Latest / Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast / Episode 38: Heather Elvis

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Episode 38: Heather Elvis · Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast

0:12
Sarah: Hello, all you true crime divas and dudes.
0:14
Sarah: I am Sarah, and welcome back to your favorite true crime podcast, Deadly Divas.
0:20
Tina: And I'm Tina.
0:21
Tina: And if you're new here, welcome.
0:23
Tina: We break down a new true crime case for you every Friday.
0:28
Sarah: And the true crime case we are covering today was recently covered by Netflix in the show Vanished: The Heather Elvis Case.
0:36
Sarah: And we're gonna go over those details today.
0:39
Tina: We have covered cases where social media helped solve a crime, and sometimes even helped catch a predator.
0:46
Tina: But in this case, social media just keeps making matters worse and worse for everyone, including the victim's family.
0:56
Sarah: Yeah.
0:57
Sarah: So let's get started.
0:59
Sarah: Heather Elvis was born in 1993 in South Carolina to Terry and Debbie Elvis.
1:06
Sarah: She had an older brother, Christopher, and her sister Morgan was born five years after Heather.
1:11
Sarah: Heather graduated high school in 2011, and in 2013 when this incident takes place, she was living in an apartment she shared with Brianna Warrelmann while studying cosmetology and working as a waitress at The Tilted Kilt and the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
1:31
Sarah: Her roommate Bree also worked at The Tilted Kilt, and she and Heather had become close friends.
1:39
Sarah: Now, Heather was known for her kind nature.
1:41
Sarah: She volunteered at her local church daycare, and she spent time on a mission trip in Costa Rica, where she volunteered at an orphanage, helping the children there learn how to read.
1:52
Tina: Oh, I love that.
1:53
Sarah: She was so sweet.
1:55
Sarah: So in June 2013, while Heather and Bree were working at The Tilted Kilt, the restaurant hired a company called Palmetto Maintenance LLC to repair and maintain some of their equipment.
2:09
Sarah: The owner of this company was Sydney Moorer, a 37-year-old man.
2:14
Sarah: Now, Heather quickly developed a crush on Sydney, making some vague references about him on her social media, such as saying she had a taste for older men, expressing a sexual desire for, quote,"A guy who builds things at my job," and even, and this is another quote,"One of these days, I will drag that man into the mop closet and have my way with him.
2:39
Sarah: Lord have mercy."
2:41
Tina: I mean, I don't wanna be rude to the victim, but I don't see the fascination.
2:47
Sarah: In Sydney?
2:48
Tina: Yeah, at all.
2:49
Tina: I don't see the attraction.
2:50
Tina: I don't get it, but okay.
2:52
Sarah: She was into older men.
2:53
Sarah: Yeah.
2:53
Sarah: I don't know.
2:54
Sarah: So let's look at the life of Sydney Moor leading up to this point.
2:58
Sarah: He had been married to Tammy Casson since March 1998, and they had three children: a son, Christian, who was born in 1999, a daughter born in 2001, and another son born in 2005.
3:11
Sarah: And I didn't mention the other two children's names because Christian has actually spoken out about this, but the others haven't.
3:17
Tina: Okay.
3:18
Sarah: Sydney was described as a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who was dominated by his wife, Tammy, pretty much from the start of their relationship.
3:26
Tina: Mm.
3:27
Sarah: Now, Sydney's company had been registered in the state since 2002, but Tammy had also recently registered a company with the state, a travel agency that she planned to run from home, where she spent most of her time as a stay-at-home mom to her three kids Now, many former friends and even some family members have made statements since this incident along the lines that Tammy and Sydney got much of their money from lawsuits and settlements.
3:55
Tina: Mm.
3:57
Sarah: Sydney had also been arrested twice, once in 2009 for shoplifting a DVD, and again in 2011 for an assault charge that Tammy's father, William Cason, was also a part of concerning one of their neighbors over a property dispute.
4:14
Sarah: So he wasn't assaulting Tammy's father.
4:16
Sarah: Him and Tammy's father were assaulting the neighbor.
4:20
Sarah: But both those charges were dropped later, both the shoplifting and the assault.
4:24
Tina: I just have to say it before you move on.
4:26
Tina: Shoplifting a DVD?
4:28
Tina: I know.
4:29
Tina: Like, is this worth-
4:31
Sarah: Is it worth it?
4:32
Sarah: Yeah.
4:32
Tina: Wow.
4:33
Tina: Yeah.
4:33
Sarah: Okay.
4:35
Sarah: So we will now go back to what was going on between Sydney and Heather, but I think some of this background helps us see the dynamic of Sydney's marriage and just their general approach to life, as in their above the law kind of attitude.
4:50
Tina: Mm-hmm.
4:51
Sarah: So by July 10th, Heather's tweets seem to be confirming that the interest was reciprocated when she posted,"Baby did a bad, bad thing."
5:01
Tina: Mm.
5:01
Sarah: And,"I'm in way too deep, but watch me get in deeper."
5:06
Tina: Mm.
