Nearly a decade has passed since Elaine Park, then just 20 years old, mysteriously disappeared from the affluent community of Calabasas, California. This area, known for its celebrity residents like the Kardashians, has seen its share of attention, but none so perplexing as the unresolved case of Park’s vanishing.

The baffling nature of Park’s disappearance continues to haunt those who knew her and the professionals dedicated to finding her. Despite extensive efforts from a private investigator and local law enforcement, the mystery endures without a single clue emerging since she went missing on January 28, 2017.

Adding to this enigma, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy discovered Park’s car abandoned days after she disappeared, with all her personal belongings still inside. This situation is further complicated by the fact that her boyfriend at the time, the last known person to see her, has been fully cooperative with authorities.

Rosemarie Wheeler, a family friend, played a vital role initially, assisting Park’s mother, Susan, in the efforts to find her missing daughter. Reflecting on Park’s character, Wheeler remarked, “She was a really great girl. If there’s one word I think that describes Elaine, I think it would be resilience. She was just bright and lit up a room. And she had dreams.”

Jayden Brant, the private investigator once hired by Park’s mother, has remained engaged with the case. Working closely with the family and the Glendale Police Department, Brant continues to revisit the investigation from time to time, hoping to uncover the elusive answers that have remained out of reach.

Jayden Brant, the private investigator who was initially hired by Park’s mother, worked closely with the family and the Glendale Police Department. To this day, he revisits the case every now and then.

‘It’s frustrating because I wish we could figure out what happened to her,’ said Brant, who acknowledged there’s been endless speculation in the absence of any true leads.

Over the years, authorities have zeroed in on three main avenues of exploration in their attempts to find Park.

Elaine Park disappeared from Calabasas, California, during the early morning hours of January 28, 2017

On home surveillance footage, Park is seen leaving the Compere residence at around 6am on January 28, 2017. This was the last time she was ever seen 

The last person to see Park alive was her then-boyfriend Divine Compere. She had driven to his family home in Calabasas to meet up for a movie date the night before on January 27, 2017. Compere has never been considered a person of interest or a suspect

1) Park’s alleged panic attack minutes before disappearing

On the evening of January 27, 2017, the day before Park went missing, she drove to Calabasas to visit her on-and-off boyfriend, Divine Compere.

Compere lived with his father, Shakim Compere, in a 9,300sq ft home with six bedrooms and bathrooms. Shakim is a longtime business partner of Queen Latifah. Together, they founded the film production company Flavor Unit Entertainment in 1995.

After Park arrived, she and Compere took an Uber to see a movie, then returned to the house at around 1.30am on January 28. They then went to sleep, according to what Compere told investigators.

Hours later, Park was awake and in the middle of some sort of panic episode, Compere said in interviews with police and Brant.

‘He had maintained that,’ Brant said, adding that he wasn’t able to independently corroborate this with any additional evidence such as text messages.

The Calabasas home’s security camera captured Park casually walking out the front door at around 6am. This was the last time she was ever seen alive.

Park’s car was captured leaving, but those who remain dedicated to finding her doubt that she was the one driving. 

A close friend of the Park family runs the Help Find Elaine Park Facebook page, where people can submit tips. Many posts on the page insist that there were bad actors waiting to pounce on Park as soon as she was out of view of the home surveillance camera.

Police have never identified any suspects, nor have they ever been able to determine if there was even foul play.

Compere’s father, Shakim Compere, owned the Calabasas mansion where Park was last seen. In 1995, Shakim cofounded film production company Flavor Unit Entertainment alongside Queen Latifah. Shakim is pictured with Queen Latifah at the 2015 BET Awards

2) Park’s car found on the side of Pacific Coast Highway

After five days of little to no progress, Park’s 2015 dark gray Honda Accord was found on February 2, 2017. It was roughly 10 miles away from the Compere home on the shoulder of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

The car was unlocked with the key still in the ignition on the battery position, meaning the tank still had gas but the battery had been on until it died.

Park herself was nowhere to be seen; all that was left was a modest amount of cash, her laptop and her phone.

Glendale police and a rescue team with Los Angeles County did an extensive search of the area, including the nearby Corral Canyon and the coastline. Search parties comprised of concerned citizens also combed through the area. Nothing was found. 

Brant said Park didn’t regularly frequent Malibu, which made finding her car there strange.

‘There were surveillance cameras at a gas station near where her vehicle was ultimately recovered,’ Brant said. ‘We reviewed that footage exhaustively, and she was never seen driving past the gas station.’

Also peculiar to Brant was the fact that it had taken five days to find Park’s car on a section of a state freeway that is heavily patrolled by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.

‘To think that vehicle had been there for several days without being ticketed or towed, was a little bit odd,’ Brant said. ‘We were concerned that potentially the vehicle had not been there the entire time and had been placed there after the fact.’

Park’s 2015 dark gray Honda Accord, which was found on February 2, 2017, along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu

Park’s iPhone was recovered from her car, which was investigators’ last ditch hope to shed light on what may have happened to her

3) Park’s iPhone 

The last shred of hope for investigators was Park’s iPhone 7, which they hoped would fill in the gaps after she left Compere’s home.  

Friends and relatives have said Park was glued to her phone, as is typical for a woman her age.

What could have been a treasure trove of information did not amount to anything because the Glendale Police Department was never able to unlock her phone. 

According to Brant, the best Glendale police were able to do was extract ‘insignificant metadata’ from the device.

Brant said he was able to recover photographs, text messages and other data from her phone off her laptop.

‘The problem was everything was just up until the time when she went missing. So we were missing the data from that night and into the next morning because it wasn’t synced to iCloud,’ he said.

Without her phone, the case has largely gone cold. The Glendale Police Department still considers her Park’s disappearance an open case, though Sergeant Mike Pobokhian told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that there are no new updates.

In 2021, author and Rolling Stone contributor Neil Strauss dedicated season two of his popular true crime podcast ‘To Live and Die in LA’ to Park’s story

Shakim Compere sold his Calabasas mansion to neighbor Kevin Hart (pictured) for $7 million in 2021

Park’s case began to draw attention again in May 2021 when author and Rolling Stone contributor Neil Strauss teamed up with neighbor and friend Mike Einziger – a guitarist for the band Incubus – to cover it for season two of the popular ‘To Live and Die in LA’ podcast.

Brant was featured on many of the podcast’s 13 episodes as Strauss followed along with his investigation years earlier.

Even though the show was a smash hit – over 60 million episode downloads between the two seasons – the mystery of Park’s disappearance remained just that.

Also in 2021, Shakim Compere sold his Calabasas mansion to neighbor Kevin Hart for $7 million. Hart’s original home right next door is 9,500sq ft.

Brant has not given up on finding Park someday, but acknowledged that as time passes, it will only get more difficult.

Short of speculating about possible foul play by unknown individuals, Brant has considered what could have happened to her. 

He concluded it was unlikely that Park had been on the hiking trails near where her car was found. Her going into the ocean was equally as unlikely, he said, simply because if that had happened, a body would have been found.

‘I wish that we had some sort of an outcome for it,’ he said. ‘You sort of have to chalk it up to the random disappearance.’

Daily Mail reached out to Elaine’s mom Susan.