num_pages: 368
description: The case that captivated a nation and inspired the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel!A Fortune Magazine Most Anticipated Books of 2020 SelectionA Goodreads Featured Release for February 2020Oxygens List of Best True Crime Books of 2020 SelectionThe Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is a palpable presence in Gone at Midnight. Given the checkered history of the Cecil Hotel (which was recently named to the Los Angeles registry of historic landmarks) I wouldnt rule out Jack the Ripper. The New York TimesOutstandingtrue crime buffs wont want to miss this gripping search for the truth. Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEWA Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A missing young woman. A disturbing viral video followed by a shocking discovery. A cold-case mystery that has become an internet phenomenonand for one determined journalist a life-changing quest toward uncomfortable truths. Perfect for Murderinos looking for their next fix Twenty-one-year-old Vancouver student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31 2013 after she checked into downtown L.A.s Cecil Hotela 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day Elisa vanished. A search of the hotel yielded nothing. More than a week later complaints by guests of foul-smelling tap water led to a grim discovery: Elisas nude body floating in a rooftop water tank in an area extremely difficult to access without setting off alarms. The only apparent clue was a disturbing surveillance video of Elisa uploaded to YouTube in hopes of public assistance. As the eerie elevator video went viral so did the questions of its tens of millions of viewers. Was Elisas death caused by murder suicide or paranormal activity? Was it connected to the Cecils sinister reputation? And in that video what accounted for Elisas strange behavior? With the help of web sleuths and investigators from around the world journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts behind a death that had become a macabre internet meme as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists. In poring through Elisas revealing online journals and social-media posts Anderson realized he shared more in common with the young woman than he imagined. His search for justice and truth became a personal journey a dangerous descent into one of America's quiet epidemics. Along the way he exposed a botched investigation and previously unreported disclosures from inside sources who suggest there may have been a corporate conspiracy and a police cover-up. In Gone at Midnight Anderson chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and whator whomshe was running from and presents shocking new evidence that may re-open one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century.
language: English
title: Gone at Midnight: The Tragic True Story Behind the Unsolved Internet Sensation
publisher: Citadel