Transcript
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This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Everyone is telling her she dreamt it, but in the woman in cabin 10, Lo Blacklock is determined to uncover the truth in the gripping new thriller coming to Netflix October 10th. Keira Knightley plays a journalist aboard a luxury yacht who witnesses a crime she can't unsee. Adapted from Ruth Ware's best selling novel, directed by Simon Stone. Watch the woman in Cabin 10 only on Netflix on October 10.
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Hey there, among the missing listeners. Long time no speak. It's been a while, hasn't it? A long while, in fact. So first things first. Thank you for sticking with me. I know it's been a big gap between episodes and I want to say sorry for that. There are a whole lot of reasons why I'm not going to go into all of them right now. But what I will say is today's episode is a big one. It's complicated, it's layered, and it demanded to be written and produced the right way. Rushed just wasn't going to cut it. If you've been with me from the start, you'll know there's something I've always tried to do on this show and in the investigation in general. I don't ever want to paint a person in a particular light or push you toward a conclusion I've already made. That's not the point. The point is for me to lay out everything as clearly and fairly as I can and let you, each of you listening, come to your own conclusion. That's been my approach since day one, and I'd argue it's never been more important than it is in this episode and the one that comes next. When I've looked at Elaine's case over the years, both here in the podcast and on my own private deep dive, I've tried to keep my perspective unbiased. Sure, I'll highlight when something doesn't add up, or when a person's behavior comes across as suspicious. That's part of the work. But what I won't do is just throw a name out and pin a theory down and declare this is what happened. That's not how real investigations work in my eyes, and I've always believed that that kind of shortcut is a flawed and sometimes dangerous approach. That's something I'll always stand by. Over the past few weeks, I've had a flood of questions from listeners asking me whether we'll circle back to the ground we've already covered. The short answer is yes, and the long answer is a very resounding yes. After episode 11, which will serve as the last episode that lays out all the broader leads and theories. We're going to swing back around, put it all under a microscope, see what holds up, what falls apart, and hopefully whittle down the possibilities to just a few that really stand the test of scrutiny. But, and this is important, that doesn't mean the new information has dried up. Far from it. In fact, there's more coming to light almost every single day, and as quickly as I can. Once it's ready, I'll bring that to you, too. So for now, settle in, get comfortable. Because in this episode, we're diving into the part of the case I know so many of you have been waiting so patiently to hear about. The last person we know for certain saw Elaine before she disappeared. What is truth, really? Is it simply the first version of a story that gets told? Sometimes information can come through at the worst possible time. Like, for example, in the middle of your daughter's ballet recital when you receive an anonymous email from a throwaway account with a Sometimes I can hold myself back, push it to the back of my mind and just wait until the time is right. Today was not one of those days. What happens when a story changes? Does the new story become the truth? Does that wipe out the first version completely? Sometimes I can hold myself back. I glanced down at my glowing phone screen, scanning the email again. The pull to dive right in was strong. My heart and my brain were at war. I almost excused myself, but then I looked up. My daughter was on stage, pirouetting, her eyes searching the crowd for her parents. It took less than a second for her gaze to lock onto mine, and in that instant, her whole expression softened. She knew I was there. I slid my phone back into my pocket. Today, I told myself. This can wait. And here's the bigger question. Do we just accept what we're told because someone says it with confidence? Or is there a gray zone to the truth, a space where one version holds some of it, another version holds some more, and the real answer lives somewhere in the messy overlap. Sometimes I can hold myself back. Today was not one of those days. I made it to the back of the theatre before it hit me like a ton of bricks. In the middle of everything, I'd forgotten the most important thing. And as I slipped my phone back into my pocket, I turned just in time to see my daughter spin again, searching for me. But then her eyes locked onto me. Standing at the back of the theater, she knew I hadn't left her. So how do you make the determination If I tell you one version of events and then I change it later, how do you know which one is the truth and which one is a lie? Or is it possible that sometimes, strangely enough, both can