A Ducks and Serene collaboration

01:10

JAYDEN: Let me just state something here, um, Origins Investigations, Brant, 187863, I’m here with Susan Park and Jeff, ah, we’re in Los Angeles County discussing ah, the disappearance of Elaine Park, um, and this conversation is being recorded.

NEIL/VO: What you’re listening to is private investigator Jayden Brant’s interview with Susan Park, the mother of Elaine Park, and her boyfriend Jeff, recorded when Jayden first began working with them. The date of this interview is February 22, 2017, three and a half weeks after Elaine went missing and a month before we first met with Susan. I’m including it as a bonus episode this week because you’ll be in a better position to understand it after hearing the previous episode and will also be vital for your understanding of episode 10 next week, so listen closely. I have shortened parts of this interview for brevity and redundancy and in a few cases, where further explanation is needed, I’ve summarized the contents.

SUSAN: Do you want to start off?

JEFF: Well—

SUSAN: I can organize—

JEFF: Do you want the synapse [sic] of what we know?

JAYDEN: Yes, I mean, and I, um, I’ve reviewed the news stories, I’ve listened to your interviews, several of them, um. I have not spoken with Glendale PD—

SUSAN: Thank you.

JAYDEN: —or the Sheriff’s department—

SUSAN: I don’t want it right now, yes.

JAYDEN: —at this time. But, ah, yeah, let’s run it from the beginning.

JEFF: So, Friday, the 27th of January was the last time Susan and I saw her.

SUSAN: Oh, correct— It was, ah, Thursday morning. Cause you remember, 3:30 in the morning? Her gas, we— we saved her from, her— the bridge?

JEFF: That was Thursday night I thought?

SUSAN: No, that was Thursday at 3:45 AM.

JEFF: Oh-

SUSAN: So, on—

JEFF: So, that—

SUSAN: So, Thursday morning—

JEFF: That’s right.

SUSAN: —we saw her at 10 o’clock, and when we saw her at 10 o’clock you and I came in, she was sleeping in the living room with her little, you know, lingerie and she just ran off here, hiding, cause she saw you?

JEFF: My truck coming in, yeah.

SUSAN: And then that was the last I’ve seen her.

JEFF: Thursday. So, um—

JAYDEN: What happened Thursday when you said you saved her on the— she ran out of gas?

SUSAN: (illegible)

JEFF: Thursday—

SUSAN: I was staying at his house.

JAYDEN: I see.

JEFF: —at 3:30 we got a call. Woke us up. She was stuck on the freeway, she said ran out of gas, but it was more to it than that, it was her battery, also. So we went out and picked her up, heading in direction away from home, but now that I’ve done that route, I have a feeling she was running out of gas and needed to get over and, at, right there, the only place to get over is on the Eastberg (?) transition to the 210 from the 118. So I think she got stuck there, up there, and stuck there right in the middle of the fast lane. So, we got her, gas, and I got her jump started, and we got her home. And, ah, so then the next morning, ah, we went back to my house and we went back to bed and then the next morning we came here and as we pulled in the driveway with my truck she dashed off into her— into the bedroom from the living room here. She coulda been just watching TV or sleeping, I dunno. Ah, and I don’t think we, either one of us, saw her leave that day. Um. Ah, so. Then, um— It wasn’t like til Monday— Well, she said, Elaines been gone, ah, since Friday, and hadn’t heard from her, so. You know, she’s gone off for a couple— for two-three days at a time before and come back. Um, so come Monday she made another comment, Susan did, to where she said I had a bad feeling Saturday and I still haven’t heard from her. So, I said call her friends, her girlfriends, closest friends find out if they’ve heard anything. Did that, and nobody had heard anything from her. So, that was a red flag for me, so we hired— er, got Glendale Police Department out here, and sat right this very moment— er, this very place, and um put in a Missing Persons Report. Um—

JAYDEN: Patrol officer responded?

JEFF: Yeah.

SUSAN: Yes.