5:07
Sarah: So coworkers at The Tilted Kilt knew that Heather and Sydney had been seeing each other because Sydney would actually visit Heather at work even when he was not working there, even if he had a day off.
5:17
Tina: Mm.
5:17
Sarah: He brought her coffee and apparently bagels.
5:20
Sarah: Who doesn't like a good bagel?
5:21
Tina: I mean, I would love it if somebody- brought me coffee and bagels.
5:24
Sarah: Right.
5:25
Sarah: So several of her coworkers expressed their disapproval of the relationship to Heather due to the age gap and, of course, due to Sydney being married.
5:34
Sarah: And at one point, two of them even called The Tilted Kilt pretending to be Tammy to try and scare Heather away from Sydney.
5:41
Tina: Wow.
5:42
Sarah: That incident really shook Heather up.
5:45
Tina: Right.
5:45
Sarah: So Sydney Moorer admits that by September, the two were having a full-on affair.
5:51
Sarah: However, it appears that by late September, the relationship had ended when Heather again takes to social media, this time tweeting,"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love, and it did not end well." Right after that, it seems Sydney's wife, Tammy, became aware of the affair, and she was mad as hell.
6:14
Sarah: Of course.
6:16
Sarah: She went to several extremes to protect her marriage and keep her husband in check.
6:22
Sarah: For instance, making Sydney call Heather in front of her and confirm that the relationship was over, but also making him say things purposefully to hurt Heather's feelings, such as she had never meant anything to him.
6:37
Sarah: She was just someone who, quote,"Spread her legs."
6:40
Tina: Wow.
6:42
Sarah: But that wasn't enough for Tammy, who also made Sydney tattoo her name in huge letters right above his crotch on his lower stomach.
6:51
Tina: Just for any perhaps naive women out there, if you're with a man and you feel like you have to do all of these things to keep him from cheating, like tattoo a name, lock his phone, which I think you'll get to later- Yeah so on and so forth, none of those things are going to stop him from cheating.
7:09
Tina: Just leave.
7:10
Tina: No.
7:10
Tina: He's going to cheat.
7:11
Tina: Right.
7:11
Tina: They will find a way.
7:12
Sarah: But the ironic thing is that she claimed all along they had an open marriage, and that this wasn't his first relationship, and that she was having relationships, too.
7:20
Sarah: So which is it?
7:21
Sarah: Is it an open marriage, or are you tattooing your name on your property like a brand?
7:25
Tina: She probably didn't like that this particular girlfriend was 19 and gorgeous.
7:31
Sarah: Right.
7:33
Tina: There was probably jealousy there.
7:34
Sarah: And it seems like there were feelings.
7:37
Tina: Yeah.
7:37
Sarah: She apparently also made him sleep with one hand handcuffed to their bed.
7:42
Tina: That blew me
7:43
away.
7:44
Didn't
7:44
Tina: he use that as an alibi for something?
7:47
Sarah: No, that was kind of blown out of proportion.
7:49
Sarah: People said that he said that he couldn't have done it because he was handcuffed to the bed that night, but that's not what he said.
7:55
Sarah: He was running errands with her, and they know that.
7:58
Sarah: That was kind of blown just a little bit out of proportion she handcuffed him to the bed so that she could sleep at night not worrying about whether or not he was going anywhere
8:06
Tina: I can't imagine being in a relationship where I would have to handcuff my husband to the bed to make sure that he didn't go out cheating.
8:13
Tina: Like, why stay in that?
8:15
Sarah: But then later she claimed she didn't do it, and then she claimed that they had a sleigh bed, and there was nowhere to handcuff him to.
8:22
Sarah: And I have so many issues with that.
8:23
Sarah: One, the police did a search warrant, so they could clearly see what kind of bed it was.
8:27
Tina: Right.
8:28
Sarah: And two, if you wanna handcuff somebody to a bed, even if it's a sleigh bed, you're gonna find a way.
8:32
Tina: Yeah.
8:32
Sarah: I mean, that's not that hard.
8:34
Tina: No.
8:34
Sarah: But Tammy changed her story and called herself a liar on many occasions, and we'll get to that, too.
8:41
Tina: Mm.
8:42
Sarah: So in addition to the tattoo and being handcuffed to the bed, she insisted that she was the only person allowed full access to his phone.
8:51
Sarah: She changed the passwords to where even he didn't know them.
8:54
Tina: Don't...
8:55
Tina: You can't even use your own phone.
8:57
Sarah: How do you run a business?
8:58
Tina: I, I don't know.
9:01
Sarah: And then she would never let him leave the house without her.
9:04
Sarah: She even accompanied him on his work jobs.
9:07
Tina: Wow, that must have been really awkward.
9:10
Sarah: Not only awkward, but aren't you supposed to be homeschooling your children?
9:13
Tina: Right, yeah.
9:15
Sarah: But Sydney complied to all of these conditions in an effort to try and save his marriage and appease his mad as hell controlling wife.
9:24
Tina: Mm-hmm
9:26
Sarah: But Tammy still could not let it go.
