situation. This security
00:37:48
system is constantly recording. It's always recording out of every camera whether it's being monitored or not.
00:37:55
Now, what it does so that you don't have millions and millions and hours of recording, what it does is it's set up
00:38:03
to detect motion. >> And so, it will only save portions of what was recorded by by setting it to
00:38:10
like, you know, 10 seconds before it sees a motion. It will record everything until 10 seconds after it doesn't detect
00:38:17
a motion again. Well, actually, maybe we are perfect to diagnose this case because you were a security guard or a
00:38:25
security administrator. >> Yes, I was in charge of all of the security >> and I suffered with a mental illness.
00:38:31
So, I think we're perfect for this case. [laughter] >> Um, so here here's my caveat to
00:38:36
everybody listening. Now, while I would be considered an expert on those two security systems, every security system
00:38:44
is very different, right? And I'm guessing that the one at the Cecil Hotel is probably not much like either of the
00:38:52
two more modern security systems that I was running. The problems I have that I see from the get-go are that one, I
00:39:01
don't believe that this is a hotel that is conducting routine security checks, >> right?
00:39:06
>> Uh because you have faulty equipment and they've decided that having faulty equipment is fine with them. That
00:39:13
becomes a budget issue. They know that these cameras are not working. It's not that something bad happened one day and
00:39:19
they just discovered these cameras aren't working. They willingly ran the hotel without these cameras working.
00:39:26
Now, did did they not have the budget to fund this? We don't know. But but their
00:39:30
thought was they were saying was that you know what, we have these cameras, the physical camera itself, whether it
00:39:36
be working or not, they're posted in these different positions. So people therefore in the hotel and walking
00:39:43
amongst the floors of the hotel believe that they are being filmed or being watched so they will conduct themselves
00:39:49
as appropriately. Well, and they are being watched, right? So, I mean, uh, in the defense of the hotel, you have
00:39:57
security guards there. You have people monitoring the whole hotel. >> It's, you know, they don't have any
00:40:04
obligation to, you know, film everything and house everything, >> right? >> You know, the their main job is to
00:40:12
prevent anything from happening, >> you know, and then and then the second would be if something does happen to
00:40:18
record it. But it's just odd to me that we have a recording, a famous recording inside the elevator, but nothing
00:40:25
outside. Nothing in the because it would be it would be really interesting to watch this video and watch it from the
00:40:32
inside and the outside because there's times that she steps off the screen and you kind of can't see what she was she's
00:40:39
doing, but if if we had footage of inside the lobby would know what she was doing. The thing I wanted to make sure
00:40:45
that we pointed out here, Captain, is that this video footage, uh, according to Los Angeles news departments, okay,
00:40:54
it's listed as this footage being taken at 8:31 a.m. on February 1st. The reason
00:41:01
why I wanted to be very clear about that is that because every every bit of this footage that
00:41:08
I've seen online, the the time stamp is like you cannot see it. you cannot tell what time it states on there. Uh there's
00:41:15
even been people that have reported that you cannot see the time and kind of guessed was it 1:00 in the morning? You
00:41:21
know what at what time did this video footage take place? I just wanted to point out that it's been reported in Los
00:41:27
Angeles as 8:31 a.m. Now, mind you, my other caveat there would be we don't know how accurate we've seen how faulty
00:41:35
their security camera system is already. We don't know how accurate that time stamp would be, but it gives us
00:41:41
something. It gives us a bit of a place marker to work around. >> And there's a lot of speculation that
00:41:46
there this tape is actually altered. And there I see maybe some evidence of that.
00:41:52
But anyways, let's just get right into it. Let's just do a playbyplay of this video. All right. So, I'm starting the
00:41:58
video now. It is rolling. The door is opening. Alisa enters from the left. goes. She
00:42:07
dips down. She starts pushing. It looks like every button on the left hand side.
00:42:14
>> Mhm. >> They all light up. She steps back, goes to the corner. She's now hanging out in
00:42:19
the corner for a little bit. And then she's kind of creeping around the side. Then she jumps out and she kind of pokes
00:42:26
her head to the right, to the left. Now she steps away. And now she's against the wall. Now she goes into the corner.
00:42:32
back against the wall like right up against it and then right into the corner. >> Now she's stepping around the corner and
00:42:39
she looks out to her right kind of creepy like this >> where where like her body's pretty much
00:42:46
in the doorway but the but she's tilting her head out to look into the hallway >> and she steps out with her right foot.
00:42:52
She looks to her left, jumps out. She takes a side step back. It's almost like she's doing the Cupid shuffle or
00:43:03
something. >> Yeah. So, she just went to her left and then went back into the elevator, then
00:43:07
back out again. >> Now, she's in the hallway. You can see her right arm, but that's about it.
