← Going West: True Crime
Going West: True Crime
Elaine Park // 469
01:02:06
In January of 2017, a 20-year-old aspiring actress in Los Angeles went missing after abruptly leaving her boyfriend’s Calabasas home in the early morning hours after seemingly suffering a panic attack. Days later, her car turned up on the Pacific Coast Highway in nearby Malibu, but she was nowhere to be found. Investigators are still hoping that the multiple clips of surveillance footage available and the strange happenings on her phone in those early hours will help bring much-needed resolution. This is the story of Elaine Park.
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- [00:00]
Daphne
Foreign.
- [00:14]
Heath
What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Teeth.
- [00:17]
Daphne
And I'm your host, Daphne.
- [00:19]
Heath
And you're listening to Going West.
- [00:21]
Daphne
Hello, everybody. Hope you're doing well today. This case has been on our radar for a while. It's local to where I grew up. It's just one of these weird disappearances cases that is in this part of LA that we're going to talk about a little bit later because there's a few of them, actually, one of which we already covered on the show. But this case came to you by Kelsey, Nahal, Matthew and Lauren. So thank you all for showing interest in us covering this one.
- [00:50]
Heath
Yeah, I was telling Daphne this morning that I felt like we had covered this case because I knew all the details of it. So it's kind of funny, I must have researched it like sometime in the past and we just never covered it. But thankfully we are covering it today.
- [01:03]
Daphne
Yeah, we have been wanting to cover this one for a while. So you probably, you probably did look into it like a couple years ago.
- [01:08]
Heath
I'm sure I did, yeah. And by the way, I just want to let you guys know, all you new listeners, Going west does not just cover west coast cases. We cover cases from all over the country. And on our bonus series, we do cover international cases.
- [01:21]
Daphne
Yeah, this case today, like I said, it's local to me, it's local to us. This is a Los Angeles case. So yeah, the last one we covered was a San Francisco case. The one before that was another LA case. Yeah, actually fun fact. To go west means to die or disappear. It's an old English term. So when Heath and I started this podcast in late 2018, we were like, what's like a unique name we could come up with that doesn't have true crime in the title or murder or something. So that's what that means. We just happen to be doing a lot of California cases right now for absolutely no reason. But anyway, without further ado, let's dive right into this one.
- [01:59]
Heath
All right, guys, this is episode 469 of Going West. So let's get into it.
- [02:47]
Daphne
In January of 2017, a 20 year old aspiring actress in Los Angeles went missing after abruptly leaving her boyfriend's Calabasas home in the early morning hours after seemingly suffering a panic attack. Days later, her car turned on the Pacific coast highway in nearby Malibu, but she was nowhere to be found. Investigators are still hoping that the multiple clips of surveillance footage available and the strange happenings on her phone in those early hours will help bring much needed Resolution. This is the story of Elaine Park. Elaine park was born on September 24, 1996 to parents Susan and Ray park, joining an older brother named Dustin. Her parents divorced when she was about 10, and they later claimed that young Elaine took it really hard, suffering from intermittent depression as a result of their split. But this definitely didn't dampen her free spirit as a whole because she was described by those who knew her best as spunky, creative, bubbly, magnetic and outgoing. And she was a born performer. She loved to act and she was a very gifted dancer. Elaine grew up in La Crescenta, California, which is a neighborhood in Los Angeles County. So they really took advantage of the opportunities that this afforded her in the entertainment world. She did background work in films like Role Models and Crazy Stupid Love and TV shows like ER and Desperate Housewives. She attended Crescenta Valley High School because La Crescenta is just kind of on the outskirts of the San Fernando Valley. It's like at the end of the valley, it's a bit more inland. And she was a cheerleader at this high school and she had a ton of friends. She also loved to rap and in particular she enjoyed writing her own raps, even recording them and putting them out on social media. After graduating from high school, Elaine began studying part time at a local college while living with her best friend Daisy. But a series of unfortunate circumstances led to her moving back home with her family, which seemed to be one of many precursors to her very sudden disappearance. The first took place in the summer of 2015 when 18 year old Elaine was sexually assaulted at a concert. On July 27, 2015, Elaine and her best friend Daisy, along with a few other friends, went to a concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana, California. Now this is a well known venue in nearby Orange County. It holds about 1200 people and the show Elaine and her friends were at that July featured Playboi Carti and Father, among others. Now, Elaine and Daisy were actually invited backstage by father's tour manager. And according to Daisy, Elaine was drinking and taking Xanax and she was quite out of it by the end of the night. At some point, Elaine was raped by someone or perhaps even multiple people while backstage when she was too incoherent to consent, just, you know, trying to let loose and have a fun night with her friends amongst this monster or monsters. In the immediate aftermath of the concert, Elaine had no memory of the assault. But over time though, the memories were fuzzy. She started putting together the pieces and remembered what took place that night.
- [07:03]
Heath
So after this horrible experience, Daisy and Multiple other friends, many of whom she'd had since childhood, recall Elaine distancing herself from them in the months between her realization and her disappearance. Maybe because they reminded her too much of the trauma that she had been through. Or maybe just simply she wanted to spend some time alone.
- [07:22]
Daphne
Yeah, and I think that makes sense. I feel like a lot of people do that when they go through trauma, you know, so this isn't too unusual.
