Going West: True Crime - Heather Elvis // 36

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

In 2013, a 20-year-old girl in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina begins dating a married man from work and the consequences are deadly. This is the disappearance of Heather Elvis. Do you have anxiety, stress, insomnia, or lack of energy? You need to try Lumi! Get 10% off your order at lumicbd.com using promo code goingwest. OR click this link! https://lumicbd.com/?afmc=3m&utm_campaign=3m&utm_source=leaddyno&utm_medium=affiliate Get 20% off your first Hunt a Killer subscription box using promo code going west at huntakiller.com **Going West does not own the media in this episode** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl7Wg52xs7o&list=PLI3p7uv6i88CIYUwsL94KakICVDfFwyGS **Research Sources** https://nypost.com/2018/10/09/the-disappearance-of-heather-elvis-explosive-love-triangle-escalates-to-kidnapping-trial/ https://www.wmbfnews.com/story/24788974/timeline-of-events-in-the-heather-elvis-case/ https://truenoirstories.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/heather-elvis/ https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/the-phone-calls-in-the-early-morning-of-dec-18-2013-both-payphone-cells.238754/  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. We're so sorry we didn't come out with an episode last week. Heath and I were both super sick with the cold and we didn't want to be all nasally in the podcast so we had to skip. But we are feeling 100% now so we're ready to go. Let's roll into some much-needed reviews now that it's been two weeks. So thank you so much to Mike from Ohio and Alyssa from Chicago. And then we have Marcia from Missouri and Amanda from Yukon, Oklahoma. Thank you to Mike from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and Taylor from Idaho.

And a big thanks to Shivani from Greenville, Texas and Dan from San Diego. Yeah, thanks Dan. Super funny review. Josh from Portland, Oregon. Thank you. And thank you to Mary Kate from LA. And then we have Michelle and Little Lady Justice the Cat from Long Island, New York and Gene from Oaktown. That's definitely the first time a cat has ever left us a review. It's a talking twister, Little Lady Justice the Cat. And last but not least, thank you so much to Joanne from Bri Rivers, Texas. And thank you to

everyone who wrote us a five star review. You guys are awesome. It means a lot to us to read them, so thank you. And not only did we get reviews from the United States, but of course, as we mentioned last time, we found out a way to find the reviews that we got from different countries. So we're gonna roll those off real quick.

Thanks to Jessica from Ontario, Canada, Nicole from Newcastle, Australia, Paul from Vancouver Island, Canada, Jasmine from Calgary, Canada, Janice from Melbourne, Australia, Emma from England, Maggie from Ireland, and Jeannie from BC, Canada. Also, thank you so much to our new patrons that we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. Lauren, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Fallen, Courtney, Brittany, Kristen, another Rebecca, Alita, Kelly, and Sheila. You guys are awesome.

Your support really helps out the show. Thank you so much. Yes, we're very grateful for you guys. And also, you guys are helping out a great cause because we donate 10% of our proceeds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So that's really cool. If you guys want to join the Going West gang on Patreon, it's just 5 bucks a month and all you got to do is subscribe.

Just go to patreon.com slash going west podcast. Alright guys, this is episode 36 of Going West, so let's get into it. 20-year-old Heather Elves worked at the Tilted Kilt Restaurant, a national chain where waitresses wear sexy plaid mini skirts and midriff bearing glasses. In 2013 Heather disappeared. What was the motive for kidnapping the beautiful 20-year-old waitress? According to prosecutors, Heather Elvis was having an affair with Tammy Moore's husband Sydney. There was also scuttle but in town that the waitress might have gotten pregnant from the affair. And when Tammy found out, she was furious. She knows where Heather is.

She knows what happened to Heather. She needs to tell what happened, Heather. Heather Elvis was born in Hori County, South Carolina on June 30, 1993, to Terry and Debbie Elvis. She was the middle child and had an older brother named Christopher and a younger sister named Morgan. Heather has often been described as somewhat shy but incredibly kindhearted and also a go-getter.

