[Music] [Music] [Music] Elaine Park was a creative and uninhibited spiritual woman in La Crescenta, California. Her deeply ingrained passion for acting and an imagination suited for personal expression were cut short by an unexplainable unsolved disappearance in January of 2017, leaving all who knew her across her Los Angeles neighborhoods and the entirety of Southern California at large grasping for answers in a sea of evidence that drowned us all in doubt. In the hope of providing more substantial reasoning built upon observable evidence and situational analysis, this is an examination of Elaine Park's disappearance and the deeply disturbing pattern of mysterious happenings all around the shores of Malibu. This is Cold Case Detective. [Music] [Music] Elaine Park was born on September 24th, 1996, to parents Ray and Susan Park in Los Angeles, California. She was an only child for a short while until her younger brother Dustin was born a few years later. At an early age, Elaine

showed a propensity for social activities and exploring her imagination. She loved to perform for her family and made friends with just about anyone. She was a social butterfly at school and always seemed to be in the mood to create. As Elaine neared her pre-teen years, however, she was met with an all-too-common occurrence for children around the world. Her parents informed her that they would be filing for divorce and her father, Ray, would be moving out. The news hit Elaine hard. Being the age she was, the fracturing of her family brought a melancholy mood upon her. She would later say the situation resulted in bouts of depression. However, it didn't completely debilitate her. And as she reached high school, Elaine found various outlets to help express her emotions. One of her favorite activities was dance and cheer. She was on the cheerleading squad at her local high school, Crescenta Valley High in La Crescenta, California, the neighborhood she lived in with her mother and brother. With the cheer squad, Elaine eventually made cheer squad.

champion while helping her fellow cheerleaders, and upcoming underclassmen fit within the team. Besides cheer, Elaine also enrolled at CVHS's theatre program, falling in love with all things plays and musicals. When she wasn't cheering at football games or performing on stage, Elaine was dancing in her free time. A huge fan of hip-hop, rap, and R&B. In fact, her passion for music grew so much she got into singing as well, sometimes writing lyrics for songs she thought up, even going as far to record a few raps. Upon reaching adulthood after graduating high school, Elaine couldn't quite set her mind on what she wanted to do for a career. Her interests bounced around so many artistic endeavors beyond just music and dance. She grew especially fond of acting and submitted headshots and acting reels to casting agencies, always keeping an eye open for background acting gigs and bit parts in Hollywood, only a 30-minute drive from her home. These dreams of acting materialized with roles in movies such as Role Models and Crazy, Stupid, Love.

regardless of the position, Elaine was putting her heart into everything she did. When she wasn't acting, she was busy sketching tattoo designs, practicing new makeup techniques, or coming up with new and unique fashion ideas. Fashion slowly became one of Elaine's truest loves. She had an uncanny ability to come up with trendy brainstorms, marketing strategies, and future spin-offs that only someone truly dedicated to their work could come up with. Elaine spoke of these ideas and her desire to make an impact on the fashion world with her on-and-off-again boyfriend, Devine Compare, whom she met in 2016. She had recently moved back in with her mother in La Crescenta after being laid off from a waitressing job. When she spoke of her fashion designer dreams with Devine, known as Div, Divine was the son of film and music producer Shakim Compare and met Elaine through mutual music industry interests. Elaine would sometimes stay with Divine and over text one night shared her passionate ideas about clothing.

branding while elaine opened her heart like she so often did through her extroverted and spirited personality. Her relationship with divine didn't last forever. The two never really formed a bond as partners and eventually broke off contact in January of 2017 when elaine informed div that she needed time for herself to truly focus on her future and next steps. The hiatus in their relationship only lasted a few weeks, however, until January 27, 2017, when the two made plans to see a movie and spend the night together. It was apparently nothing more than two lovers reigniting their fling, that is, until the next morning on January 28, 2017, when elaine left divine compares guest house in calabasas, California, never to be seen again. Elaine park's story and the circumstances around her disappearance require a deeper look into her past dating back to about a year and a half before she went missing. This exercise involves the topic of sexual assault, and viewer discretion is advised. We'll now review the timeline of events.

