The Other Ex [4]

There was evidence in the house and they would not listen to me. The proof podcast is back with a new case and a new season. And this time, the stakes are higher than ever before. The letters from the doctors said that I have such ones or less to live. I'm scared to hear them say it right now. A dying man is serving a life sentence for a murder he says he didn't commit. Did you ever question if they got the right person? I don't think I've lived it at the time. I don't think I believe it now. I'm scared to be sitting here in this damn chair talking about this shit. How many other cold cases are going to come forward to go, "Hey man, we need to look at my shit" because I didn't do it. How many more do we have? You can listen now to season three of Proof wherever you get your podcasts. And follow along with us as we re-investigate the murder at the bike shop. Everything I tell you is true. I'm not oceanant. One way or the other. I hope I don't bring a ton of shit down on me. I really do. Do you like a good ghost story? Maybe you wonder what it would be like to communicate with the other side. We'll put your Ouija boards away and just listen to Rattled and Shook. I'm your host Meredith and we've got a new season of Rattled and Shook available now, including themed episodes, guests, games, and immersive creepy stories sent by real people about haunted hotels, satanic panic, and ghosts galore. A new season of Rattled and Shook is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Morning. The episode you're about to hear involves descriptions of domestic violence. Listener discretion is advised. If you met Gareth Persehouse, you'd think he was some kind of model or actor groomed to play the role of Superman. Chiseled face, square jaw, perfectly jailed hair, and well built at six foot four with at least a 12 pack of abs. Best of all, you'd discover that he lives in LA, but he isn't an actor. He's a software engineer. If you're single and he's your type, he seems like Mr. Right, looks good on paper and in person. But beware to those who date him. Amy Harwick was a renowned sex and relationships therapist in Los Angeles. She had an incredible lifestyle in Hollywood, and we actually had many friends in common. Amy saw the same great qualities in Gareth that I just mentioned at first, but looks can be deceiving. It's only when you get to know someone that you truly find out just who they are. And in June 2011, Mr. Right turned into Mr. Psycho. According to a restraining order, Amy filed against Gareth, he choked her, suffocated her, kicked her, slammed her head into the ground, and punched her on multiple occasions. A year later, he pulled her out of a car, gave her a bloody nose, and left her on the freeway. When they broke up, Amy told friends that if anything ever happened to her, it would be because Gareth Purse House did something. And then it happened. According to reports, she came home on Valentine's Day, and he was allegedly waiting for her. The body of Amy Harwick was found on the ground underneath her balcony. She'd been strangled and thrown to her death. This happened in 2020, nine years after they'd broken up. I should say that Gareth allegedly murdered her since he pled not guilty and is currently awaiting trial. But it would be a sacrilege to her name and her memory to say anything other than what I believe is the truth. Amy Harwick was tragically and senselessly murdered by a stalker, who almost a decade after the relationship ended, still couldn't let go of his murderous rage. Detectors say Harwick had taken out a restraining order against ex-boyfriend Gareth Purse House, but that order had expired and that she'd recently spoken about fearing him, and said she'd seen him a couple weeks ago. A stalker is not an inconvenience. A stalker is a criminal. It's like a logically abusive always, physically abusive sometimes, and all too often that would rather end someone's life than move on. So when I found out that a lane park had an ex who'd been stalking her, someone who she blocked on her phone, and that this ex had a trial coming up for possession of an unlicensed firearm, I knew I had a look into it, and fast, because he was planning to run to Mexico. Episode 4 Chapter 7 The Trial That's the sound of Susan Park returning to the home of Mike Einsiger and Anne Marie Simpson for a second meeting with the Malibu team, which also consists of myself and Ingrid. Rather than interrupting repeatedly to identify each of our voices, it may be easier to just assume that we're all one voice. Susan has returned because she's at a dead end in the investigation. We've been able to raise some reward money for her as she requested, but everything else seems to be falling apart for her. First and most tragically, her hope in the police. I honestly don't think they're doing anything right now, but if there's no leads, then it's time for us to say, "Hey, we have no leads, so here's the reward. Anyone who has information can come forward, because we have no leads. We have no where to go." I don't know. I'm just so upset. What do I do? We need to get our heads together. We'll get to the bottom of this. She's also not happy with the private investigator, Jaden Brandt. You guys know more information than Jaden. There's a lot of things you guys digged up. I'm worried and concerned because of Jaden's lack of involvement. His department is departing more and more. It seems like he's losing interest. He's going into different cases. What are you guys just thought about just letting Jaden go? Let's reach out to him. Let's see what's going on. He won't return my laptop in the iPhone. I'm just so upset. Why is Jaden doing this? We reassured Elaine's mother that we'd speak to Jaden for her and try to get copies of Elaine's phone and laptop so we could all examine them. I followed up with Jaden and last Thursday he's supposed to go to the