She was close with her siblings and her sister Morgan said that she was everything you would want in a sister. She absolutely loved kids and helping others, whether it was watching children at her southern Baptist church or volunteering to help the less fortunate. She even spent time in Costa Rica with her church for a mission trip where she visited a small village and helped build roofs for damaged houses. She also read children's books in the town's orphanage. Heather was also very creative and loved her in makeup so she dreamed of becoming a cosmetologist. Do you guys remember form spring? For those of you who don't, it was kind of like a social media platform but it was where people

could anonymously ask you questions. So when I was in high school and had one, I noticed that people would post their links for their form spring account on their Facebook pages, and then you could kind of get to know people more by asking them questions. You wouldn't maybe ask to their face or by reading what other people asked, but I know some people did use it to bully their classmates and so I had one. Did you have one Heath? No, I think that was a little bit after my time. Well Heather had a form spring page and I saw some information about it online, but since form spring is no longer a thing, her actual page doesn't exist on the internet anymore, so I couldn't read her answers, but there was a forum where people read it at the time of when this was all happening.

So people who had read it said that she was very witty and some of the answers kind of painted a picture with information that isn't available anywhere else online. Apparently Heather was bullied in high school and was then homeschooled until she graduated in spring of 2011. And this is according to her from her form spring page. So I don't know what someone asked to get that answer, but that's what she said. She also took Cosmetology classes while she was still taking high school courses. And then once she graduated, she continued her education at Cosmetology School, so she could get certified and start working. I also saw someone post on a Reddit forum about Heather that their friend's daughter took Cosmetology classes with Heather while she was still in high school and confirmed that she was indeed bullied and she was a little bit emotionally immature. So while Heather was taking classes, she was also working two jobs and that helped her pay for school and her own apartment too, which she moved into at the age of 19 with her

co-worker named Bri Wharrelman. It was in Carolina Forest, which is pretty close to her hometown and it was the same county which was Hori County. She worked as a server at the Tilted Kilt pub and eatery and Myrtle Beach and she also worked as a server at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. And for those of you who don't know what House of Blues is, it's an awesome rock and blues themed chain of concert venues with restaurants. This area is known to be very touristy and didn't attract the best people. We read different sources online that says that it's a bit of a city area and to top it

off, Heather's work uniform at the Tilted Kilt was a plaid mini skirt and a busty white-tied crop top, which probably at no fault of her own attracted some guys with ill intentions. But aside from that, Mertle Beach has a great boardwalk and definitely looks like a fun place for tourists to visit. Heather was a great server and was well liked by her co-workers because of her friendly personality and customers also loved her. In June 2013, so around Heather's 20th birthday, a 38-year-old man Sidney Morer, who was married and lived in a neighboring town, came in to repair kitchen equipment at the Tilted Kilt. And he had his own business called Palmetto Maintenance LLC where he would go around and

service restaurants in the area. She told her coworker and roommate Bri about him and told her that she was interested in him. She also expressed this online over the next few weeks, which do you girl, but she is way cuter than him. But apparently he was very charming. We assume he came in for the first time in early June, because on June 12th, Heather tweeted on Twitter, I got a taste for men who are older. About a month later on July 7, 2013, at 1am, she tweeted, The guy who builds things at my job,

and I'm not going to read the actual tweet, but she basically says that he makes her feel some type of way sexually. She then tweeted a few minutes later in caps. One of these days, I will drag that man into the mop closet and have my way with him. Lord have mercy. Three days later, around midnight, she tweeted, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, to her friend who replied, you have a lot of explaining to do, Missy. What time do you work today? And Heather said, I work at House of Blues, but I'll be there to get food later.

And she means the tilted kill is where she's going to go eat. And then she says, also, Sydney will be there tonight, so you know I got to make an appearance. And this is all on her Twitter account, which is still active, by the way. A few hours later, around 4 p.m., she tweeted, baby did a bad thing. And then, I'm in way too deep, but watch me get in deeper. So, at this point, to me, it seems like they probably hooked up within these three days just based on her tweets. In 1997, when Sydney was 21 years old, he moved to Myrtle Beach from Summerville, South Carolina

and got a job working at the Hard Rock Cafe on the beach. That's where he met Tammy, who was 25 years old and his new co-worker. They became really close at the restaurant and then started dating, and were married a year later at an ocean view Baptist church. In 1999, their first son was born, and in 2001 they had a daughter, and then in 2005, another son. When Sydney opened up his business, Tammy became a state-home mom and actually homeschooled all three of the kids, but on the side, she had her own travel agency which she worked on part-time since she had her hands full with her kids. This also