leading to Elaine's disappearance on July 27, 2015. Elaine Park attends a concert with a few friends at the Orange County Observatory in Santa Ana, California, featuring artists such as Father and Playboy Carti. Later that night, Elaine is invited backstage by one of the artist's touring managers. She ventures back there with her friends, but her friends don't stay long after feeling uncomfortable. Elaine wants to stay and, whilst backstage, consumes both Xanax and alcohol. At some point during her time backstage, Elaine is sexually assaulted by multiple men while inebriated by the drugs and alcohol. In the following days and weeks, Elaine struggled to remember the night of July 27th but fears she may have been raped. Nonetheless, she remains mostly quiet about the subject despite the situation deeply affecting her. Flash forward almost a year later to July of 2016, and Elaine endures a car accident that leaves her with scratches on her hand when she helps to get the people in the

second vehicle free. Her friend, Sadie, who was driving, also walks away mostly unharmed. Over the remainder of summer 2016, Elaine and her mother, Susan, engage in a few fights regarding an insurance claim settlement from her very minor injuries. Elaine begins seeing a chiropractor against her own desires, and the mother and daughter's relationship fractures. In November of 2016, Elaine meets Divine Compare, the son of entertainment producer Shakim Compare. On Tuesday the 8th, Elaine and Divine get together and begin what would transform into an on-again, off-again relationship. Throughout the rest of the month, Elaine and Div hang out frequently, often smoking weed with their friends and discussing their daily lives over text. They talk about going to a concert together and Divine's car breaking down in a text conversation. Now available to the public, Elaine's fortune changes for the worst when the calendar flips to December 2016. She moves back in with her mother in La Crescenta after living

With her friend Daisy, Elaine is also fired from her waitressing job. While dropping out of classes at Pierce College simultaneously on December 1st, Elaine opens up to Divine over text about a fashion design and marketing plan she was brewing. It is one of the many moments Elaine displays her creative soul and the promise she had in her artistic endeavors. Within the next couple of weeks, Elaine encounters further arguments with her mother about money and petty cash. At the same time, Elaine's birth father Ray completes his final child support payments to Susan. Sometime in mid to late December, Elaine appears to go through a personal crisis as she unfollows and/or blocks her childhood friends from all her social media accounts. Elaine's crisis continues through the latter third of December when reminders and memories of her sexual assault in 2015 begin to resurface. She reaches out to the touring manager she knew, a man by the name of Michael, who tells Elaine that while he doesn't have concrete

memories of an assault happening. He says it wouldn't surprise him when Michael asks Elaine why she's calling him a year and a half later. Elaine says she can no longer block the feeling from her mind and that her art and design is no longer helping her cope, and she needs answers. Around the same time on December 28, 2016, Elaine posts a Twitter thread about her experience dealing with the trauma of sexual assaults. She also says that the people involved, quote, know damn well who they are, but that she wouldn't fight them or make it a legal matter. Over the next couple of days and into the new year, the text conversation between Elaine and Divine Waynes becomes less responsive. Then on January 3rd, Elaine breaks up with Divine over text. One of the lines of text reads, 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. Devine responds by saying it isn't what he wants and that

he will fight for Elaine because she is all he has. On the night of January 20th, Divine sends a string of texts to Elaine, saying he is in Utah but wants a response from her. He tells her she can't hold in whatever she's holding in, while he also needs to let out something to her before reassuring her that he'll be by her side supporting her no matter what. A week later, in the pre-dawn hours of January 26th at 3:45 am, Elaine calls her mother, Susan, to report her car out of gas and the battery dead. According to Susan, she and her boyfriend, Jeff, drove to Elaine's location to deliver gas and jump-start her car. The following day, on the morning of Friday, January 27th, Susan sends Elaine $20 and asks for repayment by 6 pm. Later in the day, around 5 p.m., Elaine visits her father, Ray, to pick up cash for the weekend. Ray would later say his

daughter acted perfectly normal during this visit. An hour later, at 6:01 pm, Elaine receives a text from Susan regarding the money she lent her. Another hour passes by, and at 7 pm, Elaine's friend Sadie stops by Elaine's house to pick up her hair curling wand. Elaine hands it to Sadie without saying a word, and as Sadie climbs back into her car, she turns around to see Elaine locking the front door as she leaves herself. In the next 30 minutes, Elaine reaches her car and departs La Crescenta to meet up with Divine Compare at his place in Calabasas, California. At around 8:10 p.m., Elaine arrives in Calabasas. 54 minutes later, at 9:04 pm, Elaine responds to Susan's text, saying she'll have the money back to her later that night. Susan sends a text back only a minute later, at 9:05 pm, asking Elaine to keep her word. A little less than an hour

