Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone is
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On December seventeenth, twenty thirteen, twenty year old Heather Elvis
Speaker 2: headed out on the first day in Carolina Forest, South Carolina,
Speaker 2: which is west of Myrtle Beach in Horry County. Heather
Speaker 2: grew up in this area, which is for its beautiful beaches.
Speaker 2: Her parents, Terry and Debbie Elvis, and her younger sister
Speaker 2: Morgan described Heather as a kind, fun loving young woman
Speaker 2: who had dreams of working in cosmetology. After graduating from
Speaker 2: high school in twenty eleven, Heather was making her dreams happen.
Speaker 2: She was working two jobs.
Speaker 1: She was a.
Speaker 2: Hostess of the Tilted Kilt in Myrtle Beach and at
Speaker 2: the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. She was
Speaker 2: also studying cosmetology. She had moved into an apartment in
Speaker 2: Carolina Forest with a friend of hers named Brianna. Even
Speaker 2: though the population was just over twenty three thousand people,
Speaker 2: their apartment was located in a huge, busy subdivision. But
Speaker 2: Heather's life had taken a pretty dark turn over the
Speaker 2: past few months. Like a lot of young women at
Speaker 2: that age, she had gotten into a relationship with a
Speaker 2: man much older than her, and it had been dramatic.
Speaker 2: But Heather had ended that relationship. She was starting to
Speaker 2: date again, and her friends and family said she seemed
Speaker 2: more like herself. It seemed like life was finally getting
Speaker 2: back to normal and Heather could go back to being
Speaker 2: a happy, go lucky young woman building her life. But
Speaker 2: something happened after Heather got home that night. She got
Speaker 2: a phone call, and then she changed into her favorite outfit,
Speaker 2: and then she went out driving her green Dodge Intrepid.
Speaker 2: After that, Heather vanished, where did she drive into in
Speaker 2: the dark that night and what happened to Heather Elvis.
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making
Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there's
Speaker 2: no such thing as a small town where murdered never happens.
Speaker 2: I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the
Speaker 2: country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
Speaker 2: she'd like me and my team to look into, you
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
Speaker 2: Line at six seven eight seven four four six one
Speaker 2: four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six
Speaker 2: one four five, or you can send us a message
Speaker 2: on Instagram at Helen Gonpott. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
Speaker 2: On December nineteenth, Hory County Police respond to a report
Speaker 2: of a suspicious abandoned vehicle, a green Dodge Intrepid parked
Speaker 2: in the area of peach Tree Boat Landing near the water.
Speaker 2: This was Heather's car. Peachtree Landing was about eight miles
Speaker 2: away from Heather's apartment, so why would she have driven
Speaker 2: there in the middle of the night. Police went to
Speaker 2: Heather's parents' house at First, her dad told a local
Speaker 2: news station that they thought the car may have been stolen,
Speaker 2: but the car was fine. It was in good condition,
Speaker 2: it had gased, nothing was broken or damaged. But when
Speaker 2: they couldn't reach Heather, they began to panic. Her family
Speaker 2: insisted it would have been totally out of character for
Speaker 2: her to run away. Things had been going well in
Speaker 2: Heather's life and there was no way, they said, that
Speaker 2: she would have disappeared voluntarily. So police immediately started looking
Speaker 2: into Heather's personal life and her romantic relationships. They contacted
Speaker 2: the man she had been on the date with that night,
Speaker 2: Stephen Schiraldi. Stephen told police that he picked Heather up
Speaker 2: at ten pm. He said they drove around, hanging out
Speaker 2: and looking at Christmas lights. Then, he said, because Heather
Speaker 2: had told him she couldn't drive a stick shift, they
Speaker 2: went to the parking lot at the Inlet Square Mall.
Speaker 2: He let her get into the driver's seat of his
Speaker 2: car and he showed her how to drive stick He
Speaker 2: said they had fun driving around during that time. Heather
Speaker 2: sent her father and her friend Brianna, pictures of her
Speaker 2: driving the manual transmission, and she looks happy in those photos.
Speaker 2: She's smiling, and her cell phone with its pink glitter cover,
Speaker 2: is resting in her lap. After a fun evening, Stephen
Speaker 2: told police he dropped Heather back home at one fifteen am.
