Loading summary
Transcript47 lines
- [00:02]
Troy Taylor
Summer's here, and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever. From beach days and weddings to weekend.
- [00:08]
Matthew Song
Getaways and your everyday wardrobe.
- [00:10]
Troy Taylor
Discover stylish options under $100 from tons.
- [00:13]
Matthew Song
Of your favorite brands like Mango Skims, Princess Polly, and Madewell. It's easy too, with free shipping and free returns in store order pickup and more. Shop today in stores online@nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app.
- [00:30]
Troy Taylor
She's made up her mind to live pretty smart. Learn to budget responsibly right from the start. She spends a little less and puts more into savings. Keeps her blood pressure low and credit score raises. She's cutting debt right out of her life. She tracks her cash flow on a spreadsheet at night. Boring money moves make kinda lame songs but they sound pretty sweet to your wallet. Brilliantly boring since 1818 65. I don't know what you want from me.
- [01:09]
Rosemary Wheeler
Do you want to prioritize your kids for a minute?
- [01:12]
Troy Taylor
I do. I do prioritize them, but I mean, you're not asking me to prioritize them. You're asking me to vacuum. There's a difference between being a true crime fan, someone who listens to podcasts and watches documentaries and maybe comments on Reddit or websleuth or Facebook sometimes, and getting involved in a case. That was something I wasn't prepared for when I started looking into Elaine's case. What starts out as something of a general interest quickly becomes all consuming when those floodgates open and that information and data begins flowing through. Ask Rosemary Wheeler or Mike Einziger or Matthew Song or any of the other people who've committed to trying to find out what happened to Elaine, and they'll tell you the same thing. It creeps up on you over time, takes a little more of your soul. Piece by piece. Before you know it, you can't go a day without thinking about it. And then you can't go an hour. You go to sleep thinking about it and you wake up the same way. Eventually it takes over your dreams too, and it becomes this ever present thing. The missing person becomes a part of you somehow begins to live on inside you, rides along with you, their voice becoming a narrative next to your own. You're asking me to stop looking for a missing person so I can vacuum.
- [02:28]
Rosemary Wheeler
The house 20 minutes.
- [02:31]
Troy Taylor
But right now I can't.
- [02:33]
Rosemary Wheeler
Why?
- [02:34]
Troy Taylor
Because I'm right in the middle of something. But I will later. But right now I can't.
- [02:39]
Rosemary Wheeler
Okay, well, I don't need a donator because I would have Already done it myself.
- [02:42]
Troy Taylor
I don't know what you want from me. I don't know what you want from me. Other everyday tasks, like doing the dishes or vacuuming or sometimes eating lunch, they lose their value. You begin weighing things up. And the biggest problem with that is nobody else in your world really gets it. Your mornings become a question of whether you do some menial tasks or you continue to help find the missing person. The little things kind of lose their meaning.
- [03:10]
Rosemary Wheeler
It's not just that, you know, I'm asking you to be there when I really need you at times and you're not. It's the fact that you choose not to be because you're just.
- [03:19]
Troy Taylor
It doesn't feel like a choice.
- [03:21]
Rosemary Wheeler
Well, that's it.
- [03:23]
Troy Taylor
If you're not careful, you start to leave those little things behind. And then eventually you start to leave the big things behind too. And worse, they begin to leave you behind.
- [03:37]
Rosemary Wheeler
It doesn't feel like we're a team really anymore.
- [03:40]
Troy Taylor
We are.
- [03:40]
Rosemary Wheeler
Feels like you've chosen this over us sometimes, and the kids, you know, being a team and us doing everything together, and then suddenly that's not there. Is tricky. It's.
- [03:54]
Troy Taylor
Yeah.
- [03:55]
Rosemary Wheeler
And, you know, I am. Of course I'm supportive. I think what you're doing is amazing.
- [04:01]
Troy Taylor
There's no doubt. It feels amazing when you find things that haven't been found before, when you take those little steps closer to the truth. But what doesn't feel amazing is when the people in your life take a step back, when they start to feel like you're not there anymore. Sure, physically, you're sitting next to them, going through the motions, smiling when you're supposed to, laughing when it seems like that's what's expected. But all the while, your brain is somewhere else, living in a different place. It's in Calabasas and Lacrocenta. It's on pch, scanning the beach, searching for clues. It's hiking through Solstice Canyon looking for bones or T shirts or signs of a mountain lion attack. It's thinking about the mother of a missing person. It's anywhere but here. I feel like this probably sounds ridiculous, but I feel like either way, I'm gonna let someone down. Because if I don't keep my foot on the accelerator here with the. You know, with. Trying to find a lane, then I feel like I'm letting her down. Because particularly when I'm like. I feel like I'm close to things.