and a half later, at 10:20 p.m., Elaine and Devine take an Uber from Calabasas to the AMC movie theater in the nearby neighborhood of Woodland Hills. Moments after Elaine made a stop at her car and is captured on the CCTV footage at the Compare residence, another vehicle is also spotted on camera but departs the driveway just as the Uber pulls up. Over two hours later, at 12:43 a.m. on Saturday, January 28, 2017, Devine and Elaine returned from the movies in Calabasas as captured by the Compare family's CCTV. At 3:20 a.m., Elaine checks her social media profiles on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat for the final time. Not long after, at around 4 a.m., Devine wakes up to Elaine suffering a panic attack. He would later describe her as shaky and distressed, singing to herself but not speaking. Closer to sunrise, despite many pleas from Devine who believes Elaine is not in a proper state of mind to drive.

she dresses quickly and departs, not saying a word to divine. At exactly 6:04:53 am, Elaine is captured by CCTV cameras walking out of divine's guest house, through the parking area, and to her car. A couple of minutes pass by, and at 6:07 am, Elaine pulls away from the compare family's driveway and through the gates of the community where a camera picks up Elaine's license plate. This is the last confirmed sighting of Elaine Park. At 6:28 am, Elaine's location is shared with divine via their Apple iMessage app, while her Facebook Find My Friend activity is initiated simultaneously. It's unknown whether or not this is manually set by Elaine or just an automatic update. Devine does not respond to the iMessage notice. 45 minutes later, at 7:13 am, new cookies appear on Elaine's iPhone for the Pandora music app. Over an hour passes, and by 8:51 am, Susan texts Elaine three times demanding the money she owes her. Soon after, at 9:28 am, Elaine's Pandora

app sends an automated message asking if she's still listening to music between 10:13 and 10:15 am. Devine attempts to call Elaine three times, but none of the calls connect through. At 10:50 am, Susan Park calls her boyfriend Jeff, followed by a since-deleted text. At 12:04, an hour later, at 1:10 pm, Elaine's friend Sadie texts her asking what she's doing today but receives no response. Between 1:33 and 1:34 pm, Devine tries calling Elaine two more times, still unsuccessfully. At around the same time, between 1:36 and 1:42 pm, Susan attempts to reach her daughter three times by phone, but she can't get through. Two hours later, at 3:42 pm, the last ping to originate from Elaine's phone hits a cell tower in Malibu, California. Later that night, two ticks before midnight, Susan calls the Cressenta Valley Sheriff's Office to report Elaine missing. They ask if Elaine has ever run away.

from home before and Susan says yes. Susan later claims the sheriff's office recommended she wait one more day as Elaine would most likely be voluntarily missing the following day. On Sunday, January 29th, Susan expresses a desire to her boyfriend, Jeff, to officially file the missing person's report, believing that Elaine would have paid her back by now had she been okay. At 9:40 a.m. on Monday, January 30th, Susan reaches out to Elaine's friend, Sadie, saying she is worried and that Elaine's makeup is gone along with a blue traveling bag she may have taken to the vines. Finally, Susan calls the same sheriff's station as well as Glendale Police Department at 11:48 a.m. to report Elaine missing. An officer arrives at Susan's La Crosse Center residence that afternoon at 4:25 p.m. where he calls Elaine's father to ask if he knew anything. This is the first time Rey hears of his daughter's disappearance and says he

hasn't seen or heard from elaine since her visit on friday, the 27th. Two days later, on february 2nd, susan and jeff visit divine's parents. They have no idea where elaine is, and susan departs only to visit the lost hill sheriff department to request a ping on elaine's phone. The station is able to locate a ping from coral canyon road cell tower in malibu. Later that day, elaine's car is discovered on the 26,000 block of coral canyon road on the pacific coast highway in malibu, california, a 30-minute drive from where she was last seen. The vehicle's doors are unlocked, and the key is in the ignition with the electric turned on. Not the engine. Inside the car are her belongings: her black backpack with a laptop inside in the passenger seat, her cell phone, the blue travel bag with toiletries, and about 30 dollars, all in plain sight. The car is taken in for analysis, and no signs of foul play or break-ins are discovered. The car is in