Speaker 2: Then he said he went home himself. All of Stephen's
Speaker 2: phone records corroborated his version of events and his location,
Speaker 2: and he was quickly cleared by law enforcement because police
Speaker 2: found out that shortly after Heather got home, she got
Speaker 2: another call from someone else, her ex boyfriend, Sidney Moore,
Speaker 2: at one forty four am. They hung up, and Heather
Speaker 2: met in June of twenty thirteen at the Tilted Kilt.
Speaker 2: Sidney was a thirty seven year old repair man who
Speaker 2: worked at the restaurant. Now, Sidney was not only seventeen
Speaker 2: years older than Heather, he was also married with three children.
Speaker 2: But despite that, he and Heather struck up a flirtation.
Speaker 2: Soon the relationship became sexual. Heather's friends and colleagues told
Speaker 2: police they believed it was much more serious. Heather's roommate, Brianna,
Speaker 2: who also worked at the Tilted Kilt at the time,
Speaker 2: told twenty twenty that she believed Sidney and Heather were
Speaker 2: in love. Her friends even said that Sidney might move
Speaker 2: to Florida with his family and wanted Heather to come
Speaker 2: along with them and be their nanny, even though at
Speaker 2: the time the kids seemed to be pretty much old
Speaker 2: enough to not need nanny's and Heather talked about her
Speaker 2: new relationship both at work and on social media. She
Speaker 2: sent a tweet in June of twenty thirteen saying that
Speaker 2: she had a taste for men who were older. In
Speaker 2: the weeks that followed, Heather continued to tweet about Sydney,
Speaker 2: writing that she had a crush on the guy who
Speaker 2: builds things at my job and joking about how she
Speaker 2: wanted to drag him into a mop closet and have
Speaker 2: her away with him. Later, when the relationship became more volatile,
Speaker 2: Heather's twitter took a darker turn. According to court documents,
Speaker 2: she tweeted, baby did a bad, bad thing and I'm
Speaker 2: in way too deep, but watch me get in deeper.
Speaker 2: Heather and Sydney didn't seem to be hiding things at work.
Speaker 2: Police interviewed Heather's coworkers, who confirmed to them that Heather
Speaker 2: and Sydney weren't exactly discreet people at the Tilted killed
Speaker 2: in the kitchen said that Sidney would bring her coffee
Speaker 2: and bagels at work as the relationship progressed. According to
Speaker 2: court documents, Sydney seemed to struggle with juggling the relationship
Speaker 2: and it had gone on for months, but in October,
Speaker 2: Sydney abruptly ended things with Heather after Tammy found out
Speaker 2: about it, and Tammy apparently was enraged, which was odd
Speaker 2: because later, in text messages with a friend, Tammy made
Speaker 2: references to her and Sidney being in an open relationship
Speaker 2: and to her having a boyfriend. Sexually explicit texts between
Speaker 2: Tammy and that boyfriend were shown later in court. To
Speaker 2: her friend, Tammy said that she and Sidney had grown
Speaker 2: apart in the two to three years before he started
Speaker 2: his relationship with Heather, and when you talk about what
Speaker 2: was going on between Heather and Sydney, it depends on
Speaker 2: who you ask. Heather's friends and co workers thought that
Speaker 2: she and Sidney were in a serious relationship, but Tammy
Speaker 2: and Sidney would later say that Heather and Sydney just
Speaker 2: had a brief sexual affair a few hookups that were
Speaker 2: confined mostly to September of twenty thirteen. After Tammy found
Speaker 2: out about Heather, Brianna said that Tammy forced Sydney to
Speaker 2: call Heather and tell her that they were done, and
Speaker 2: she did this while Tammy was on the line. During
Speaker 2: that conversation, Sydney said that Heather was quote nothing to me,
Speaker 2: just someone who spread your legs end quote. Brianna said
Speaker 2: that conversation completely devastated Heather, but it didn't stop there.
