Elaine Park, 20 years old, went missing on January 28, 2017. She was 5’5″ tall, 125 pounds, and had brown hair, brown eyes, and waist-length hair with blond tips when she went missing. She is of Asian and Korean ancestry.
She has pierced ears and nose, as well as various unusual tattoos, including:
- Her right arm is adorned with a dagger and flowers.
- Her left shoulder was adorned with a rose.
- On her left arm, she has a cow skull and a moth.
She was last spotted in a white hoodie and denim shorts, but she could be wearing grey sweatpants. Elaine is depressed and is considered a “critical missing person.”
Background
Elaine, who was born on September 24, 1996, was noted for her outgoing, artistic demeanour. Her parents were divorced, and she resided in La Crescenta, California, just north of Los Angeles, with her mother Susan. She apparently attended Crescenta Valley High School and had a huge circle of friends and contemporaries there.
Elaine attended Pierce College in Los Angeles after graduating from high school; but, at the time of her disappearance, she had dropped out. She also lost her restaurant job around this time.
TV and Movie Roles
Elaine had a passion for poetry, art, and musical theatre and aspired to be an actress. Elaine appeared in a number of TV series and motion pictures before going missing, such as Desperate Housewives, ER, Mad TV, Crazy Stupid Love, and Role Models.
Her Boyfriend
Divine (Div) Compere, Elaine’s intermittent boyfriend, was with her the night she vanished. Shakim Compere, a prosperous businessman in Hollywood, is the father of Div. They were residents of Calabasas, California, a gated community.
The Night before she disappeared
On January 27, 2017, at approximately ten o’clock at night, Elaine texted her mother before hopping in an Uber with her boyfriend to head to the movies. At around one in the morning, the two went back to his house and entered so she could spend the night. The driveway’s security footage verifies this timeline.
Div reported to the police that Elaine had a panic attack when she woke up at around four in the morning; she was trembling, singing, and acting strangely. He informed the police that he made an effort to reassure her and help her stay calmed down, but she got dressed and left at 6:05 a.m., roughly two hours later.
Seen leaving the property, she appeared unfazed as she walked to her car on the security footage. The driveway camera stopped recording when she drove off.
The security cameras behind the gates captured only the licence plates of the cars, and at 7:14 in the morning, Elaine’s car was seen leaving the community. Though it was never verified, police subsequently stated that it might have been 6:14 am because the cameras might not have been updated with the time change.
What Happened During Those Nine Minutes?
Even if it was 6:14, there would still be an approximate 9-minute time difference that cannot be explained. It should have only taken a few minutes to drive from her boyfriend’s house to the entrance gates. Many people think this time gap is suspiciously long, including investigators.
This video was Elaine’s last known sighting for a while. More recently, footage purportedly showing Elaine’s car doing a U-turn from a petrol station on the Pacific Coast Highway has come to light.
Missing
Elaine didn’t respond to her mother’s or boyfriend’s texts or phone calls for the following two days. Since her daughter’s refusal to answer was strange and out of character, her mother attempted to contact the Glendale Police Department.
The police assumed that Elaine, being an adult, had simply run off somewhere and didn’t want to talk to anyone. We told her mother to give us a call back the following day. The official report of a missing person was not filed until Monday, January 30.
Div, Elaine’s boyfriend, was questioned by the police but was found to be cooperative and not a suspect. Elaine’s mother, Susan, was not amused by this. No searches were done, despite her desire for the police to look into his house and the neighbourhood.
Investigation
Five days after Elaine vanished, on February 2, 2017, the police discovered her charcoal grey 2015 Honda Civic abandoned on the 26000 block of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, which is located just south of Corral Canyon Road. Her boyfriend Div’s house is about 20 miles, or a 45-minute drive, away from this area, which is known locally as “Dark Canyon.”
All of her personal items, including her ID, backpack, laptop, keys, and phone, were still inside her car when it was discovered. The doors were unlocked, the battery dead, and the keys left in the ignition.
After the police located the car, they started their investigation. Investigators believed Elaine had left the car willingly because there was no evidence of a struggle or blood in or near the vehicle. They searched the cliffs, shoreline, and portions of the ocean with four bloodhounds, cadaver dogs, drones, ATVs, and a dive team, but they were unable to locate Elaine.
Investigators thought there was a good chance she committed suicide, but her family wasn’t buying it.
Reward Offer and Private Investigator
Elaine’s mother offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to her daughter, but the offer was not renewed after Elaine turned 21.
Susan hired Jayden Brant, a private investigator, after the police declined to search Elaine’s boyfriend’s home and effectively informed her mother that Elaine had either committed suicide or fled to start over.
Brant also disapproved of the police’s suicide theory and claimed that Elaine’s disappearance was the result of foul play after carrying out his own investigation. When Brant brought his investigation’s results to the police, they were written off as unproven conjecture.
The police claim there isn’t enough evidence to support their theory of foul play, even though they haven’t ruled it out either.
Current Status of Elaine’s Case
Elaine’s family isn’t giving up on finding her until they have answers. A $140,000 reward has been established by her mother for information about her daughter. “Help Find Elaine Park” is a Facebook page they created that offers information and updates on Elaine’s case as well as other missing person tales. Her family continues to think she was the victim of adultery.
When Elaine’s case was the subject of an Investigation Discovery segment and the true-crime podcast To Live and Die in LA in 2021, it attracted more attention.