- [05:09]
Rosemary Wheeler
Yeah.
- [05:09]
Troy Taylor
You know, and then if I'm not, I don't know. I guess I Guess you're right. I guess I think I've taken you guys for granted a little bit.
- [05:17]
Rosemary Wheeler
I don't think I've taken us for granted. I just. You know, it feels like you've made a choice. And that is not us.
- [05:24]
Troy Taylor
It's not. It's not that. It's not like that. It's not a. It's not a choice.
- [05:28]
Rosemary Wheeler
It isn't a choice. Just from, you know, the time you wake up to basically the time you go to bed. Like, even if you do take an hour with us, you're on your phone constantly reading emails, so it's not. It's like you're not there at all, really.
- [05:41]
Troy Taylor
And while it is, you fail to see that the ones you love notice you're not there. They feel you pulling back little by little, and they begin to do the same. Before eventually, it's just you and a world you don't really exist in. It's you staring at a computer screen, deep diving into old data, trying to figure out how it all fits together, looking into a world of people who might know what happened or might have even been involved in what happened. It's just you talking to other people in the same place, to the others who have given their time and, to some degree, their lives to try to find answers. Give me one hour and I'll come out, set a timer. I'll be out in one hour on the dot. I promise I won't be long.
- [06:28]
Rosemary Wheeler
It's hard for me to believe that, but I have no other choice. So it's fine.
- [06:36]
Troy Taylor
One hour turns into two hours, two turns into three, and before long, it's just you sitting in the darkness with a whiskey in one hand and your mouse in the other, wondering where this girl went, what happened to her, and whether you'll ever really know the truth. Okay, I'll be out soon. It's just you and you alone. And you know what? I can't say I recommend it. I'm Troy Taylor, and this is among the Missing Sam.
- [07:41]
Matthew Song
I didn't like the way your first episode ended. And I was thinking myself, I go, oh, that. Yeah, I was home that day. I don't even live by the area. I'm like, I don't even live by the area, man. I was asleep that day. I was, I think, yeah, watching music videos or something. Basically, my Google history. I had just. I think my date had just went back to Korea two weeks prior, and I was pretty tired. Anyway, maybe I was drinking the night before. I think it was a week. It was A weekend, Right. She went missing.
- [08:13]
Troy Taylor
Shout out. Everyone in.
- [08:14]
Matthew Song
Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was drinking on a Friday with my friends when they were still living out here. I. I'm pretty sure I was home. Yeah. Based upon my video watching history, I definitely was home. And looking at my video watching history, it was not very interesting. Nobody's knocked on my door and asked me where I was on the 28th.
- [08:37]
Troy Taylor
I think it's safe to say that Matthew finds the idea of being a person of interest in Elaine's disappearance kind of humorous. Not in a cold or dismissive way. It's more like he genuinely can't wrap his head around the fact that someone somewhere might be looking at him with suspicion. And here's the thing. I don't know if he doesn't understand why that might be the case or he. He just doesn't care. Knowing Matthew, it could go either way. He's not what you'd call subtle. Matthew wears every thought, every frustration right there on his sleeve. He's the type of guy who meets you exactly where he is. No small talk, no games. He's gruff, direct. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. And yeah, sometimes he can be a pain in the ass, but he knows that he owns it even. He's not trying to win anyone over. And that attitude, it can make people uncomfortable, especially when there are unanswered questions hanging in the air. But here's what matters to Matthew and what he's laser focused resolution. He's not playing detective for the thrill of it. He doesn't care about theories. He certainly doesn't want your or my speculation. And he definitely doesn't have time for the what ifs. He wants answers. He wants end results. He doesn't really care about the pieces that get him there. And that single mindedness, it's admirable in a way. But it's also tricky because sometimes when you chase one answer too hard, you start ignoring the questions that don't fit neatly into your story. You start treating those odd little pieces like noise instead of clues. And maybe that's a mistake. Or conversely, maybe it's a mistake to get too stuck in the weeds to go down too many rabbit holes. That's certainly what Matthew thinks, but I don't know, I think it's something to keep in the back of your mind. Now let's talk about the shirt and the bone. On the anniversary of Elaine's disappearance in 2024, Matthew finds a shirt. It's white, a little torn, weathered, half buried near dry Canyon and he's got a gut feeling. Maybe it's Elaine's. So what does he do? He grabs it, rushes it into gpd, and he asks them to test it. Simple, straightforward. And he's doing the right thing. But here's where it gets a little frustrating. More than a year later, he's still waiting for results. Not because the test came back inconclusive or because there was some kind of bureaucratic red tape to cut. No, the shirt just hasn't been tested. It's still in line, still sitting somewhere in the system. In the meantime, Matthew and his son continued searching, and they found something else, something that looked like a piece of bone, also out on Dry Canyon Trail. When he reported that, GPD responded fast, like, real fast. Four homicide detectives were sent out to meet him on that trail. Four.