Speaker 2: Tammy started sending Heather very graphic shots of her and
Speaker 2: Sidney in sexual situations, and according to what Brianna told police,
Speaker 2: Tammy threatened to get Heather fired from her job. Brianna
Speaker 2: said that Heather was scared of Tammy, but she told
Speaker 2: police that she didn't believe that Heather was scared at
Speaker 2: all of Sidney. A big part of this case is
Speaker 2: the relationship between Tammy and Sydney, because again, everything happened
Speaker 2: behind closed doors and between Heather's friends and family, and
Speaker 2: what Tammy and Sidney told law enforcement, there are several
Speaker 2: very different accounts of what happened. Sidney claimed in court
Speaker 2: that after Tammy found out about the relationship with Heather,
Speaker 2: that Tammy insisted that Sidney in things, and that Tammy
Speaker 2: had put conditions on him if they were going to
Speaker 2: stay together for one thing, as Tammy texted a friend,
Speaker 2: she would be allowed to live as a single woman,
Speaker 2: basically to sleep with whomever she wanted with zero consequences
Speaker 2: for a year, and she was going to keep Sydney
Speaker 2: handcuffed to the bed every night. She also took his phone,
Speaker 2: changed the password, and went everywhere with him. Sidney told
Speaker 2: law enforcement that he agreed to those conditions and also
Speaker 2: had Tammy's name tattooed above his crotch, but that wasn't
Speaker 2: enough because Tammy kept reaching out to Heather. There is
Speaker 2: a string of text that she sent Heather where she
Speaker 2: talks about Heather meeting the missus, et cetera. On November first,
Speaker 2: Heather finally responded. Tammy had texted Heather to say, by
Speaker 2: the way, Dad no longer has his phone, meaning Sidney.
Speaker 2: Heather texted back a period Tammy called the Tilted Kilt
Speaker 2: and told them that Sidney would stop preparing their equipment
Speaker 2: if Heather was still employed by the restaurant. One day,
Speaker 2: Heather was actually sent home because Tammy called multiple times.
Speaker 2: Sidney reached out to Heather again, saying that Tammy wasn't
Speaker 2: mad about him having the affair, since he said she
Speaker 2: also had a boyfriend. Sidney said Tammy was mad about
Speaker 2: him lying about the affair. Heather texted back to basically
Speaker 2: say she was done. She just wanted Tammy to stop
Speaker 2: calling the restaurant, but things continued to escalate. On November fifth,
Speaker 2: Heather retweeted a joke by Daniel Tosh. It read, hey
Speaker 2: married fellas. You can either cheat on your wife or
Speaker 2: murder her, never both. That's when you get caught. But
Speaker 2: other than a few barbed social media references, things seemed
Speaker 2: to be finally dying down. Heather and Sidney were not
Speaker 2: in touch. Tammy had stopped texting, and Sidney, Tammy, and
Speaker 2: their children left for a Disney World trip on November nineteenth.
Speaker 2: They were gone until December eleventh. Meanwhile, Heather seemed to
Speaker 2: be moving on with her life. Brianna told police and
Speaker 2: Lay twenty twenty that Heather was going to church with
Speaker 2: her and that she had agreed to put Sydney behind
Speaker 2: her and move on with her life. Heather had gotten
Speaker 2: a new job at a beauty parlor that would start
Speaker 2: right around Christmas. She was acting more like her old self,
Speaker 2: family and friends said, and enjoying dating new people. But
Speaker 2: it turned out that Heather might have been hiding something because,
Speaker 2: according to court documents, Heather believed that she was pregnant.
Speaker 2: Was Heather Elvis pregnant? According to court documents, she may
Speaker 2: have believed that she was. She had gained weight quickly and,
Speaker 2: according to her co workers, gone up three broad up
Speaker 2: sizes in her uniform in a short period of time.
Speaker 2: Her manager at the Tilted Kilt testified that Heather thought
Speaker 2: she might be pregnant by Sidney and had taken a
Speaker 2: pregnancy test, but apparently the test came back with an
Speaker 2: inconclusive result. After Heather went missing, police talked to Sidney Moore.