9:28
Sarah: That wasn't enough for her.
9:30
Sarah: She proceeded to text Heather, hounding her constantly, texting threats, calling The Tilted Kilt, trying to get her fired, which almost worked on one occasion when they had to send Heather home early just to stop Tammy from constantly calling the restaurant.
9:47
Tina: Wow.
9:49
Sarah: Tammy would also text Heather pictures of her and Sydney during sex, during any other intimate acts.
9:55
Tina: Gross.
9:56
Sarah: Yeah.
9:56
Sarah: Despite all of this, Sydney does manage to contact Heather again, telling Heather, look, this was an open marriage.
10:04
Sarah: Tammy's also in other relationships, and saying that Tammy was only mad because he hadn't been open with her about his relationship with Heather.
10:14
Sarah: I guess the purpose of that was to be like,"Well, it's not'cause I'm married."
10:18
Tina: Right.
10:19
Sarah: We both do this.
10:20
Sarah: Everything's fine.
10:21
Sarah: We didn't do anything wrong.
10:22
Sarah: I just forgot to tell her about it.
10:24
Tina: So that she would continue the affair.
10:26
Sarah: Well, supposedly it was over then, but anyway.
10:29
Tina: Right.
10:29
Sarah: So during this conversation, the two agree that this relationship is over.
10:33
Sarah: Sydney's trying to save his marriage.
10:36
Sarah: Heather's trying to move past all of this harassment that she's getting from Tammy and enjoy her life again.
10:41
Sarah: This poor girl is, like, 19, 20.
10:44
Sarah: She's trying to have a good time getting into cosmetology, hanging out with her friends, not deal with-
10:49
Tina: Somebody else's- Like- marital drama.
10:51
Tina: Yeah
10:52
Sarah: yeah.
10:53
Sarah: So in November, the Moorer family go on a three-week vacation to Disney in California.
11:00
Sarah: Tammy apparently is a self-proclaimed Disney adult.
11:03
Tina: I'm not saying anything.
11:04
Sarah: Yeah.
11:04
Tina: Because I don't wanna offend anybody.
11:07
Sarah: So they purchase a brand-new black Ford F-150 to drive cross country,'cause they're going from Myrtle Beach to California.
11:15
Tina: Right.
11:16
Sarah: That's a long drive.
11:17
Sarah: That's why it was a three-week vacation.
11:18
Sarah: So this seems to have been, like, them trying to move on and with her being the Disney fanatic, the way that this reads to me is Sydney was like,"Whatever you wanna do, I'll do anything." And she's like,"Okay.
11:33
Sarah: Well, I want a brand-new truck, and I wanna go not to Disney in Florida.
11:37
Sarah: I wanna go to Disney in California."
11:39
Tina: Yeah, I agree.
11:41
Tina: This is, uh, celebrating the end of your affair.
11:44
Tina: Yay.
11:45
Tina: Right.
11:45
Tina: Let's take the whole family.
11:46
Sarah: And we're gonna do whatever I wanna do.
11:48
Sarah: That's my dream trip, and you're gonna like it, and you're gonna come, and we're gonna be together.
11:54
Tina: I mean, that, this is just the epitome of trash.
11:57
Tina: Just-
11:57
Sarah: And control.
11:58
Tina: Yeah
12:00
Sarah: She's gonna get what she can out of this.
12:02
Tina: Mm.
12:03
Sarah: So Heather also attempts to move on, landing a job in a beauty parlor that she was gonna start later in December.
12:09
Sarah: She must have been so relieved that they left town.
12:11
Tina: Yeah.
12:12
Sarah: Three weeks of not being harassed.
12:15
Tina: Mm-hmm.
12:17
Sarah: But, there's always a but.
12:19
Tina: Mm-hmm.
12:20
Sarah: Just as life seems to be moving on for everyone, Heather starts to notice some weight gain.
12:26
Tina: Uh-oh.
12:27
Sarah: She was a tiny little thing, but at The Tilted Kilt, she has to ask for larger uniforms.
12:33
Sarah: Now, The Tilted Kilt uniform is a tartan bra, a tartan kilt, and a cutoff white shirt, and her original uniform bra had always been an A cup.
12:43
Tina: Mm-hmm.
12:44
Sarah: But she had to move up to a B and ultimately a C within the matter of a month.
12:49
Tina: Wow.
12:51
Sarah: That doesn't happen with general weight gain.
12:53
Sarah: That is- No So this sparked her to be concerned that she may be pregnant with Sydney's baby.
13:01
Tina: God, can you imagine being pregnant with this scumbag's child?
13:05
Sarah: Especially right as you thought everything was over.
13:08
Tina: I would be just so repulsed.
13:11
Sarah: And she must have been so scared of Tammy, I mean.
13:13
Tina: Yeah.
13:14
Sarah: So she confides in her manager at the Tilted Kilt that she's worried she may be pregnant, and she takes a pregnancy test at work, but it comes back with an error, so she still has no result.