00:43:12
>> And right now, she's standing where the elevator buttons would be in the hallway
00:43:17
>> and she's waving something, but her back is still against the wall. >> Yeah, it looks like her arm is up. Her
00:43:26
right arm is up. Her back is to us. And it looks like she's messing with her hair.
00:43:31
>> And yeah, now she comes in and she starts pushing all the buttons for left hand, right hand, she's pushing
00:43:39
everything >> twice. This is a lot more disturbing than the first time I watched it.
00:43:46
This is probably so thrilling for the listeners. Now she keeps I mean, she's just pushing buttons. Now she steps out
00:43:53
almost fixes her hair, but almost like she's kind of distraught. Like the hell is going on here?
00:43:59
>> She's in the hallway again. >> Now she's waving her hands like kind of in. Yeah, it's very Now she almost looks
00:44:08
like she's doing some weird dance move. And now she's doing something with her fingers. Almost like she's
00:44:17
dancing with her fingers. This is way more disturbing than the first time I watched it.
00:44:24
Her arms are up again. And now she walks down the hallway. >> Yeah, you can't see her.
00:44:34
Nothing. Just cannot see her at all. [snorts] She doesn't >> You can Yeah, she's not in frame
00:44:47
anymore. >> She doesn't come back into frame. And now the elevator door closes. >> Yeah. And that that clip, you can find
00:44:58
it online. It's about uh roughly about 4 minutes, but she's pretty much only in the video for about 3 minutes of that
00:45:06
whole clip. Well, after the elevator door closes, then we see the elevator doing what you exactly would think it
00:45:13
would do. It starts going to the floors of the buttons that she has pushed, and it's opening on each floor. And you can
00:45:19
tell that these floors are different because when the door opens each time, the the the decor is slightly different.
00:45:27
You might see different paint on the walls or a different uh floor tile as it goes through these different floors.
00:45:34
>> All right, so this definitely is some creepy footage. And if you haven't watched it, you should go do so now. And
00:45:40
I'll actually probably just take that footage and put it up on our website at trueimeg.com.
00:45:47
Um what's your takeaway from this? This is the first time we watched it together.
00:45:52
>> Yeah. So my my initial thoughts um when I wa when I had watched it by myself,
00:45:57
the first time seeing it, it looked to me when she goes into the elevator after pressing all the buttons
00:46:04
>> and then she goes right up against the wall like that's a move that you would
00:46:09
do if you were like hiding from somebody. >> Yeah. And then she furthers that by
00:46:13
going into the corner like maybe the person's getting closer or she's more fearful and she's hiding even slightly.
00:46:20
>> Yeah. But that's not initially. Initially she doesn't do that. Right. >> There's a couple movements before she
00:46:25
goes against the wall and then goes into the corner. >> Right. Right. And what I'm saying is she
00:46:29
goes in, she presses multiple buttons. >> She looks very relaxed at that point and
00:46:34
then until she goes right up against that wall. Again, my initial thought there was she's hiding from somebody.
00:46:40
Mh. >> But then she kind of like I don't know if she comes to or what, but then she
00:46:45
decides to step off of the elevator. >> Right >> now, one key thing to me was the corner
00:46:51
that she's hiding in is opposite of where the the buttons for the elevator call buttons. What you would call the
00:46:58
call buttons, which would be the buttons in the hallway. >> They're it's the opposite side. And so
00:47:05
to me, I I had always wondered, you know, when she's hiding from somebody, your first thought, too, is why are
00:47:10
these elevator doors not closing immediately? >> You know, um I will say that that all
00:47:17
elevators do act differently from one another, >> they're finicky. >> They're extremely finicky. Um and what
00:47:24
you can do on an elevator, you can easily confuse an elevator. And what an elevator will do as a security
00:47:31
precaution that if you override the system by hitting a bunch of buttons or hitting things in a weird sequence,
00:47:38
>> its natural state is to want to to default to a safety mode where therefore keeping the doors open is technically a
00:47:46
safety mode for most elevators being that it allows people to exit if they need to and it prevents the elevator
00:47:53
itself from operating. So where where some people might say that well the the building's haunted and the elevator is
00:48:02
not closing because she's running from something that's taking control of the building or taking control of the
00:48:07
elevator. I don't think the door's not closing. You know is any evidence of that? I think I think she's in an old
00:48:16
elevator. She's given it too many commands and it's just hesitating to close. >> Yeah. So, my stance on paranormal stuff
00:48:24
is there's definitely some stuff that I've experienced or some stories I've heard from people that I can't explain,
00:48:31
but I wouldn't say that I'm somebody that normally dives into that or believes into that a lot. And in this
00:48:36
situation, I I don't think it there's some paranormal activity happening. >> Yeah. The only time that that the
00:48:43
paranormal activity made me question was when she when she's doing those weird hand movements when she's like outside
00:48:51
of the the elevator. >> And you know, some people have said it it looks like she's almost casting a
00:48:56
spell >> or you know doing something like that like you know um that's sorry that's
00:49:02
your your spellcasting sound. >> Okay. Um but but to me it more looks like she it
00:49:08
almost looks like somebody talking with their hands a little bit more rather than than casting a spell.