- [07:29]
Heath
Yeah. And she even unfollowed many of her friends on social media and just spent a lot of her time on her own as she headed into her 19th birthday. As she processed her harrowing experience, Elaine met and began dating a man named Divine Compare, who often goes by Diversity, and he's the son of a prominent Hollywood producer. Now, Div's father, Shakim Kamper, is Queen Latifah's business partner as the co owner of Flavor Unit Management and Flavor Unit Entertainment. Now, Elaine and Div began dating in November of 2016, so almost a year and a half after her assault when she was 20 years old. And reportedly they had a very caring and devoted relationship for their short time together, even exchanging I love yous. Just over a month after they began dating on December 28, 2016, she posted a thread on Twitter detailing the work that she was undertaking to process her trauma and just move forward with her life after what happened to her two summers earlier. Elaine wrote, as for the rape, the people involved, know damn well who they are. But I don't fight fire with fire. I've forgiven because now I can move on. And then she continued in another tweet, I'm not making it a legal matter because the more important weight of the situation is that I stay true to myself and find myself justice. Now. In addition to taking space from her friends, she also began to distance herself from Div toward the conclusion of 2016. So shortly after posting these tweets, trying to work through the trauma and start anew going into 2017's so she's just kind of taking a little bit of time for herself. That's completely understandable. She went through something very, very traumatic, and this is kind of her way of dealing with it.
- [09:17]
Daphne
Yeah. And it does seem like you said based on her tweets, that she's. She's really coming to terms with what happened to her almost a year and a half later and making adjustments in her life that she feels like she needs to for the greater good of herself.
- [09:31]
Heath
Yeah. And she even texted Div, quote, I need this year to really invest in myself right now, so I'm gonna grind and spend time alone until I can get myself real right. Div was obviously disappointed by this and expressed the pain that he felt at the thought of losing someone that he thought of as a best friend. Though he told her that he understood and that he did support her reasoning. But her cooling relationship with Div wasn't the only setback in her personal life at the time. Elaine had recently been let go from her serving job at a restaurant, and so she was forced to move back in with her mother, Susan, who she reportedly didn't necessarily have the best relationship with at the time. Back in La Crescenta at this time, Elaine had been attending classes at Pierce College, which is a community college in Woodland Hills, which is also located in the Valley. But she struggled with attendance. So in the light of everything else that was going on at the time, she withdrew her enrollment just kind of for the time being.
- [10:31]
Daphne
Her older brother Dustin, remembers that the last time he saw her, they planned on going snowboarding together in one of the many mountains surrounding Los Angeles, but had gotten into a fight back at home. Elaine was also frequently getting in arguments with her mother. So seemed like she was kind of on her own during this time. She didn't have a lot of people that she could, you know, confide in or really talk to as she was experiencing these struggles. So she really was just struggling under the weight of, you know, her memories of the assault, everything that was going on, and the aching desire that she had to turn her life around. So she just had a lot going on at this time in general, because then of course, she was also going through a breakup that she instigated, but still. So it was a lot. On January 20, 2017, following about a month of little to no contact with Div, he says that he started getting worried about her and he was trying to get her to talk to him on the phone, despite her constantly telling him that she was fine. But they wound up making plans for the following week anyway. In the midst of her withdrawal from her academic and social life, tensions between Elaine and her mom were really reaching a boiling point. Allegedly, Susan felt her 20 year old daughter was irresponsible with money, and in the month leading up to her disappearance, they fought frequently over finances. Susan also bemoaned Elaine's relationship with her father, Ray, saying that he spoiled her and he would give her money whenever she asked for it. So seems like her mom felt like her ex's financial influence wasn't really helping Elaine grow, and she just completely disagreed with it. In the early morning hours of January 26, 2017, around 3:45am, Elaine told her mom Susan that she had run out of gas and also that her battery had died. She was out of the house, so she called her in the middle of the night and said that she needed her to come help her out. So Susan and her boyfriend Jeff met Elaine on a freeway bridge where her car had stopped and they got it up and running again. But this is kind of what her mom was talking about, that something like this would happen, her battery would die, she would run out of gas, it was the middle of the night and she needed her mom to come to the rescue. So the next day after this, she sent Elaine $20 per Elaine's request. But she asked Elaine to pay it back by 6pm that same evening.
- [13:08]
Heath
But as the hours passed and the money wasn't returned to her, Susan grew increasingly agitated about this. But little did she know at the time. That afternoon, Elaine stopped by her dad's house to borrow a bit more money as well. Ray later explained that Elaine seemed to be in good spirits and that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary about her appearance or her behavior when he saw her that January day. And afterwards she circled back to the home she shared with her mom across the valley and briefly met up with a friend. Elaine's friend Sadie, who was one of the last people to see her before her disappearance, stopped by that evening to pick up a curling iron that she had left behind at the house. When she was there she noted that Elaine gave it to her without so much as a greeting and then locked the front door behind her, leaving in her car. So this was a bit of a weird interaction. It felt clear that something was probably on Elaine's mind despite her dad having a more positive interaction with her a couple of hours earlier. So that night, the Evening of Friday January 27, 2017, Elaine took off from La Crescenta bound for Calabasas where her ex boyfriend and good friend Div lived in the guest house of his parents property. Now traffic would have been about moderate to heavy at the time, taking her likely around 45 to 55 minutes to drive the 35 miles. Elaine arrived at 8pm and spent time hanging out with Div before they headed out to see a Movie. At around 9pm, she texted her mom, telling her to give her until later that night to repay the money via an app. Then at 10:30 they left in an Uber heading for the Commons at Calabasas to go see that movie.
- [14:53]
Daphne
And for those who don't Know the area, the, the Commons is, it's like an affluent outdoor shopping center in Calabasas. Has a ton of shops and restaurants, you know, coffee shops, an ice cream shop, a Barnes and Noble, etc. And it has a Regal Edwards movie theater which is where they were going. So very good place for a date night or just hanging out with friends. And I'm sure it is still this now, but when I grew up here it was the Friday spot to go in middle school or as a young teenager.
- [15:19]
Heath
Yeah, everybody's got those places.
