Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing in LA: Maricela Garcia & 2 new cases

Episode Date: February 3, 2017

Elaine Park’s car was found near a Malibu beach 3 days after her family reported the 20-year-old missing following a date with her boyfriend. Her car keys, cell phone and personal items were still inside. Will Cierzan, 58, vanished from the kitchen of his Valencia home after cooking dinner for his wife. Security video does not show him leaving. Nancy Grace & Alan Duke look at these new Los Angeles cases and new info about Maricela Garcia, who vanished while shopping at a Goodwill store. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. 20-year-old Elaine Park, who was reported missing, was found abandoned on the side of the road in Malibu Thursday. Investigators find the car and inside they find all of Park's personal belongings, including her cell phone and even the keys to her car, but still no sign of the missing woman. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She's 5'6", has brown eyes and long brown hair with blonde tips. She weighs about 125 pounds. Park is 20 years old, a Korean-American who's known to wear heavy makeup and mascara, with several tattoos on her upper and lower left arm, one of them a cow skull. I would be terrified for the family right now of finding my daughter's car, and she's not with it, and we don't know where she is. It's scary.

You know, it just keeps on. Another missing woman, this time from Glendale. The car of a 20-year-old girl was found along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and this has just happened, and it has triggered a massive search in the area. I'm talking about 20-year-old Elaine Park. Last seen early Saturday morning. Then her car pops up. You are listening to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

And joining me is investigative reporter Alan Duke. This girl is so cute. Her car has been found in Malibu with keys and phone inside. To me, that's a dead giveaway. Alan, what more do we know about missing Elaine Park? She went out on a date with her boyfriend Friday night. She's not been seen by her friends and family since. We're told that her boyfriend is completely cooperating with the police.

She was reported missing on Monday when they realized that, well, she never came back from that date. Her car found. Now, I'm looking at the map of Malibu. You've been to Malibu. You know it's very long. It's like 26 miles along the coast. Some of it is populated. Some of it is populated some of it is just park her car was found near coral canyon park which is

sort of in the middle there along the coast pacific coast highway it fits the profile of a lot of other things she left behind very crucial things inside her car we're talking about her keys and her phone inside her car this is an area where you do not want to go just wandering around hiking. We've had situations in Los Angeles County where people have gone hiking or just wandering around in this Coral Canyon area and they were never found alive. What I don't understand is this, the timeline, because she has the date on Friday night, but she's not reported missing until Monday morning. You mean nobody missed her? I think the decision was made to call police on Monday morning. You know, we've seen this many times before where people are concerned, but they don't call the police yet because they

don't want to embarrass this person. This is a Korean American woman, 20 years old. She is 5'6". She weighs 125 pounds. She's got long brown hair with blonde tips. Yes. She's a tattoo. Precious girl. But what I'm trying to figure out is back to what we were saying, why the delay? Now, after Saturday goes by and it's Sunday. I don't understand what the holdup was. You know, she's a 20 year old lady. And we hear this. It's always, that's the struggle that goes on with the family, with family and friends. Some call them quick, some wait a day. And these people waited until Monday morning. And that was just their decision. That gives a two-day lead, if not more, on whatever happened to her. She's thin.

She's Korean-American. She is an American. She's 5'6", only about 125 pounds, with long brown hair, with blonde tips on the ends, with brown eyes. She's got a tattoo on her upper left arm. She's got a big smile in her picture. What about the boyfriend? You're saying he is cooperating? That's what police are saying.

We don't know much about him, but that he is cooperating. And he was apparently the last known person to be with her that police know to talk to right now. Everyone, we are talking about a 20-year-old young girl, her vehicle located in Malibu on Thursday evening. No, wait a minute, wait a minute. It took a long time to find her car, didn't it? Because if she went missing, she was last seen Friday night, then she's reported missing. Why didn't they just ping her phone for Pete's sake? Well, you would wonder. Maybe the phone was dead by the time that they did. Because as you say, it was a two-day head start.

I mean, you can imagine people blowing up her phone constantly. That wears down the battery. So by the time they report her missing, they can't do that on Monday. But that's one of the problems with these, these batteries on the phones run down. That's a constant thing that we come up with. The tip line for her, Elaine, is 818-548-4911. Repeat, 818-548-4911. And as soon as Alan and I finish talking, we're putting up her photo and all of this information at CrimeOnline.com. Police begging the public for help. Glendale Police hoping the public can lead them to this 20-year-old girl, Elaine Park.