Speaker 2: He said that he had not talked to Heather since
Speaker 2: they broke up in October, but Brianna was insistent. She
Speaker 2: had been out of town in Florida, but she said
Speaker 2: when Heather called her that night, she was hysterical. Heather
Speaker 2: called Brianna in a panic at around one forty four
Speaker 2: am to tell her that Sidney called and that he
Speaker 2: wanted to see her. He said that he was sorry
Speaker 2: for everything and that he was leaving his wife. Brianna
Speaker 2: said that Heather was crying and hysterical, and that they
Speaker 2: talked for a couple of minutes and that at the
Speaker 2: end of the phone conversation, she said she did not
Speaker 2: believe that Heather was going to go out and meet Sydney,
Speaker 2: but it seems that she did. At around the same
Speaker 2: time as Heather was being dropped off at home by
Speaker 2: her date, Stephen, Sydney was seen on video buying a
Speaker 2: pregnancy test at Walmart. The surveillance video showed Sydney with
Speaker 2: Tammy in his truck near a Kangar Thru Express gas
Speaker 2: station at one thirty three am. Video from the Kangaroo
Speaker 2: Express showed Sydney leaving his truck and walking over to
Speaker 2: a payphone. Police were able to show through phone records
Speaker 2: that from that payphone, Sidney called Heather and that the
Speaker 2: call lasted four minutes and fifty seconds. But later, when
Speaker 2: police interviewed him, Stephen said he hadn't spoken to Heather
Speaker 2: in several weeks since their relationship ended. Later, though, he
Speaker 2: admitted that he had spoken to Heather the day she
Speaker 2: disappeared for the first time in six weeks. Sydney claimed
Speaker 2: that he called Heather to tell her to leave him alone.
Speaker 2: So what happened after Heather hung up the phone? Heather's
Speaker 2: phone location data provided some clues. The data showed that
Speaker 2: Heather's cell phone left her apartment at two thirty one
Speaker 2: am and arrived near Longbeard's Bar at two forty two am.
Speaker 2: Then there were nine phone calls made from Heather's phone
Speaker 2: to the Kangaroo Express payphone, the same phone that Sidney
Speaker 2: had called her from. Location data from Sydney and Tammy's
Speaker 2: phone showed that they went home during this time. The
Speaker 2: data shows that after these nine calls, Heather's phone and
Speaker 2: presumably Heather, returned to her apartment. Two more calls were
Speaker 2: made from Heather's phone at three sixteen am and again
Speaker 2: at three seventeen am. The first call to Sidney's phone
Speaker 2: went to voicemail. The second call lasted a little over
Speaker 2: four minutes after that call. Location data from Heather's phone
Speaker 2: shows her traveling to Peachtree Landing, where her car was found.
Speaker 2: Then there were four more calls made to Sydney's phone
Speaker 2: between three thirty eight and three forty one am. All
Speaker 2: of those calls went straight to voicemail. But after the
Speaker 2: three forty one am call, there was no more activity
Speaker 2: from Heather's phone. But at four thirty seven am suddenly
Speaker 2: there was something else a text from Sydney's phone for
Speaker 2: the first time in weeks. Tammy had had Sidney's phone
Speaker 2: in her possession since November second, But at four thirty
Speaker 2: seven am, Tammy texted Sydney's mom and he texted back.
Speaker 2: She asked him if he had remembered the potstickers and
Speaker 2: orange juice. He texted back, yes, ma'am. Just a day
Speaker 2: after Heather was reported missing, on December twentieth, police went
Speaker 2: to Tammy and Sydney's home. They found a surveillance system
Speaker 2: that Tammy told them was not functional, and then, according
Speaker 2: to court documents, she actually bought a new surveillance system
Speaker 2: that next day. Police also found a bag of cement,
Speaker 2: a spent shotgun shell, and a bottle of cleaning fluid
Speaker 2: near park camper. Sydney told police that he and Heather
Speaker 2: began their affair in September of twenty thirteen, and that
Speaker 2: it had been brief, but Heather's social media references to
Speaker 2: her relationship with Sydney started months before that. Police followed
Speaker 2: that social media trail. They found references to the breakup
Speaker 2: on Twitter, where Heather had written once upon a time,
Speaker 2: an angel and a death fell in love. It did
Speaker 2: not end well. Police were suspicious of Sidney Moore, but
Speaker 2: when they brought him and Tammy in for questioning, both
Speaker 2: of them denied having anything to do with Heather's disappearance,
Speaker 2: and the police had no body and no physical evidence.
Speaker 2: Police did make two arrests. On January twenty eighth, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: two people were arrested in charge with obstruction of justice
Speaker 2: after police claimed that they had posted false information about
Speaker 2: Heather's disappearance on social media. Sadly, they were red herrings.
Speaker 2: Investigators had wasted time being diverted from the case when
Speaker 2: they looked into these posts. As the investigation continued, it
Speaker 2: seemed like the whole town was talking about Heather's disappearance.
