PARMA, Ohio (WCMH) – It’s been 33 years since Elaine Johnson vanished on a December day, seemingly without her coat, shoes or any security camera footage showing her leaving her apartment building.
“She was a very good artist,” said Jodi Malcolm, Johnson’s daughter. “She was beautiful. She liked to go out and have fun and go dancing. She was very smart and talented.”
It was Malcolm’s 21st birthday, Dec. 3, 1990, when her mom went missing. Early in the afternoon, she received a phone call from Johnson’s place of work — an employee said Johnson hadn’t been seen or heard from in days. After receiving the call, Malcolm drove to her mom’s residence, located at Kimberly Park Apartments in Parma.
“My mom was very meticulous,” Malcolm said. “So when I went into her apartment, that’s when I kind of knew something was askew. Like, she wouldn’t leave her lights on during the day and leave. … The dishtowel was laying there, her glasses were laying on the counter, it literally looked like she just walked out into the hall and was coming back.”
Malcolm said she walked to the community laundry room, located in a separate room on Johnson’s floor, to see if her mom was there. In the laundry room, she found Johnson’s clothing in the washer and dryer, but there was no sign of her mom.
“The jeans were wrinkled to the point where they had been sitting there for a while,” Malcolm said.
Malcolm finished her mom’s laundry, folding the clothes and then bringing them back to Johnson’s apartment. She stated that her mom’s purse was in the apartment, as well as her coat and shoes. The only thing Malcom noticed was missing was her mom’s keys – her car remained in the parking lot.
“All the coats, all the shoes that I knew she had were in her apartment,” Malcolm said. “So that would make sense for her to go to the laundry room without them because it’s not like she had to go outside.”
Malcolm then left a note for her mom that said to call her as soon as possible. Later that evening, Malcolm called the police to report her mom missing and reached out to Johnson’s boyfriend at the time. He claimed he hadn’t seen her but they had talked earlier in the week, according to Malcolm.
The last time Malcolm spoke to her mom was on Nov. 22. On that Thanksgiving, they talked about Johnson’s new boyfriend. Johnson told Malcom she didn’t want her to meet her boyfriend because she thought Malcolm wouldn’t like him. When Malcom spoke to him after her mom’s disappearance, she felt like something was off.
“I didn’t feel like he was concerned, number one,” Malcolm said. “Number two, genuine with me, and it did bother me that my mom told me I wouldn’t like him.”
Johnson couldn’t be found on security footage leaving the building in the days surrounding her disappearance, according to Malcom. She was last seen on camera in an elevator three days before she was reported missing.
“So there was a couple days there that nobody saw her and when she was seen on camera in the elevator, she was wearing a coat and shoes,” Malcolm said.
Over three decades later, what happened to Johnson is still a mystery. Malcolm stated she’s thought through numerous different possibilities over the years, including Johnson’s boyfriend at the time being involved with her disappearance – he has since died.
“I think something happened, maybe in the laundry room, maybe there was an altercation,” Malcolm said. “At one point, I had gone in and talked to a detective, and him and I came up with a theory that maybe she was put down the garbage chute.”
Malcolm said police didn’t check the garbage chute in the days following her mom’s disappearance. Although Johnson reportedly struggled with depression and alcoholism, Malcolm strongly feels that her mom didn’t leave on her own accord.
“I know she didn’t just walk away from her life,” Malcolm said. “She paid her rent a couple days before she went missing.”
Malcolm said she hopes someone will come forward with information, but she knows she might never get an answer.
“I consider myself a strong person, but the not knowing is devastating,” Malcolm said. ”It’s hard to go on and live a normal life when you have that feeling of horrible anxiety…”
At the time of her disappearance, Elaine Johnson was 5 feet 8 and 130 pounds. She had shoulder-length blond hair, brown eyes and a small scar on the left corner of her mouth. As of Thursday, she would be 74 years old.
Anyone with any information regarding her disappearance should contact the Parma Police Department at 440-885-1234.