- [15:20]
Daphne
Yeah, this is that spot for this area. Obviously people of all ages enjoy it, but there's security officers there. It's very safe. So just wanted to give a reference. This is a really good, safe, active, highly populated area, especially on the weekends, like when they're going that they could spend a few hours at which they did until returning via an Uber to div's house around 1.30am he did live kind of around the corner and up the hill in a gated community off Mulholland highway, which we will describe more in a minute. And security footage from the compares driveway confirms the timeline of their leave time and their arrival time back that early morning. Both Uber drivers were later questioned by police and claimed that both Elaine and Dib seemed happy and content that night and that they were being affectionate with each other in the car rides. The only thing that seemed even slightly out of the ordinary was that Div asked Elaine multiple times if she was okay.
- [16:21]
Heath
And I'm assuming he did this because they hadn't seen each other in a while. So he's just trying to confirm that she's good because obviously they did split after, you know, this time of her kind of like trying to find herself.
- [16:34]
Daphne
Yeah, and we know that he had been asking her that recently anyway, so it seemed like he was worried about her for sure. Now Elaine was last active on social media accounts around 3:20am so two hours after returning to Div's parents house, Remember where he lived in a guest house possibly before she went to bed. But a short while later Div was awakened by Elaine undergoing what appeared to be a panic attack. Now he recalls this taking place around 4am so that would have been, you know, roughly 40 minutes after she last checked her social media. But this answer has changed a few times, likely due to the early hour and the fact that he was, you know, awoken from sleep. He's not like clock and what time exactly it is.
- [17:19]
Heath
You know, some people, they don't wake right up, especially when there's you know, something going on, like a commotion or somebody having a panic attack, the first thing that they're going to do is probably not check the clock. So it's easy to kind of misunderstand the timing here.
- [17:33]
Daphne
Yeah, and even if he did, maybe it wouldn't have been easy to remember exactly the time later because he didn't think it was important to remember. He didn't know what was going to happen after. But of course, whenever somebody changes their story or misremembers something, you know, people kind of hold a magnifying glass to it. So I just did want to mention it, but it is unclear whether Elaine ever went to sleep that night at all. But by Div's recollection, she was singing, shaking, and acting erratically during this very early morning panic attack. He claimed that he attempted to calm her down, but that she refused to stay put. Now, despite Div's protests, Elaine got dressed quickly and headed to her car, leaving in a hurry. He even offered to get her an Uber, just worried about her driving while she was in this state. But he says that she refused and she left by herself. Div said later, I've never seen a woman dress so fast. At one point, he allegedly also claimed that Elaine mentioned needing to meet with somebody. But he later recanted that part of his recollection, which I feel like is such an important detail, you know, whether or not that's true with what's to come. Yeah, that's kind of a good thing to know if she was supposed to meet with somebody or not.
- [18:52]
Heath
Yeah, you would think that that would be a huge detail.
- [18:54]
Daphne
Well, Div also explained that Elaine wasn't elaborating about what was going on and why she was feeling so stressed and paranoid, or if there had been a triggering incident, she just kind of got up and left. But she didn't leave when this panic attack allegedly started. Like I just said, he says that it started around 4am but she left around 6:05am but the exact time has been hotly debated because it seems as if the timing on the multiple security cameras on the property were kind of out of sync, which led to possible inconsistencies. Many people were quick to point out later that because the cameras were cut off at the driveway, investigators could not be sure that it was in fact Elaine driving her Honda Civic away from the compare's home. However, it does seem kind of clear that she left the neighborhood as the security camera captured her driving away from the small gated community minutes later. Also, I want to mention just kind of describe the property in the house a little bit better. The property that his family lived on is freaking huge. It's amongst the mountains. Like I said, it's right off Mulholland Highway. So that's a very mountainous area, very.
- [20:10]
Heath
Affluent area as well.
- [20:11]
Daphne
Yes. It's a seven bedroom, nine bathroom house with a pool, a hot tub and its own private tennis court and a small putting green. And it's obviously then surrounded by a bunch of hiking trails. And since it's right off Mulholland, it's smack dab basically in the middle of the mountain between the 101 freeway of Calabasas and PCH, the Pacific coast highway of Malibu, which is relevant to this story because through those dark canyons and along the winter Southern California ocean, Elaine would vanish.
- [21:30]
Heath
Shortly after Elaine left div's house at 6:28am that morning, her location was shared via imessage with Div. They had been sharing their locations previously, but Elaine had put a stop to her sharing when they weren't, you know, together and they were taking some time apart. But now suddenly, she's sending it to him. 45 minutes later, at 7:13am, Elaine's phone received an automated message from her music streaming app, which was Pandora, leading investigators to believe that she had been streaming music via the app while she was driving. Div later acknowledged that she liked driving and it was kind of this meditative thing for her. So it's possible that she was, you know, driving around the area to clear her head after having this panic attack. An hour and a half after this, at 8:51am, Elaine received three urgent and upset messages from her mother demanding that $20 repayment immediately, because at this point, Elaine was over 12 hours late for their previously agreed upon deadline of 6:00pm well, Elaine did not respond, but 40 minutes later, at 9:32am, Elaine's Pandora app prompted her again, asking if she was still listening. Between 10:13am and 3:42pm, Elaine received multiple communications. Five calls from Div checking to see if she was okay. All of which went unanswered. Three calls from her mother checking on the status of her repayment and growing increasingly concerned. And finally, a text from her friend Sadie asking what she was up to that day. 3:42pm is the last ping of Elaine's phone, which hit a cell tower in Malibu. As the hours passed and Elaine didn't respond to her mom nor return home, Susan started to become really worried about where her daughter was. Shortly before midnight, so, nearing 20 hours since she had Last been seen, Susan called the local sheriff's office and asked to file a missing persons report. However, acknowledging that she was a grown woman and would frequently spend nights out with her friends in Div, officers encouraged her to wait another day. But the following day, which was Sunday, January 29, 2017, there was still no word from or sign of Elaine. Susan claims that she knows Elaine would have returned her money by then and that she was becoming concerned something happened to her. Now, the most eerie part was that Elaine, who was very active on social media platforms, had gone radio silent since early that Saturday morning, which was just completely unlike Elaine. Then, the following day, Monday, January 30, 2017, Elaine was officially reported missing. Susan initially called the sheriff's department again, but was transferred to the nearby Glendale Police Department based on where her home is located and filed a missing persons report with them. And again, this is not the area that Elaine went missing. So this obviously would kind of slow things down even more. But still, four and a half hours later, an officer reported to Susan's house to take down the report. Now, this officer was the first to alert Elaine's dad, Ray, that his daughter was missing. And for unknown reasons, Susan waited until that day to reach out to Elaine's friends and inquire about her whereabouts. Obviously, we don't know why she did this. Maybe she didn't really know Elaine's friends all that well, but hindsight is 20 20.