fine condition outside of the battery being dead. A month passes by and no leads are uncovered. On March 2nd, Elaine's Facebook is logged into for the first time and all of her history is deleted. Ten days later, on March 10th, a massive search goes underway in Calabasas to find Elaine, but the search efforts turn up empty. Eleven days later, on March 21st, the settlement in Elaine's car accident lawsuit is finalized with her name being signed on the documents and five thousand dollars awarded to the estates of Elaine Park. 45 days later, on May 6, 2017, a cadaver dog search is initiated at the Park residence. They uncover no major clues. Fast forward over five years since Elaine's disappearance, and law enforcement is no closer to finding Elaine Park than they were back in 2017, especially after the Compare family and the Park family have been deemed non-suspects by police. Despite a large reward being posted, lots of community activism, and the work of

various investigators and journalists elaine's trail has grown cold without a doubt. The most confounding aspect to elaine park's case file is the hours of cctv footage provided by the compare residents and later those involved with the investigation to the general public. This closed circuit television recording comes from the night elaine was last seen with her then boyfriend devine and the morning she departed the calabasas home resulting in the last time anyone officially saw elaine park. To shrink the cctv footage into its most pivotal moments, about 13 minutes have been edited together by an official help find elaine park facebook page with the important pieces to the recording unaltered. Take a look at the footage and see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]. The first segment of the cctv clip shows elaine walking out of her ex-boyfriend's house, leaving the parking area, and supposedly making a stop at her car.

however, there is another car with its lights turned on, and it turns around through the driveway before leaving the residence, driving away and up the hill in the background. Elaine then returns to the car park area where she approaches the compare home entry before she enters. However, divine compare exits himself and follows Elaine back to the driveway. Simultaneously, the Uber they ordered to take them to the cinema drives down the hill toward the house and pulls into the drive. Some viewers claim they can see Elaine and divine enter two different cars; however, law enforcement have stated they took the same Uber both there and back from the movie theater. The second segment of CCTV footage depicts Elaine and divine returning from the cinema about three hours later. The Uber drops them off and departs as it should, and the couple enters the compare compound at a normal pace. The third segment of the recording is the most mystifying. At around 6 a.m., Elaine is captured leaving the compare residence by herself, this time walking at a much more hurried pace.

she hops into her car somewhere in the driveway and pulls away from the calabasas home. Viewers again point to something strange they notice. At this point in the video, they call out the shadows that flicker across the wall on the left side of the frame when Elaine is about to disappear from view. Theorizing it may be a third party watching Elaine from afar running in the background when they see she is about to leave. However, if you go back to the first segment, you'll notice those same shadows appear on that same wall each time Elaine walks back towards the driveway in both directions. It is simply Elaine's shadow from a light off-screen and is not a hidden clue. What is a helpful clue is the license plate reader footage that is included at the end of the video. This captures Elaine's vehicle as it leaves the Compare family's gated community and gives you a clear look at her license plate number 7 NKR261. If you have any information

regarding this license plate number from the early morning hours of January 28, 2017, or anything else that appears in the video, you can call 1-800-222-8477 or go to lacrimestoppers.org. as previously stated, the following section involves the topic and discussions of sexual assault, and viewer discretion is advised. the first theory many people jump to when they hear Elaine's story is that her boyfriend, Devine Compare, had something to do with her disappearance. besides the obvious facts that he was the last person to see Elaine alive, people point to his connections with musicians and rappers around Los Angeles and how he might be connected to the sexual assault Elaine survived in 2015. while Devine wasn't at the concert in question in July of 2015, he did have connections with some of the performers and people backstage who may or may not have been there when Elaine was assaulted. people wonder if this is what Devine is referring to in the text.

