When Elisa’s body was finally found there was a lot of question how she could have gotten into the tank herself. The water tanks are on the top of the building and stand over eight tall and the doors that lead to the roof were supposedly locked and have alarm systems in case someone were to try and open them (CBS Los Angeles). Some argue that it would be hard for anyone to access the roof but it would be especially hard for someone of Elisa’s small stature to reach the roof, climb up into the tank, and be able to lift the door that accesses the water. These people believe that it is more likely that someone who had access to the roof murdered her by throwing her into the tank to drown.
The reason this theory is hard to believe is because of so many factors that are not taken into consideration. One is that it can be easy to forget to lock a door sometimes and there was access to fire escapes that did not have alarms on them. Another is since the tanks are so high, it would be much harder for a person to carry a body to the top than for someone to get to the top by themselves. Los Angeles Police Detective Wallace Tennelle stated, “My partner and I tried to figure out how somebody could have put her in there, and it’s difficult for someone to have been able to do that and not leave prints, not leave DNA or anything like that. So she climbed in on her own (qtd. Proctor).” Lastly, if someone was trying to murder Elisa why would they attempt something so difficult? It is a very laborious task to simply get her body into the tank, but also there is a ton of risk for finding the DNA of whoever did it. If it was a case of murder why wouldn’t they have just thrown her off the side of the building so no evidence could be found? Considering all of the different factors it seems like there would have been a greater possibility of Elisa going through the fire escape to the roof then using the ladder to the building to get access to the tank. She then was able to lift the door that did not have any locks on it and easily slide in since the door was plenty wide.