JEFF: And, ah, um. Since she was twenty years old, there’s really nothing— you know, you can just make— basically, make a report. So, in the meantime, come Wednesday or Thursday, during those passing days, Tuesday Wednesday Thursday—

SUSAN: Let me give you dates. Thursday is January 26th.

JEFF: Correct.

SUSAN: Okay, just to make sure. Continue please.

JEFF: So, um, she’s did some research on herself. By herself. And found out— she had heard from one of the girlfriends that she might have been with the ex-boyfriend, and they broke up two weeks prior.

SUSAN: No, no, no. That— Let— I’ll, I’ll pick up, you can pick up from searching area, but the facts and details‚ um, so, like on the 26th that happened. So on Friday, the 27th, um, she asked me to, um, QuickPay her $20. So, we have a little thing where I’m trying to discipline her monetary usage, um, so I gave her $20 QuickPay. She said she’ll pay me back, um, cause she’s going to go visit her dad to get some spending money. And then I asked her, well, what time is— she says at 6 o’clock I’ll pay you back. So then 7 o’clock comes, she doesn’t reply back to the QuickPay. So, I text her at 7 where are— why aren’t you paying me QuickPay and no response. Then at 9 o’clock Friday the 27th, um, she just text me, give me until later tonight. That was the last time I heard from her. Then, um, Friday night comes, nothing happens. Um, and because she— she tends to go out on her own for few days, I just thought she’s going— she’s hanging out.

07:30

JAYDEN: Where does she usually go?

SUSAN: I don’t know, she doesn’t— We have a clo— not good relationship. She just closes the door, she doesn’t want me to interfere with her life.

JAYDEN: Okay.

SUSAN: So, Saturday the 28th comes, at 10:41 AM I called her, the phone ring twice, then it cut off. Then, ever since, and then I text her three times to see what’s going on, um, and then, ah, no response. And then ever since, the phone was off, off, off. So, then, my ex-husband, her dad, was informed of that, so he called her at 5AM, um, Tuesday morning, January 31st, 5AM, and, ah, he says that it rang 3 times and it got cut off, like declined. I don’t know what it is, but then he called again, 3 times, and called again 3 times, all those times, the phone rang 3 times and it got declined, declined, declined 3 times, and I have a record of that.

JAYDEN: ‘kay.

SUSAN: So, that’s just the phone issue thing. So then the, um, then the 20— 28th? No, 29th comes, that’s on Sunday, no response from her whatsoever, the phones continued to be off, so now I’m concerned, I’m asking Jeff, maybe I should file Missing Persons report? Um, and then, ah, I have a really bad feeling about this. I contacted the Sheriffs in Briggs, he says where do you live? I live in (address) that is the Glendale jurisdiction, you need to report it with them.

JAYDEN: Right.

SUSAN: And then I hung up and then I told him, should I do it? should I do it? but then I keep thinking, I looked in her room, her bag is missing, her baby blue duffle bag, usually she takes that. That bag is missing, her makeup is gone, so I figure, oh maybe she’s gone away, you know? Cause she never tells me where she goes.

JAYDEN: Right.

SUSAN: Few days or whatever. But then she always responds, calls me when she has to QuickPay me $20, she always pays me back within that day or two. Um, and then so, um. So, after I hung up with the police— and they ask me, how old is she, and I say she’s 20, and they say, well, it’s not— she’s an adult, we’re not gonna take this, you know, critical. So then, I’m like, well, that’s kinda, you know, not good. And then on the 30th comes and still everything remains the same on Monday, so I decided to call, you know, Glendale police department and ask them to come here, and Jeff was with me, at 3:45 they came here, sitting right there, detective Daniel Lee, I mean patrol dispatcher Daniel Lee, he took the report. Again, he says, it’s a voluntary, we going to take it as a voluntary. Well, what do I do next? He says there’s nothing you can do, she’s an adult, you have to wait.

JAYDEN: Right.

SUSAN: And I’ll just file the report. So, that went on and on, and then um, the days passed by, and then 31st comes, nothing happens. Then, I’m thinking like, something is off— so I wanted to do something and then uh— the January 1, I mean February 1st in the morning I think, we visited the, um—

JEFF: (whispering) Ex-boyfriend.

