Out from the Cold: Searching for Elaine

The Informant

Everything is thrown into uncertainty over the June long weekend in 2024, when Elaine Johnson’s younger sister, Helen, receives a stream of unexpected text messages. An informant — someone we’re calling Roger — has come forward with information he says is so sensitive it could affect an active investigation. Roger tells Helen he reached out because a friend of his knew Elaine and Kerry. That friend can no longer speak for himself; he died many years ago. But before he passed, Roger says, the man told him the girls had been taken to a property in the NSW Southern Tablelands, where something happened to them. Roger says it was his friend’s dying wish that this information be passed on to Helen. Searching for Elaine is a series from Out From The Cold, part of Happy Tuesday Productions. If you have information about Elaine Johnson or Kerri Ann Joel, you can get in touch at Help Find Elaine Johnson [https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonElaineJohnson] or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Searching for Elaine was produced by Kate Kachor and Sally Spicer, editing by Dan McHugh and Matt Haywood, artwork by Nic Watts. 'Wildflowers [https://open.spotify.com/track/73t4lPBqC0rTgaeyCjrb5v]' by Jess Ribeiro [https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AUTmLTFczsYPnMDaLrU0N].

Lack of investigations

The year is 2004. It’s the year NSW Police made what Elaine Johnson’s family believe was the first official contact they had with them about her disappearanc. As far as the family know, before then, police hadn’t realised that Elaine and Kerry’s disappearances were likely connected. Elaine was reported missing to Cronulla Police Station, while Kerry was reported missing to Miranda Police Station — just one suburb over.  Checks for the girls were made through national police missing persons databases, electoral rolls, Centrelink, Births, Deaths and Marriages, major Australian banks, and Interpol. Medicare and the Australian Tax Office were also checked.  There were no records of either girl after they went missing. There might be a good reason for that. Official documents shared by Elaine’s family show that police checks — made between 2004 and 2006 — included searches under the wrong name and the wrong date of birth. Searching for Elaine is a series from Out From The Cold, part of Happy Tuesday Productions. If you have information about Elaine Johnson or Kerri Ann Joel, you can get in touch at Help Find Elaine Johnson [https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonElaineJohnson] or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Searching for Elaine was produced by Kate Kachor and Sally Spicer, editing by Dan McHugh and Matt Haywood, artwork by Nic Watts. 'Wildflowers [https://open.spotify.com/track/73t4lPBqC0rTgaeyCjrb5v]' by Jess Ribeiro [https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AUTmLTFczsYPnMDaLrU0N].

The Others

Elaine and Kerry’s disappearances were not the first to unsettle The Shire.  Sadly, other young girls have also gone missing from Cronulla and nearby areas — cases with striking similarities to Elaine and Kerry’s, and which, like theirs, remain unsolved to this day. In this episode, we look at some of those cases. They were chosen for the same reason Elaine’s sisters know them so well. At first, it was to see whether they could be linked. But even when it became clear that a single perpetrator was unlikely, there was still valuable insight to be gained. The way missing persons reports were handled, how families were treated, and how early investigations unfolded all have the potential to shed light on what went wrong when Elaine and Kerry disappeared — and why, 45 years later, the people who love them still don’t have answers. A culture of victim-blaming and a pattern of inaction may hold part of that answer. Searching for Elaine is a series from Out From The Cold, part of Happy Tuesday Productions. If you have information about Elaine Johnson or Kerri Ann Joel, you can get in touch at Help Find Elaine Johnson [https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonElaineJohnson] or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Searching for Elaine was produced by Kate Kachor and Sally Spicer, editing by Dan McHugh and Matt Haywood, artwork by Nic Watts. 'Wildflowers [https://open.spotify.com/track/73t4lPBqC0rTgaeyCjrb5v]' by Jess Ribeiro [https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AUTmLTFczsYPnMDaLrU0N].

The Sisters’ Search

Helen and Wendy have never forgotten their sister, Elaine.  In the early days after Elaine went missing they relied on news from family and friends about her whereabouts. As the sisters got older, they broadened their search.  Many of the leads Helen and Wendy have chased down suggest that Elaine met with foul play. But others have given them hope that their sister might still be alive. The first glimmer of hope came one day in 1999 when Wendy had a visitor to her home. Searching for Elaine is a series from Out From The Cold, part of Happy Tuesday Productions. If you have information about Elaine Johnson or Kerri Ann Joel, you can get in touch at Help Find Elaine Johnson [https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonElaineJohnson] or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Searching for Elaine was produced by Kate Kachor and Sally Spicer, editing by Dan McHugh and Matt Haywood, artwork by Nic Watts. 'Wildflowers [https://open.spotify.com/track/73t4lPBqC0rTgaeyCjrb5v]' by Jess Ribeiro [https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AUTmLTFczsYPnMDaLrU0N].

Going North

There’s a place in Sydney famed for being a hippy haven with a chequered past. During the 1970s, the inner-east suburb of Kings Cross — or The Cross, as locals call it — was a magnet for free spirits, artists, and US soldiers returning from the Vietnam War. It also has a dark history of sex, crime and drugs. In the early days after Elaine Johnson went missing, her younger sisters, Helen and Wendy, were too young to search for her beyond their neighbourhood in the Shire. Instead, they relied on their parents for any news about Elaine’s whereabouts. Years later, they would uncover new details — ones that would lead them to search north of the Shire and Kings Cross to a small town with a motocross track. Searching for Elaine is a series from Out From The Cold, part of Happy Tuesday Productions. If you have information about Elaine Johnson or Kerri Ann Joel, you can get in touch at Help Find Elaine Johnson [https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonElaineJohnson] or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Searching for Elaine was produced by Kate Kachor and Sally Spicer, editing by Dan McHugh and Matt Haywood, artwork by Nic Watts. 'Wildflowers [https://open.spotify.com/track/73t4lPBqC0rTgaeyCjrb5v]' by Jess Ribeiro [https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AUTmLTFczsYPnMDaLrU0N].