- [11:43]
Matthew Song
You know, I. I saw the look on the detective's faces when we got there. And you just see this, you know, one guy's kicking some rocks around and he's looking around. The other guy's scratching the back of his neck, looking at it. And then Freeback goes, you know. Yeah, it matches the timeline.
- [12:01]
Troy Taylor
Yep.
- [12:04]
Matthew Song
You know what I mean? Like, there's nobody else has found anything. Like nobody's found, like a hairband, some boots, shoes, something. I just don't know what the hell that. What that object was that we found, but it looked like bone to me and it looked like bone to everybody else. I think. I think if it was not bone, they wouldn't have shown up at all. It literally happened within three days that they wanted to go out there personally and they didn't send one guy, they sent four, you know, and we're like marching through the damn woods to go, you know, like the Snow White and the seven dwarves kind of, you know, and we're like going over there and everybody's kind of standing around awkwardly. We're like, okay, here we are. And that. That was that, you know, and now it's been destroyed, but no reason for why or who. I mean, it's just so. I don't know what they're doing, man. Just get in front of it. Just say, what the hell? You know, maybe it's so burned you can't get DNA off of it. Maybe that's the end result. Okay, maybe they. Maybe they have a clue about somewhere else and they're wondering why there's there. It's in two different places. I guess that's the big takeaway from this, right? You had a mystery that didn't have to be a mystery. And because people were not forthcoming. Rather dishonest. Now you have a urban legend now.
- [13:33]
Troy Taylor
Right after the piece was tested and Matthew was advised by GPD it was nothing more than petrified wood, Matthew submitted a public records request on whatever GPD had on the piece and what came back was interesting to say the least. The response, dated 15th of May 2025, reads the following and pay attention to the wording here because it's incredibly important. Dear Mr. Song, this correspondence is in response to your public records request dated April 30, 2025, seeking the following request 1. All internal and external communications referencing a bone or bone fragments found in Malibu, California reported by Matthew Song between April 25 and May 5, 2025. Response responsive documents are submitted herewith. Request number two any reports, notes or correspondence referring to Matthew Song, Elaine park or related missing persons in connection with Malibu or Solstice Canyon between April 2025 and present. All reports and documents relating to an open case are exempt from disclosure as investigatory under California Government Code Section 7923 600A. Request number 3 All Glendale Police Department communications with the Los Angeles County Medical examiner or any agency concerning physical remains or forensic evaluation initiated in April or May 2025. Response responsive documents are submitted herewith. Request 4 any interdepartmental communications, email memo referencing media, public concern or case reopening related to Elaine park during April to May 2025. There are no documents responsive to this request. Request number five Any incident report, case note or log entry associated with potential human remains found in Malibu or near Dry Canyon Creek during April to May 2025. Response all reports and documents related to an open case are exempt from disclosure as investigatory under California government code section 7923.600A. Let's go back and break that down a little more granularly. Requests number one and three both note that response documents are submitted herewith and we'll go through those momentarily. They were attached as an email, but for now let's look at request number two. Any reports, notes or correspondence referring to Matthew Song, Elaine park or related missing persons in connection with Malibu or solstice canyon between April 2025 and present. So in that question, Matthew's saying any information they have relating to himself or Elaine or related missing persons related to Malibu or solstice canyon between April 2025 and present, and their response is that that information is part of an ongoing case. So take out Elaine park for a second. Take out the other missing people. That sentence says what do you have on Matthewsong related to Malibu or Solstice Canyon between April and present. And the answer is that is a part of an open case and therefore they're not going to comment on it. Request number four, any interdepartmental communications, email, memo, text referencing media, public concern or case reopening related to Elaine park during April to May 2025. And their response is there are no documents responsive to this request. My take on this is that Matthew is trying to find out whether Elaine's cold case has been reopened. And there is nothing to suggest that it has, but there's also nothing really to suggest that it was closed in the first place. Request