detective but we have to beach south. So he said he claims that he has all the information. This was the first we'd heard of a police detective in Manhattan Beach. A coastal community over 30 miles away from Malibu as well as from Glendale, where Elaine lives. It was unclear to us why a Manhattan Beach detective had been involved in Elaine's case. Apparently she was with this guy who's 19 or something and he had a gun. They were both got arrested and then she had to you know, testify against this guy because the court would kept delaying it. It was March 22nd this year she was supposed to mandatory appear. Wait this sounds really significant. What's his name? I don't know the name. We sat there with our mouths dropped open. We couldn't believe that Elaine was scheduled to testify in court against someone right before she disappeared and that this was our first time hearing about it. So I said you know even she's not in this first let's say I wouldn't want to have a warrant in a record to fall over to heaven. I don't want that. I just don't want that. I want to clear her name you know what happened what's going on and just send that. So wait what's the relationship between she says that she doesn't really know him. They were trying to do drugs or something. I don't know. So you know it just clicked on me. I don't think that's something to do as the motive. Susan had entered the house that day at a dead end but she left with a new angle for us to investigate and some much needed hope. Thank you guys. I really appreciate all this going on because honestly my hopes are disappearing. I'm losing faith because Kulindel just shuts everything I discussed. Glendale, Susan means the Glendale Police Department. They don't even want to entertain whatever I tell them. They just don't want to listen. And it's just weakening me. I'm losing my strength. And by you guys doing this again, it's really, I'm happy and gives me hope again. After Susan leaves, we reach out again to Elaine's friends to see if we can get any information on this mysterious car passenger who Elaine was arrested with. We start with Sadie. Sadie's Elaine's closest friend from high school and the last person to see Elaine before she went to her ex-boyfriend divine's house that fateful night. We begin by asking her an open-ended question. Was there anyone new or unusual that Elaine was hanging out with before she disappeared? Yeah, there was just like random guys that she would go on dates with but it didn't hurt. And other names that pop out? There was like a guy named Lolo. Any thoughts on him in general? I just think he's like weird. He would like always call her and plus she got in trouble with him. She was pulled over and they pulled out a gun in his backpack and she had no idea. This was clearly the guy we were looking for. I was going to call Elaine's mom or the PI and see if they were looking into him because he gives me this weird feeling, how he would like get a hold of her off. Other numbers, when she's brought to him, he would always call her and he was like obsessed with her or something. It was really weird. We asked Sadie what she knew about the upcoming court date where Elaine was supposed to testify against Lolo. They had a court case coming up that he was really worried about. He would just call an Oscar like, "What are you going to say? What are you going to do?" I just think it's a possibility because he was really worried and he could have gone to jail and been in a lot of trouble. Elaine was with him. I don't know. I just remember saying like he's just going to go to Mexico and he calls me and asks about it. So he's like tripping out about it. Did he want her to like do a cover story for him? What did she want her to say? I don't really know, but Elaine was wondering what she should say and I told her just be honest when you go in. Be honest, don't lie about anything. You didn't even know he had that. You have nothing to hide. She was like, "I know, but he's friends with a lot of rappers that I hang out with, underground rappers." She was just worried if she got him in trouble. I mean the more you talk, the more suspicious I am of Lolo. Yeah, he was weird. She met Lolo around the time she got arrested. They didn't know each other for a very long time. And they had the short thing that was going on for a really short time and then she just got worded out by him. He was obsessed with her. She was like, "I blocked him off everything and he's still finding ways to call me. He won't stop calling me. I just feel like he was a trouble maker. I feel like he would do really bad stuff." Do you know it's like social media at all? No, I tried finding it like two days ago. But I don't even know his real name. So if you go on Instagram under block, it says every user. And I'm thinking like he has to be like under me. He has to be like, "I'm gonna have to change the text." I think I just have to know. I think she definitely loved Dave's fine. I just want to find her and find her safe. After speaking with Sadie, this definitely seemed like a possible mode of worth looking into. There have been cases of someone threatening witnesses or worse in order to silence them before a court date. But based on our recent experiences, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions just yet. I needed to find this ex who Elaine was blocking and fast, just in case he really was planning to run to Mexico. [Music] Chapter 8. You don't know me. She ran out of eye-cloud storage space and that's why it did not continue to do the backup. That's Jaden Brandt, the private investigator who's been working pro bono for Susan. I want to ask him what he knows about Lolo. But first, I update him on his client's concerns and let him know she wants Elaine's phone and computer back. I also ask for the copies of those devices that they offer to share with us at the first meeting. So what I