- [25:05]
Daphne
Well, on Thursday, February 2, 2017, Susan stopped by the Calabasas home of Div and his parents, Tanya and Shakim, to speak with them regarding Elaine's disappearance. Of course, since Elaine was last seen at their house and she just kind of tried to get as many details from them as possible. But Div maintained that he went back to sleep after Elaine left. Remember, this was around 6am and that he hadn't spoken with her since. Despite having been reaching out to her just like Susan had been. His multiple calls to her that past Saturday had gone unanswered. You know, now this is five days later and she had not been in touch since. Susan later accused the compares of only given what limited information they wanted to and claimed that she begged Div's mom, Tanya to view the footage with her, but that Tanya instead turned over the footage to the Glendale Police Department and didn't show it to her.
- [26:04]
Heath
I mean, I understand the reasoning for wanting to see it, but the right thing to do is to get that footage over to the police.
- [26:11]
Daphne
Well, and police have announced over the years numerous times that Div and his Parents were never anything less than cooperative and in fact, were very helpful and that none of them were ever considered suspect. Div also didn't leave his home during the time frame that Elaine vanished, as has been proven by security footage. Sergeant Robert William of the Glendale Police Department even announced, quote, the boyfriend has actually been the most cooperative in the investigation. We can see she left on her own and he stayed at his residence that night. The compares also allowed their home to be searched and were cleared from suspicion early on, like, officially. So they were looked into. The police did their due diligence searching their home and questioning them, but it was just a dead end. Elaine was nowhere to be found. As police continued to investigate, they saw that Elaine's car was captured on surveillance footage driving past a 76 gas station on the corner of Pacific coast highway and Coral Canyon Road and can be seen making a u turn about 19 minutes after she reportedly left Div's house. Now, by the way, we are going to make a map and post it after this episode drops for anybody who wants a visual, because having a visual is very helpful to show the different location spots. And, you know, we talk about a lot of places in this episode. But also, you know, it's kind of weird because this spot where she allegedly made this U turn, there is footage of it happening. You can see her car just like the tip of it, and you can't see who's in it.
- [27:51]
Heath
You.
- [27:52]
Daphne
It's, you know, she's kind of off in the distance. This is on the gas station security camera, but it is in the opposite direction of her mom's house. When she makes the U turn, she's going back towards where she would have to go to go to her mom's house. But going to Malibu in general is not at all on the way home anyway. Like, she would have needed to go into Calabasas, hit the 101 freeway, and then gone deeper into the valley. But she wasn't doing that. She was going the opposite of inland. She was going out to the coast and again driving in the opposite direction. But when she makes this U turn, that is turning around to go back in the direction of Dib's house and technically towards her mom's house where she lived. So this does kind of lead us to believe that she had gone there to try to cool off by the ocean or that she was meeting someone. But also, this 19ish minutes does match up with how long it would take to get to that spot. But then she turns around. So this occurred at 6:26am on the day she vanished. Remember, she apparently left divs at 6:05, but the driver is not confirmed to be Elaine. It's just believed that this was her car because of the timing, the location of where her car was later found as we will get into here in a moment, and the fact that PCH was basically empty at this time.
- [29:14]
Heath
Otherwise, well, about 25 minutes after her car drives off screen, two men can be seen walking into the frame from that direction. The pedestrian men could also just be a coincidence and are not necessarily suspected of involvement in her disappearance. But of course, we did want to mention it because it does feel pretty interesting. After speaking with the compares, Susan and her boyfriend reported to the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station, the jurisdiction that Div's family's home falls under, and requested that they ping Elaine's phone to determine her last location. They obliged and discovered that her phone number had last interacted with a cell phone tower near Coral Canyon Road in Malibu. The same road in which her car was thought to be spotted near that gas station. Upon further investigation that same day, which again was February 2, 2017, according to Susan, Elaine's car was located parked on the Pacific coast highway just south of Coral Canyon Road. So near where her car was seen turning around in the surveillance footage, meaning she made a U turn and soon pulled over on the side of the road. It was parked on the south facing side of pch, so on the beach side, and it was directly across the street from the Malibu RV Park. Otherwise, this is a pretty isolated spot of PCH where the closest other structure is a Malibu seafood just a short ways up and then up a little ways after. This is a string of homes. Now, the state in which Elaine's car was found was nothing short of eerie. The engine wasn't on, but the electrical was running. Her keys were still in the ignition, the doors were unlocked and her battery was dead.
- [31:01]
Daphne
So pretty weird because obviously nobody's gonna walk away from their car with their keys in the ignition and the door unlocked, because that is very risky for car theft, of course.
- [31:11]
Heath
And you can also, you know, lock your car door with the keys still inside. You can lock the door and shut it, and then you're locked out of your car. So this is pretty strange as well. Now, inside on the front passenger seat was her laptop computer with a battery still at 30%, and her duffel bag containing her journal and makeup bag, among other personal Items. There were two iPhones in the console and many more of her personal belongings in the backseat. The car also Contained Elaine's driver's license and $37 in cash.
