Jake Anderson is a writer, filmmaker, investigative journalist, activist, and web publisher. He runs the popular website The Ghost Diaries and is a contributing journalist for The Anti-Media and multiple alternative media outlets. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, he is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. Jake is the author of the book, Gone At Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam—which True Crime Addict author, James Renner describes as “The definitive book on Elisa Lam.”
Elisa Lam’s story is set against the backdrop of the Cecil Hotel—a place that had a well-documented dark history, long before Elisa ever set foot in the city of Los Angeles in the winter of 2013. There are numerous claims of paranormal activity that many attribute to the number of deaths that have occurred within the hotel’s walls. These have served as the basis for various television programs, including The Discovery Channel’s Horror At The Cecil Hotel, the fifth season of the FX television series American Horror Story, and most recently the four-part documentary series from Netflix, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.
We first crossed paths with Jake on a hot summer day in May 2017 at Joshua Tree, CA during the popular Contact in the Desert Conference. The event was in full swing, and so was Jake’s quest to uncover the truth of this modern-day mystery—a quest that eventually would not only take him to explore some of the darker corners of the city of Los Angeles and its inhabitants, but also journey inward, as his investigation would force him to face his own inner-demons as chronicled in his book.
Jake’s hard work and research bore fruit in the form of Gone At Midnight (2020). Originally conceived as documentary film, the book takes the reader on a trip down the streets of Downtown LA, as they walk in Jake’s shoes trying to gather the facts and piece together what happened to Elisa Lam. In this interview we cover several aspects of this investigation including the secrecy surrounding this case, the questions that continue to linger so many years later, and what factors did Elisa’s mental health play in the events leading up to her death—but most importantly, do these factors suffice when it comes to solving this mystery.
During the interview, we asked Jake to share his experiences staying at the Cecil Hotel as part of his investigation before the hotel was shutdown for extensive renovations:
“I stayed there a couple of times by myself, and all I can describe it as is a very dark, malevolent feeling. I go back-and-forth in my life on believing in some of the darker theories of paranormal activity. There’s a more logical side of me that thinks that the human mind can go into some very strange places, and then there’s another part of me that thinks, maybe we can pick up on trauma from the past—or echoes of energy. If that were to exist, the Cecil Hotel would definitely be a place where you could collect some of those echoes.
When I was staying there, I couldn’t sleep, I really felt like I was being hunted—that’s the only way I can describe it. I felt like someone in that hotel was wanting to come and get me, and it was really disturbing. I can only imagine what it was like for Elisa staying there alone in a new city, possibly thinking she was being pursued by someone. It’s a disturbing place.”
We asked about how personal this project became as his investigation went on, Jake said:
“The more I researched it, I kind of developed a connection with Elisa because we shared a lot of the same experiences: we both struggled with depression, as well as aspects of the bipolar spectrum. So I got really into a different aspect of the case that I felt not a lot of people were focusing on, which is the destigmatization of mental illness and how it’s often rushed-over in the true-crime community—even by well-meaning people with good-faith effort. It’s just not something that people understand well, or know how to talk about.
Initially, writing the book, I was interested in the true-crime and para-psychological aspects that are so prominent in this case, and which so many people are fascinated by. But, originally, I was going to write a socio-political memoir about how people view mental illness in the true-crime community.
What happened to my surprise was, as I dug more into it, I actually started to find things about the case that were problematic to me across the board. So I went into it more as a skeptic of the ‘foul-play’ theory, and I actually ended up going more into the direction of thinking that there is some kind of coverup going on in this case. So [writing] the book became kind of a cathartic experience for me.”
When asked what his experience was like when dealing with the Los Angeles Police Department regarding this case, Jake said:
“It was extremely frustrating, and to be honest I got very little cooperation. The main detectives just refused to talk about the case—[they] prevented other officers from talking to me. They didn’t appear in the Netflix series, but two other people did. I don’t know how they got them, I’m sure they must’ve offered money. The police just don’t want to talk about this case at all. One of the guys blocked me on Twitter just for asking a basic question.
The most information I got from anyone in the department was a recently retired deputy coroner, Lt. Fred Corral—he told me some interesting stuff. He’s the one that told me that the LAPD never actually processed a rape kit for Elisa, [and] that the main detectives believed that someone had let her on the roof. If it’s true, it’s very important because it means that whoever that person was who let her up there, remained quiet for the whole time that she was missing.
Clearly this person would’ve known, ‘oh, I let her on the roof. Maybe we should check the roof.’ But they didn’t tell the police that, or they would’ve gone up there—or maybe they did go up there and they still didn’t find her. Either way, it’s very strange the way the police handled this case.”
Expanding on what he feels is a mishandling of the investigation by the LAPD, Jake added:
“I spoke to a woman who has worked as a consultant for the LAPD, and she kinda became a little bit of an informant. She claims that she spoke to some private investigators who worked with the LAPD on the case, and that these investigators were not convinced that this was an accident. They said that it felt suspicious, and that it almost felt like the LAPD was kind of working with the Cecil Hotel to sweep this under the rug.”
Asked about the water tank lid being on or off when Elisa’s body was found (this being a key aspect to this investigation that would determine if it was an accidental death, or foul play) Jake answered:
“It’s just one of many issues on which there is conflicting information. Santiago Lopez, the maintenance worker said in his civil deposition that the lid was off when he went up there. That’s possible; it makes it even more strange that the police didn’t see that when they went up there to check. Then, there are other people that have said [the lid] was closed—a first responder, a credible source, Andrew Smith who is now a Chief of Police in a Wisconsin city, said when he arrived the lid was closed.
Is it possible Santiago found it open and then closed it? Sure. But it’s obviously a critical issue because if the lid was open, it lends itself a lot more to ‘she climbed in on her own.’ Whereas, if it’s closed, foul-play seems very likely given that it would be almost impossible for her to close the lid over herself as she climbed in. So, it’s another unanswered question.”
During the interview Jake talks of his attempts to contact hotel management, the strange synchronicities surrounding the case, he’s thoughts on the Netflix docu-seriers, and why he believes this case it’s far from solved. It appears that there are still many important, unanswered questions regarding the Elisa Lam mystery, so be sure to check out the full interview by clicking the YouTube link at the top.
Don’t forget to get your copy of Jake’s book, Gone At Midnight at your local bookstore—with audio, Kindle, and hardcover versions available through Amazon. You can find more of Jake’s work at TheGhostDiaries.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @OverTheMoonSF.
