Cecil Hotel Sued By Guests After Elisa Lam's Body Found In Water Tank

The Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is being sued by guests Steven and Gloria Cott after a Canadian tourist was found dead in the hotel’s water tank on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

For more than two weeks, tourists and long-term residents of The Cecil Hotel had been drinking, brushing their teeth and bathing in the water that was coming from a tank holding 21-year-old Elisa Lam’s corpse. The Cotts, who were at the hotel during the two weeks Lam’s body was thought to have been in the tank, are suing the hotel for not providing them with safe water. They are seeking reimbursement for their room, plus compensation for any medical costs they might incur as a result of the tainted water, according to ABC News.

"The water did have a funny taste," Sabrina Baugh, one of the hotel’s occupants, told CNN last Wednesday. "We never thought anything of it," the British woman said. "We thought it was just the way it was here." She also noticed something off about the shower. "When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal."

The water that was in the tank holding Lam’s body, although decidedly unpleasant, contained no biohazardous materials, claim fire officials. However, as a precaution, they immediately shut down the water supply to the hotel rooms. "It's likely there was sufficient chlorine in the tank to destroy any bacteria that might have otherwise been present," LA County Department of Public Health Official Angelo Bellomo told NBC Los Angeles.

Lam, who was last seen on Jan. 31, was reported missing on Feb. 1. Surveillance footage from the hotel shows Lam, who was visiting Los Angeles alone from Vancouver, acting strangely inside the hotel’s elevator. No official cause of death has been revealed.

The story behind the Cotts' lawsuit comes as the most recent in The Cecil Hotel’s unnerving history. In the past, it was known as the residence of convicted serial killer Richard “Night Stalker” Ramirez, who committed 14 murders in the 1980s. It also housed Australian serial killer Jack Unterweger, who allegedly murdered three prostitutes at the hotel in 1991.

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