- [31:47]
Daphne
So also not things that you want to leave in your car and walk away from?
- [31:52]
Heath
Yeah, definitely not. And strangely, the officer who recovered her car noted that it looked as if it had been staged in its place. However, there were no signs of foul play in or outside of her 2015 Honda Civic. The car was examined forensically, but nothing of note was found, which only added to the strangeness of the situation. The vicinity was also searched by bloodhounds and cadaver dogs, but the results were unfortunately inconclusive. And when Elaine's car was no longer considered a crucial piece of evidence, it was turned back over to her mother because her car was found in the vicinity of the beach. There were two searches of the ocean water nearby, but neither pointed the investigators towards Elaine's whereabouts. She was just gone at this point. After the discovery of her car, she was upgraded to critical missing. But this did little to ascertain her whereabouts either. Susan believed that it was nearly impossible for Elaine's car to have been sitting where they found it with the keys in the ignition since the day she disappeared. And she believes that it was planted there by whomever took or harmed her daughter.
- [33:03]
Daphne
It's definitely strange, and it's hard with this case because it's unsolved. So there's a lot of information that has not been released by the police, including when exactly they found the surveillance footage of her from the 76 gas station allegedly making that U turn. I say allegedly because we don't know for sure if she was driving, but let's say she was. She made the U turn onto PCH from PCH and then pulled over after only a few feet. That's where her car was found. It was found very close to Coral Canyon.
- [33:33]
Heath
Yeah. So this was not like some isolated back road. This was a very, you know, public and a very, like, trafficked road.
- [33:41]
Daphne
Yeah, exactly. And if they knew again, though, maybe it took them a few days to even learn that her last call was made, like, it does seem like it did, near the Coral Canyon intersection on pch. So it's possible that it took a few days to pinpoint her last whereabouts. And that's how they found the 76 gas station footage. And then that's how they found her car, because it's not like you leave the compares house and are spit out into Malibu after going down the canyon. And there was her car. You know, she was traveling north before making that U turn. So it wasn't in the immediate area. It would make sense if they weren't just driving all the way up and down PCH looking for her yet. Especially because they thought that maybe she was not an endangered missing person. But I could see why her mom thinks this because we don't know how long her car was sitting there for.
- [34:36]
Heath
Well, with all that information, you know, things just became even more mysterious and confusing because on March 2, 2017, so just over a month after she went missing, 20 year old Elaine's Facebook history was deleted. And I just want to say that it is possible that this was done to maybe protect her reputation and history from the prying eyes of the investigation. But it's also possible that it was done as a cover up. But either way, as tips slowed down, theories began to emerge.
- [35:08]
Daphne
Yeah, because we basically have nothing to to work off of here. Very little has been released regarding her actual disappearance. And so of course a big assumption in this case on its face, is that Elaine took her own life, which we really don't want to weigh on too much as to not be disrespectful, especially because suicide really should not be up to an outsider's speculation. But many point out that in the aftermath of her sexual assault, as well as the painful season of change and growth that she seemed to be going through at this time, it's certainly possible, especially since on the morning she vanished, in particular, she was clearly undergoing some mental health discomfort and she was also in the midst of an ongoing argument with her mom about the money she owed. However, private investigator Jaden Brandt, hired by the family, maintained that the family had no reason to believe that Elaine was experiencing suicidal ideation or that she took her own life. And there's no evidence whatsoever to support that she did, especially since no trace of her has been found. Jaden said, quote, we firmly believe that Elaine did not commit suicide and she's not a runaway. It's our strong contention that Elaine park is an involuntary missing person and that foul play is involved in her disappearance. Now, this next bit is tough for us to bring up because we hate pointing or even suggesting pointing at family members ever, even though sometimes that's just the way the story unravels. But it would be a somewhat injustice to the story of the investigation if we didn't bring it up since it is so widely discussed in and outside of this case. So, with all due respect, the person who has garnered the most negative attention is Elaine's mother, Susan. As we know by now, their relationship was often fraught with tension, and Susan reportedly once had asked her husband or her ex husband, sorry, Ray, Elaine's father, to take Elaine in, fearing that one of them would get hurt as their relationship reached a low point. But it's important to note that there are many extenuating factors here, including cultural differences. As Susan was born in Korea, Susan will be the first to admit that she was harsh on her daughter and that very often they did not get along. But that doesn't necessarily point to her involvement in her daughter's disappearance. Like, doesn't automatically mean she has to be involved in something. And it can be a very harmful accusation without evidence. But that said, her behavior in the aftermath has raised some red flags.
- [37:53]
Heath
Many have accused Susan of money grubbing in the wake of Elaine going missing and of fraud. Before she vanished In May of 2016, Elaine was driving in the car with her friend Sadie when the pair were in a minor accident. Though Elaine sustained very minor injuries, some cuts on her hands from helping the passengers in the other car, Susan allegedly insisted that she seek treatment from a chiropractor and receive a settlement from the insurance claim. Elaine even reportedly accused her mother of fraud for forcing her to do this.
- [38:27]
Daphne
Which like, yeah, that is.
- [38:29]
Heath
Yeah. Stranger still was the fact that Susan was calling the insurance company for a payout on the claim on the very day that she reported her daughter missing, as well as the same day that Elaine's car was found.
- [38:42]
Daphne
So that's. It's just a little weird.
- [38:43]
Heath
Yeah, it's really just bad timing. On March 21, 2017, Elaine's settlement from the accident was paid out and Susan received $5,000 to be split between Elaine, her injury attorney, and her chiropractor.
- [38:59]
Daphne
So obviously that happened almost two months after Elaine went missing, meaning Elaine's portion of the money never went to her.