00:49:14
>> Right. And then then people would wonder is she talking to somebody outside of
00:49:18
the elevator. >> I did have a thought that the reason why the elevator doors might not be closing
00:49:25
is that somebody's standing outside in the hallway hitting the call button which would prevent the elevator door
00:49:31
from closing. However, with her hiding in that particular corner, she would be more visible to that person given the
00:49:39
angle of those call buttons. You know what I mean? Like if that was in fact what was going on. Yeah. My initial
00:49:46
takeaway from this and like I said, watching it back, it's like seems a lot creepier than it initially did when I
00:49:53
first watch it because when I first watch it, you see her push the buttons, all the buttons, which is odd.
00:50:00
And it's like, well, one of the things I kind of thought was, you know, uh, my family used to stay at like the Holiday
00:50:06
Inn, you know, hotel, mot in. >> And, uh, it was about like 30 minutes from our house. But for some reason, it
00:50:16
was like, hey, we're going to go stay in a hotel. And we'd get a, you know, swim
00:50:20
in the pool and stuff like that. But sometimes when you have other kids around, you'd start playing like tag,
00:50:26
right? But you would be using the elevators of course and so you jump on the elevators push all the buttons. So
00:50:31
was she playing some, you know, some elevator game of tag with somebody? But that doesn't seem likely
00:50:40
cuz one, people booted her out of a room because she was acting odd. Uh two, she's also a
00:50:48
lot older, >> so it doesn't seem like that's something that she would even be that interested
00:50:53
in doing if somebody asked. She's by herself, so we we shouldn't, you know what I mean? You would assume you play
00:50:58
an elevator tag game. You're doing that with people that you know. Um >> yeah, hopefully she's not playing an
00:51:03
elevator elevator tag game by herself. >> My my initial thoughts were that that she was afraid of something. She's
00:51:10
trying to hide and then once she gets back into the hallway that she's seeing something that maybe she doesn't think
00:51:17
is real and that's why she's moving her hands in a weird way. when I when I take
00:51:22
a step back and I and I view it a second time and I think about I I try to put myself into her sandals, right? So, my
00:51:32
thoughts are are a couple things, right? So, if there were something some entity
00:51:37
or some ghost or something that you think that you saw or that you saw and you're afraid of, what would my natural
00:51:43
instinct be? Well, in any situation, it's going to be fight or flight. But if you're seeing something that you don't
00:51:50
know is real or you're seeing something that you're terrified of that that doesn't seem like it should be real, my
00:51:56
first thought would be flight to to somewhere where I know people are, >> right?
00:52:01
>> And so being that I wouldn't hop into an elevator and press every button to try
00:52:06
to escape a ghost. I would go straight to the lobby where I know there's going to be other people,
00:52:12
>> right? >> That would be my initial reaction to the paranormal type stuff. Now, if if she's
00:52:17
actually afraid of a a real person, then the other problem becomes, well, why would you push every single button?
00:52:26
You know, that again doesn't make sense, >> right? And I I think what we have here
00:52:30
is first when she's getting on the elevator, she she's walking in a very calm demeanor.
00:52:36
>> Mhm. >> And then her next handful of actions um are still pretty calm. like she steps
00:52:44
to the side, you know, being polite. I'm going to go in this corner. The door is
00:52:49
not shutting. Probably because she pushed every button on the lefth hand side. The first re the
00:52:56
first uh mo movement that she makes that is very odd is when she kind of sticks her head out and looks to the right and
00:53:02
looks to the left. And that's very odd. But maybe she's also just a shy person and she's concerned that she doesn't
00:53:09
want to look like a dummy. Or maybe she's doing something kind of goofy by pushing all the, you know, I'm going to
00:53:15
go to every floor just to go to every floor. Maybe she's bored and just trying to find somebody to talk to or and and
00:53:23
so she doesn't want to look dumb. But then the next movement was against the wall. She stays there for a second back
00:53:29
against the wall and then she goes in the corner. Now, a lot of people speculate that's when she's hiding from
00:53:35
somebody. I would, you know, if you have not watched this video, I'll just say go
00:53:39
watch the video now. So I don't I don't want to, you know, tamper with anybody's
00:53:42
ideas. I don't want to put ideas into other people's heads. So do that. Now, so my thought is it's pretty simple.