be true and false at the very same time? That question, the shifting, slippery nature of truth, has haunted me for more than four years now when I think about Elaine's disappearance and specifically about the hours she spent with Divine. Because here's the thing, his comments about how the morning played out when Elaine left his house, they don't stay consistent. What began as one truth slowly became another. And the million dollar question is this. Were those stories shifting to match the facts? Or were the facts being bent and reshaped to fit the story? I don't think we'll ever have a definitive answer, especially since Divine continues to refuse to talk about it. But me, I've got my suspicions. Because I think most of the answers might already be right there, hidden in the data I've been staring at all along. I'm Troy Taylor and this is among the missing Sam. So let's start here. Originally, Divine told Susan and Jeff Elaine Woke up at 4am Acting strangely, singing even before immediately leaving. He said she came back briefly to grab her keys and then left again. But here's the problem. None of that is reflected on the CCTV footage that was handed over to GPD and then passed on to Susan Park. And because of that, plenty of people suggest the story simply isn't true. Some believe Susan and Jeff just made it up to confuse or cover over what really happened and to grow the speculation around Divine's involvement. But here's the problem with that. Elaine's friend Daisy said straight out in her initial interview with Jaden that Divine also told her the 4am version. So in my view, that cancels out the idea that Susan made that story up. The compeers, as far as I'm aware, have never clarified this. Though I know both Devine and Tonya had been asked numerous times, their response has always been the same. We've told you what we know. If you want to ask any more questions or want more information, speak to Detective Krivak. So when it comes to the 4am 6am thing, we're a little stuck. Which version is the truth? Well, for me at least, there's really only one reliable source for answers. The data. People lie. People forget. CCTV footage can be edited or even misinterpreted. Blood spatter can be manipulated. But raw data, that generally doesn't lie. Assuming, of course, that it's never been in a position to be manipulated. And when you look at the data in Elaine's case, you start to see things that stand out. So let's rewind to the night before Elaine disappeared. Elaine was supposed to meet Divine around 1pm that afternoon, but she didn't actually make it to his house until around 8:35pm she goes into his bungalow, spends about an hour and a half inside, and then heads back out to her car to grab something. Whatever it was, it was small enough to slip into her pocket because she doesn't appear to be carrying anything when she goes back inside. And while she's out at her car, something strange happens. The mystery car, never formally identified, drives slowly up and around the cul de sac, passing by a lane without stopping. Now, here's why that kind of stands out. Divine's house was the only finished property on that end of the street. The other houses were at the far end, past the turnoff that led out of the complex. And let's not forget, the complex is behind a gate. If you don't have the code, you can't get in. And all of that means there was no reason for a car to be driving past Divine's house at all. None. As it exits the complex, it passes an Uber pulling in. An Uber that's come to pick up Divine and Elaine to go to the movies. Elaine goes back inside, comes out with Divine a few minutes later, and they head off. That Uber takes them to Woodland Hills amc where they watch XXX Return of Xander Cage. Afterwards, they grab a different Uber home, getting back to Divine's place at around 1:10am from there, things get a little fuzzier. What we do know is that Elaine goes back inside with Divine, and at some point she's on her phone listening to music, browsing social media. Then at around 3:45am, her phone activity stops. And this is where the 4:00am story starts to get interesting. Is it just a coincidence or is it possible that she did leave at 4am just maybe not the house itself? Here's my speculation. Based on that data, I think it makes sense that Elaine may have actually left his bedroom at around 4am and then I think she fell asleep in the living room, waking up later than she planned. By then, let's say her phone's dead, she gets into her car, plugs it in, and by 6:28am, notifications flood in. So my hunch here is that Divine was probably telling the truth at first. Then the CCTV was reviewed and this version didn't line up with what the footage showed. That mismatch makes him look like he could be lying. And so the story shifts, the timing corrected to match the cameras. Pure speculation. I know. But it's that scenario that makes the most sense to me. Still, speculation is in fact. And if there's one thing that this case teaches us, it's that facts are slippery. Even the CCTV footage, which you'd think would be straightforward, isn't. Here's what it shows Elaine leaving Devine's house, supposedly