messages made available to the public after she breaks up with him. When he says, quote, I need to let all this out to you, followed later by, quote, You can't hold all that in. Let it out. People wonder if this is divine coaxing Elaine to say everything she knows about her assault in 2015 to make sure she isn't about to take the information to the police and expose either divine's contacts or divine himself. They backed this up with information gathered in 2018 by people part of the investigation who noted that a witness had observed Elaine and divine getting into a verbal altercation the evening of Thursday, January 27th, and it was over the assault allegations and divine's role in them. The testimony then stated the following day, the couple didn't actually go to the movies the evening of January 27th, and instead the arguments boiled over before Elaine went missing the next morning, potentially at the hands of divine or a theoretical accomplice to accentuate.

this theory many point to the cctv footage and take issue with how it conveniently ends right after elaine leaves the property. And what follows isn't publicly available. It casts a suspicious light over the compare family at large and definitely leaves room to wander. However, there are many pieces to the case that address and refute this theory. First and foremost is that divine himself has been heavily investigated by law enforcement and private detectives and cleared of all suspicion. That's not all though, let's look at the materials we have ourselves. We have the texts divine was sending to elaine after their breakup and nowhere did it ever show devine was making threatening comments or showing a lack of support to elaine. In fact, he was quite supportive of elaine overall, saying that he would be there for her and that they'd make it to the other side. In interviews with other amateur investigators, devine stated he never pressed elaine about her assault experience and that she was truly attempting to figure it out on her own.

but was struggling with the weight of holding it all in and not being able to remember it for over a year. There's also the matter of Elaine's tweets from the night of December 28th where she talks about her emotions and trauma as a result of the assaults, but also the wisdom she wants to give to others. Most notably, at the beginning of the thread, she says that while the people who assaulted her know who they are, she is not out to frame anyone, pursue legal action, or enact justice through accusatory means. Rather, she wants to heal from her trauma on her own terms and leave the law out of it. In addition, one evening before Elaine went missing, she posted a live Periscope stream of a rap she had written, the lyrics very strongly hinting at her relationship and breakup with Divine. Through her rap, Elaine never talked about Divine as if he was connected to her assault or really about the assault at all. Rather, she explained the reason she and Divine couldn't be together was a difference in morals.

materialistic desires. Thus, Elaine, both publicly and privately, was adamant about not pursuing some sort of legal or vigilante justice if someone wanted her dead. Because of that, there's absolutely zero proof Elaine would have tried it anyway, most likely ruling out one of her assaulters or Divine. The only other sensible motive that would pit Divine against Elaine is being upset that they broke up and not wanting it to end like it did. However, as exemplified by the text messages and interviews Divine has taken part in, he has shown no animosity towards Elaine or anger about their relationship. Also, it must be taken into consideration the date Elaine and Divine went on the night before she went missing. A couple facing that much volatility and tension simply doesn't go to the movies together and pretend like everything is normal for a couple of hours. The Uber drivers who drove the pair have since been tracked down and interviewed and have stated they didn't suspect anything was wrong with either Divine or Elaine, that they were hugging and kissing during the

car rides and overall sporting a calm demeanor. There was an instance in which the Uber driver said Devine asked Elaine if she was good a couple of times, but Elaine always replied yes and never displayed any sort of warning signs. While the CCTV footage is distressing and adds suspicion to the Compare family, there simply isn't a shred of physical proof or sensible motive that connects them to foul play in the case. So if there are holes in the theory that Devine had something to do with it, what about other love interests or ex-boyfriends in Elaine's life? There was one man from Elaine's past that caught the attention of law enforcement, an underground rapper by the stage name of Lolo. Lolo and Elaine had a short fling sometime in the year leading up to Elaine's disappearance. However, the quick relationship wasn't sunshine and roses. Lolo was quite clingy and creeped out Elaine's closest friends. He would repeatedly call her even after Elaine

tried to sever ties, and despite being blocked on multiple numbers, Lolo would find new phones to contact her with. In addition, there were times Lolo would angrily text Elaine, saying things like he wanted to fight her for not responding, and that, quote, people were gonna die. Most glaring of all was an incident in 2016 in which Elaine and Lolo were pulled over, and the car was searched by police. Authorities found an unauthorized firearm in Lolo's backpack, a firearm Elaine had no knowledge of. Elaine was set to testify at Lolo's court hearing on the matter mere weeks after she went missing, and some wonder if Lolo was involved to prevent her testimony from entering evidence. Not only that, but Lolo was released from jail pre-trial just two days before Elaine disappeared in Venice Beach, just a quick drive south on the Pacific Coast Highway from where Elaine's car was discovered in Malibu. Could he have left imprisonment and done something to