- [39:07]
Heath
Yeah, but going back for a second, I guess Susan and Elaine had been fighting over this money for months, including one particularly nasty interaction in July of 2016. So six months before Elaine's disappearance, when Elaine told her mom that she was skipping her appointment with her chiropractor that.
- [39:24]
Daphne
Day because she didn't need a chiropractor.
- [39:26]
Heath
Exactly. So this conversation, you know, escalated so heatedly that Susan wrote, fuck you, die and leave me alone. I fucking hate the bullying ass of yours and you make me sick. And remember, this is what Susan said to her daughter Elaine, which then culminated in a series of the word die eight times. In her own defense, Susan claimed that she felt her ex husband had spoiled her daughter, as we mentioned earlier, and that she was trying to get Elaine to be more responsible with her money. She also explained that when she was married to Elaine's father, the family was better off living in a nice house with more disposable income. So Elaine had apparently become accustomed to a lifestyle that Susan no longer felt that she could provide. Additionally, In December of 2016, Ray stopped paying child support to Susan because Elaine was in her twenties. In the time between when Elaine moved in with her mother and when she disappeared, Elaine and Susan exchanged dozens of texts about money, including amounts as small as just $2. But it was Susan's conduct after Elaine's disappearance that drew the most controversy. As soon as it became clear that her daughter was not returning home, Susan rented out her room, sold Elaine's car, discarded her belongings, and gave her two cats to the local animal.
- [41:26]
Daphne
Word spread quickly about Elaine's disappearance in the small community of Malibu, with many people jumping in, wanting to help, you know, learning of how amazing Elaine was and knowing something was very fishy about the situation. Malibu is a very safe, quiet, spread out city that turns off its lights, you know, earlier than most other parts of la, like nearby Santa Monica, you know, it's like a super sleepy town if. If you didn't already know.
- [41:54]
Heath
Yes, it is.
- [41:55]
Daphne
So although this type of thing is very rare to happen in Malibu, something just felt off to everybody who got close to the case and learned the details. And since we were just talking about Susan, I do want to note that when it came to consenting to a polygraph examination, she was initially hesitant, but she did agree to, or she eventually did agree to do one, and she passed. She even allowed drug dogs and cadaver dogs to search the home that she shared with Elaine, which happened on May 6, 2017. So a few months after her disappearance. And weirdly, the dogs indicated to spots in Elaine's room, as well as the cleaning closet of the home, and in particular, to a suitcase in that closet. The door to Elaine's room also reportedly had a crack in it, as if it had been, you know, slammed or kicked in at some point. And there were also scrapes on the wall, maybe as if her bed had been moved in front of the door to block it. So when you take that information and you mix it with how much we know, they fought and argued, and the fact that Susan had once asked her ex if she could take Elaine in because she was worried one of them was going to hurt each other, it's a little disturbing. Also, I want to mention, as a lot of you guys probably know, there is a true Crime podcast that focused its second season on this case, it's called To Live and Die in la. And basically at the onset of their investigative efforts, because this podcast did do their own investigation into this story, Susan was accused of gouging the podcast for money when she asked them to donate to the reward fund upon their first meeting. So, you know, a lot of people, a lot of family want donations to help pay for private investigators or other resources. Totally normal. But it didn't feel like maybe that's what was going on here.
- [43:59]
Heath
Yeah, I think it kind of came off the wrong way. And so people were kind of surmising that maybe she was just trying to get involved so that she herself could obtain some money from this.
- [44:11]
Daphne
Right. Well, going back to the cadaver dogs really quick. Sorry for that little segue. Before and after the dog's visits to the house, Susan's phone had some reminders to hide items in a shed. Yet Susan claimed that she was referring to her personal stash of marijuana, which she didn't want the drug sniffing dogs to find, because although recreational marijuana was legalized in California in November of 2016, so right before this case, it wasn't first sold in stores or in dispensaries until January of 2018. So a year after Elaine vanished. So she did have a right to be concerned about them finding it because it would have been illegal possession at that point, but that that was her excuse. Susan has continued to maintain her innocence in the case of her missing daughter and even shared a string of texts to Elaine's Facebook group detailing the pain that she was enduring as a result of losing Elaine. A text exchange in which she wrote, I am so sad again. Just tried to start up Elaine's car and the battery is dead. Then I started to cry. It could be two things. One, I had to rescue her on Thursday, 3:35am near my house because her gas tank got empty in the middle of the freeway bridge. When we got there, the car needed to be jumped. So it could be that when her car battery died, she did not want to call me again and she got fed up and committed suicide. Two, since her car battery died, she flagged people down to help with jumping. Then they abducted her. She was having a panic attack, shaking, singing and all. She was probably OD or drugged out.
- [45:55]
Heath
I don't know. This doesn't feel like a super sympathetic thing to write. Just the fact that you would say she was probably OD and drugged out also seems a little off.
- [46:09]
Daphne
Also to say that maybe she got fed up that her car battery died and she committed suicide. I think is an extreme jump, in my opinion. I mean, yeah, especially because there's no mention of. No mention of other factors. Like, it's just like, oh, she got fed up that her battery was dead, so she killed herself. What? Like, that's just a little like, whoa. What?
- [46:29]
Heath
Yeah, that's way, way extreme.
- [46:31]
Daphne
Yeah. And. And by the way, what I was mentioning when she said Thursday, 3:35am that's what Heath was talking about earlier, about how her car battery died and her car ran out of gas. Yeah. So that's what that was about. So. But I. I do think this is an interesting piece of information that her car battery died, because, again, there's still a lot of information that has not been released at this point in time. But it does seem like when they found her car, her battery was dead. And that would mean that she needed to go get help from someone. So we know that she had been distant with her friends. She and Div were not together officially anymore. She and her mom were fighting. It was early in the morning, so she probably felt like she couldn't call anybody and she had to figure it out another way. I think that's a really interesting perspective.