13:24
Sarah: And she just decides, I'm gonna put it to the back of my mind, and I'm gonna open myself up to moving on and dating other people.
13:30
Sarah: Which, I mean, that gives me pause, but at the same time, she's 19.
13:35
Tina: Yeah, I mean, uh, I would just take another pregnancy test and go to the doctor.
13:40
Sarah: Right.
13:40
Sarah: You
13:40
Tina: can't just- And get confirmation.
13:42
Tina: Um.
13:42
Sarah: Yeah.
13:43
Sarah: You can't just not worry about it.
13:44
Sarah: Yeah.
13:44
Sarah: But yeah.
13:45
Sarah: She's probably scared, I'm pretty sure.
13:47
Tina: Yeah.
13:48
Sarah: So on December 19th, she goes on a first date with a guy her own age, who went to the same high school that she had attended, though she didn't really know him at high school.
13:56
Sarah: His name was Steven Schiraldi.
13:59
Sarah: But, you know, at least they went to the same high school.
14:01
Sarah: They're the same age.
14:02
Sarah: There's a lot more in common.
14:03
Sarah: This person's definitely more of an appropriate partner.
14:05
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
14:06
Sarah: You know?
14:07
Sarah: On their date, they have dinner, they drive around looking at Christmas lights, and he shows her how to drive his manual vehicle.
14:14
Sarah: Heather stays in touch with her roommate, Bree, throughout the evening, and also sends a picture of her driving the stick shift car to her dad and to Bree, both of whom had tried unsuccessfully to teach her to do so, to show them that she had finally mastered it.
14:29
Sarah: And that was funny,'cause her dad was like,"I'm proud, but I'm angry at the same time."
14:34
Tina: Yeah, that was such a sweet memory for her dad to have though.
14:36
Tina: Yeah.
14:37
Tina: And sad also.
14:39
Sarah: So the date ends around 1:15 AM when Steven drops Heather back at her apartment, and they agree that they're gonna see each other again for a second date.
14:48
Sarah: But around 1:35, Heather receives a phone call from an unknown number, which she answers to find out that it's Sydney, and he's expressing an interest in seeing her that night, getting back together with her, and he promised her that he had left Tammy Now, this phone call lasts about five minutes, and after she hangs up with Sydney, Heather calls Bree, who had gone out of town to see her family.
15:14
Sarah: But she is hysterically crying down the phone, telling Bree about the phone call.
15:20
Sarah: And Bree's like,"Heather, don't go and meet him.
15:23
Sarah: Wait till you calm down.
15:25
Sarah: Sleep on it.
15:26
Sarah: See how you feel in the morning." And Bree thought when she ended that phone call that Heather was gonna stay home.
15:32
Tina: Mm-hmm.
15:33
Sarah: Now, on December 19th, police find a car which appears to be abandoned, parked sideways across two parked spaces in a secluded boat ramp area, and they trace the car to Terry Elvis, who is Heather's father.
15:48
Sarah: They turn up at the Elvis household and ask Terry if he's missing a car, which takes him by surprise,'cause all the cars he would expect are in his driveway.
15:56
Sarah: But he soon realizes they're referring to Heather's car, which was still registered in his name.
16:02
Sarah: Now, he had a spare key to the car, so he goes with the police to the place where it's parked, and they unlock it.
16:09
Sarah: But there's no sign of Heather.
16:10
Sarah: There's no purse.
16:12
Sarah: There's no phone.
16:13
Sarah: There's no car keys, no sign of a struggle, no foul play.
16:16
Sarah: But they do, however, find Heather's driver's license inside the car, which was odd.
16:21
Sarah: Oh,
16:22
Tina: that's, yeah, bad news.
16:24
Sarah: So police are not too worried about it yet, but Heather's parents start to call Heather's cell phone, and they do get concerned when she's not answering, she's not at her apartment, and she's not returning to her car So next, the police go to The Tilted Kilt, where they find out that she wasn't actually scheduled to work until the next day.
16:42
Sarah: But while they were there, several of Heather's coworkers tell the police about her relationship with Sydney and the harassment she had been receiving from Tammy, suggesting that they might wanna question them about Heather's whereabouts.
16:55
Tina: Yeah.
16:56
Tina: If you're gonna question anybody, you're gonna
16:57
Sarah: question them.
16:57
Sarah: You need to question these people, right?
17:01
Sarah: Now, the next day, Heather does not show up for that shift at The Tilted Kilt, and her parents are able to actually file a missing persons report.
17:07
Sarah: The police first contact Steven Schiraldi, the guy that she went on the date with, because he's supposedly the last person to have seen her.
17:16
Sarah: Steven is soon cleared of any suspicion.
17:20
Sarah: They start to search the area that the car was found in.
17:23
Sarah: They're using diving teams in the river.
17:25
Sarah: They did actually find some human remains, but they turned out to be that of an unknown male.
17:29
Sarah: Oh, wow.
17:31
Sarah: Police speak to Bree, who tells them about the phone call with Sydney and his request to meet Heather that night.