elaine to protect himself from his firearm charge. There are two things that suggest this isn't the case. First, elaine's testimony wouldn't alter the outcome of lolo's charges. Elaine didn't know he had the gun and therefore couldn't give any sort of insight into when or how he obtained it. So, had she just told the truth, which is what her friends told her to do, she would have explained her perspective and been dismissed without altering the ruling. Second, lolo was eventually tracked down by both law enforcement and private investigators. The PIs were the ones to first alert lolo of elaine's disappearance, and his reaction was one of genuine concern. He stated that he had stopped attempting to contact elaine after his arrest and her continued pleas for space, but still thought about her every day. While it definitely appears he had an unhealthy obsession with elaine, lolo fully cooperated with the PIs and later the authorities, consistently making offers to help look for elaine and provide as much assistance as he could.

without a true motive and taking into consideration his behavior after the disappearance, the theory of his involvement is highly unlikely. Recently, one theory has caught fire amongst many across the internet, one suggesting that Susan Park is herself responsible for her daughter's disappearance. Like all missing person cases, the parents are usually the first to have fingers pointed at them, both by police and passersby, and it makes sense to some degree. They are usually the closest to the victim and some of the last people to make contact with them. In the case of Susan, her portrayal in certain media regarding Elaine's disappearance has caught many by surprise and led to a larger network of people who want to jump on the coincidences and misrepresentations of her actions. Susan's suspicion things on a few aspects of her relationship with her daughter, most notably their propensity for arguing and both verbal and sometimes physical conflict. Susan and Elaine would fight about money, even in amounts as low as 5, ending up in cursing matches loud enough.

to wake the neighbors and sending texts with intense and anger-ridden tones. The pair were not close and spent more time bickering than getting along, but in the end, that's how the entire family was. Elaine often spoke to her friends about how discordant her family life was since Rey and Susan got divorced in 2008. Even while they were all still under the same roof, the family didn't spend much time bonding, and the blame for who caused the divorce was thrown around, even onto Elaine. There was very little love and nurturing once Elaine and her brother entered their pre-teen and teenage years, and the connection that a lot of families have with one another simply didn't exist. Susan will admit much the same. A lot of people point to Susan's openness about being a bad mother and failing her daughter. Susan knows she and Elaine didn't have a great relationship, but that doesn't automatically mean she would go to great lengths to kill her. Susan also has spoken about the cultural

differences between an Asian American family and the prototypical American family, and how it is not considered or even understood by people who have been conditioned to think families cannot toe the lines of verbal abuse without there being murderous tendencies. The texts Susan sent to Elaine, saying quotes like die and calling her brutal names, are despicable and disturbing, particularly considering what would happen just months later. But the tragic truth is that these types of sentiments are shared by families all over the world, and just because it's beyond any sort of family dynamic we are used to, it doesn't make Susan a killer, an abusive bully, and terrible guardian perhaps, but it does not prove her a murderer. The theory also hinges on Susan's actions after Elaine went missing, like her alibi being changed at certain points, or how quickly she got rid of Elaine's belongings and rented out her room, and cleaned her clothes that may have had valuable evidence on them, but the fact of the matter is that the police told Susan repeatedly they had no leads and nothing really to investigate.

while there was belief that elaine may have gone involuntarily missing, they had no reason to collect elaine's things and would have collected them before susan got rid of it all had there been any reason to do so. In the end, everyone's process of grieving and responding to trauma is different. Yes, you usually see the parents of missing children keep their bedrooms and belongings in their original condition for decades, but just because a mother in another case doesn't do it doesn't insinuate guilt of any kind. Ultimately, susan did keep a few things of elaine's just in case she returned. Finally, we must shed light on the amount of effort susan has put into finding elaine. Nobody who makes someone else disappear goes to the length susan has gone to try and put a spotlight on the victim's case. Both the park parents have been fully cooperative with both outside investigators and law enforcement. Susan has made countless media appearances and despite some of them pitting her own past against her continuously pleads for