Reported missing Monday morning. What caused them to report her missing? Did she not show up from work or did they finally decide she wasn't coming back? I don't know exactly what caused it, but they just didn't know where she was. By the way, she lives in Glendale, which is in the valley. It's not that far from where these other ladies have been missing. Let me ask you this. This brings to mind Maricela Garcia, our goodwill lady,

the woman who tells her sister she's going out for a smoke. They're in there shopping for cheap clothes just to wear to a costume party, and she is never seen again. What do we know? What is happening in the search for Maricela Garcia? I've got some good news, not completely good news, but I've got some information about that. Before we go to the news on Maricela Garcia, I want to thank our sponsor today. It's SimpliSafe Home Security. SimpliSafe is incredible. It's $14.99 a month.

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I have an alarm in my home to protect my children. Also, if you go to simplysafe.com slash Nancy, you get an extra 10% off the $14.99. And the way it works is they have security pros standing by 24-7 who, as soon as there is any sign of a problem, call police and send them to your location. Also, it's so easy. They even have a video of how easy it is to install. That's simplisafe.com slash Nancy. Now, I want to quickly get to Maricela Garcia. What's the news?

I've been digging on this a lot. And by the way, a private investigator has now been hired. What's the news? I've been digging on this a lot. And by the way, a private investigator has now been hired. That's good news. And the other good news is that private investigator is communicating with the LAPD and the LAPD is now very actively investigating Maricela's case. This is what we've been wanting to hear. They are finding things out. What caused the shift in gears? Well, I think they were already doing it. They just weren't communicating very well with the family because of some issues. The family went into sort of a protective mode and a defensive mode about Maricela at one point. And as you heard in the interview I did with the

sister, Sarah, she was really upset with the detective, talked about how she called the detective and asked, what have you done today to find my sister? And she didn't say anything. Remember that? That, you know, I don't think that helps. But you can understand the emotion of the sister. But, you know, detectives are used to it. They understand families are beside themselves and want answers, and they're worried and they're upset.

And frankly, losing a loved one is the single worst thing you can go through in your whole life. That and, you know, a horrible illness yourself. Losing Maricela, not knowing where she is, of course they're upset. And detectives know that, and they know she is, of course they're upset. And detectives know that. And they know that's part of their job, Alan. There are some things that I've found out in my checking around that shed some new light that we did not know. Now, a few days ago, I mentioned that I had information

on Maricela's previous drug arrest, where I've now found, and I've got the paperwork, Nancy. Okay, will you quit saying it like that? Because those charges were dropped against her. No, not all of them. She did time. How was that supposed to help me find her? The idea that her lifestyle and her previous activity and her drug use might have put her into a dangerous situation. This is the connection. The church, the tracking dog followed her scent to a church, a Catholic cathedral right next door to the Goodwill store,

just about 50 yards away. And we also know that two women who were inside the church at the time said that they saw her and that she was panicked and seemed very upset and quickly left, but that she went into the church and sat in a pew after leaving supposedly to go out for a smoke. This was at a time at about 730 when confessional was going on. Not that many people in the church, but the priest was hearing confessions in the confessional over there. I was told by the family that she had not, remember this, Sarah said, oh no, we never come to this area. She attended that church with her mother. That's what I found

out now. Of course, we never were able to talk to Maricela and ask her, and maybe her sister didn't know. But what I have found out is that she had been in that church. She had prayed in that church before she had worshiped there. So you now can see her leaving the Goodwill, walking over to the church that she attended, going inside, sitting in a pew where confession, where people were waiting to go into the confessional. That seems to make a lot more sense than her just randomly running into a church she had never been into. So something was, you could say something was happening with her in her heart or in her mind that caused her to run into the church where she was comfortable, but then she disappeared. So that I think is pretty good information. So that was her church that she went to, that makes it to me more believable. The people there recognized her.

At first, that didn't make sense to me. Now it does. So what we know about Maricela Garcia is that she had a drug problem, that she had done drugs in the past, and you believe that somehow factors into whoever may have taken her. Yes, I do. I'm going to be digging on it this weekend. There's a new reward, a thousand dollar reward out that they've just posted. Also, they've got new posters that they're putting up and a whole new effort because they are now acting on that kind of information that they have. Okay, so that didn't make any sense. They're now acting on that kind of information that they have. What does that mean? They are really starting to make progress in the investigation. I want to move to a real puzzle.

