Heather Elvis

Case background and investigation

Heather Elvis was 20 years old when she disappeared in Horry County, South Carolina, in the early hours of December 18, 2013. According to the Wikipedia summary of the case, she lived in the Carolina Forest area and worked at restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area. She had been out on a date that evening and was dropped off at home at about 1:15 a.m.; she later spoke to her roommate by phone. Her car was found parked at Peachtree Landing, a boat ramp in the Socastee area. WMBF News reports the car was there by about 4 a.m. on December 18, while Wikipedia dates the discovery to December 19.

According to WMBF News, Elvis had been in a relationship with Sidney Moorer, a married man, from about July 2013 until late October or early November of that year. Prosecutors later argued that Sidney Moorer and his wife, Tammy Moorer, lured Elvis to the landing. The evidence described in the South Carolina Court of Appeals ruling, as reported by WMBF, included cellphone location data, surveillance video of a truck resembling the couple's travelling to and from the landing, and store video of Sidney Moorer buying a pregnancy test that morning.

Both Moorers were arrested on February 21, 2014, and charged with murder, kidnapping and other offences, according to Wikipedia. The murder charges were dismissed in March 2016; ABC News 4 attributed the dismissal to insufficient evidence. Sidney Moorer's first kidnapping trial, in 2016, ended with a jury unable to reach a verdict. In 2017 he was convicted of obstruction of justice and given a 10-year sentence.

On October 23, 2018, a jury found Tammy Moorer guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap, and she received concurrent 30-year sentences, ABC News 4 reported. On September 18, 2019, a Horry County jury convicted Sidney Moorer of the same two charges at his retrial after roughly two hours of deliberation, and he was also sentenced to 30 years, according to WMBF News. Neither has been convicted of killing Elvis, and both have maintained that they were wrongly convicted.

The South Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed both convictions on June 7, 2023. WIS-TV reported that the state Supreme Court declined to review Sidney Moorer's case in April 2024 and Tammy Moorer's on October 3, 2024. Sidney Moorer filed an application for post-conviction relief in March 2025, and Tammy Moorer filed her own in early October 2025, each seeking a new trial. No ruling on either application was found during this review.

Heather Elvis has never been located. At Sidney Moorer's sentencing her father, Terry Elvis, told the court that nobody would tell the family where she was. Official projected release dates cited by local media are May 2043 for Tammy Moorer and March 2044 for Sidney Moorer.