00:53:50
She's going against the wall because she's trying to have this sense that she's thinking the door is not shutting
00:53:56
because the motion sensor, >> right? So I'm going to go against the wall. So maybe that [clears throat] the
00:54:01
sensor will close the door. And when she goes against the wall, it doesn't work.
00:54:06
So then she goes to the corner. Okay. >> And then she walks out again. And again,
00:54:12
she's not rushing. She's not running. She's very seems pretty calm. And then that's when she starts making those
00:54:19
weird hocus pocus motions. And I can't really explain those. A lot of people say, "Well, maybe she was in the club,
00:54:27
so maybe she was like doing some weird club dance move." And I made the joke that she looked like she was doing the
00:54:32
Cupid Shuffle. Again, those move movements to me, some of them seem like she's trying to trip some sensor. Even
00:54:41
when she starts, she's doing the hocus p I can't even talk today. Hocus pocus type motions, but when she starts doing
00:54:49
those within like the doorway of the elevator, to me, that's to trip some kind of sensor.
00:54:56
>> Right. Right. I agree. And that the part that you were describing earlier, which
00:55:01
is the part that I think really kind of terrifies people the first time they see
00:55:05
it, is where we see her what I would call jump into the hallway. Uh, and the way you described it, had people not
00:55:13
seen it before, might be a little confusing on how this actually plays out. She's making very casual movements
00:55:20
up until this point. And then she very quickly throws her right leg, her right knee forward and she
00:55:28
>> she's doing a lunge. >> Yeah. And she quickly puts her head down almost at waist level and looks to her
00:55:35
right and then very quickly looks to her left. >> Yeah. It's kind of like boom boom boom
00:55:40
>> and then [clears throat] she retreats again into the elevator which which makes it does make it seem like well
00:55:45
she's looking for somebody that might be coming down the hallway on either side >> and she's she's might have been chased
00:55:52
to this point to where she she doesn't know fully know where this person could come from and and then I start
00:55:59
questioning though it if there's somebody outside did she meet somebody while she's in LA uh like we said we she
00:56:07
was moved from one room to another. So, it doesn't seem like she's having a bunch of communication with other
00:56:13
travelers, >> right? >> Um or maybe she was acting odd and there was somebody from the hotel out there.
00:56:21
>> Yeah. And that's been an argument that people have put forward that maybe she
00:56:25
wouldn't go to, you know, when I said I would fly to the lobby where I know other people are, the argument would be
00:56:32
then be, well, if she's hiding from somebody that works at the hotel, >> uh, that that might not be her first
00:56:38
option. She might not want to go to the lobby. >> Yeah. >> The thing I see here though, Captain, is
00:56:43
that I don't see while I see, you know, some quick movements on her part, right?
00:56:49
I don't really see anybody that appears to be in any hurry to go anywhere. >> Yeah.
00:56:54
>> I mean, >> three minutes. >> At least three minutes of the film, she's in or around the elevator.
00:57:02
>> I've also Go ahead. >> Well, I was just going to say that. It's one of those things every time we dive
00:57:07
into a case, uh, it always seems like there's one or two things that I wish we had
00:57:13
>> because, you know, if we had those, we'd have more answers. And I really think if
00:57:18
we had some kind of footage from the lobby cuz there's so much of the you see her in frame but you might only see her
00:57:25
arm >> again. What is she just doing? Is she just standing out there just sitting
00:57:30
patiently? And maybe she was, you know, got off the elevator. I'm just going to stand here and the door will eventually
00:57:36
close. But it didn't. So then she jumps back in. It's um I don't know. >> She appears to me to be stalling the
00:57:43
elevator. That's really what I think when I when when I see her get in and hit every button. That that to me tells
00:57:50
me that she's trying to hold up that elevator for some reason. And maybe maybe not even just to keep it at that
00:57:56
floor, but to stall it from wherever it may be get getting called from. Uh I have heard.
00:58:02
>> Right. But if you're going to stall it, you just go in there and push door open.
00:58:06
>> Right. I I wouldn't think that the the lay person would go in knowing that if I
00:58:11
push all the buttons that it's going to stall out the elevator. I don't think that was her intent. The the reason why
00:58:18
I say that though is I see other evidence of her what I would say stalling the elevator where where she's
00:58:26
using other means of that where where she's standing with her body in the elevator and peering out into the
00:58:32
hallway. Um, that to me is is stopping that door from closing. That's that's keeping that motion sensor alive and
00:58:40
it's not allowing the door to close. Then once she's >> Right. But that doesn't make any sense
00:58:44
with the the you know the second and third motion of her going against the wall and then going in the corner. That
00:58:50
wouldn't be a a mechanism that you'd use to stall the elevator, right? >> No, it wouldn't be my first go-to. I but
00:58:59
what I'm saying is I see I see three things in that video that look to me like somebody stalling the elevator and
00:59:06
and one is pushing all the buttons and and you're right maybe she doesn't know or most people wouldn't know that that
00:59:13
could potentially stall the elevator. Two, she's obstructing the door from closing more than once. Even with those
00:59:20
weird hand movements, she's she's breaking that that sensor and keeping that door open even longer. Mhm.