number five, any incident report, case note or log entry associated with potential human remains found in Malibu or near Dry Canyon Creek during April or May 2025. And their response is that all reports and documents relating to an open case are exempt. What's interesting here is that Matthew doesn't actually reference Elaine or Elaine's case. He's not asking anything about an open case. Well, not one that he's aware of, at least. He's asking specifically about the bones he found. And they're saying all of that information is subject to a case that is open and therefore exempt from disclosing. Now let's go on to the email response relating to requests number one and three. This is a chain of email correspondence between GPD representatives Thorsten and Kristin, the ME's office, and Detective Krivak, who's been involved in investigating Elaine's disappearance since the very beginning. From Thorston to Crevac, April 14, 2025. Matthew Song believes he found a bone that possibly belongs to Elaine park at Solstice Canyon in Malibu. He stated he found it yesterday and turned it in tonight. I collected the fragment and contacted the L A County Coroner. They opened case 202-506-394 and requested photos of the fragment which I sent them. I was advised they may not be able to review the photos until tomorrow. The fragment and plastic bag it was dropped off in were collected and booked separately. I'm writing a sup under the original doctor documenting Song statement as well as booking the fragment and plastic bag. I will forward any further information obtained from the coroner when I receive it. From Thorston to Crevac, April 15, 2025. I received an update. The coroner's office would like the bones to be delivered to them for further examination. They possibly are burnt remains. I have already booked them into property and cannot deliver them myself tonight. From creevack to Christina April 15, 2025. Do you mind coordinating with the Coroner's office today on getting them these bone fragments? Christina to the LA County ME's office, April 30, 2025. Do you still have this possible bone fragment that turned out not to be a bone fragment or was it discarded? The only reason I ask is the person who found it has expressed a desire to have it back. From the L A County ME's office to Christina, May 2, 2025. The item has been disposed of. End of public records provided. Again, let's go back and review that. The first email message from Thorsten to Creeback states that a new case has been opened 202506394 relating to the bone fragment. Let's go back again then to request number five. Any incident report, case note or log entry associated with potential human remains found in Malibu or near Dry Canyon Creek during April to May 2025. This would be the information pertaining to that new case. In this email trail they're saying there weren't bones and directly from Krivak to Matthew, Krivak advised that it was petrified wood. So if that's the case, why can they not comment on that case? Why are they saying it's an open case and exempt from disclosure? Surely if it's just wood, that bone case 202506394 would be closed and therefore able to be commented on. If we also take a look at the way this is referred to all the way through they considered them bones. Thorsten says to Krivac, the coroner's office would like the bones to be delivered to them. Thorsten then goes on to tell Krivak that the ME's office believes they are possibly burnt remains. As I said in the last episode, both myself and Matthew have asked Independent Mesa to take a look at the bones. And in all cases of everyone that's been asked, which is around five different people, every one of them has confirmed their bones. The only people to think that they're not bones is apparently gpd. But here's the question here. If someone brought you a T shirt claiming that it could be a missing person's and you test it and turns out it is that missing person's. And then a year later they bring you a bone fragment and they say, hey, I think this might be that missing person's and they test that and that is also that missing person's, then maybe we can begin to understand why this response is the way it is. On the back of this somewhat inconsistent Response from gpd Matthew submitted another public records request seeking clarification, as at this time he's yet to receive a response. As I mentioned in part one, when I first heard Matthew's theory on the mountain lion attack, I was pretty dubious. Aside from the fact that it seems for the most part mountain lions don't really attack human adults, there were also a few other questions that I had that needed to be closed out, not the least of which was her car. How did it get to PCH? If she parked near Solstice Canyon? Or if she didn't, why would she park on PCH and walk all the way up to Solstice Canyon? And what about that car that in the To Live and Die in LA podcast was said to have done a U turn at the same time Elaine would have if she'd driven from Devine's directly to that spot on BCH where her car was later found.
