True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

Disappearance of Heather Elvis

On December 17, 2013, Heather Elvis (born June 30, 1993), of Carolina Forest, South Carolina, United States, went on a first date with a man that ended when he dropped her off at her apartment the following morning at 1:15 a.m. The date had been Elvis' attempt to move on after a relationship with Sidney Moorer, a repairman she had met through her job at a local restaurant, which had ended two months earlier. At 1:44 a.m., Elvis called her roommate, Brianna Warrelmann, who was visiting family, to tell her how the date had gone. The conversation lasted approximately ten minutes. Warrelman had advised Elvis against returning Sidney's calls, and cautioned Elvis "not to do anything rash and to get some sleep." Elvis' cell phone activity ended that day around 6 a.m., and she has not been seen or heard from since.

According to some accounts, Elvis' disappearance had been a result of Sidney's wife, Tammy, learning of her husband's affair. She sent Elvis several confrontational text messages but denied any role in her disappearance. Phone records show that Elvis' and Sidney's phones were used to call each other several times in the early hours of December 18; he says the two did talk with each other briefly on two occasions, but also denies any wrongdoing—despite security camera footage showing a truck believed to be his driving to and from the boat landing where Elvis' car was found that evening.

Four months later, both Moorers were charged with murder, obstruction of justice, and indecent exposure; investigation also led to the couple being charged with Medicaid fraud. The murder and indecent exposure charges were dropped in 2016, but Sidney was convicted of the obstruction charge the following year. His trial on the kidnapping charges ended in a hung jury; he was convicted on retrial two years later. Shortly after the mistrial the Moorers were indicted on an additional charge of conspiracy. Tammy was convicted of both charges in October 2018; she is currently appealing.

Despite the convictions, many of the facts of the case remain in dispute. In text messages and posts on social media, Tammy depicted Elvis as an obsessed stalker whose attention to her husband would not have bothered her if she had not become physically threatening to the family; Elvis' friends have suggested, in turn, that Sidney privately told Elvis he wanted to continue the affair to the point of leaving his wife, who reportedly handcuffed him to the bed at night to keep him faithful to her and, Sidney's family claims, physically abused him. Sidney reported to the police several instances in which he was physically threatened while on bail from the murder charges, and posted signs decrying harassment of his children on his property; similarly, the Elvises held a news conference to denounce what they claimed was organized online harassment of them.

Background

Heather Elvis was a native of Horry County, South Carolina and the older of two children of Terry and Debbie Elvis; she had a younger sister, Morgan. She graduated in 2011 from St. James High School in Murrells Inlet. She moved into to her own apartment shortly afterwards in Carolina Forest, which she shared with Brianna "Bri" Warrelmann, a roommate from out of state. Elvis worked as a hostess at the Tilted Kilt in Myrtle Beach and House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach while studying cosmetology.

Affair with Sidney Moorer

In June 2013, Elvis took notice of Sidney Moorer, a 37-year-old married resident of Socastee who repaired the kitchen equipment at the Tilted Kilt; she tweeted early that month that she had "a taste for men who're older." Warrelmann, also a coworker at that time, recalled that Elvis pointed Moorer out to her at work. Almost a month later, on her Twitter page, Elvis expressed sexual interest in "the guy who builds things at my job" and expressed a desire to rape him. A July 10 tweet, responding to a friend who had told Elvis she had "a lot of explaining to do", named a "Sydney" as someone she would go out of her way to see; four hours afterward she followed up with "baby did a bad bad thing" and, "I'm in way too deep. But watch me get in deeper".