SUSAN: No, we visited the Glendale Police department and tried to find out what’s going on. And actually on the 31st I kept calling the Glendale and I’m saying, why can’t— some— can you do at least air patrol? Can you at least search for, you know, she lives in Calabasas area— I mean the boyfr— okay. I have to go back. So, on the 31st I ask my ex-husband to send me her Verizon phone bills, so he, ah, emails it and I have all that with me. I got through my— and, and it shows my last text with her on the 28th, 10:41 AM. That was the last one. Before that, um, I see two numbers, one is from Miami! And I’m thinking Miami, did she go to road trip? You know? Um, and then I contacted Sadie and she said ohh, that is Div, and Div? Well, his name is difficult to pronounce so we call him Div. Um, and, he’s originally from Miami but he lives in Calabasas. So, I call that number and Div answers the phone, and I— I told him she’s missing.

14:33

NEIL/VO: We left off before the break with Susan calling Divine. Susan continues.

SUSAN: So, now I know that he lives in Calabasas, I know at that point that was the last time seen. So, I’m all panicking and I— I— I ask Jeff, where’s Calabasas? And he’s like Mulholland Drive, its cliffs and everywhere, so I wanted to get the address to— cause the police will not patrol the air because, you know, they said they do it regularly, every day, in the ocean, Malibu area, Calabasa, wherever. So, I got the— I call Div back and I said, as a mom I real— that was last im— Oh! So we called— Because they’re doing the patrol we went to visit the Glendale Police department, I don’t know why we went there, but we were trying to get some information and one of the detectives said we cannot request CCTV, you could do it, but we cannot do it at this time, because he’s not a suspect.

JEFF: Were we asking them to ping the phone at that time, also?

SUSAN: I think— I think I did. I be— I keep asking them even before that and they said that the phone is dead so they can’t do it. They cannot ping the phone. And it’s voluntary.

SUSAN: Um, so then I got, I called Div and he said, um. You know, I explained, that’s the last image I really want to see her footage and I also want retrace her foot— her footstep from point A to point B to see if she got driven off somewhere, over the cliff. I’m, meanwhile I’m imagine all this horrible thoughts about her being over the cliff. So I wanted to see that, you know, re-trace her. And so I wanted his address and he’s like well, um, yeah I’ll give it to you, I’ll give it to you, can you text me? He goes oh I’ll give it to you. Then time goes by and he doesn’t do it, so I remind him — a friendly reminder — he doesn’t respond back. Then, um, again I remind him, he doesn’t respond back. So then I called him and he goes my moms gonna call you, um, I have nothing to do with this, my mom’s gonna call you. So the mom calls me, and as a mom to mom, I ask, heartfelt story and I said I really want to see her last image, so she gives me the address. So from there on, him and I, we’re tracing around, you can— you know from that point on.

16:08

JEFF: Okay, so we were on our way to go do that and —

JAYDEN: You were on your way to go to their house?

JEFF: Yes, to go— ah, ah—

SUSAN: Retrace.

JEFF: Retrace, Mulholland. There’s two ways to get there. Um, so, on the way there I got pulled over and we ended up, ah, talking to a veteran cop who was with a rookie cop, ah, highway patrol, and ah, he ended up hearing our story, what we were, ah, doing, which is why I jumped out of the carpool lane, so I got pulled over. Anyways, so, he sent us to Lost Hills, he said, that’s their jurisdiction, so stop there first and tell them what’s going on, so we did that. And then, ah, she told the story of what was happening and that we were gonna go out and talk to the mother and son and we did that and um talk— so we had our conversation with them, and then we continued, and followed Mulholland back and came to the Sheriff’s station, and in the meantime one of the Sheriffs that we were talking to went there and spoke to them, too. When we came back to the Sheriff’s station, um— they ended up, one of the girls there ended up pinging the phone—

SUSAN: No, no, no!

JEFF: Yes.