Speaker 2: Sydney claimed that he and his family had received death
Speaker 2: threats because of the rumors. Not only that, he claimed
Speaker 2: that people had killed and mutilated rabbits and ducks that
Speaker 2: his family kept as outdoor pets. He told police that
Speaker 2: people had fied tired guns at him while he was driving,
Speaker 2: but Georgetown County Deputy sheriffs would later claim they found
Speaker 2: no evidence that Sidney's truck had been hit. On February
Speaker 2: twenty first, police executed a search warrant on Sydney and
Speaker 2: Tammy's property near South Carolina Highway eight fourteen, Sydney and
Speaker 2: Tammy were arrested. They were charged with murder, kidnapping, obstruction
Speaker 2: of justice, and in decent exposure. This related to the
Speaker 2: sexually explicit content that they had taken of themselves in
Speaker 2: public places. Police interviewed Tammy, and the detective who questioned
Speaker 2: Tammy told her that Sidney's relationship with Heather was more
Speaker 2: involved than just a brief sexual affair, but Tammy told
Speaker 2: police that she had an open marriage. She said that
Speaker 2: she could care less if he had sex with one
Speaker 2: hundred people. She also said I was with him in
Speaker 2: the truck all night. She said that on the night
Speaker 2: that Heather disappeared, that she and Sidney had sex in
Speaker 2: the truck. She told the detective questioning her the pregnancy
Speaker 2: test that Sidney was seen on camera buying had been
Speaker 2: for her. She said they had been trying to get
Speaker 2: pregnant for several months and that over that time, Sidney
Speaker 2: told detectives he had bought several pregnancy tests and that
Speaker 2: all of them had come back negative. Later, while incarcerated,
Speaker 2: Tammy told prison staff that she was pregnant, She was
Speaker 2: advised of dietary needs and to take prenatal vitamins, which
Speaker 2: she refused to take. Medical records obtained through a foury
Speaker 2: request state that quote inmate was advised repeatedly of the
Speaker 2: need for confirmation of pregnancy for need for prenatal care,
Speaker 2: but Tammy stated prenatal vitamins had caused her to miscarry
Speaker 2: her first baby, so she did not want to take them. Later,
Speaker 2: Tammy's mother said publicly that Tammy had had a miscarriage
Speaker 2: while in jail. When the detective questioning her asked about
Speaker 2: the phone call made to Heather the night that Heather disappeared,
Speaker 2: she said she'd heard phone calls made to Sydney's phone
Speaker 2: from Heather, but she said she didn't see or know
Speaker 2: about Sidney contacting Heather. Both Sydney and Tammy worked odd hours,
Speaker 2: mostly night shifts. They homeschooled their three children. Tammy's sister,
Speaker 2: Ashley Cayson, who lived in a house next door to
Speaker 2: Sidney and Tammy with her and Tamy's parents, told police
Speaker 2: she babysat the children on the night that Heather disappeared.
Speaker 2: Ashley later testified in Tammy's defense and as part of that,
Speaker 2: she challenged Sidney's story about the tattoo he had gotten.
Speaker 2: She said that Tammy had not forced Sidney to get
Speaker 2: that tattoo. She said, in fact, Sidney had had that
Speaker 2: tattoo since January of twenty twelve. Ashley said that Tammy
Speaker 2: and Sydney used the handcuffs for sexual role play, that
Speaker 2: he was not handcuffed against his will as he claimed.
Speaker 2: Tammy also told police they had a sleigh bed, so
Speaker 2: it would have been impossible for her to handcuff Sidney.
Speaker 2: On the night Heather disappeared, Ashley said that the kids
Speaker 2: were over at her place until approximately three am, and
Speaker 2: then Tammy had texted her at three ten am to
Speaker 2: say she and Sidney were home. At that point, the
Speaker 2: kids walked back home. Tammy told police, yes, she wasn't
Speaker 2: a rage when she found out about the affair, but
Speaker 2: she really minimized the fallout to her marriage. She said
Speaker 2: she and Sydney got over it in a few days.
