An A&E Original Podcast.

This episode contains descriptions of violence.

Use your best judgment.

Elaine Graham met her husband Stephen in 1976 while working at Cedars-Syenne Hospital in Los Angeles.

She had just moved there after completing nursing school in Connecticut.

Stephen was an intern at the time, but he graduated and became a doctor.

He and Elaine married in 1976.

They had what seemed like the perfect life.

They honeymooned in Europe for several weeks, and then came home and worked at the respective jobs.

Elaine, a nurse at the hospital, and Stephen, a doctor at his own practice across the street.

Two years later, in 1981, they had a daughter, a lease.

And six months after that, the family moved into their dream home. Elaine loved learning, so she enrolled in classes at California State University.

During the spring semester of 1983, Elaine had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, Elaine's mother-in-law looked after

two-year-old Elise. On Thursdays, Elise was cared for by a babysitter who lived close to the college campus.

On April 17, 1983, St. Patrick's Day, Elaine dressed herself in jeans and a plaid shirt.

She filled the diaper bag and her own backpack and took her daughter to the babysitter's house.

Elaine left a lease with the babysitter around 9.30 a.m., promising to be back around 2 p.m. when her classes ended.

Elise waited for her mother to come pick her up, but 2 o'clock passed, and then 3 and then 4.

Elaine had been murdered, but Elise was too young to understand

why her mommy would never come pick her up again.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files.

I'm Brooke, and here's the spectacular Bill Curtis

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