at 6:05am but the timestamp on that same footage, well, it says 9:05am Then on a neighbour's camera, we see a car, maybe Elaine's, maybe not, driving toward the gate. Then we have the gatecam footage. It shows a timestamp of 7:14am and unmistakably shows Elaine's car leaving the compound. Confusing, right? But when you consider the compeer family originally came from Florida, it starts to make a little more sense. Add to that the fact that movie theaters don't usually Show Films at 2am on Sunday nights, and yet we see Elaine and Devine returning from the movie at a timestamp of 4:09am it all suggests something. The cameras were probably still on Eastern time three hours ahead. But then we had another snag. How could the license plate camera be out by not just an hour, but an hour and 7 minutes? Daylight savings could account for the hour, but the seven minutes. That's a little harder to explain. And I've never seen any other footage from the gate. And nobody I've spoken to has either. So all we have to work with is the timestamp. You could assume the system was just off by an hour and seven minutes. You could assume the neighbor's footage really did capture Elaine's car. But should we just keep assuming? Of course, you can take the case of Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. But if there's one thing Elaine's case has taught me, it's that nothing here is simple. Nothing about this case makes any sense. Even the data doesn't always hold up. Because here's something people sometimes forget. Elaine's phone isn't Elaine. Elaine's car isn't Elaine. Just because her phone logged steps, which it does around the time that she leaves divines, it doesn't mean she was carrying it. Just because her car drove through that gate, it doesn't mean she was the one behind the wheel. The gate camera shows a car leaving. Yes. The phone shows steps, both are data points, but neither is proof of Elaine's physical movements. Still, we have to start somewhere. So for now, let's work off the assumption that she did leave at 6:05am, got into her car, spent a couple of minutes sitting there, and then drove out of the gates at 6.07am her last confirmed digital interaction with Divine, at least as far as we know, comes at 6:28am when Lane adds him back to her Find My Friends. That detail was confirmed into Live and Die in la. Except, well, it turns out that it actually isn't confirmed since To Live and Die in LA aired. I've had a lot of conversations with Mike Einsinger. He's been on Elaine's case nearly as long as Rosemary Wheeler. He's poured through gigabytes of data, sat in on countless interviews, and built a very close working relationship with gpd. So naturally, when I had a question about the Find My Friends detail, Mike was the first person I asked. And what he told me was they got it wrong. According to him, Elaine didn't add Divine back on Find My Friends. It was the other way around. Divine added her. Now, I don't pretend to know more than Mike does, but that explanation has never really sat right with me. That would have been just 23 minutes after Elaine walked out of his house. And Divine has previously said, and we'll cover this soon, that he was worried about her, that she was acting strange, and that he even tried to stop her from leaving. She leaves anyway. And then what? His response is to quietly send her his location, but not to message or call her or try to find out that she's okay? I don't think I can agree with that. I think they had it right the first time. And if that's the case, then Devine did have access to Elaine's location that day. From there, here's what we know about Devine's contact with Elaine. He tries calling her three times at about 10:15am and two more times around 1:34pm after that. Her phone appears to go dark at 3:42pm and because call records don't show attempts that never connect, if you don't leave a voicemail that is, it doesn't log. We can't know for certain whether he tried to call her again after that point or not. But what I can tell you is he never once sent her a message. Not that morning, not that afternoon, not that night, not ever again. No iMessage, no Instagram DM, no other channel at all. And to me, that is a big red flag. Now, to be absolutely clear, I'm not saying Divine did have anything to do with Elaine's disappearance. What I'm saying is that the lack of follow up suggests something was off. Something, in my view, doesn't add up. And the hardest part of all of this is there's someone out there who could easily answer these questions. Someone who could clear up these little fragments, set all the contradictions and let people focus on the parts of the case that truly remain unexplained. That someone, obviously is Divine. But as I said back in episode two, Divine won't talk. He's given one interview, just one, with Neil Strauss and Jayden Brandt for To Live and Die in la, and we're going to break that down shortly. But beyond that, nothing. He won't sit for interviews, he won't answer questions, he won't help. And from the outside, it kind of feels like he never really has. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. 1. It's $15 a month.