SUSAN: I know, but before that happens, you have to explain about the mother and daughter— he was— she was saying about going to the— why don’t you go to Pacific Coast Highway, you— you’ve left out—

JEFF: Well, I didn’t, give him the conversation—

SUSAN: Oh, oh.

JEFF: —I was going to go back to that. So they ended up pinging the phone, and we found the location of the—

SUSAN: We went back because, one of the— one of the guys said, why don’t you ask them to print out a flyer and put the flyer on their Glendale Police— Lost Hills, that’s why we went back, to do that.

JEFF: To give them the picture, right.

SUSAN: Yes, but you had to leave, remember?

JEFF: Yes, but I was saying, later, they pinged the phone, because I had to come back and do another appointment for my son. So, I’ll go back to the conversation now.

SUSAN: Okay.

JEFF: So, we— On our way to their house from the Sheriff’s station, we called them and they were at Gelson’s Market and they said they will meet us there, so by the time we got there they were kind of out in front of the community gate, kind of circling around, and then, ah, they started to go in, so we followed them and, um they pulled into their driveway before their gate and, ah, we parked, I got out of the car, they kind of sat in there for a little while and then they finally got out, we had a conversation. Within that conversation, um, the boy had said she had— they went to the movie. Well, just like she said before, she was a little loaded or on something, it was not safe to drive, so they took an Uber to the movie, and then they came back home. Um, they have all proof of that—

SUSAN: Well, I don’t have it in front of me, but the police supposed to have it.

JEFF: And, ah. So, then they went to bed, and then at some point she got up in a frantic— singing, heav— his words were she was not acting normal at all, and he was trying to get her back into bed and calm down, blah blah, she didn’t say nothing, just grabbed her stuff and phew, out the door. And, um, and I’ll just include this in. The video tape from the house that they gave us shows her leaving at 6:05, and then that tape—

SUSAN: But, but you’re leaving out the part where she says—

JEFF: [I’m jumping?] a little bit–

SUSAN: Well why are we? Okay, go ahead.

JEFF: I’m just adding it in–

SUSAN: All right–

JEFF: –too.

SUSAN: Okay

JEFF: –I’m going to backtrack to it. So, now the tape shows her leaving at 6:05. In our conversation that we had that day the boyfriend said that she came back for her keys, was looking for her keys. Okay, so we didn’t ever saw that on tape. And uh, then there’s another tape at the community gate that shows her leaving — well, the clock says 7:11, 7:14 — but I think we found out just last night that they did not change the time–

JAYDEN: Yeah, I seen that

JEFF: –code back.

JAYDEN: –Okay

JEFF: –so now it’s 6:11, 6:14, so that kind of, uh–

SUSAN: [Ugh]

JEFF: –killed the thought. So, so, in the, so, in our conversation, you know, after that that was pretty much it. You know, he said she came back, got the keys, and then she left. Anything you want to add to that?

SUSAN: So the community gate one, we have two CDs. One of them was a private one, and 6:01– I’ll. I’ll give that to you, forward it to you — so at 6:05 when she leaves that’s where they cut off the film. But if you look at the first two files where Uber comes and picks them up and goes, comes back at 1:11, you can see the Uber driving off from the camera. You can see them driving off through the community gate. But why not show that about Elaine? Why cut off at 6:05AM?

JAYDEN: And that was their, they voluntarily gave you the video–

SUSAN: They gave it to the detective, Krivak and I kept asking,

“Can I view it with you, please? Can I view it with you?”

And the mom says,

“Yeah yeah sure why yeah yeah.”

“Well if it’s inconvenient, we the FaceTime you could just show it to me while you’re seeing it.”

“Okay, sure. Okay sure.”

Next day comes, 11:30, uh, we’re in the neighborhood and she says:

“I already did it, uh, we already got the footage. Uh-huh, she left at 6:05, I, we gave it to the detective.”

Well, can I get a copy?“

She says:

“Well, no, detective says he’ll take care of it. He’s gonna give it to you.”

JAYDEN: Hmm

SUSAN: So, anyway, I got it, I viewed it, and, and so–

JAYDEN: So you did get it from them?

