J. Reuben Long Detention Center Sidney Moorer/Tammy Moorer
Sidney Moorer was a welding contractor and a father of three who was convicted in the high-profile disappearance of 20-year-old Heather Elvis in 2014. His wife, Tammy Moorer, was also convicted in the case.
Heather Elvis was Sidney Moorer’s mistress, and attorneys said it was Tammy Moorer’s jealousy that led the couple to kill the young woman in Horry County, South Carolina. The couple was convicted of kidnap, and Elvis’ body has never been found. Sidney Moorer maintains his innocence, and will not reveal the location of the body or any details about her death and disappearance, according to Myrtle Beach Online.
Investigators are continuing to follow leads they hope will bring closure to the family of Heather Elvis, WMBF News reported.
The case will be featured on Investigation Discovery’s Nine at 9, airing at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Sidney Moorer Was a Welder & Father of 3 Who Met Heather Elvis in a Restaurant
Heather Elvis case to be featured in 2-hour true-crime show
Sidney Moorer and Tammy Moorer had three children together. Tammy Moorer worked as a travel agent, and Sidney Moorer worked as a welding contractor, according to WMBF News. He started his business, Palmetto Maintenance, in 2002, which was described as a mobile welding service company. Read more about Tammy Moorer here.
Terry Elvis told the news outlet that Heather Elvis, his daughter, worked at a restaurant, where the two connected through Moorer’s work. They began a relationship, he said.
“A manager at that restaurant said Sidney Moorer was a reliable contractor and came with positive recommendations,” WMBF News reported.
Sidney Moorer was originally from Summerville, one of Tammy Moorer’s relatives told the news station. His family eventually became distant, and stopped visiting Tammy and Sidney in Myrtle Beach. The couple was married for about 20 years.
“Sidney, to me always was a lucky-go-happy guy, but you could tell by being around them as a couple, that she called the shots,” the relative said.
2. Sidney Moorer Faced a Retrial After His First Trial Resulted in a Hung Jury & He Has an Arrest History
🔴THE HEATHER ELVIS CASE | SIDNEY MOORER’S RE-TRIAL VERDICT | TRUE CRIME UPDATE!!
✴️WHAT HAPPENED TO HEATHER ELVIS?
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Sidney Moorer was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap Heather Elvis and sentenced to serve 30 years in prison in September, 2019. It was the second time Moorer faced a trial. During his first trial in 2016, the jury could not agree on a verdict. It took the jury only two hours of deliberations to find Moorer guilty in 2019, according to Oxygen.
The first jury did not hear a piece of evidence Moorer’s former defense attorney called “damning.” The 2019 jury saw surveillance footage of Moorer cleaning his black Ford F-150, according to WMBF News.
“That new evidence, I would say, for the victim’s family and for the defense, it seems problematic not to have had it before,” said Kirk Truslow, Moorer’s former attorney. “Because on the flip side it could have possibly resolved all these cases years back.”
Heather Elvis’ disappearance was not the first time Sidney Moorer faced trouble with the law. He was arrested for shoplifting in 2009, and in 2011, he and Tammy Moorer’s father, William Caison, were charged with assaulting and threatening a neighbor over a property dispute, according to WMBF News. The neighbor told the news outlet in 2014 he still fears for his safety after repeated threats.
3. Heather Elvis’ Family Said Sidney Moorer Is Still ‘Holding Her Hostage’ From Them
More than six years after Heather Elvis disappeared, her body has still not been found. She was just 20 years old and a mistress to Sidney Moorer when he and his wife, Tammy Moorer, lured her into a trap. Even after the Moorers were convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison, the body of Elvis has still not been found.
“He’s still holding her hostage from us,” Heather’s mother, Debbi Elvis, told the judge before he issued Sidney Moorer’s sentence, according to Myrtle Beach Online.
The newspaper reported that as the courtroom cleared following the sentence, her husband, Terry Elvis, put her hand on her shoulder and asked, “Now what?” She responded with tears.
“I don’t see this as a victory,” Terry Elvis told the publication. “Just another step.”
Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson told WMBF News that tips were still coming in after the sentencing, and investigators are still working to find Elvis’s body and bring closure to the family.
“We’ve got people looking today, chasing down some of those tips that came in last week,” Richardson said in 2019.
4. Sidney Moorer Continues to Maintain His Innocence & Claims He Wishes He Could Give the Family Closure
EP 3 PODCAST & VIDEO: News13’s Julie Calhoun and Adrianna Seals discuss the early parts of the Heather Elvis investigation. All this, while the Elvis family continued their search for Heather, and the community began to get involved.
Sidney Moorer spoke in his own defense at his sentencing, but instead of apologizing and asking for leniency, he told the judge he didn’t do it, according to Oxygen. Elvis’ body was never found, and Sidney Moorer would give few clues as to where she was taken or how she died.
“If I could give them closure, I would,” he said in court. “I have children of my own. I get it. There’s just nothing I can give them.”
Sidney Moorer and Tammy Moorer had three children together, according to WMBF News.
Moorer did not testify during his trial, according to Myrtle Beach Online, only taking the stand before his sentencing.
“Sidney Moorer elected not to take the stand before the defense rested Wednesday, so the only time he spoke was right before his sentencing, when he said he understood how much pain the Elvis family was in, but he couldn’t provide them with any closure,” the publication reported.
5. Prosecutors Theorized That Sidney Moorer Impregnated Heather Elvis, Prompting the Murder
‘I think we did the right thing’: Jury foreman in Sidney Moorer retrial discusses verdict >> t.co/1Yr3ViqNXW
Assistant solicitor Nancy Livesay laid out a theory for the jury in 2019 that Heather Elvis became pregnant during Sidney Moorer’s affair with her. She contended that the possible pregnancy may have prevented Sidney Moorer and Tammy Moorer from moving passed the affair and going back to their normal lives. The suspected pregnancy, she said in court, was the motive that led the Moorers to craft an elaborate plot to kidnap Elvis, leaving little evidence behind, according to Oxygen.
Sidney Moorer bought a pregnancy test at Walmart before removing the SD card from his cellphone so he could not be tracked. He then called Elvis from a pay phone instead of using his own cellphone.
“There is no doubt who the villain in this story is,” Livesay said in the trial. “It’s Sidney Moorer.”
His defense attorney argued that there was no evidence Elvis was pregnant, and said the prosecutors failed to consider other possible suspects in the disappearance.
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