00:59:25
>> And then when we do see her and we know that she's still next to the elevator,
00:59:30
when we can see her arm but not her body, she's where the call buttons would be in the hallway where one could push
00:59:37
those buttons or hold those buttons down keeping that elevator door open as well.
00:59:42
>> Mhm. >> I know that none of them are definitive things of a person trying to stall the
00:59:47
elevator. I'm just going off of the fact that I see three what could be attempts
00:59:53
of stalling this elevator. Well, and you you know with your experience, I mean, you've watched probably thousands and
00:59:59
thousands of hours of surveillance footage. >> Well, and having a really good knowledge
01:00:04
of of >> drinking your beer. >> It's Gatorade. [laughter] Uh, but not having a really good working
01:00:12
knowledge of of the elevators. >> Is that what you call beer? >> Yeah, it's my energy fuel for the show.
01:00:17
>> It has your electrolytes in it. >> I do want to point out something as we're discussing these elevators,
01:00:22
though. Again, they're very finicky machines. >> Mhm. >> Um, you know, don't >> That was my nickname in high school,
01:00:28
finicky machine. >> Don't play on the elevators. That That's not That's not a good thing. They will
01:00:33
close on you even though they're not supposed to. They will behave in strange ways. Um, I don't want anybody, you
01:00:39
know, nobody needs to lose an arm off of playing elevator tag. >> Mhm. I I feel like I've given my kind
01:00:46
of, you know, initial thoughts and then a step back and and make another assessment of the video, but I don't
01:00:52
think I got your >> Well, well, summarize yours. >> So, so mine, of course, the first
01:00:58
initial thoughts was she's hiding from somebody and something strange is is going on. Then at second look, my
01:01:05
thought is that she's stalling the elevator, that she's being disruptive to the operations of the hotel for some
01:01:13
reason. Like kind of a I don't know. I I feel like there's a little bit of um of
01:01:19
a little like aggressiveness in her that that she's upset with the hotel or and and and wants to just disturb other
01:01:27
people's visit by by holding up the elevator or making it stop at every floor for no reason. You know what I
01:01:34
mean? It seems like a very childish thing to do. Remember remember when you're a kid the first time you stay in
01:01:40
Well, maybe everybody didn't do this, but the first time I remember staying in a high-rise building, right? I thought
01:01:45
it was funny to jump into the elevator, press every single button, and then I would jump off of it and not even need
01:01:51
to take it anywhere. It was just funny to me that I knew, well, it's going to stop at every floor, and you know that
01:01:56
there's somebody on one of those floors going, "God, this elevator takes forever." Um, you know, and then got,
01:02:02
>> you know, but you're 10 and it's funny to you now. I'm not I'm not saying anything.
01:02:07
>> Still funny now. >> It is still kind of funny, but you see what I mean? I get I get the feeling
01:02:11
like she's being disruptive for some reason. Like maybe maybe she's angry that she got moved to another room.
01:02:18
Maybe she's upset with those other guests thinking, "Well, these people are rude and they they they went into the
01:02:24
the to the front desk and complained about me and now I'm in my own room." >> Yeah.
01:02:28
>> Um >> Yeah. I mean, let's have been trying to be friendly with these other travelers and sometimes, you
01:02:37
know, sometimes people pick on other people, >> you know what I mean? and maybe she was
01:02:42
acting a little strange. Uh sometimes you need to take the strange and the and the weird because sometimes that's
01:02:49
strange and weird can be beautiful and you take those people under your wings and become friends with them and and I
01:02:55
think you know one we should all do a better job of trying to be inclusive to people you know because people need
01:03:02
other people and also you know it goes to the point that you know these travelers probably didn't know that she
01:03:09
was dealing with something and probably looking back on this now when they go oh
01:03:13
Yeah, we were the people that complained on her and maybe this wouldn't have happened if we were just more again open
01:03:22
to people's differences and try to be inclusive or just try to be understanding. And so I understand that
01:03:29
her idea might have been, you know, personally to me, I'd go, I'm in a youth hostel situation where I'm
01:03:36
with a bunch of other people and you want to give me my own room. So So these people stay is better. To me, I'm all
01:03:43
for it. upgrade my room. Give me a king-size bed and, you know, put a bunch of little liquor bottles in the fridge
01:03:49
and put that on the house and call it a >> day. You You feel like going from being
01:03:54
living in a petting zoo to being a fat cat in the sky. >> Yeah. Give me a I want to be a fat cat
01:03:59
in the sky. And but maybe it just rubbed her the wrong way, you know? >> Well, and here's one thing I wondered
01:04:05
about that situation, Captain. So, if if you're at the front desk and somebody complains, you know, we got this person
01:04:12
that's behaving strangely, and then your response is going to be, yeah, you're in
01:04:16
a shared room. You know, there's all different walks of life in there. Um, you're in a shared room. That's what you
01:04:22
paid for. Well, then a second person from the same room comes down and complains about the sec the same person,
01:04:27
right? >> Then that person, of course, you're going to that complaint is now justified
01:04:31
and you're going to move that other person to keep these two people happy. I wonder to me I wonder if she wasn't
01:04:38
behaving strangely at all. Is there a possibility that the two people in the room already that complain about her, do
01:04:45
they know one another? Do were they hoping that oh we'll we'll share a room at this discounted rate because we can
01:04:50
say other people can stay here and if they put anybody in here we'll just complain about you and I have flown on
01:04:56
planes together. And what's the thing that we usually do when they have three seats in a row and it's just the two of
01:05:01
us? You sit on one side, I sit on the other side. We leave the middle seat empty. And then we give the nasty stare
01:05:07
down to everybody that walks down the aisle so they don't want to sit between two garage dudes.