SUSAN: Yes.

JAYDEN: Okay

SUSAN: So the 6:05AM, my emphasis is why not, why cut it at 6:05? Why can’t we see like Uber did? Like driving off?

JAYDEN: What did the detective say when you asked him question?

SUSAN: I didn’t ask the detective that question because he just ruled him out so quickly, so soon.

22:42

NEIL/VO: The conversation at this point concerns a security video of Elaine leaving Divine’s house. One part revolves around the fact that the security video shows Elaine walking to her car, but it doesn’t show her actually entering the car, and Susan expresses some concerns about this. We did ask the police about it, and officers who saw the video stated they saw with their own eyes Elaine entering the car and leaving the property, and that due to their own error the video was captured incorrectly.

The second part of the discussion is about the plate reader at the gate of Divine’s community. It’s timestamped to show Elaine’s car leaving the gate at 7:14AM, however that time is incorrect. A camera from a neighbor’s house, right near the gate, shows Elaine’s car driving past at 6:06:58 that morning. So, presumably she actually went through the gate not at 6:06AM but at 6:07. We’ve posted that video on our social media accounts @LiveDieLApod

The interview continues as Jeff mentions a conversation with Divine and his mother.

JEFF: And here’s something interesting, in our, the day we talked to the boys mother the first time, we told her yeah we’re gonna go and trace Mulholland, uh, because you can either, off the 101, take Mulholland up to their place, or you can go all the way Mul— canyon, across bridges, and come back. So, and I told her that’s what we’re gonna do. And she says, well,

“Why don’t you try Cold Canyon?”

And I’m like,

“Cold Canyon? What is that? I never heard of it.”

And I grew up in Agora from ’69-’86. uh, I never heard of that. My father, uh, actually told me he did actually ride his motorcycle on that road back, long many years ago. But I had never heard of it. So, we, we were kind of wondering, why would she tell us to take that road?

SUSAN: As if she planned there, that day–

JEFF: As if she was trying to get us to go that direction or something. [inaudible]

SUSAN: Yeah, because yeah, we informed them, all along to Div, I be, like following up with him. “We’re on my way. We’ll be there, we’ll be there. Where are you?” So, I feel like they were, the mother, Div does not have a car. He got into car accident so he doesn’t have a car anymore–

JAYDEN: How do you know that?

SUSAN: Oh, through her texts. On the laptop. Um, so I’m thinking like, wow, that’s really good, what a timing! They were at a grocery– Gelson’s Market they said. So where’s the receipt? Gelson’s Market, that time when they came, right? So I want a receipt of that. And–

JAYDEN: Who was at Gelson’s Market?

SUSAN: The mother and the son. That’s what they’re saying.

NEIL/VO: Some unsupported conjecture has been removed here. Jayden continues.

JAYDEN: So, sorry, I’m just looking for [inaudible] All right, continue. Sorry.

SUSAN: Yeah, so the car was pinged with the Lost Hills at 1:20 and 3:42PM.

JAYDEN: Okay–

JEFF: What was that? 3:42?

SUSAN: Yeah, 3:42.

JAYDEN: All right. And everything was in the car, we talked about that. Do you have access to her online [crosstalk] anything?

SUSAN: I have all her tweeter stuff, I have all her social media stuff, yes–

JAYDEN: Okay, was she using, was she using an iPhone? Or was she [inaudible]

SUSAN: iPhone.

JAYDEN: Do you have access to her iPhone?

SUSAN: Yes. But the phone is unlocked, I mean locked. I cannot unlock it.

JAYDEN: Do you have the phone?

SUSAN: Yeah. And I–

JAYDEN: What [inaudible] is it? It’s an iPhone what?

SUSAN: iPhone 7. And I, we found another phone. We’re thinking that’s her old phone but I don’t know, but it cannot, it does not, um, turn on.

JAYDEN: Okay. But you have access to actually logging into icloud.com? You can see her–

SUSAN: Texts–

JAYDEN: –Emails–

SUSAN: Yeah–

JAYDEN: –things like that?