- [47:22]
Heath
Well, when we're talking about the fact that her car battery had died and it was sitting on the side of the road, if that was the case, you know, her car battery died and she needed to go get help, she would have taken her keys with her. She would have taken her license with her. She probably wouldn't have left her belongings. So it's like, on one hand, you imagine that maybe she locked the car and she got into another person's car and said, hey, can you drive me down to this gas station? Because I need, you know, somebody's help. But then why would you leave all of those things behind? And that's what leads me to the conclusion that I think somebody did actually plant her car there.
- [47:56]
Daphne
Well, and her car was unlocked, so we know that.
- [48:00]
Heath
Sorry, I think I said. I think I said locked, but, yeah, left it unlocked.
- [48:03]
Daphne
Yeah. Well, that's. That's what's weird is, like, you're saying it would have not made a lot of sense for her to leave all of her stuff and her keys in the car and drive off with somebody, which would then kind of make you wonder, did somebody come by to, quote, unquote, help, which we have seen in a ton of other cases, and then before she could do anything, she was abducted.
- [48:24]
Heath
Right. Yeah, I was kind of thinking that as well, because then she wouldn't have had Any time to really get anything out of her car if they just suddenly grabbed her. So there's definitely two scenarios there that could make sense.
- [48:38]
Daphne
Also, if she did want to walk to get help, as we know, that 76 gas station was sitting right there. So she could have gone there to get help, and that would have been a very short walk away. And we know that there wasn't just a ton of cars. Although I will say, of course, we don't know what time this would have happened. Is this at about 6:30am after she made that U turn, did this happen then? Or like you're saying, was her car planted? And it's just hard to know because we don't know what time she parted from her vehicle.
- [49:08]
Heath
Yeah, I just think that no matter what, you know, if you're going to leave your car on. On a highway, right there on the side of a highway, you are not going to leave your keys and your. Your. Your license and everything else that she left behind. You're just not gonna do that. Even if the 76 station is just a few short blocks away and you can walk there easily, you know, within a few minutes, you're still not gonna leave your keys in your car.
- [49:32]
Daphne
Well, here's actually a really weird thing that I want to remind you guys of. Earlier we mentioned that at 6:28am she shared her location with. With Div. That is only two minutes after she made that U turn.
- [49:48]
Heath
Yes.
- [49:48]
Daphne
So that, that to me, gives us a little bit of a timeline that tells me personally that she pulled over because her car was, you know, her car was stalling or stopping or whatever, and she had to pull over because her battery died. Can your battery die? Dumb question. When? While you're driving?
- [50:07]
Heath
Yeah, it can. Yeah, absolutely.
- [50:09]
Daphne
Your battery can just stall and then it stops.
- [50:11]
Heath
Yeah. If you're. If your battery is just ran out of juice, usually your. Usually your car battery will charge while you're driving, but if the battery is old enough, it'll just stop. Yeah.
- [50:23]
Daphne
Yeah. So if that happened, or let's say she pulled over for a second, turned off her car, got a. Got fresh air for a minute, and then went to go, keep driving. And then she was like, wait, now my car's not turning on either of those situations, then maybe that is why she sent her location to Div as a way to say, shit, here I am, I need help. My battery's dead. But without giving the context.
- [50:48]
Heath
But you would also imagine that if she, you know, shared her location with Div, that she would also maybe give A little context and say, hey, this is what happened. I'm sharing my location because of this. So that also is kind of weird because it also kind of leads you to believe that maybe she was in the midst of somebody dangerous and she didn't have time to text Div, so she just needed to share her location quickly so that people could know where she was.
- [51:14]
Daphne
Yeah, exactly. Which we have also seen in other cases where that's like, all you can manage to do.
- [51:19]
Heath
Right.
- [51:20]
Daphne
Send one little text, send your location, whatever it may be. So there's just so many questions because also after sending her location, remember, as we said, she got that prompt from Pandora asking if she was still listening to music. We don't know if she hit yes or no. We do know that prompt came up later. So that would lead me to believe that she hit yes. You know, because you're. The music stops. Right, Right. Like, you know, just like if you're watching Netflix, the. The show pauses until you say yes or no, and then if you don't say anything, your. Your TV just turns off eventually. So there's a lot of questions there of was somebody else trying to make her phone seem active because she also didn't communicate with anybody again after sending her location to Div. Anyway.
- [52:03]
Heath
So, yeah, that was the last known thing.
- [52:05]
Daphne
Yeah. So what the hell happened?
- [52:08]
Heath
I mean, it is also plausible that Elaine's disappearance may have been the result of an accident. Like maybe she wanted to be with nature and take a hike into the Malibu wilderness as the sun rose at 6:54am that morning, or simply, you know, go on an early morning walk on the beach and that she became lost, injured, or maybe fell prey to the elements, I think this is a little less likely, in my opinion, because then where is she? Yeah, exactly. And because Elaine can't be seen on any of the footage that her car was spotted in on the morning of her disappearance, some kind of speculate that it's possible that she was abducted, as we mentioned, either by somebody that she knew or someone who took advantage of her mental health episode. Though Div and Susan have been at the receiving end of most of the accusations of foul play, Elaine's ex boyfriend, an aspiring rapper named Lolo, also caught some flack for his behavior after the end of their relationship when they were still dating. Lolo was charged with having an unauthorized firearm after being pulled over by the police with Elaine. Now, Elaine had no knowledge of this illegal weapon, and she did sever ties with him after finding out. However, according to her friends, Lolo Continued to call and pursue Elaine even after he was blocked on her devices. In the months following her disappearance, she was set to testify against him regarding his unauthorized weapons charge. But her testimony probably wouldn't have affected the outcome of his case, as she hadn't been aware of the presence of a gun at all. But still, and coincidentally, Lola was released from prison pre trial just two days before Elaine disappeared. So it's all pretty strange. But investigators noted that he seemed genuinely upset and scared by her disappearance and that he cooperated with authorities, even offering to help them search. Multiple searches were conducted by her friends, family, and concerned locals in the area, but they did not turn up any more evidence.