17:38
Sarah: So they pull Heather's phone records to see if she went back out that night and where to.
17:45
Sarah: They see that she answered the call from the unknown number, and then she made the call to Bree, and then Heather tried to call back this unknown number nine times, not realizing that it was a payphone.
17:57
Sarah: She gets no reply, so she then tries to call Sydney's cellphone.
18:01
Sarah: She also gets no reply.
18:03
Sarah: And then it appears that she left the apartment.
18:06
Sarah: So her phone records show that she drove to a bar in her neighborhood.
18:11
Sarah: She continued to try and call Sydney's phone, and eventually drives back to her apartment, where she tries to call Sydney's phone again.
18:20
Sarah: Now, this time, she got an answer around 3:16 AM, which results in a phone call that lasts just over four minutes, and then she leaves the apartment again to drive to the boat landing, arriving there around 3:38 AM.
18:36
Sarah: Hmm.
18:37
Sarah: Now, when she gets there, she tries to call his cellphone four times from the boat landing, but gets no answer, and then her phone records cease, indicating that the phone has either run out of power or has been turned off.
18:51
Sarah: So with only the phone records and what Heather said to Bree to go on, the police start to look into Sydney and Tammy Moorer's whereabouts that night.
19:01
Sarah: When questioned, they state they were driving around together all night, running errands, spending time together, and engaging in sex in various spots around town in their new truck.
19:12
Tina: What the fuck?
19:16
Sarah: That's why they got the indecent exposure charge.
19:18
Tina: Gross.
19:19
Sarah: Cause they took pictures of themselves.
19:21
Sarah: And when the search warrant was done and they found these pictures of them having sex in public, that's why they got them with indecent exposure.
19:28
Tina: I can't.
19:29
Sarah: But that's later.
19:32
Sarah: So when asked if he had contacted Heather at all that night, Sydney at first denies it, and then after the police tell him they have CCTV footage of the payphone that the calls came from to Heather's phone that night, he admits that he did call her.
19:46
Sarah: But he says it was to end it once and for all and to tell her to leave him alone.
19:51
Tina: Uh-huh, mm-hmm.
19:53
Sarah: Why would you go to a payphone to do that?
19:55
Tina: Yeah, that is weird.
19:56
Sarah: And it's already over.
19:57
Tina: Yeah.
19:58
Sarah: And they were quite sneaky, actually,'cause you couldn't tell it was Sydney on the phone from the footage.
20:02
Tina: Right.
20:02
Sarah: But they didn't lie, but they just didn't tell him the whole truth.
20:06
Sarah: They were like,"Oh, really?
20:08
Sarah: You didn't call her?
20:09
Sarah: We have footage."
20:10
Tina: Mm.
20:10
Sarah: But really didn't show him the actual footage, and he was like,"Okay, maybe I did."
20:14
Tina: Right.
20:15
Sarah: So they also checked the security footage at some other places that Sydney had told him he had gone to that night, including the local Walmart, where he can be seen purchasing a pregnancy test and some cigars with cash.
20:29
Tina: Pregnancy test and cigars.
20:32
Tina: What, was he gonna try to celebrate the outcome?
20:35
Sarah: Well, because later he tries to say that it was for Tammy, I think that's why he thought if he just bought the pregnancy test, it would look more suspicious.
20:42
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
20:42
Sarah: But, you know.
20:42
Tina: Okay.
20:43
Tina: Yeah.
20:43
Sarah: When questioned about it, Sydney claims he was purchasing, the pregnancy test for Tammy while she was waiting outside in the truck.
20:50
Sarah: They also managed to pull some camera footage from houses along the route to the boat landing of a dock called Affordable 50 around 3:30 AM that morning.
21:02
Tina: And that's the same time her phone went dark.
21:05
Sarah: So while police are compiling their case against the Moorers, several search groups have come to the area to help try and find Heather.
21:12
Sarah: Facebook groups are started to help them coordinate meetings for people to, like, meet up, where they're gonna search that day, and so on.
21:20
Sarah: However, Internet trolls infiltrate the group for various reasons.
21:24
Sarah: Some want more information about the case.
21:27
Sarah: Some just wanna be mean, and others are reporters trying to gain access to Heather's friends and family.
21:33
Sarah: So also, several Facebook hate groups are started, and as fast as Facebook can take them down, they just pop back up again.
21:41
Tina: Wow.
21:42
Sarah: Tammy Moorer made posts about Heather, calling her a whore, suggesting her father should be looked at for her disappearance.
21:49
Tina: Wow.
21:50
Sarah: Rumors started that her parents were looking to cash in life insurance policies that didn't actually exist, and that the family had used search funds to buy a yacht, fancy cars, and pageant dresses for Morgan.
22:04
Sarah: Calls were actually made for Morgan's beauty pageant crowns to be revoked.
22:09
Sarah: Wow.
22:09
Sarah: So as Heather's family are going through the worst event of their lives, their own friends were questioning them about these things, and people were looking at them like they were the culprits, not the victims.