SUSAN: Yeah.

JAYDEN: Okay. Have there been any recent logins? No?

SUSAN: No.

JAYDEN: Who’s running the Find Elaine Park?

SUSAN: Oh, um Rosemary [sic] which is like, ever since, she’s my friend. I trust her very much.

JAYDEN: Okay, just checking–

SUSAN: And just–

JAYDEN: If you want to go ahead we can finish, we can finish the narrative, and then that way we can just move on.

SUSAN: Okay. But are you able to do warrant search, or, for, to obtain the CCTV from January 28th to February 2nd to the private and community?

JAYDEN: Ehh, under limited circumstances, yes we can. It, but, we’re bound by the same restrictions. We have a little bit broader way of doing it because we can work through the civil court to obtain–

SUSAN: –It’s time consuming, isn’t it?

JAYDEN: It is. Yeah. That’s just the way it is [crosstalk/Jeff] Now, I men, do I think I can walk into, uh, 76 Station and get the footage? Yes. I mean, you know, it’s just the way you talk to them– [Fade]

NEIL/VO: Unfortunately, by this point, the rest of the footage from the community where Divine lives was not saved. Generally locations such as these only keep this footage from 24 hours to a month before it’s recorded over. However, Jayden was able to get the footage from the 76 gas station and we’ve gone through it. If Elaine drove to the Pacific Coast Highway from Divine’s house what she or whoever was driving the car would likely have done is made a u-turn where the 76 gas station is. I’ve timed the drive to Divine’s house to the spot where Elaine’s car was found, and it’s about 20 minutes. And at 6:26 AM, 19 minutes after Elaine exits Divine’s community gate, a car does make a u-turn at that exact spot. We’ve shown this clip to a video forensic expert and they were neither able to confirm that this was Elaine’s Honda Civic, nor rule it out. I will also post this video online at our social media accounts in case anyone listening can identify the vehicle.

29:29

JEFF: You know you uh, I was telling her this last night, when you, when you hear something bad you, you latch onto that to try to make that the reason, you know? So, so, but I can tell you some other things along this storyline, here. Uh, so anyways, we left off at the car being found. So we went there that night, and um, they did foot search on the beach, search and rescue came out, they did that. There were helicopters in the sky shining the ocean–

JAYDEN: Who did the foot search? Volunteer, or–

JEFF: It was a volunteer search and rescue, I believe– [crosstalk]

SUSAN: Yeah, different affiliate–

JEFF: –out of, out of, um, they’re not out of Lost HIlls but they’re affiliated. So–

JAYDEN: [crosstalk]

JEFF: So they did that, and nothing. And uh, so they towed the car away that night. Ahem–

SUSAN: I have the car here, by the way–

JEFF: –and the next, was it the next day or two days after for the dogs?

SUSAN: Two days after, because it was raining the next day.

JEFF: Right. And they said that that actually was more helpful, after a rain, so, I don’t know–

SUSAN: –For the blood, bloodhounds

JEFF: –So, I don’t know [inaudible] Anyways, the bloodhounds came up with nothing. And they were on the beach side, and up on the mountain side, up in trails, they go behind this RV resort that was there. And um, nothing. They took the dogs over to a house across the street from the food mart at Corral Canyon Road, at PCH. There’s about four or five homes over there. First one they, they walked the dogs over there, and nothing. They got nothing from the dogs. So, you know, if we eliminate this family and any of the things that are connected to them, now we’re sitting here with a disappearance. Poof.

[3-WAY CROSSTALK]

JAYDEN: –But that seems like, what was the deal with, with Divine? Then we’ll move onto something else, I mean, he was the current boyfriend, the ex-boyfriend, what’s the deal? When did he–

JEFF: Ex-boyfriend. They’ve, they stopped two weeks prior to this date.

JAYDEN:How did– was their relationship, was–

SUSAN: This is, this is the statement from– like I said, they don’t, she doesn’t share anything with me so I ended up asking her best friend. Um–

JAYDEN: These are the responses.