- [23:04]
Matthew Song
The argument about her making a U or whatever, it's just not. I, I again, I went the distance. I rented the same exact car she had from that year. Okay. I drove with a car full of people actually from the residence to the park and it took a lot less time than what was stated. I actually thought it was going to take more time, but it took a lot less time, much to my surprise. I'm, I'm weighing this on two things. Okay, so 6:00am Is like when she left 6, whatever, but we left at 7. Oh, I don't know, whatever it was, but it was equivalent to that because of daylight savings. So I'm looking at that and I go, okay, so it should look relatively similar sunrise wise to what she would have seen. And you can clearly see you can get right up into the park at that hour. The gate issue, where people are saying it opens, it's an automated gate, okay? Sometimes I think the ranger may close it, depending on the circumstances, but it's unpredictable at best. About if that thing was just left open and it stayed open, it doesn't look like it's maintained, if you get what I'm saying. Whether it works or not, I don't know. I do know that immediately after they found that petrified wood, if you will, the gate was wide open in the middle of the night, which is a rarity. But I don't know if that means anything. But I know it was wide open because we went to go check in the evening just because we had a bit of a suspicion there's actually two places she could have parked. The way, the way it works when it was occupied with people before the fires that recently happened. If you got there early enough, you could park at the bottom, you could park at the top. Okay, so you can't park at the top. I don't know why you'd want to because it's a one way road and sometimes people come at you and you have to pull off the side and you can actually fall over in your car.
- [24:46]
Troy Taylor
That's.
- [24:46]
Matthew Song
It's kind of dangerous. My car is low, so I don't want to do that. Worst case scenario, you drive down Coral Canyon because you realize there's no parking. Then you park off pch. PCH is interesting because there's like these little dirt like things with like steps that take you down to the beach. What is it called? Calamigos or something like that. You can go down there, it's just across the street. But they actually use the tunnel to bring people food or lounge around at the beach. You can take the tunnel and walk unnoticed basically across pch. You could do that if you choose to. I don't know how you want to. I've done it. It's not that interesting. I mean that's. There's really just. There's nothing there. Like where else? If you went to the gas station, you would have seen on footage, which nobody did, even though some people claim they may have, she was not there. If she would have walked northbound, you would have seen her crossing the street on the footage, even though it would be blurry. It's just like the worst possible circumstance where you were just not shown. You know, you could have easily parked there. Someone felt sorry for you because they saw your car was still running. There's nobody there. Maybe they started asking around, whose car is this? Some, some Karen type personality which I've run into out in that park and just decide to move your car to avoid the tow. Tow could have moved it, I don't know. I don't think I saw that on the video. But I don't have all the footage for all that and I actually really don't care. I think going down that road is just. I mean, here's the deal, okay? Let's just say you focus on if the car was towed or moved or whatever. Okay? Who cares? Because all you're doing is you're just going to evaluate the same thing. That the only place she could have gone is Solstice Canyon. The car didn't come from Oxnard, it came from Malibu Canyon and it drove. And either it made a U or it went up the hill. And you didn't see it make a right turn on that, you know, video? Who knows, man? What you need to be focusing on is where would she have gone? Well, we know she was into hiking, okay? There's pictures back from when she was young, and she liked to go hiking out in the woods and crap like that. I think someone said it was bookmarked that she went to Solstice Canyon. I know more things than I am privileged to speak about, but I would say that she probably went to Solstice Canyon. I'm sure if she went there multiple times, maybe she got curious. What the hell is this dry canyon? That was a big mistake at that hour by yourself and probably under the influence of something. I talked to Rosemary. I talked to her about this pretty candidly, and I was like, you know, there's. If this has caused PTSD with people, they didn't know what they were dealing with. They thought things were probably fine at that house. You have to go through a couple of stages of grief going on here, because now after the things I've found, you have to really kind of accept the reality she's probably not alive, man. And because of. Because of the bad investigation that went into what would probably look, most likely, now that I've aired all this dirty laundry about the area and just disbelieving that this was possible, you talk about the mountain lion. We were going over this, right? About how rare it is, okay? Now, if you. If you abide by this mantra that things are rare, thus if they're rare, they're impossible, then you're never going to consider them. And it's the same thing as getting on a plane. It's probably very rare, very unlikely it's going to crash. However, you could turn on the news and see that probably a few crashed in last month. People died, okay? It doesn't mean you're going to, and it doesn't mean that it's common, but it happens. So if it's similar to, like, going. Me going out to the woods out here where there's no bears, and I'd say, well, if you died from a bear, that's really, really, really rare. Now, if I went out to Yosemite, okay, and I. And I had a crappy tent and I had a big pizza and I was hanging out by where the bears hang out, yeah, man, you can get killed by a bear. Yeah, it might be rare, but, dude, you were asking for it. You were in their element.