help to find a lane. The risk of exposure would be far too high had she committed a crime. We may not like the way she treated Elaine and the things she said to her daughter, but we cannot conflate coincidence or bias with fact. So if someone close to her didn't make Elaine disappear, could it have been a stranger? It is certainly possible. Three routes to this theory exist. The first path is one taken by someone Elaine made contact with in the year before her disappearance, but not related to the assault in 2015. The most likely suspect would be someone connected to the drugs that Elaine would sometimes involve herself in. It's a known fact via the text messages between her and Divine that Elaine frequently smoked weed and purchased weed and other weed-related paraphernalia around Los Angeles. While weed was legalized in California the same month Elaine and Divine started hanging out in November of 2016, studies have shown that 80 to 90 percent of cannabis purchasing went through

underground channels. Despite this, cannabis wasn't the only drug Elaine had connections to. Either while she wasn't a dealer herself, nor did she frequently consume such drugs, it was known that Elaine had contacts for dealers with substances such as Xanax and codeine. While drug dealing isn't always hand in hand with other violence or criminal activity, it definitely opens up the pool of suspicious people Elaine may have interacted with. The second path to the outsider theory is simply someone Elaine ran into the morning she left Divine's house. We know that Elaine loved to drive. In Divine's own words, he spoke about how that was her way to decompress and wind down. And maybe that's why she left so quickly on the 28th, to get out of the panic spiral and go for a drive. We also know that a little while after her car was spotted leaving the gated community in Calabasas, her location was shared with Divine, and she started listening to music on Pandora. Both natural occurrences. Had she planned to be

driving for a bit, this is where the theory truly becomes a theory. It would make sense that maybe along the way, Elaine wanted to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway overlooking the ocean and grew tired after a sleepless night, only to park her car by Coral Canyon for a nap. This is where it was found four days later. So, if she did stop to rest, maybe someone stopped by and pretended they needed help, or simply kidnapped her when no one was looking. This theory struggles to hold weight when you look deeper at the facts. It's agreed upon by many that Elaine's vehicle was probably planted at the location it was found by her kidnappers, rather than it being the origin of Elaine's disappearance, due to how neat everything was found in the vehicle and how there was no trace of Elaine found in the vicinity. The spot where Elaine's car was found is also a very busy section of Malibu and has frequent tourists stopping by, even at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. If something were

to have happened to a lane against her will someone would have heard something or seen something. People also claim there's no way the car would have been able to sit in the location it was at for four days without being ticketed or towed or at least observed by police. However, that section of the pacific coast highway is known for parked cars sitting along the coast for days if not weeks at a time, and it is totally reasonable that the LA County Sheriff missed it if not completely ignored it. The third and final path to an outsider theory is that a serial killer is operating in or around Malibu, California, and law enforcement in the area has failed to make arrests, allowing people like Elaine to become a victim. In this general area of Malibu, there has been a string of disappearances and murders in the last decade plus, most famously featuring the disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson and the murders at Malibu Creek State Park. The latter crimes were covered up by the Lost Hills Sheriff.

station, which had a long history of scandals and similar legal issues, including releasing matrice in the middle of the night instead of holding her until her family was able to pick her up the next day. As reported on by Cece Woods of the local Malibu. She has also shed light on this case while helping to advocate for Elaine Park and believes there may be more to the disappearances. It is possible Elaine pulled over on the PCH, left her stuff in her car, hiked the hills in Malibu until she went too far and ended up in the wrong hands. It is a little far-fetched but still a potential explanation. The final theory put forth in Elaine's case is suicide. Some of the precursors are there. Elaine was suffering from a mental health break due to the trauma of her assault and displaying signs of reclusiveness from her friends, whom she had been slowly blocking on social media. She was also feeling alienated from home and the constant bickering with her mother.