01:05:12
>> Mhm. >> And it usually works. >> Yeah. Or or once they sit down, we start complaining about him.
01:05:18
>> Belching, >> right? So they have to move them like, "Can you move? This guy's kind of being
01:05:22
a jerk." >> That's right. He's got hairy arms. >> Yeah. So Well, maybe these people were
01:05:26
just going, "Hey, let's uh let's just complain because if we complain, then we'll just get an upgrade." I got I you
01:05:32
know I have friends that will get a hotel room and then they instantly nothing's wrong with it. They just call
01:05:38
in and go the room doesn't look so clean because they know that they're going to
01:05:42
get an upgrade >> being a DB just to get the the upgrade >> for no reason >> being a jack wagon.
01:05:48
>> The old JW >> old DB in the JW. >> Yeah. So I to me captain I see somebody that looks like they're stalling the
01:05:56
elevator. For what purpose, I don't know. But what it does tell me if I'm right. Um, and not saying that I am.
01:06:04
>> But if one's trying to stall the elevator, then that throw that shows me she's not running from something or
01:06:10
someone. >> That doesn't make a lot of sense here. I mean, to me, it seems like you're trying
01:06:14
to play who can be the dumbest guy in the room game and you're winning. Um, but cuz it doesn't make any sense to me
01:06:21
because if you're just trying to stall the elevator and you don't want to ride on the elevator
01:06:27
>> Mhm. >> then why are you staying on the elevator and she stays on the elevator for a good
01:06:32
minute of that clip, >> right? >> That's why I'm saying it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I It would still
01:06:37
stop at every floor. I What I'm saying is I don't believe she's trying to stall the elevator from leaving that floor. I
01:06:44
think she's just trying to be disruptive and stall the elevator in any form or fashion she can think of. Now go
01:06:51
>> right. Not really. Stall might not be the right word, but basically to possibly inconvenience others.
01:06:58
>> You're exactly right. >> All right. So I think Yeah. So you just picked a really shitty word. You
01:07:03
[laughter] you need to work on that. Um, I see that and that would make sense because the thing that doesn't make any
01:07:10
sense to me and when she comes into the elevator, she bends down almost as she as if she's having a hard time seeing
01:07:20
the buttons like cuz she does go one hand on the knee and puts her face very close to the buttons.
01:07:25
>> I mean, she Yeah. and she almost goes to a 90 90° angle bend, >> you know, to see these buttons and then
01:07:32
she ends up just pushing what looks like to me all the buttons on the left side,
01:07:37
which makes zero sense. Um, unless But look, we've all had those times where we're staying somewhere and, you know,
01:07:45
I've traveled, you know, with music and stuff where I've been in one hotel one night, next night, different hotel next
01:07:51
night, and I get in, I go, "Oh, I'm on floor three." And you're >> a [ __ ] four. Ah [ __ ] No, it's five. But
01:07:58
it doesn't look like that because it's blah blah blah blah blah blah. So I don't I I don't know why she's hitting
01:08:05
every button. So the stall thing makes sense, but you know, my thought is when she is backing away, it's and going
01:08:13
against the wall and going in the corner, it's not to hide from somebody or hide from some paranormal uh entity.
01:08:19
It's to get the sensor to realize that it's time to close the door, okay, and move on.
01:08:26
>> Uh, a lot of those movements I can't I can't explain I can't explain the whole
01:08:31
Cupid shuffle and I can't >> Well, and most people can't and that's why the the footage is so fascinating.