I'm talking about William Searson. He vanishes while making dinner. He disappears in his own kitchen. This is a Six Flags employee who says on the phone that he's heading to the kitchen to make dinner and then he apparently vanishes into thin air and surveillance footage of the home indicates he never left the house. He goes missing from his Santa Clarita home. His wife says that Sears is 58, says on the phone at four, he is heading into the kitchen to make their dinner. She gets home around seven, and that's been confirmed. Her husband's nowhere

to be found. His keys, his wallet, his vehicle were all there. Dinner was cooking on the stove. Now, apparently, there are bloodstains inside. That's what we've learned, but we don't know whose blood it is. Homicide detectives are on the hunt for a married man, a Six Flags employee who vanishes mysteriously in his own kitchen. What do you know, Alan? Well, this is Santa Clarita, which is about 25 miles away from where Maricela disappeared. This is Los Angeles County, Six Flags Magic Mountain. What's going on out there for Pete's sake? I live in the middle of this and this is really kind of getting to me. The scenario again, he left his keys, wallet, and his car were at home. There is a clue. Now this house had a security system and they also

have recorded video what the video shows they don't quite know what it means but there is an suv seen backing into the house i believe the garage in the late afternoon on the day he disappeared and they know whose suv that was it was a family members but was it did he get in that and then did it leave with him in it but they didn't see him leave. This is the crazy thing. Are you saying it backed into the garage or it came back into the house, which would be the garage? I mean, you don't just disappear from your kitchen.

With the food still on the stove. Now, the sister apparently has stated that surveillance footage shot from the neighbor's home didn't reveal any trace of him leaving. It shows he never left the house. No friends drove up and nobody came to the door. He has a history of going to work, being very happy, loves his wife, loves the house, loves the dog, no domestic disturbances whatsoever. The footage you're talking about shows a car pulling up to the home around 5 p.m. and leaving around 5 15. They think it belongs to a relative. That's all we know. I don't understand how somebody goes missing out of their home and for that to have been true, to think the car is connected, you'd have to think the person pulls up, gets in the house somehow, kills him, drags his body out, and is gone in 15 minutes.

To me, that seems a little fantastical, but is there anything else? What are we missing? The wife wasn't home. That's always the first suspect is the spouse. She wasn't even home when this happened. This is going to be one of those mysteries that we're just going to have to talk to police and watch and see how it unfolds and hope that perhaps maybe we can help put the word out there. It was alive at five o'clock because she says, and this can be confirmed by phone records, she called between 3.30 and 4. He had had a great day he spent with his nephew.

He says, i'm putting dinner on and he was in great spirits she says at 5 p.m she calls again and he says the chicken is done two hours later the wife linda gets home the chicken is cooked the oven has been turned off and he's gone wallet keys coat credit cards money wallet, all in the home, but no sign of him. Then 6 p.m. Friday, 24 hours later, still missing. He has never done this before, and she is shattered. She is beside herself trying to find out what happened to her husband. All of these missing cases, I mean, that incredible interview that you did with Chase Masner's mom, you hear these details and you just wonder how can that,

how do people just disappear like this? And we always hear vanished without a trace. And this case of this man, Will Sears, and he was in good health, not depressed. He was happy. He's 5'8", 140 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, and is described as, quote, a good Catholic boy who goes to church every Sunday. He did not have a death wish, a suicide wish. He was at home in his kitchen cooking dinner for his wife on her way home from work. She confirmed with him

five o'clock. Dinner's done. Come on home. She's in traffic. She gets home. He's gone. Do you have a tip line, Alan? Nancy, anyone with information on Suzanne's whereabouts or if they know anything about what might have happened to him, they can call and leave a tip through Crime Stoppers. This is an 800 number 1-800-222-8477. That's at Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-8477. I want to thank our sponsor joining us today, SimpliSafe Home Security Systems. It's fantastic. In fact, I have recommended it to family and friends and they're using it right now. And we installed it. Not hard to install. In fact, they even have a video to show you how. You don't even have to read instructions. You can watch the video. It's very simple, hence the name Simply Safe.

You know, people want alarm systems. I've covered seemingly a million cases where I think, why didn't they have an alarm system? But people think it's too expensive. Not true. Simply Safe is $14.99 a month. That's $1.49, $1.50 off the $15. That is incredible for the peace of mind Simply Safe can give you. I'm telling you, when I have to leave the house or my children are here and I'm here with them, I have that alarm system on even when we're home. Listen to me. Turn your alarm

system on even when you're home, okay? You know, according to the LinkedIn that you found, Alan, this guy is such a nice guy. He works at the gift shop there at Six Flags Magic Mountain and is beloved. Just loves his wife, loves life, loves his home, his dog, cooking dinner. Couldn't be happier. Guys, we're on the hunt to find these missing people and bring them home to their families who are hurting right now. I hope you join us in our search. Nancy Grace signing off of Crime Stories. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.