22:22
Sarah: And the IRS even got involved, doing audits due to the supposed misuse of funds.
22:28
Tina: Wow.
22:29
Sarah: Morgan was labeled as racist and homophobic by online trolls, and there were even threats to kidnap her as well.
22:37
Tina: Hmm.
22:38
Sarah: Pictures of Morgan with a noose around her neck were also posted, amongst other things.
22:43
Tina: I mean, that's just unbelievable
22:46
Sarah: Some people online blamed Steven for Heather's disappearance, and he started to receive social media hate as a result.
22:53
Tina: Mm.
22:54
Sarah: Like death threats, messages, everything.
22:56
Sarah: It was awful.
22:57
Sarah: Tammy and Sidney took to social media again, targeting the prosecutor with blackmail, trying to pressure them to drop the case.
23:05
Tina: These people have got crazy titanium balls.
23:09
Tina: Right.
23:09
Tina: That is crazy.
23:11
Sarah: They named her personally, Nancy.
23:13
Sarah: They followed her, took pictures of her, posted stuff, said that they knew stuff about her that they were gonna release to the public if they didn't drop the case against them.
23:21
Sarah: They really think they're untouchable.
23:23
Tina: Yeah.
23:25
Sarah: Two people were even arrested for posting false information on some Facebook pages.
23:29
Sarah: The police spent time investigating that turned out to be made up, and these culprits were charged with obstruction of justice.
23:37
Sarah: Meanwhile, the Moras themselves and other families members, including Tammy's sister, Ashley, continued to harass and stalk Heather's family.
23:46
Sarah: Though each time the Elvis family report it to the police, the police are unable to take action because enough of a pattern has not been established for a stalking charge.
23:55
Tina: Mm.
23:56
Sarah: At one time, over 200 pictures of Terry Elvis going about his everyday business and going to and from work were found on Ashley's phone.
24:04
Sarah: How is that not enough?
24:06
Tina: Literally, how?
24:07
Tina: Yeah.
24:07
Sarah: How is that not enough?
24:08
Sarah: It's because they were all taken on one day, and they were like,"This is not a pattern."
24:13
Tina: That's still strange.
24:15
Sarah: Yeah.
24:15
Tina: That's suspicious.
24:17
Sarah: So after a day when Ashley had been following him, gunshots were fired at Terry when he took out the trash to the road, hitting the trash can, like narrowly missing him.
24:27
Sarah: When police refer to this as a murder attempt, it really starts to hit the family how far this has gone.
24:34
Tina: Ooh.
24:34
Sarah: And I hate that he said he pushed it too far into the road, so he was pulling it back.
24:40
Tina: Mm-hmm.
24:41
Sarah: And that usually Morgan would take out the trash.
24:44
Tina: Oh my goodness.
24:45
Sarah: And he was like, Morgan probably would have got hit, probably would have got killed.
24:51
Sarah: Yeah.
24:51
Sarah: And it was only because he realized he'd gone too far and pulled the trash can back that the bullets hit the trash can and not him.
24:57
Tina: Wow.
24:58
Sarah: Yeah, it was crazy.
24:59
Tina: Terrifying.
25:01
Sarah: So Sidney Mora also complained about being shot at, saying his new car had been hit, but no bullet holes were ever found in his truck.
25:09
Tina: Like, What a stupid lie.
25:11
Sarah: I think it was like,"Oh, they were shot at?
25:12
Sarah: So was I."
25:14
Tina: Like, these people are stupid.
25:16
Sarah: So when police first visited the Moras' house on December 20th, two days after Heather's disappearance, one of the detectives noticed a home security system.
25:25
Sarah: So they went back a few days later to get footage from it, only to discover that the system had been replaced and the old system had been disposed of.
25:33
Tina: Oh.
25:34
Sarah: So they take the new system anyway, and they find some interesting footage on it They see the Maurers searching their property for possible recording devices, and also see video footage of them meticulously cleaning and scrubbing their brand new truck, especially on the passenger side.
25:51
Sarah: It takes three of them several hours to be satisfied with the state of the truck.
25:56
Sarah: But even more bizarre, the video shows them burning all of the rags that they used to clean it.
26:03
Tina: Yeah, that is highly suspicious.
26:04
Sarah: Like, who does that?
26:07
Sarah: So based on this footage, the police secure a search warrant.
26:10
Tina: Good.
26:11
Sarah: At least for the truck for now.
26:13
Sarah: They take it in for further investigation, and they find that the system's GPS system has been deliberately turned off and the SD card removed around midnight the night that Heather went missing.
26:25
Sarah: And I say deliberately because this is something that you can't do by accident.
26:29
Tina: Right.
26:30
Sarah: You can't just accidentally turn it off thinking that you were fixing something else.
26:33
Sarah: They're not able to find any other physical evidence, which doesn't surprise them due to the recent thorough cleaning of the truck.
26:40
Tina: Right.
26:40
Sarah: But they do now have enough suspicion to get a search warrant for the Maurer family home, and they even close off the whole road while this was going on so they could thoroughly search the house without, you know, reporters and everything.
