Nearly five years have passed since Heather Elvis was last seen alive.
The 20-year-old South Carolina waitress vanished days before Christmas in 2013, and her abandoned car was discovered near a boat landing in Myrtle Beach. Phone records subsequently led police to suspect Sidney Moorer, a 38-year-old married father with whom Elvis was having an affair.
For nearly five years, suspicions have swirled around Moorer and his wife, Tammy. The couple was initially charged with murder and kidnapping in 2014, but the murder charges were dropped two years later. In 2017, Sidney was convicted of obstructing the police investigation into the case and sentenced to 10 years in prison, Myrtle Beach Online reports.
Both were indicted on kidnapping charges in 2017: Sidney’s trial that year ended with a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict and his retrial is now scheduled for later in 2018. Tammy is currently on trial and plans to take the stand in her own defense Thursday. Both Moorrers have pleaded not guilty.
According to police records, Sidney claimed Elvis pursued him relentlessly, prompting Tammy to monitor his phone use and even handcuff him to the bed at night repeatedly.
During the trial, the Moorers’ angry text messages and Facebook posts have been read aloud, according to CBS News, including a message Tammy allegedly sent Elvis, referring to Sidney, that read, “Someone’s about to get their a– beat down.. your b— is about to take his last breath.”
A Troubled Marriage
According to court testimony, the Moorers had a difficult relationship that sometimes became violent.
Sidney’s mother Irene testified on Wednesday she has known Tammy since her son began dating her 20 years ago, according to Live 5 News.
She told jurors that Tammy admitted to striking her husband just days after Elvis disappeared. “She said she beat the hell out of him,” Irene Moorer testified.
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Irene Moorer acknowledged that her son had an extramarital affair with Elvis, but also testified that he cared deeply for Tammy and even had her name tattooed on his stomach.
Tammy’s cousin, Donald Demarino, testified that he was at the Moorers’ house for a cookout after Elvis went missing and saw an alarming photo of Elvis on a phone. “It didn’t appear that she could walk or talk,” he testified, according to Myrtle Beach Online.
The Affair
Before she disappeared, Elvis worked at a pub called the Tilted Kilt, a Celtic-themed bar and grill. There, she met Sidney, who did maintenance at the restaurant.
According to testimony in Sidney’s 2017 trial, colleagues said the two soon fell in love — with Sidney often coming by the restaurant when she wasn’t working to bring Elvis coffee and bagels. Friends testified that Sidney even talked about hiring Elvis to be a nanny for his children.
But on social media, Elvis appeared to express doubts about the relationship. “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well,” she wrote on Twitter on September 21, 2013. On November 5 of that year, she retweeted a tweet from comedian Daniel Tosh. “Hey married fellas,” he wrote. “You can either cheat on your wife OR murder her. Never both. That’s when you get caught.”
According to Sidney, the relationship ended in October 2013 when Tammy learned of the affair.
Elvis’ friend Brianna Warrelmann told Crime Watch Daily that Tammy insisted the relationship end. “Tammy called Heather and said, ‘You’re going to end it with my husband,’ and so she put Sidney on the phone, sat there while Sidney and Heather talked,” Warrelmann said.
On December 17, 2013, Elvis went out with a new man — and texted and called her friends to talk about the date. Afterward, Elvis called her friend and said that Sidney had called her and asked to get back together. Phone records show that she spoke to him at 3:19 a.m. on December 18.
Prosecutors say Elvis then drove to a boat landing, where her car was discovered the next day. Two months later, the Moorers were taken into custody.
Tammy Moorer continues to maintain that she had nothing to do with Elvis’ disappearance. Neither the prosecution nor the defense have returned PEOPLE’s calls for comment.
While the trial continues, Elvis’ family is hoping to find answers of what happened to the woman.
Debbie Elvis, Elvis’ mom, told WPDE. “We are not going to give up. We are never, ever going to give up.”
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