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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

Flashes, the pinball arcade where Elaine and Kerry hung out with friends, wasn't just a place for kids to play games and grab a burger.
 
It doesn’t exist anymore, but when it did, Flashes was in a string of shops tucked away in a laneway off Cronulla’s main street and opened up to a local park. 

Picture pool tables and coin-slot games, playing pinball as your mates hung over the sides watching on and friends sat opposite each other frantically steering Pacman away from ghost gangs.

There was a front counter where coins were doled out and food and drinks were bought. There were booths at the back where diners could chow down on burgers or slink away for some privacy.

Though, it wasn’t always a happy place.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

Kerry Anne Joel spent much of her teenage years in the beachside suburbs of southern Sydney.

When she wasn't at school she spent time at Flashes, an amusement arcade in Cronulla.

She also rode her dirt bike on local ovals and was a regular at a motocross track on the NSW Central Coast.

One day in early 1980, Kerry took her mother's car out for a joyride with two friends. One of those friends was Elaine Johnson.

On her way home Kerry had a small accident.

Fearing she would get in trouble, Kerry drove the damaged car home before leaving on foot with the same two friends. It is believed Kerry, Elaine and the friend headed to Flashes.

It’s been 45 years since she was last seen in The Shire area of Cronulla.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

For many locals, the Sutherland Shire was the model backdrop to beachside life in Australia.

A trip to the beach was a daily ritual. Surfers were idolised, beer and barbeques were synonymous and family camping trips were close to mandatory.
 
Yet, in the shadow of the sun and the sand lurked a darker side to this sleepy beachside life - a time where missing teens were dismissed as runaways only to become, in many cases, unexplained disappearances. Elaine Johnson is one such case.

Elaine’s sisters Wendy and Helen have cherished memories of their kind, funny, big sister - the carefree hippie who wore flower pants, loved the beach and used lemon juice to lighten her already blonde hair. To them, she was a wildflower.

It’s been 45 years since she was last seen in The Shire area of Cronulla.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.

For more than 40 years, Elaine Johnson’s family has searched tirelessly for answers.

They’ve followed every lead, chased down every reported sighting and refused to give up on her.

Over the past two years, investigative journalist Kate Kachor has worked alongside Elaine’s family — pursuing new leads and sifting through rumours of kidnapping, sex trafficking and murder.

And now, witnesses who’ve stayed silent for decades are finally coming forward.

Out From The Cold: Searching for Elaine coming soon.

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 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' by Jess Ribeiro.