Speaker 2: She said they had healed their marriage during that trip
Speaker 2: to Disneyland. She said she and Sidney got home at
Speaker 2: around three ten am. That would have been about the
Speaker 2: time that she texted her sister to say the kids
Speaker 2: could walk home. Police asked Sydney and Tammy if they'd
Speaker 2: been anywhere near peach Tree Landing where Heather's car was found.
Speaker 2: They both said no. Police had footage from two surveillance
Speaker 2: systems on a road between Tammy and Sydney's residence and
Speaker 2: the Peachtree Landing where Heather's car was found. These were
Speaker 2: about a five minute drive apart. A dark colored truck
Speaker 2: was seen on camera heading toward Peachtree Landing at approximately
Speaker 2: three forty five. Then nine minutes later, the dark colored
Speaker 2: truck appeared on camera going back the same way. A
Speaker 2: Hoary County grand jury indicted Sydney and Tammy for kidnapping
Speaker 2: and for conspiracy kidnap on December eighteenth, twenty thirteen. They
Speaker 2: would be tried separately. At trial, prosecutors called in someone
Speaker 2: who was an expert on cars. The state found a
Speaker 2: forensic video analyst, Grant Fredericks, to assist them in identifying
Speaker 2: that truck scene on video. He did something called headlights
Speaker 2: spread pattern analysis. He said in his opinion, the truck
Speaker 2: in the video footage was Tammy and Sydney's new blackboard
Speaker 2: f one point fifty Before the trial began, both Tammy
Speaker 2: and Sydney tried to get that expert testimony about the
Speaker 2: identity of the vehicle excluded, but the evidence was allowed.
Speaker 2: In Shortly after the arrest, a judge issued a gag
Speaker 2: order on all participants of this case. Later, investigators announced
Speaker 2: they were filing additional charges related to what they called
Speaker 2: financial discrepancies, filed with the state of South Carolina. Later
Speaker 2: it came out what they were talking about was that
Speaker 2: the Moorers were charged with medicaid fraud. The investigators said
Speaker 2: Tammy and Sydney had failed to disclose over ten thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in income from their business and alleged they had
Speaker 2: fraudulently received benefits. This case is very unusual because on
Speaker 2: the one hand, you have the gag order from the judge,
Speaker 2: but in the absence of any real information coming out
Speaker 2: about the case, social media stepped in to fill the void,
Speaker 2: and Tammy was not being silent. She and Sidney posted
Speaker 2: on Facebook and other media sites. Tammy called Heather a
Speaker 2: whore and a stalker. She said the police had framed them.
Speaker 2: Tammy made posts on Facebook addressing Heather's disappearance. One read quote, well,
Speaker 2: Sidney cheated on me. In the months of September October
Speaker 2: with a psycho whore who has since gone missing. I
Speaker 2: could care less what he screwed around with, but the
Speaker 2: fact that this jerk is stalking my family is unacceptable.
Speaker 2: End quote. Then nothing happened for a long time, at
Speaker 2: least on the surface. In early twenty fifteen, Sidney and
Speaker 2: Tammy were finally able to bond out from jail. They
Speaker 2: had to follow bail conditions, including GPS monitoring and an
Speaker 2: agreement to stay away from Heather's family and to not
Speaker 2: mention them on social media. Sydney and Tammy claimed that
Speaker 2: during this long way and due to the publicity of
Speaker 2: the case, they were unable to find work, so they
Speaker 2: asked the court to allow them to move to Florida.
Speaker 2: Sidney had found a job there, and the judge allowed it.
Speaker 2: This outraged Heather's family. Prosecutors said that they did not
Speaker 2: have enough evidence to go forward with the murder charges
Speaker 2: against Tammy and Sydney, so in March thousand, six sixteen,
Speaker 2: it was announced they were going to be dropped without prejudice,
Speaker 2: meaning that they could be refiled later. Then in March
Speaker 2: of twenty sixteen, there was another announcement the prosecutors were
Speaker 2: dropping the charges against Tammy and Sydney for murder in
Speaker 2: decent exposure and obstruction. The obstruction charge related to Sidney
Speaker 2: telling police he had not called Heather, when in fact
Speaker 2: he later admitted that he had called her on that payphone.