can do is, you know, I have the images of the phone from the backup and I have the computer image that we have now from her existing MacBook. So what I need is I need an iPhone that we can place that image on. Second, the MacBook so that we can load the image from her MacBook. She's got a MacBook Air, so 120-gig. But once we get it onto another computer, then we can start to play around with it and see what's there. So two quick things before I jump off. One is, Susan's been upset. I guess that you have been returning texts or calls. So what should I tell her? Yeah, I mean, honestly, there's a couple of things, a couple of anomalies that I'm trying to put together before I, you know, get back to her and answer whatever questions she has. Got it. Will they also, can you send me any texts and communication you have between Elaine and Lolo? Yeah, sure. I'll take a look at what I have and get it over to you, for sure. While we waited for Jaden to send us the text exchanges between Elaine and Lolo, Ingrid started researching him. By reviewing the accounts that Elaine had blocked, Ingrid managed to find Lolo's social media profile, photographs of him, and his actual name. This is crazy stuff. What? This is crazy. So I went into the Sheriff's County website. They have a whole inmate information so you could just punch in the inmate's name, last name, the first name, and it will give you the information of release dates, any arrest or any of that. And check this out. It looks like he was arrested in Huntington Beach and was released in Venice Beach a couple days before Elaine went missing. That's crazy. But the fact that he got out two days before Elaine went missing. We definitely have to talk to him. Eventually, Jaden sent the texts that he was able to find between Lolo and Elaine. Here are two actors reading just a few of those messages. So should I give you space or something if I scare you? You made me mad as fuck. I give you so much attention and you don't really pay attention to it. You're being too crazy blown my shit up. Please give me some space. I'm literally going to go to your house and fight you. Hello? Don't wake me up then and ignore me. You better fucking reply, motherfucker. You make me angry at times. [PHONE RINGING] Reading these texts, combined with Lolo's police record, was very disturbing. There were other messages telling Elaine that people are going to die in an attack at a concert she was going to. With Glendale police, still uninterested in pursuing this according to Elaine's mom, Mike Eindsiger and I met to discuss how to most safely approach Lolo. This one might be what we might be better off letting a professional handle this one. Now there's a guy that I know who I've known for years. He's a private investigator who's handled all kinds of high profile cases. He's excellent enforcement and has access and he's really, really, really good at finding people. We have like stalker issues and things like that in the past. This is kind of like the guy you call to make that go away. If Lolo lives in kind of a more dangerous area, I know this guy will have any problem whatsoever going down into an area and finding him and talking to him. I think it's definitely a good call, is this point to bring him in? What do we do out Jaden, do we treat him? I think we tell Jaden. Okay, so I'll call Jaden. I'll share the plan with him, get his okay with it, and then let's send your guy out after this information. Perfect, that sounds like a plan. Mike reached out to his detective friend who works behind the scenes and didn't want his name mentioned in this podcast. We met with him a couple of days later. to come up with a plan to confront Lolo. Did Lolo show up at any of the fundraisers or searches or anything, has reached out to her mother or anybody that you know, not that we know of? He's so stalker-ish on the text messages. And jealous. But also it's like WTF, call me bad now. What do you mean you have bruises on your legs? What does that mean? Were you on your knees? Yeah. Yeah, I can be really, really careful in my opinion. He's got a lot of little disdruid he has. You would want to have him here. You wouldn't want to let him know too much about you. Honestly, think that you know, shouldn't be talking to Lolo. He's kind of a scary guy. Thankfully, the private investigator agreed that he should be the one to talk to Lolo. The following night, after obtaining the address where Lolo lives with his mother in Anglewood, the private investigator Mike Hyard waited outside the home in his car. The neighborhood is very close to the airport, so you'll hear planes flying overhead. It's also not the safest area in LA, so the private investigator brought back up. Soon, the sun set. Is that him? Yeah. In an hour later, they saw Lolo walking along the sidewalk alone, carrying a skateboard. I'm gonna stand outside of the car after these cars get passed. He waited until Lolo was a few feet away from the car. Then, open the door, stepped out, and confronted him. Okay. The white. Yeah. Skate? Or. Yeah. Hey, man. We don't know each other, but we're good. How are you? I came to talk about Elaine. Got a minute? How do I know you? You don't. How do you get my number? Elaine. From her records. As is it very about me? Well, it can't be too bad. It was three of us are here. So, was it going on? Well, I'm coming to find out what you know about it. Is there anything? I haven't spoken to her in a ridiculous amount of time. There was the last time you saw her. The last time I saw her was when I got arrested with her, like, being a jail. And that's when I decided I'm not going to be around her anymore. After that, I've seen her hang out once or twice, and then she told me, "It's basically just a parking tour." And I was like, "That's fine." What is that? She's missing. As soon as the information registered on Lolo, he instantly dropped his skateboard. Hey, she