Guests at L.A. Hotel Spent Weeks Drinking Water Contaminated by a Dead Body

When a maintenance worker at L.A.’s Cecil Hotel opened the hotel’s rooftop water tank to investigate low water pressure, he found something inside he probably wasn’t expecting: a dead body. Investigators believe the remains of Elisa Lam had been inside the tank since January 31, when the 21-year-old was last seen. As police work to determine if her death was the result of foul play or “a very, very strange accident,” the LA County Department of Public Health is investigating a more urgent matter: the potentially contaminated water, which hotel residents had, for several weeks, used to bathe in and brush their teeth. More »