regarding the money she owed could have been a breaking point. Combined with the bizarre and hurried mourning she had with divine before she went missing, it is possible Elaine got in her car, drove to the beach, and decided she would try an alternative way to escape the turmoil and trauma. Some say this is highly unlikely, that she wouldn't have left her phone in her car and at least would have taken it with her, but that doesn't mean anything. It's too often we assume that just because the younger generation grew up with phones in their pockets, that they are all addicted and cannot go a few minutes without being online. It simply isn't true. A lot of people who are overwhelmed and dealing with anxiety, depression, and panic disorder want nothing to do with what's on their phone and want to be isolated and alone. If Elaine was struggling with social pressures and the constant texts and calls from her mother, it totally makes sense that Elaine would want to leave her phone behind if she was going to de-stress for a while, if not depart for

good. Elaine could also have had a bad reaction to drugs she may have taken during the last night she spent with Divine. Divine has said the pair didn't consume drugs or alcohol on the night of the 27th, but those statements were taken in front of his parents, and the use of such substances cannot be 100% ruled out. Maybe he tried to persuade Elaine from leaving that morning or driving because she was under the influence of something, or she simply smoked too much weed and grew paranoid. This may have led to a lot of guilt, and while Divine should absolutely never hide information like this, Elaine could have been in an altered state, and taking her phone with her wherever she went was simply an afterthought. Again, it's hard to believe Elaine could have disappeared in the area that she did and committed suicide without a body ever appearing, but stranger things have happened in the hills of Malibu, and with the law enforcement's shady history, it's not impossible they missed a major clue.

it should also be noted that the Lost Hills Sheriff Station does not have jurisdiction in Elaine's case. That belongs to Glendale Police Department due to Elaine's address falling in their precinct's jurisdiction. But the drastic difference in locales for each law enforcement agency makes it hard to coordinate searches and know exactly where to look, which still unacceptably falls in the hands of police. The communication needed to be clearer for search efforts to go underway as they should have, and it leaves so many theories to Elaine's disappearance unfortunately open-ended. The case of Elaine Park is as tragic as they come. The fate of a young woman with such a big heart and such massive potential is unknown, vanishing without a shred of physical evidence left behind. It truly is as maddening as cold case investigations come and makes drawing a conclusion nearly impossible. In our estimation, we believe the most likely scenario is a combination of the theories previously mentioned. Elaine most likely suffered some sort of mental collapse with the trauma of her assault.

weighing down on her and the panic attacks restraining her physically and emotionally. It is what made her leave in such a mad rush on the morning of January 28, 2017, and the lack of support from either friends or family only added to her feelings of being confused and unwanted. While we believe Elaine was under psychological distress, we don't believe she committed suicide, mostly because of the situation with her car. We believe she went somewhere to cope with her newfound state of panic, potentially under the influence of drugs, and ran into someone who ultimately took advantage of a woman desperate for help, much like someone took advantage of her in July of 2015. Whoever this was then brought Elaine's car somewhere away from the crime to a place where parked cars are constantly abandoned along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California. Here they left behind Elaine's belongings to stage a runaway. While there's an argument to be had about Elaine running away and leaving her phone behind.

no one runs away and leaves plain cash behind. That's the one thing you would need if you were planning to stage a disappearance. No, Elaine's life was purposely positioned to warrant the least amount of suspicion on foul play, and in the end, that's exactly where we ended up anyway. Who this perpetrator is is anyone's best guess, but it is most likely not Divine Lolo or Elaine's family. While we can't rule it out 100%, it would take a huge piece of physical evidence to make that scenario a dominant lead. As gut-wrenching as it is to walk away from such an in-depth investigation without a conclusive hypothesis, it should not take away from the efforts we continue to make in our search for Elaine. While it's unlikely, there is still a chance Elaine is out there alive and breathing. It is up to us to bring her home, and if not, at least bring about closure and justice for Rey, Susan, and Dustin Park. Until then, it's important to shine a

light on Elaine's legacy. Elaine, despite growing up in a broken home without a lot of love to receive, was the first to bring that love to others. She nurtured relationships with many friends and put her heart into everything she did. She was well on her way to being an iconic fashion designer, an effervescent actress and dancer, a lyricist, a powerful poet, and above all, a passionate and personable artist. She was a survivor whose entire being was filled with courage and strength. She spoke her heart so that others without a voice may find solace in her persistence. She had dreams like the rest of us and so much more to share. We must find a way to make those dreams a reality and allow her imagination to return to the world. Even if Elaine Park remains missing, the positive impact she made on the world will not perish, and the good will that she stood for will not be erased, nor will her story. This is Cold Case Detective.

From Mountains to the Sea: The Disappearance of Elaine Park | True Crime Documentary

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From Mountains to the Sea: The Disappearance of Elaine Park | True Crime Documentary

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