is. Yeah, I'm serious. Took a step back and covered his face, which swelled red with tears. When you were with her, you should have ever talked to you about being unhappy? Like, this is not a joke to me at all. I don't know you two, like-- Dude, I'm not a joke to you. I'm not a joke to you. I assume she's going to be this-- I'm like, stop talking to her. But, okay, it's fine. Is anyone there? No, no, look. Anyway, like, at all of these things. But, let me have a card or something, please. Yeah, let me tell you what the deal is. She's been missing since January. I haven't talked to her since before that. I wouldn't. She blocked my phone number. I tried a card, like, probably within the last two months. Probably, my phone number is blocked. So I assume that this really was. So you guys used to do a little lean and some other stuff. No big deal, right? Yeah, I was drinking lean with her. No. Yeah, I was drinking with me with her. Like, a little bit of lean. Not like anything to the point where, like, where, like, not aware of what's going on. Right. Not like the type of girl who'd be doing drugs. It's where the point she's something to happen to. I see a lot of girls like that. She's not, she wasn't one of them to go. I can't see her doing that with anybody else. I can't see anybody influencing her to do something. I could lead her to this. She still have a case pending. Or two or three. Honestly, I don't know, like, I had one, like, me in the lane got arrested. Like, that case was ridiculous. I don't know. I got pulled over and the police officer told me, "Okay, you're going to Jeff for a warrant." And I go to the, I go to the Manhattan Beach police house, the fireman. And then one of the detectives is like, he starts bringing up a gun and I'm like, "What are you talking about? Like, I'm drunk. Like, I came from a concert. I came to a concert. He landed in Junk's Shared Drive. I was drunk. So I'm kind of like, throwing off and I'm like, "What are you talking about?" Like, you said he took me for a warrant. I stand out here in the street because it is what it is. But I'd love to get a chance to come and privately meet with a couple of people who are really good folks who are putting up their own money to try and help find her. Yeah, I would have no problem. I don't want this happen. I mean, I would love to help this. I would be nothing more. I'll make me happy to help with this. Yeah, well, we want to find her. Yeah, we need to. Just not. All right. This is just nothing I would ever imagine. So like, anybody I know by the loan is this specific. To me, you said her name. I knew something was wrong. If she were going to run away, where would she go to? She would never do that. She wouldn't be missing, sir. So something happened. I'm assuming she's not the type of girl that would go to me. She wouldn't do anything of that at all. She wouldn't ever, she doesn't hang out with people like that. She doesn't. Somebody has to know what was going on. I feel like it's my fault that this letter is being shot. I left her alone. I was always like, licking after. I'm like, we're like talking to her. I'm being so she's okay. I just stopped. She wanted space so I gave her that space to care about her. On Lolo's Twitter, that very same night, he seemed to have an emotional breakdown. He posted about Elaine being missing. He posted about how much pain he was in. And there's a video of him acting out and basically picking a fight with a fast food restaurant employee. It seemed clear from watching the entire interaction that when the private investigator rolled up on Lolo, Lolo thought he was being confronted for stalking Elaine. He seemed to have no idea that she'd gone missing. His reaction seemed genuine, as well as his offer to help. And this leaves us again, wondering what happened to Elaine Park and who is responsible. Coming up, on to live and die in LA. They were in their screaming. She like robbed the boss with her hand to try to get the people out. Her hand's really all bleeding. Definitely destroying evidence. They're working on writing warrants and really crafting that final plan. [MUSIC] Thank you for listening to this episode. This is still an active investigation. So if you have any information regarding the disappearance of Elaine Park or any of the parties that have been mentioned here, please email us at [email protected]. You can call us anonymously at 213-204. 2073. Please reach out if you have any information, specifically photographs or videos of the area where Elaine's car was found between January 28th, 2017 and February 2nd, 2017. I've also posted several details about the case. You can find these on our social media accounts @LivDiLAPod. If you are a victim of stalking or sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. To live in Dianna La is a production of Tenderfoot TV and Neal Strauss in association with Cadence 13. Executive producers are Neal Strauss, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay, produced and edited by Tristan Bankston, consulting producer Alex Vespestead, mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner and Devin Johnson, original music and score by Makeup and Vanity Set with additional musical services by Tristan Bankston. The theme song is "Love and War" by Flurry, cover design by Trevor Eiler, Elaine and Lolo's texts read by Elizabeth Blackwell and Tristan Bankston. And special thanks to Chris Corcoran and the team at Cadence 13, Orrin Siegel, Orrin Rosenbaum, and Grace Royer at UTA, the Nord Group, Station 16, and Beck Media and Marketing. Please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple podcasts. Our hope is to expose these stories so that we may learn from them and hold those responsible accountable for their actions. Thank you for your support. Hey, Tenderfoot listeners. We want to hear from you. 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