26:54
Tina: Wow.
26:55
Sarah: And the search results were very telling.
26:59
Sarah: Tammy, Sydney, and their three children were all home sleeping in the master bedroom when the search warrant was executed.
27:05
Sarah: One of the children was in the master bed with their parents, one was asleep in a chair in the room, and the third was sleeping in a mattress in a closet in the master bedroom.
27:15
Sarah: There were two shotguns propped up against the wall and a pistol on the nightstand, all in plain view and easy access to everyone, including the children.
27:23
Tina: Wow.
27:25
Sarah: The house was labeled unsanitary by police who did the search, finding moldy foods such as meat and potatoes on the kitchen counter, which also housed trash The kids' bedrooms were full of trash, the backyard was loaded with animal feces, and the police had no choice but to report the condition of the home to the Department of Human Services.
27:49
Tina: Good.
27:50
Sarah: Now, overall, it took them 11 hours to search the home, and when they were done, they arrested Tammy and Sidney Moorer and charged them both with murder, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and two counts of indecent exposure.
28:05
Tina: Good.
28:06
Sarah: A gag order was placed on all participants involved in the case, and additional charges were given to Tammy and Sidney for Medicaid fraud due to misreporting income from their businesses, which all came to light during the search.
28:21
Sarah: It was$10,000 in medical fraud.
28:23
Tina: Wow.
28:25
Sarah: Now, 11 months later, they are released on bond when Tammy's mother put her house up as collateral.
28:32
Sarah: But they were required to wear GPS monitors as a condition of their bond, and they were also required to stay a minimum of five miles away from any member of the Elvis family.
28:42
Tina: Good.
28:44
Sarah: Now, due to publicity in the area, the Moorers were unable to find any work locally, so the court gave them permission to move to Florida.
28:51
Sarah: The prosecution decided to drop the murder charge, as they had no body, but they continue with the kidnapping charge.
28:57
Sarah: Now, this gives them the ability to try them for murder at a later date should the opportunity arise.
29:04
Sarah: So in 2016, the first trial takes place, this one for Sidney Moorer, because he and Tammy were to be tried separately And after both the defense and the prosecution gave all of their evidence to the jury, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision, with 10 of them voting guilty and two voting not guilty.
29:22
Sarah: So it was declared a mistrial.
29:24
Tina: Mm.
29:25
Sarah: However, Sidney did talk to reporters during the trial and was sentenced to five months for breaking the gag order.
29:32
Sarah: At the second trial, there was all the same evidence, but with one additional witness, Tammy Moorer's cousin, Donald DeMarino, who testified that while at a family cookout, Sidney Moorer had shown him a picture on a cellphone of a deceased Heather Elvis.
29:50
Sarah: When he was asked why Sidney would take such a picture and show anyone, Don speculates that it was taken to prove to Tammy that Heather was no longer a problem.
30:00
Sarah: Now, this trial resulted in a guilty verdict for Sidney, and he was sentenced to 30 years in jail for the kidnapping of Heather Elvis.
30:08
Tina: Okay.
30:10
Sarah: In October 2018, Tammy Moorer goes on trial.
30:14
Sarah: Tammy's own mother testifies about Tammy being terribly jealous when she found out about Sidney's affair with Heather, including mentioning that Tammy, quote,"beat him severely as a result."
30:26
Tina: Ooh, wow.
30:28
Sarah: Tammy tried to claim that the affair didn't bother her, as she also had a lover, and even claimed that she had had a nice conversation with Heather a month prior to her disappearance, and the two of them had, and I quote,"resolved any issues between them."
30:44
Tina: There's so much evidence pointing to the exact-
30:48
Sarah: Opposite
30:48
Tina: opposite, that I don't understand how they think or how she thinks that anybody would ever believe that.
30:56
Tina: They think everybody else is just a moron.
30:58
Sarah: Yeah I think, Nancy, the prosecutor, said at one point, Tammy always thinks that she's the smartest person in the room
31:05
Tina: And she is so far from it.
31:07
Sarah: So in fact, Tammy, on the stand, was just a smartass all over.
31:13
Sarah: Smug, know-it-all, trying to undermine the prosecutor any chance she got.
31:18
Sarah: She called the other witnesses liars.
31:20
Sarah: She claimed that Sydney did not make that phone call from the payphone and that the police had forced him to admit to that.
31:27
Sarah: She also denied handcuffing him to the bed and claimed that the tattoo had been there since 2012.
31:33
Sarah: And although Tammy had insisted on going on the witness stand in her own defense, she actually turned out to be the best witness for the prosecution, and it took the jury just four hours to find her guilty.
31:45
Tina: Good.
31:47
Sarah: She was also sentenced to 30 years in jail.
31:51
Sarah: When asked if she had anything to say, Tammy's first comments to the judge were,"I want new counsel because they let me down."
31:59
Tina: Not,"I'm sorry."
32:00
Sarah: And she goes on to call herself Heather's number one advocate.
