Transcript
Troy Taylor (0:00)
The missing child is Lucia Blix, 9 years old. Please let her come back home safely. April 16 the kidnappers plumbed it meticulously. If money is what it takes to get her back, we're gonna pay it. The secrets they hide. You can't talk about this. You can't write about it are the clues.
Jaden Brandt (0:20)
The mother's hiding something. I know it.
Troy Taylor (0:22)
To find her, tell me where she is. The Stolen girl series premiere April 16 on Freeform and stream on Hulu.
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Jaden Brandt (0:53)
Today's episode of among the Missing contains content that may be distressing to some listeners, particularly those triggered by references to sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. Here's an excerpt from a case report published in March of 1985 authored by P. Malek Ahmadi and M.L. ramsey. A 20 year old white male subject without a history of psychiatric disorder developed hallucinations and paranoid symptoms following ingestion of 540 milligrams of codeine over a period of 36 hours. The symptoms reached an intensity where hospitalisation became necessary but no specific treatment was required. In less than 72 hours the patient completely recovered from his symptoms and was subsequently discharged. In view of the available data on the neurochemical effects of opiates and non narcotic analgesics, it was concluded that the inhibition of prostaglandin biosynthesis or interference with its actions might have caused the psychotic symptoms reported. Here's another from a study of clinical records for patients seen at the National Addictions management service from April 2017 to March 2013 with a diagnosis of substance induced psychotic disorder secondary to codeine use, published by l. Lowe and Ke Wong, it was found that 11 patients out of a total of 48, roughly a quarter with substance induced psychotic disorder had used codeine cough syrup. The duration of their psychotic episodes ranged from 4 to 38 days with a mean of 13.5 days. 10 out of the 11 patients needed to be started on antipsychotics. What's clear to me from these studies is is even moderate use of codeine outside of clinical guidelines for maximum dosage when combined with cough syrup. In other words, lean can cause some pretty serious Psychotic episodes that could lead to things like, I don't know, thinking you're talking to God, maybe thinking the world is going to explode if you leave the house on New Year's Eve. Let's say Elaine was having one of those episodes and it started around New Year's Eve. Based on these studies and the duration range found in the Lo and Wong study, it's totally possible that it was still going on when she disappeared. And if she used more lean during that time, that could have exacerbated the symptoms. Let's rewind back to the beginning of part one of this episode, where we talked about Elaine promising to pay Susan back the $20 she borrowed on the Friday night, that she was planning on doing so in cash, and that it was clear that she didn't have any plans to spend the night at Divine's. Well, perhaps this has something to do with why she did end up staying. Based on their history, what was contained in Elaine's Snapchat videos and what Daisy had to say in her interview with Jaden, it was clear that Divine and Elaine did lean together often. And in my eyes, that introduces the possibility that maybe they'd done it that night, too. And if she had, and she was already in the middle of a psychotic break, well, who knows where that might have led? What we do know, according to Divine, is that the night before Elaine vanished, she was acting really strange. He says she got up super early, was singing and dancing to herself, got dressed faster than anyone he'd ever seen, barely said a word to him, and then pretty much just left. He told both Daisy and Susan this happened at 4am, but this doesn't match the time on the CCTV footage. And after those initial conversations, his statement on the time changed to her leaving at 6am Divine claims that neither of them used drugs or alcohol that night, but he was being interviewed in front of his parents at the time. And as you might remember from the previous episode, things with his parents were already on tenterhooks and he was feeling like they could kick him out any day. Add in the use of drugs, not to mention a missing girl, to that equation, and the tension could have ramped up significantly. I'm not saying Divine lied about their drug usage that night, but I can see what might have led him to if he did. Divine says when Elaine left, he tried to stop her, but she ignored him and just left, barely speaking two words to him. From there on the cctv, we can see Elaine pretty briskly charging out of Divine's guest house. Heading toward her car before the footage cuts off at 6.05am, Elaine looking at all of that. Elaine acting strange, the singing and dancing at 4am, getting dressed extremely fast, the fact that she barely engaged with the divine, and that whatever was going on in his eyes, it was enough to try to convince her not to leave on her own. All of this is consistent with someone potentially suffering from some kind of mental break. The saddest part of all of it, of course, is that Elaine was right. Her world did end up exploding. Just not on New Year's Eve. I'm Troy Taylor and this is among the missing. Let's shift gears for a second and talk a little more about Elaine's cell phone. When the phone was taken, along with all of Elaine's belongings and her car to the Glendale Police Department on February 2, they charged it and attempt to gain access. But unfortunately, without any concept of what the PIN might be, they weren't able to. A couple of weeks later, the phone, the car and all of its contents were released back to Susan Park. And from there, Susan, after unsuccessfully trying a couple of PIN codes herself, headed out on a mission to determine if any of Elaine's friends knew what it was. Sadie didn't, and Daisy, as mentioned earlier, thought she might. So she and Susan met up at a Starbucks one day and Daisy also unsuccessfully, gave it a try. When none of the PIN numbers worked, a $450 reward was put out to the public for anyone who might know Elaine's PIN to come forward. But nobody ever did. From there, Jayden took possession of Elaine's handset, exploring different ways to potentially get into it. But that too was fruitless. Finally, when Susan got a tip that the PIN could have been the four numbers that equated to the word fucking, Jayden input it into the handset and unfortunately, that was the last PIN code attempt. From there, the phone needed to go through the full recovery process. And without the PIN code or passwords, Elaine's phone was locked for good. The biggest problem with this was that Elaine's icloud had stopped backing up around 24 hours before she disappeared. So while her icloud account was connected to her laptop and Susan and Jayden were able to get access to it, the critical time period leading up to her disappearance was lost. Eventually, the Malibu crew passed the handset off to Cellebrite, the organization that high level government agencies use to access locked devices, and they were able to get access not to the handset itself initially, but to the data it contained, as well as what The PIN code was. Turns out, curiously, the pin code was actually the four digits of Divine's street address. The final thing I found interesting in Daisy's interview was when Jayden asked her whether she thought Elaine had driven to PCH that morning. Daisy's response seems steadfast, no. Almost like she believes it's impossible that Elaine went there. And then she goes on to say something that I found kind of peculiar and to this day doesn't really appear to have been explained.