- [28:43]
Troy Taylor
Confused, bewildered, and feeling more than a little anxious. I stumbled through asking Matthew where to from here? For now, in his eyes, it's a waiting game. Waiting on GPD to test the shirt. Waiting for them to respond to his second public records request. Maybe waiting for them to turn up on his door asking where he was on January 28, 2017. But more importantly, in Matthew's eyes, waiting for the homicide detectives to make a move on advising the public that Elaine's case has been closed. In the meantime, it seems Matthew isn't stopping. He's continuing to investigate in his own way, at his own pace. And if you ask him what he's looking into now, he'll probably get a response similar to the one I got.
- [29:27]
Matthew Song
Who knows? Who knows? Who knows Where I've been, I've been a lot of places. You know, I've gone out of my way to really not keep any major secrets or anything about this. But. But in terms of information about where I've gone and what I've been up to, I've been pretty clear. Except maybe the last couple months. But there's a good reason for that. I don't know if you've ever been around people that have been murdered or anything, but you get a weird vibe.
- [29:54]
Troy Taylor
Around like places where people have been murdered.
- [29:56]
Matthew Song
Well, you know, when, when you're there maybe a day or two after even, you know, there's like a weird, like a pheromone in the air. I have been told by some people I'm probably near the finish line. You don't know what I'm up to until I tell you what I'm up to. I've been pretty clear about when I'm done with something, I don't like to talk about things that I'm up to. There's a logical reason for not doing that with a bunch of people that don't know what they're doing.
- [30:23]
Troy Taylor
I closed the call out with Matthew, finding myself dropped in this kind of in between place. Did the mountain lion theory make sense? Well, in the context of comparing it to any other theory, yeah, it kind of did. But there were still those nagging questions in my mind that I just wasn't happy with the answer to. Why did she go hiking at 6am after having zero sleep? Did she park at Solstice Canyon? And if so, who moved her car and why didn't they tell anybody? And what does that mean? And if she didn't, she packed on pch. Why would she have left her car in the state it was found in? Keys in the ignition, electrics turned on, everything stacked neatly. It didn't make a lot of sense. 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 the subject, look into Alexis Gabe with the body simply saying, same circumstances as Elaine. And sometimes I can hold myself back, push it to the back of my mind, and just wait until the time is right to start deep diving into things. Today on the back of receiving an email like that was not one of those days. I glanced up at my wife with the same look she'd come to know well, the one that didn't need words, but she knew translated into I'm sorry and I've got to go do this. With frustration and maybe a little hurt in her eyes, she ued the word go and turned away from me. I kissed her on the forehead, asked her to record the rest of the recital, and started to shuffle my way past a long line of fairly unimpressed parents. I was, of course, conscious of the fact that that go clearly meant please don't go. And looking back on things, maybe I should have listened a little closer to that. But the mystery of who Alexis Gabe was, why someone had emailed me anonymously about her and what her connection with Elaine was, was too overwhelming to see anything other than the need for immediate answers. So within a few minutes, I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of my car, booting up my laptop and jumping in. To say, Alexis, his case was similar to Elaine's could possibly be the understatement of the century. It wasn't just similar to Elaine's case, it was almost a mirror image, even down to the time of year. Only this happened a little further north, in Antioch, a town on the outskirts of San Francisco. On January 26, 2022, Alexis Gabe left home to go and visit her ex boyfriend, Marshall Jones. She stopped to get gas on the way and was then seen on CCTV footage arriving in the area of his house. Later, her car was seen leaving the area on CCTV footage. The next day, on January 27, law enforcement found her car abandoned on the side of the road. The doors were unlocked, the keys were in the ignition, and all of Alexis's belongings other than her cell phone were found inside. Alexis herself was never seen or heard from again. The number of similarities blew my mind to the point where at first I genuinely began to wonder if there was maybe a serial killer using the same M.O. traveling across California. But there was one critical point in Alexis's case that was different. To Elaine's a point that eventually led to answers which brought things far closer to home than the idea of some random serial killer. Thanks to fast moving investigators at the Oakleigh Police