Speaker 2: Heather's family said publicly they were disappointed, but that they
Speaker 2: understood the prosecutor's decision. The prosecutors had a strong circumstantial case,
Speaker 2: and they believed they had a strong motive, but they
Speaker 2: still had no body in no physical evidence. What they
Speaker 2: had was Heather's phone records. The phone records that showed
Speaker 2: that after she hung up with Brianna, her phone pinged
Speaker 2: at two thirty am. Her device moved to Longbeard's Bar
Speaker 2: and Grill, and then a few miles away, then back
Speaker 2: to Longbeards before calling Sydney's phone, then going back to
Speaker 2: her apartment, making another call to Sydney's phone, the one
Speaker 2: that was answered and lasted four minutes. At three thirty seven,
Speaker 2: the phone was taken to Peachtree Landing and after that
Speaker 2: DADA showed that the last place the phone was was
Speaker 2: near the Wacamaw National Wildlife Refuge and again Sydney's cell
Speaker 2: records showed no use between November tewod when Tammy took
Speaker 2: his phone two December eighteenth, at three thirty seven am,
Speaker 2: after Tammy sent him a text asking for podstickers and
Speaker 2: orange juice, and he replied yes, ma'am. Was he really
Speaker 2: talking about potstickers or was this some kind of code
Speaker 2: between Sydney and Tammy? Also, was Heather using her device
Speaker 2: that whole night or was her car taken to the
Speaker 2: location by Peachtree Landing and her last location stage? Somehow,
Speaker 2: police had Tammy's search records from her computer in her phone.
Speaker 2: There were several searches that showed up in the case file.
Speaker 2: One search was how do I change the date of
Speaker 2: a post on my timeline? Police had texts that Tammy
Speaker 2: had sent to a friend describing her discovery of the affair.
Speaker 2: On December sixth, she texted the friend to say that
Speaker 2: there was no love left for Sydney, that she hated him.
Speaker 2: She wrote, quote, now he has to say chane to
Speaker 2: the bed until further notice. Why I live my life
Speaker 2: as a single woman. It's all good. I hope that
Speaker 2: things will be okay after I enjoy my single year
Speaker 2: end quote. During this time, she also sexted guys from
Speaker 2: Sydney's phone and did internet searches, including the beach, South
Speaker 2: Carolina and full moon phases. December seventeenth was a full moon.
Speaker 2: Sidney's trial started in June of twenty sixteen. He was
Speaker 2: charged with kidnapping. In court, there was a ton of
Speaker 2: direct evidence about the affair, but not a lot of
Speaker 2: evidence about exactly what went down on the night when
Speaker 2: Heather went missing. They did have video records, but these
Speaker 2: were controversial. Heather's roommate and friend, Brianna, talked at length
Speaker 2: about the conversation she had with Heather on the night
Speaker 2: she went missing, but the defense also brought up Heather's
Speaker 2: alleged family problems and some other issues with an allegedly
Speaker 2: abusive ex boyfriend, but the prosecution stated the ex boyfriend
Speaker 2: in Heather had not been in touch in a long time.
Speaker 2: The jury debated for hours and in the end they
Speaker 2: could not reach a verdict, so the judge declared a mistrial.
Speaker 2: Sidney went on trial again in twenty eighteen. This time
Speaker 2: he was charged with obstruction justice and conspiracy kidnap, but
Speaker 2: again they had a largely circumstantial case. They knew that
Speaker 2: Tammy was angry, and that on the night Heather disappeared,
Speaker 2: that he made a call to Heather's phone. There was
Speaker 2: one other witness who had potentially damaging information about Sidney.
Speaker 2: Tammy Moore's cousin, Donald di Marino, testified at Sidney's retrial
Speaker 2: that he was at a cookout where Tammy and Sidney
Speaker 2: were hanging out. He said that Sidney showed him a
Speaker 2: photo of Heather on his phone, and in that picture,
Speaker 2: Donald testified Heather appeared to be incapacitated, like she couldn't
Speaker 2: walk or talk. He testified that he did not expect
Speaker 2: to see or for anyone to see Heather again after
Speaker 2: seeing that picture. He said he had been so upset
Speaker 2: by the pictures that he had left the party afterwards.