- [54:12]
Daphne
Ultimately, though, names and accusations have been tossed around for years. In this case, it remains without resolution. Elaine would now be 28 years old. She stood at 5ft 5 inches tall and weighed about 125 pounds. She had brown eyes and brown hair with blonde at the tips. Her ears and nose were pierced, and she had a number of tattoos, including a rose on her left shoulder, A dagger on her lower right arm and a moth and a bull's head on her upper left arm. Currently, the Reward sits at $250,000, but has not yielded any sign of her. In September of 2017, so shortly before what would have been her 21st birthday, her mom released this statement. I am pleading for the public's assistance in bringing Elaine home before her 21st birthday. Somebody knows what happened to her. And if the news of this reward can just reach them, we promise to protect their confidentiality. Please help me spread the word. All I want is to find my daughter. Nothing else matters. So let's talk about this case for a second. Opinions? You know, we know that Elaine wasn't in a great financial position. She had recently lost her job. She borrowed $20 from her mom the day before her disappearance, which isn't significant yet. She needed an extension to pay it back, which I really think shows her financial situation at that time very well. So although she was going through a lot, it's hard for me to believe that she electively went missing, Especially since by the time we're recording this, it's almost been eight years exactly since this happened. So although people do sometimes just leave their life, I'm not of the belief that this is what happened here.
- [56:09]
Heath
I have to agree with you there because, just because of all the things that are in this case that are pointing towards some sort of foul play. You know, we look at all of the details in this case and it just seems to point to Foul play. You know, she left everything behind in her car, and I just can't see somebody doing that. It just feels like somebody took her.
- [56:31]
Daphne
Yeah, I. I agree. Especially like everything we already said about her sending Div her location two minutes after she made that U turn. It's very strange to me. And, you know, again, I don't want to speculate on her taking her life, but since her body wasn't found, as grim as this is to say, she wouldn't have been able to hide her own body. So I struggle with that as well. You know, it was really like she was plucked from the sky. So, you know, she. Was she going to Malibu to meet someone, maybe for drugs, some type of financial opportunity, somebody else, and something happened, whether it be an accident or some premeditated plan.
- [57:09]
Heath
I mean, truly, who knows? There's just this unlimited number of possibilities here.
- [57:15]
Daphne
And her phone being found in her car. Reportedly two iPhones found in her car, one of which we know for sure was hers, is also suspicious because she left with absolutely nothing. And I think that her simply going to Malibu to clear her head and then her car breaking down, you know, her battery dying, and then the wrong person driving by to help. That idea makes a lot of sense to me too, that this was a crime of opportunity.
- [57:42]
Heath
And unfortunately, we've just seen it far, far too many times in so many different cases we've covered.
- [57:49]
Daphne
Yeah. And especially because of how quiet it would have been early that morning. So maybe the wrong person was out there.
- [57:58]
Heath
Yeah. I mean, when you think about Malibu and you think about the PCH at like, you know, 6 in the morning, it's not, you know, hustle, bustle, it's not going to be a ton of. A ton of people driving back and forth because it is a coastal highway.
- [58:13]
Daphne
Yeah. And it's off. Off season for tourism. You know, this is late January, but I will say, just like unfortunately we have right now, which is why we have all these fires in la. It was on the warmer side that day in the 70s, but, yeah, it's not a busy time for people to be driving down this road.
- [58:31]
Heath
And obviously that doesn't mean that there were no cars driving on that highway that morning, because, of course, people do live and work in Malibu, but it's not going to be as busy as the middle of the city in la.
- [58:43]
Daphne
Well, you know, something else is, according to that footage, the security footage at the 76 gas station, right. Where her car was found later, 25 minutes after she made that U turn, meaning, you know, 23 minutes after she sent Div her location, those two guys started walking down the road. So, yeah. Was she sitting in her car, battery dead, trying to wait it out until people woke up before she figured out what she was doing? Use this time to sit and think before figuring something out. And these two men walked by and offered help. Did they leave in her car and return it there later? You know, your mind just runs with possibilities. If you have any information about the disappearance of Elaine park, please call the Glendale Police Department at 818-550-4400. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.
- [59:50]
Heath
Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I know that there's quite a bit of speculation in this case, and of course, we're not trying to just throw out random theories at you guys, but it truly is so baffling that she could just go missing like this.
- [60:05]
Daphne
And despite there being such little public information on this case, it's really important to push these types of cases out as well, because this case is only 8 years old and something happened to her, you know?
- [60:17]
Heath
Exactly.
- [60:18]
Daphne
She went somewhere or she was taken somewhere, and she deserves to be found. So thank you guys so much. Please let us know what you think. Check out the map. Check out the photo. Share her missing poster. And yeah, we really appreciate you guys listening and recommending this story.
- [60:34]
Heath
I just said exactly. And I think somebody. Somebody said that take a shot every time one of the hosts says exactly. So sorry, if we say that word too much. Sometimes it's just kind of like the go to response.
- [60:45]
Daphne
We're. We're trying not to do that. It's funny. Whenever somebody says that we disagree with each other, it's because we do agree and we're. We're conversational. We're talking. So just like you would say that in a normal conversation, we do it here. So we are trying to be more aware of not doing that.
- [60:59]
Heath
Yeah. But again, thank you guys for listening to this episode. Head on over to our socials if you want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered. We're on Instagram @goingwest podcast, and we also have a discussion group on Facebook. So head on over there and let us know what you guys think about this story. All right, guys, so for everybody out.
- [61:21]
Daphne
There in the world, don't be a stranger. Sa.