Department, CCTV footage of the person who dumped Alexis's car was discovered. A lot of CCTV footage as they do, law enforcement spoke first with the last person to see her alive, her ex boyfriend, Marshall. He admitted she'd been there, they'd hung out and they chatted and she'd left on her own around 9pm Only what he didn't realize at the time was that the police were already one step ahead because they had that CCTV footage, the footage showing the person who ditched her car walking away, and they had a solid suspicion of just who was in that footage. Without a warrant, Marshall allowed police to search his home on the condition they didn't search the master bedroom and a specific spare bedroom. Later that same day, after police had concluded their search, Jones was seen loading plastic bags into the trunk of his Ford Explorer before leaving for his sister's house. Further upstate, on the 1st of February, law enforcement served a formal search warrant at Marshall's house, where they found traces of blood and that his shower curtains were missing. They went on to search both Marshall's mother and sister's houses, where they eventually found a handwritten note with directions to a small remote town called Pioneer that appeared to be in Marshall's handwriting. An enormous search effort was kicked off in the Pioneer area across air, land and water. Cadaver dogs were deployed, however, were unable to pick up a scent and eventually the search was called off without further leads. Things appeared to have stalled, however. Law enforcement working busily in the background investigating Alexis's case. And in June of that same year, when he was finally approached by police to arrest him on suspicion of Alexis's murder, Marshall Jones was fatally shot by the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Squad when he lunged at them with a knife. Finally, In November of 2022, Alexis's partial remains were found in the small town of plymouth, California, around 24 miles away from the Pioneer area law enforcement had originally searched. Alexis's case was formally closed and her family and friends were given resolution and closure. A visit to an ex boyfriend's house, last seen on CCTV footage, apparently having left the ex boyfriend's house, her car dumped on the side of the road, unlocked, her belongings inside, the keys in the ignition. So many similarities. And the person eventually found responsible for Alexis's disappearance was the last person to see her alive. Her ex boyfriend, Marshall Jones, flabbergasted I went to shut the browser tab when something else caught my eye. Another article about a missing person. This one for Michaela Winston, who was also last seen with her ex boyfriend, whose car was also found abandoned on the roadside with the keys and her belongings inside. And as I dug deeper, I found there were more. There was Crystal Rogers and Julia Jacobson and Nicole Waller. In all of these cases, the scenario was the same. Last seen with an ex boyfriend or husband, their car ditched on the roadside with their belongings and keys inside. And they also all shared one other similarity. All of their cases had been solved. And in every single one of those cases, the culprit was the same every single time. It was the ex partner who was eventually charged with their murder. An ex who in almost every case didn't participate in any search for the missing person. And of course, with all of that, my mind jumped right on over to the person who last saw Elaine alive. Her ex boyfriend. Divine compare. But that's next time on among the Missing Foreign thanks for listening. If you're looking for more of among the Missing, jump on over and take a look at our subscription offer on either Apple Podcasts or Patreon. There's some really great content on there already, including expanded interviews and our first subscriber only bonus episode. She said she want to disappear on Patreon. There's also copies of the photograph and the drone footage from PCH on the 28th and 30th of January. If you know anything about what happened to Elaine or where she is, a Reward fund of $25,000 cash is still on offer. If you'd like any more information on the reward or you have any information relating to Elaine's disappearance whatsoever, please visit our website@ among themissingpodcast.com where you can send us a message or leave us a voicemail. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok at among the Missing Podcast. If you've got any questions you'd like to be addressed in our Q and A episodes, please visit our website@amongthemissingpodcast.com and either send us a message or leave us a voicemail. Among the Missing is a production of FTM Media, produced by Troy Taylor, Mark Tarulli and Fred Schurzer, written by Troy Taylor. Our theme song is Lucid Symphony by Dirty Freaks. Elaine park is still a missing person and her case is still open with the Glendale Police Department. If you have any information about her whereabouts, please contact them on 818-548-3135 and mention Elaine's case number 171512.