32:06
Tina: Oh, okay.
32:07
Tina: I mean, that's just so disrespectful.
32:10
Sarah: The family were just appalled.
32:13
Tina: Right, yeah.
32:14
Tina: Uh, it's, it's a slap in the face is what it is.
32:17
Sarah: Now, Sydney did not testify at his own trial, at the advice of his counsel, which her counsel also advised her, but, you know, she's smarter than everybody, so.
32:26
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
32:26
Sarah: So Sydney did not testify in his own trial or at Tammy's trial, which apparently led to an official separation because Tammy thought that he had let her down by doing this.
32:38
Tina: Oh, okay.
32:39
Sarah: No one cares.
32:39
Sarah: You're both in separate jails.
32:41
Sarah: Right.
32:41
Sarah: You are separated, period.
32:42
Tina: Right.
32:44
Sarah: So they have both filed appeals on various occasions for various reasons, but so far no retrial has been granted to either of them.
32:53
Sarah: Sydney Moorer's projected release date is March 31st, 2044, and Tammy Moorer's projected release date is May 9th, 2043.
33:04
Sarah: Morgan Elvis, Heather's sister, is now a nationally accredited victim advocate with more than 20 certificates specializing in missing persons.
33:14
Sarah: She used her experience to help other families of missing persons, and she is still competing in the Miss America organization, using that platform to advocate for survivors' rights.
33:26
Sarah: But to this day, Heather Elvis has never been found.
33:31
Tina: Well, I hate that.
33:32
Tina: I mean, I'm glad that they're convicted of the kidnapping, but the family doesn't have closure.
33:40
Tina: They don't know where she's at.
33:41
Tina: They were not able to, you know, bury her or whatever.
33:44
Sarah: And they've made it very clear that they will agree to anything if one of them would just give up the whereabouts of the body.
33:54
Tina: Mm-hmm.
33:55
Sarah: They don't care if it's, like, having them have permission to have their children visit, or if it's to shorten their sentence or whatever.
34:03
Sarah: They have come out and said, you know, everyone knows they're guilty.
34:07
Sarah: They've been found guilty.
34:08
Sarah: If they would just let us know what happened, we will agree to absolutely anything pretty much.
34:14
Tina: Right.
34:15
Sarah: But the prosecutor thinks Tammy will take it to the grave.
34:20
Tina: Yeah, I think
34:20
Sarah: so.
34:20
Sarah: But that Sidney may have felt some guilt, which is why he showed that picture.
34:25
Tina: Right.
34:26
Sarah: And that he had feelings for Heather, so maybe one day he may actually tell somebody what happened.
34:33
Tina: Yeah, maybe, especially if they're separated or whatever.
34:37
Sarah: And he's not under her vindictive thumb.
34:40
Tina: Mm-hmm.
34:41
Sarah: So I got a lot for the aftershow, but is there anything you wanted to say before we're done with that?
34:45
Tina: Just rest in peace to her and, you know, my thoughts and prayers go out to her family because it's like I said, they didn't really have any closure.
34:53
Tina: They don't know where her body is, so they think about that every day.
34:58
Tina: And how dare they?
34:59
Tina: Like, you've already got 30 years in prison.
35:01
Tina: Just tell them where the fucking body is.
35:03
Sarah: Yeah.
35:03
Tina: It's just, it's them continuing to torture this family, and that's just vindictive and mean-spirited.
35:11
Tina: It serves nothing.
35:13
Sarah: And I also think this is the worst case I've heard of the general public just torturing this family online.
35:21
Tina: Yeah, the social media stuff is horrible.
35:23
Tina: I'm sure we'll go over that in the after show.
35:26
Sarah: Did you see the Monopoly board?
35:27
Tina: No.
35:28
Sarah: Somebody made a Monopoly board that had all of the faces of all the people concerned, and apparently one person on Heather Elvis's side passed away, and so their face was crossed out, but it was made into a whole Monopoly game.
35:44
Sarah: It was disgusting.
35:45
Tina: Wow.
35:47
Tina: Wow.
35:48
Tina: That, I There are no words for, I mean, evil.
35:52
Tina: Evil is the word.
35:53
Sarah: And people do believe that Tammy and Sydney were behind some of it, but not all of it.
35:57
Tina: Mm-hmm.
35:58
Sarah: Um, some of it was literally just complete strangers on the internet- Well- being fucking assholes.
36:04
Tina: Yeah, and unfortunately there are evil people all over the internet.
36:08
Tina: They can hide behind the keyboard and say whatever they wanna say, so they use it to their advantage.
36:15
Sarah: All right.
36:16
Sarah: Well, definitely join us for this after show.
36:18
Sarah: We got a lot to say.
36:20
Tina: Yes, we will see you guys in the after show if you're a subscriber.
36:24
Tina: Otherwise, we will see you next week with another true crime case.
36:27
Sarah: Yeah, we will.
36:29
Tina: And until then, be divas.
36:32
Sarah: Not deadly.
36:33
Tina: Bye.
36:33
Sarah: Bye