01:08:37
>> Yeah. And I've never uh like I said, I was treated, you know, for bipolar. That's what they started treating me
01:08:44
for. I was never diagnosed with bipolar. Um, I never had a manic episode. I've had
01:08:51
friends that have had manic episodes. Uh, some of them could remember small details of the manic episodes, uh, but
01:09:00
they couldn't remember the full situation. Uh, I worked with a singer songwriter one time that she went
01:09:06
missing for a couple weeks. We didn't know where she was. she wasn't showing up for the session. She had booked and
01:09:11
she had an episode and she ended up she was arrested and then once they realized
01:09:17
that she was just offer medication uh she was released and she told us I don't really remember why I was down at the
01:09:23
state house. I was convinced though that somebody was going to harm somebody else.
01:09:30
>> Mhm. >> And she doesn't remember much of the details but she remembers certain parts
01:09:34
of the event. But again here, Alisa doesn't look like she's acting. I mean, other than a couple weird, it's almost
01:09:42
like normal movement. Normal movement. Oh, that's weird. Normal movement. Normal movement.
01:09:48
>> For 70 weird 75 or 80% of the video, she's moving very casually to me. >> So, those are our initial thoughts and
01:09:56
kind of our summarized thoughts. You know, yeah, maybe she's trying to stall it. Maybe she's trying to inconvenience
01:10:02
the hotel. We don't think that there's anything going on paranormal that we can tell. I mean, like again, I mean, it's
01:10:09
not like we have video footage of the the hallway and there's like, you know, some ghost, you know, the ghost buster
01:10:16
guy. >> Slimer. >> Slimer. Yeah. Um, but that's kind of our thoughts. And now we have tomorrow, you
01:10:23
know, cuz there's no way we're going to finish all this because we have a lot of
01:10:26
theories. >> I'm surprised that we have so much more to get to. Um, you know, we we have to
01:10:31
talk about the rooftop. We have to talk about the body being found. We have to talk about the autopsy. We have
01:10:36
>> theories. Tumblr. Uhup. It goes on and on and on. >> Yeah, we're kind of long- winded today,
01:10:43
but I think it's good. I mean, I wanted to give a, you know, a little bit of your background as, you know, being a
01:10:49
security administrator and all that stuff. And uh, and yeah, I mean, I kind of opened up the floodgates of personal
01:10:58
life. >> Mhm. You opened up the garage door and exposed yourself. I [laughter] >> I sat down in the chair and I told No,
01:11:06
the the reason for doing that was because I think it is a sensitive issue and especially in this case and I know
01:11:12
we brought it up multiple times and uh I think it's something that we should be sensitive about, but it's something that
01:11:19
we should be open and also honest about cuz maybe by me saying, "Hey, look, I've
01:11:24
dealt with it. I've I've been on prescription pills before. I've seen a therapist. I've tried to work out some
01:11:31
of the stuff that was going on in my head and then in my heart, however you want to view that.
01:11:36
>> Uh, and it's not the easiest thing to talk about. And sometimes, um, gets a little emotional cuz I I feel like I'm
01:11:43
in a better place now. And so to think back on the the really hard or dark times is not the best. And I don't need
01:11:50
a bunch of people sending me comments saying, "Oh, thank thank you so much. I'm not trying to be a champion uh for
01:11:56
mental health." I think it's something that we all can do. Pretty simple. Just be open, honest, let people in, be kind
01:12:05
to people, >> right? >> Understand that people are walking different paths than you are. There's
01:12:10
some day e look, even if you're not diagnosed with, you know, some kind of mental, you know,
01:12:16
>> we all have good days and bad days. >> Good days and bad days. Yeah. Exactly.
01:12:19
And it's like though and everybody knows those bad days where somebody's being a
01:12:24
little nicer to you or just, you know, says, "Hey, nice shoes." Right. >> Right. Nice jib. Yeah.
01:12:30
>> Right. It it picks you up. Uh so I don't need a bunch of comments about that.
01:12:35
Just if you want to do anything about it, just be open and honest with your friends and your family. And also just
01:12:41
try to be kinder to each other. >> Be nice to the people around you. Be nice to a stranger, too, because you
01:12:46
don't know what that person's going through. You don't know where that person is from. Maybe they're from a
01:12:50
another town or another country and and they're confused about where they are. Just be nice to one another is all all
01:12:56
the captain's pushing for here. >> Yeah. Be kind. Don't suck. Don't be a douche wagon. And uh you know, be sweet.
01:13:04
And you can be sweeter by checking out our sponsor, Talkspace. People ask me all the time, do you use your sponsors?