Speaker 2: It was later reported that in that photo Heather was
Speaker 2: bleeding in either dead or near dead, but police were
Speaker 2: unable to retrieve this photo. Donald did testify that he
Speaker 2: told his mother while they were talking at the jail,
Speaker 2: in a conversation that he knew was being recorded, that
Speaker 2: the stuff about the picture wasn't true. Now, he said
Speaker 2: in court he told his mom this because he had
Speaker 2: already had problems with the law and he didn't want
Speaker 2: to put anything more on his mom. He did say
Speaker 2: he was getting no help on the current charges he
Speaker 2: was facing. In exchange for his testimony, he said he
Speaker 2: was simply testifying because he wanted to do the right thing.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure of the digital forensics on this, but
Speaker 2: I do know that in some cases, once phone memories
Speaker 2: fill up, sometimes images that are deleted can never be retrieved.
Speaker 2: Sidney was found guilty of the conspiracy to kidnapping charges.
Speaker 2: He was sentenced to ten years in prison. In October
Speaker 2: of twenty eighteen, Tammy's trial started. This trial was full
Speaker 2: of drama, and it's one of the weird quirks of
Speaker 2: this case that Tammy seemed to be more publicly hated
Speaker 2: and blamed than Sidney, the person who actually had the
Speaker 2: affair with Heather. But why was Tammy angry? Was she,
Speaker 2: as she said, just angry about the loss of control
Speaker 2: that she had been lied to, or was she angry
Speaker 2: about Sidney sleeping with Heather? Because Tammy claimed the relationship
Speaker 2: with Heather was casual, that she and Sidney had an
Speaker 2: open marriage, and that it didn't bother her that much.
Speaker 2: In court, the prosecution brought up the social media wars
Speaker 2: and the Facebook post where Tammy had called Heather a
Speaker 2: psycho whore. Sidney's mother testified that Tammy beat Sidney after
Speaker 2: she found out about the affair. There was more drama
Speaker 2: when there was evidence introduced very sexually explicit text that
Speaker 2: Tammy had sent to a man she was sleeping with.
Speaker 2: At that point, the defense moved for a mistrial because
Speaker 2: they argued that the texts would prejudice the jury against Tammy.
Speaker 2: Tammy told police that she had actually had a nice
Speaker 2: conversation with Heather a month before she went missing. She
Speaker 2: said they had resolved their issues at some point during
Speaker 2: this whole process, Sidney and Tammy legally separated. After the
Speaker 2: eleven day trial, the jury convicted Tammy of both charges.
Speaker 2: She was sentenced to thirty years each to run Concurrently,
Speaker 2: in September of twenty nineteen, Sidney Moore was taken back
Speaker 2: to trial on the kidnapping charges, and this time he
Speaker 2: was found guilty. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
Speaker 2: Sidney Moore and Tammy Moore have both appealed their convictions.
Speaker 2: So far, they have lost all their appeals, but in
Speaker 2: March of twenty twenty five, Sidney Moore filled out a
Speaker 2: post conviction relief for him in a Wordy County courthouse.
Speaker 2: He is requesting a new trial. In the documents, he
Speaker 2: claimed the prosecution changed their timeline in order to get
Speaker 2: a conviction. He said they had knowingly allowed multiple witnesses
Speaker 2: to lie under oath, and he claimed his attorney did
Speaker 2: very little work. So this drama continues for Heather Elvis's family.
Speaker 2: Her mother publicly stated that Sidney refuses to let her
Speaker 2: daughter go. As of now, Tammy Moore's projected release date
Speaker 2: is May nineteenth, twenty forty three, and Sidney Moore is
Speaker 2: projected for release on March thirty first, twenty forty four.
Speaker 2: Heather Elvis's family have said they do not expect to
Speaker 2: ever see her alive. The question that remains for them
Speaker 2: is where's Heather's body. At trial, Tammy was asked about
Speaker 2: repairs that she and Sydney had done at home when
Speaker 2: they poured concrete. She said, to her knowledge, no one
Speaker 2: ever used cement to cover up Heather's body. Is Heather
Speaker 2: near the location where her phone last pin near the
Speaker 2: nature preserve near Peachtree Landing or could that have been staged?
Speaker 2: Could her car have been put there to guide police
Speaker 2: in the wrong direction. Heather's family can only hope that
Speaker 2: one day she will be found and they will be
Speaker 2: able to bring her home. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a
Speaker 2: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written
Speaker 2: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
Speaker 2: James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camera mixed and scored
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sleek. Executive
Speaker 2: producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and l. C. Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone I'd free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonpott.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
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