SUSAN: So, if you want me to summarize it for you, um–

JAYDEN: I mean, I wanna read ’em completely, but if you want to summarize it that’s fine–

SUSAN: Yeah, so– I need that note to summarize it. I’ll, I’ll give you all this to you–

JAYDEN: Yeah.

SUSAN: So like, um, November 4th, 2016, um, at a mutual house they met at a studio apartment in a friend, at a friend’s house. And then Divine approached her, asked for her, um, Instagram account. Then they, um, next day he contacted her that there’s a concert ticket, um, in Long Beach to go see. So they, November 6th, 2016 was official time they met. Um, and then, uh, in January they were intensively involved, she would stay at his house two, three days uh, uh consecutively. They were, like, kind of tight.

NEIL/VO: They go on to discuss Elaine breaking up with Divine in the beginning of January because she felt he didn’t have a lot of direction and she wanted to start getting her life together.

JAYDEN: She’d been– he indicated that she woke up about 4 o’clock in the morning?

SUSAN: Uh-hum

JAYDEN: And what was his account between 4 and 6:05?

[CROSSTALK]

Was it–

He might’ve just kind of, you know, blotted out–

He said four–

SUSAN: –Yeah, he said four, but it was 6:05 when she left–

JAYDEN: Right. Okay.

SUSAN: He might have just kind of said it without thinking, loh, 4 o’clock, yeah, I don’t know, but yeah, there is a two hour gap.

JAYDEN: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I sort of get that sense. Um, and, and the gate footage that’s not a manned gate, I mean I looked at it online, there’s just, it’s just a gate. There’s not a security guard–

SUSAN: [crosstalk] Yeah, no, it’s a manned gate.

JEFF: [crosstalk] Um-hm, that’s correct–

SUSAN: What?

JAYDEN: There’s a security guard posted? Or —

JEFF: No. Unmanned.

SUSAN: Unmanned.

JAYDEN: Did they search the house? Divine’s house? Did they–

SUSAN: Just the guest house. Just briefly. Nothing else. No hound dog, nothing. Just went there, looked for any female resi– you know, female items leftover, whatever, and the cop just came out and said, “There’s nothing there. You know, we don’t have any trace– reason to believe that there’s a woma– trace of Elaine.”

JAYDEN: They didn’t search the main house?

SUSAN: No. No, nor the dog.

JAYDEN: And uh, all right–

JEFF: So, going back, you know, I have to throw a couple of — and it could be way off track, but along the way we’ve dug this stuff up.

JAYDEN: Okay.

JEFF: After, uh, so once —

[CROSSTALK]

JEFF: After that there’s really not much. She’s been just digging and digging and digging with this Rosemary [sic] woman, who’s a wonderful woman. Um, they’ve gotten a GoFundMe thing going, they’ve got lots of things being shared on Facebook. Um, she’s done television interviews, there was one at 11 o’clock last night on channel 7. I have it recorded–

JAYDEN: Yeah, I watched it.

JEFF: Oh, you saw it? Okay.

SUSAN: Oh, they did again this morning?

JAYDEN: I watched it live.

[murmers] [Oh, okay. Right, right]

JEFF: Um, also. Oh, they also have now set up a reward, and I’m sure you’ve seen that, um, so you know, these two, I’m extremely proud of what these two girls have been doing, uh, on their own.

JAYDEN: Yeah, you guys have clearly been, you know, doing good stuff. So, the questions I have, beyond looking at, you know, so let’s set Divine aside for a second here, um–

JEFF: Oh, you know what? I’m sorry, one thing–

JAYDEN: No, go ‘head–

JEFF: –it, it needs to be said, um, about some of the things she said to you.

SUSAN: Who?

JEFF: Elaine.

SUSAN: What, like what? You have to tell me.

JEFF: Like how she was gonna make you suffer.