01:13:12
Have you checked out your sponsors? Yes, I have. And I think Talkspace is a great
01:13:16
one. You know, we're talking about a lot of mental health issues today on the show. And because uh, you know, I work
01:13:22
my job and I and I do all this stuff musically and then I work on the podcast, it gets a lot harder to keep a
01:13:30
regular schedule with a therapist. So, this is a great way where you have a therapist at your access, you know,
01:13:36
24/7. >> Yeah. Talkspace's biggest thing. Affordable, confidential, and convenient. Uh, don't forget about this
01:13:44
their special offer for our listeners. Visit talkspace.com/g. Again, that's talkspace.com/g.
01:13:52
>> Yeah, that's a fine sponsor. And speaking of work, I need to get back to my job so I can be here tomorrow.
01:13:59
>> I want you to talk about your project real quick. I I told you that you were going to have to talk about it on this
01:14:04
show today. >> Yeah. So, I Everybody knows that I do music. Uh you can check out I just
01:14:09
launched a website. It's more like a uh musical journal, if you will. There's not a bunch of stuff on it yet. I'll be
01:14:16
posting because everybody asked me. So, it's uh captainfatands.com. >> I'm releasing my my real name.
01:14:25
>> It's professor captainfatands. Just go to captainfatands.com. Uh and that is going to be my little
01:14:32
site for my musical journal. And on this Friday on St. Patrick's Day, I have a project that I was involved in. Uh I
01:14:39
write a lot of songs and I sing. Uh normally not for other people. And the project's name is St. Patrick and the
01:14:47
album is called Tin Man. And that will be on iTunes >> this Friday on St. Patrick's Day.
01:14:54
>> Right. So the project is called St. Patrick released on St. Patrick's Day. >> Okay. So check out the captain's
01:15:00
website, captainfatands.com. And we will be back tomorrow with lots more to talk about. Until then, be good,
01:15:08
be kind, and don't litter. >> Yeah, [music] my boss is going to be pissed. I'm drunk.
01:15:20
>> [music]

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  • 70
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Episode Highlights

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage
    Hosts Nick and the Captain introduce the show and share their beer of the week.
    “It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.”
    @ 00m 54s
    November 24, 2025
  • The Mysterious Case of Alisa Lamb
    Discussing the perplexing disappearance and death of Alisa Lamb, a Canadian tourist.
    “It stretches believability that a young Canadian tourist could accidentally end up dead inside a water tank.”
    @ 03m 50s
    November 24, 2025
  • Cecil Hotel's Dark History
    Exploring the notorious history of the Cecil Hotel, where Alisa Lamb stayed.
    “The hotel has a long history as being a place of terrible happenings.”
    @ 10m 55s
    November 24, 2025
  • Alisa Lamb's Disappearance
    Alisa Lamb, traveling alone, goes missing after checking into the Cecil Hotel.
    “She checks into the Cecil Hotel, then vanishes.”
    @ 29m 32s
    November 24, 2025
  • Search Efforts Intensify
    As communication with Alisa stops, her family and police begin a search.
    “Breaking communication worried the police and her family.”
    @ 30m 29s
    November 24, 2025
  • Surveillance Footage Released
    The LAPD releases famous footage of Alisa in the hotel elevator, raising questions.
    “We have a famous recording inside the elevator, but nothing outside.”
    @ 34m 44s
    November 24, 2025
  • The Elevator Footage
    Alisa's strange behavior in the elevator raises questions about her state of mind.
    “This is a lot more disturbing than the first time I watched it.”
    @ 43m 41s
    November 24, 2025
  • Speculation on Paranormal Activity
    Discussion on whether Alisa's actions could be attributed to paranormal events.
    “I wouldn't say that I'm somebody that normally dives into that or believes into that a lot.”
    @ 48m 36s
    November 24, 2025
  • Revisiting the Footage
    The hosts reflect on how the footage feels creepier upon a second viewing.
    “This seems a lot creepier than it initially did when I first watched it.”
    @ 49m 48s
    November 24, 2025
  • Mental Health Awareness
    Discussing the importance of being open and kind to others regarding mental health.
    “Just be nice to one another.”
    @ 01h 12m 56s
    November 24, 2025
  • New Music Release
    Captain announces his new project 'St. Patrick' releasing on St. Patrick's Day.
    “The project is called St. Patrick released on St. Patrick's Day.”
    @ 01h 14m 56s
    November 24, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • I just feel so bad for her parents.
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage
  • It's a girl that unfortunately was out on her own.
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage
  • Was she drinking and partying during this time?
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage
  • She's doing some weird dance move.
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage
  • This seems a lot creepier than it initially did when I first watched it.
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage
  • We all have good days and bad days.
    Elisa Lam /// Part 1 /// True Crime Garage

Key Moments

  • Show Introduction00:43
  • Listener Shoutouts01:27
  • Cecil Hotel History10:55
  • Mental Health Discussion18:47
  • Suicidal Thoughts24:04
  • Medication Struggles25:02
  • Strange Timestamp40:57
  • New Music Announcement1:14:56

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown