Katharina Buczek
Authorities reportedly could not determine whether the person actually getting into the car was Elaine or another person, though. Nonetheless, this surveillance footage was the last official sighting of Elaine on the morning she vanished.
There was secondary footage captured at 7:14 a.m., which showed Elaine’s car driving toward the neighborhood’s front gates and exiting the community. However, the time stamp on the footage did come into question during her case investigation due to daylight savings time and whether or not the surveillance camera had been updated.
If the timestamp was one hour off, then the correct time would have been 6:14 a.m. But this has not been confirmed. And if the time stamp was accurate, then there is still over one hour of time between when Elaine got into her car and actually exited the gated community that is unaccounted for.
Following that morning, there was no sign of Elaine for five days, either. That was until February 2, 2017, though, when her abandoned car was discovered along the side of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California– just opposite the Malibu Beach RV Park.
The vehicle’s doors were found unlocked; Elaine’s keys had also been left in the ignition, which was on. Even more puzzling, investigators discovered essentially all of the 20-year-old’s belongings left inside the car– including her iPhone 7, her old iPhone 6, her laptop, driver’s license, blue duffel bag, black backpack, makeup, and $37 cash.
“It is suspicious in the way that we found her car, her cell phone, and things in the manner we did. We can’t rule foul play in or out because, plain and simple, we don’t have any evidence to do so,” Sergeant Robert Williams of the Glendale Police Department said.
Still, following the discovery of Elaine’s car, authorities launched various widespread searches. Utilizing both drones and bloodhounds, investigators searched the Santa Monica Mountains, Corral Canyon Park, and Angeles National Forest, as well as other nearby regions.
Unfortunately, though, no evidence was uncovered during any of these efforts aside from some clothing items– which have not been definitively linked to the 20-year-old’s disappearance.
So, left without answers, the Park family opted to hire a private investigator named Jayden Bryant– who asked community members for their help in the search for Elaine on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
Still, what exactly happened to Elaine, or where she is, has never been determined. Instead, it has now been nearly six years since she disappeared, but her family refuses to give up hope.
“Elaine, we will find you. I can hear her voice every night saying, ‘Mom, please come find me.’ It’s heartbreaking. Something is going on. We have to find her,” Elaine’s mother, Susan Park, said.