SUSAN: Oh, she said, um, before the disappearance, um, so it would be two months ago, she would say– you know, we get into an argument a lot — not argument even. We ignore each other and every once in awhile we have confrontations and she closes her door, whatever. But, uh, she has, she has problem with cleaning the kitchen, and she’s really a messy girl. So whenever I give her hard time about it, she says– she gets really mad. So at one point, um, she goes, “I feel like killing–” um, not killing, “I feel like hurting myself–“

JEFF: –Um-hum

SUSAN: –“You make me wanna hurt myself.” Those are the exact words. So that’s what makes me feel guilty as, as of today.

36:11

JAYDEN: Yeah.

SUSAN: Yeah.

JEFF: And then she also said–

JAYDEN:–I would, uh–

JEFF: –that she’s gonna make you suffer.

SUSAN: No, that was my thought.

JEFF: Oh.

SUSAN: That was my thought. I said–

JEFF: Okay.

SUSAN: –she’s making me, she’s sa– making me, she’s, you know, making me suffer. Okay, so um–

JAYDEN: All, you know, I mean, you know, all, I’m sure everybody’s told you, you know, all kids, you know–

JEFF: Yes–

JAYDEN: –don’t like their parents. I mean, I tell my, I tell my son all the time, “When you have a kid you’ll come back to me and say, ‘oh, now I understand why you did everything you did.'” So, you know, they all, well, they’re all like that, but, um– All right, so, yeah, setting him aside, and it, and it kind of comes to the point that we’re talking about here. I mean, I discussed this in briefing with our other investigators this morning, um, I mean, aside from Divine, and I’ll tell you a couple of thoughts that we have, but what do you think, what do you think happened? I mean, you know her better than anybody–

SUSAN: Besides Divine, well–

JAYDEN: Let’s set Divine aside–

SUSAN: Well, I’ll just quickly scenario Divine. She may have overdosed, because on her last job had, some, something about having coke. Coke or something. So she may have overdosed. That’s one scenario. Second thing is, because she said — I feel, she wasn’t happy at my house — she, we just didn’t have good relationship. She did have some kind of a– long time ago, like three years ago, maybe, she was, she would say she wanna to commit suicide. So, all this things gather my thoughts, I thought it might be suicide, but they can’t find the body. I still kind of feel in a way that she committed suicide and they just can’t find the body in that spot. Third thing is, because all the evidence and can’t find the body and all, you know, cash there, everything there, um, and she had a problem with her car battery. It often died. Alternation, I don’t know what it is, but, um, so maybe her car battery died and she was flagging– she’s very lib– freely go ask strangers to help her charge, jump her car. So maybe she, you know, asked to jump the car and they took advantage of her and abducted her. Two guys or whatever. But there’s no struggle inside the car whatsoever and, or they can’t find the scent of her surrounding the car. So that’s one thing, um–

JAYDEN: Cause I mean, you know, that kind of leaves a little bit of credence, that they can’t find any–

SUSAN: –Nothing

JAYDEN: scent surrounding–

SUSAN: –Yeah

JAYDEN: You know, that’s possible.

SUSAN: And then the third thing is, um, kidnapping and uh, abduction and sex trafficking, I know–

JAYDEN: We gotta advance every theory so we can think about–

SUSAN: [crosstalk] –Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

JAYDEN: –you know, what’s going on. And that’s, too, you know, what the police department is thinking. You know, they’re looking at all these theories and they can’t tie one to a possible homicide, and if they can’t they’re not going to investigate it, you know, because suicide, they don’t investigate it, you know, they just don’t. So, um. All right, so let’s um, let’s, we’ll discontinue the recording for now, um, the time– [Fade]

NEIL/VO: The interview comes to an end at this point. I’ve tried to preserve it in its integrity to allow you to hear the first recorded account that began the non-police portion of the investigation into Elaine’s disappearance. We’ve shared this with permission of Jayden Brant and Origin Investigations. I hope it’s been able to provide more context and insight for those who’ve been asking. And please don’t forget to contact us if you have anything at all to report about Elaine Park. The smallest tip could make the biggest difference. Our email is livediela@tenderfoot.tv or you can call us at 213-204-2073. In addition, if you have questions that you’d like answered on this podcast, please leave us a voicemail at that same number 213-204-2073.

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