gave her the opportunity to book vacations for her family, and they usually went to Disney World and Disneyland because they're big Disney fanatics. Tammy doesn't have any kind of record at all, but Sidney had a minor one. In 2009, he was charged with shoplifting at DVD, and two years later in 2011, he got into a fight with Tammy's dad, but those charges were dismissed. The two had a pretty good relationship, but Tammy was definitely known to call the shots. Once Sidney and Heather started getting to know each other a bit, Sidney would stop by the restaurant even when he wasn't scheduled to come by and service anything, he would just pop in to bring Heather bagels and coffee.

Heather was well aware that he was married, and that was her biggest hesitation in the situation. But as a 20 year old, it doesn't seem like she really knew what she was getting into, especially since Sydney was giving her attention back, so it wasn't just one sided. Heather didn't know all the details of his marriage, but Sydney did ask her if she would move to Florida with his family and be his children's nanny, but this plan wasn't set in stone, it was just kind of an idea. Their affair continued into the summer and Heather continued to give all of her friends the details.

But to Heather, it wasn't just sex. She really cared for Sydney and enjoyed the time they spent together. And she was under the impression that he felt the same way. She even told her roommate, Bri, that she loved him. For most of the summer, Tammy was completely unaware that Sydney had been cheating on her with a 20-year-old college student. But in early October 2013, Tammy found out about their affair and became incredibly enraged with the both of them. And she even started harassing Heather via text. She sent her various threatening messages, and at that point, Heather was pretty much done with Sydney. She still had strong feelings for him, but it was now such a messy situation that she

didn't want to make things even worse, so she tried to move on. But Tammy kept sending her text messages, including, on one occasion, photos of herself and Sydney having sex as some kind of power move. And this is a 42 year old woman harassing and sending sexually explicit images to a 20 year old who isn't fighting back at this point. Then Tammy scheduled a three way call between her, Sydney, and Heather so that she could hear Sydney tell Heather all the things she wanted him to. Sydney told Heather that she meant absolutely nothing to him and that he was pretty much just using her for sex.

This, of course, completely devastated Heather because she had feelings for him. So for him to suddenly be making all these harsh statements crushed her. But she knew that it was pretty much inevitable that their fling would end since he was married, so she did her best to move on and continue with her life. On November 5, 2013, Heather's Twitter account pretty much went silent, except a response to a friend two days later who said, where have you been? And Heather replied, just working, you know, at Tilted Kill where you don't see me. So it seems like she may have distanced herself after her breakup. And in early November around this time, Heather was still being tormented by Tammy. On November 1st, 2013, Tammy texted Heather saying,

�Someones about to get their ass beat down. Your bitch is about to take his last breath. You can tell me where you are right now or I will find out another way. That way won't have a great turnout for you. I'm giving you one last chance to answer before we meet in person, only one. Then she continued, I've been having Sydney followed since January 2012. It's best you call me back and speak to me. Save yourself. Hey, you ready to meet the misses? So these are incredibly threatening and pretty scary text messages to receive, especially

considering Heather had stopped talking to Sydney and tried to carry on with her life. But for some reason, Tammy just wouldn't let it go. And clearly, this isn't just threatening to Heather, but she's basically saying she's gonna kill Sydney. Heather responded, I think you're a little obsessed with me. I'm nobody you need to worry about anymore." So two days after Heather told Tammy that she was nobody that she needed to worry about anymore, Tammy texted Heather, by the way, dad no longer owns a phone. So it seems to me like she knew she was sending this to Heather but wanted to make it seem like she meant to send it to her kids or something.

And Heather just responded with a period. Tammy took her drastic measures even further to ensure Sydney's loyalty and faithfulness to her. She actually changed the password on his smartphone to one only she knew, so he basically couldn't use his phone without her permission. She also would handcuff him to their bed each night to ensure that he wouldn't try to sneak out, and whenever he wanted to leave the house, she had to come with him so she knew everything that he did.

And this wasn't even really against his will at all. He agreed to follow her rules to help save their marriage. To top it all off, Tammy made Sydney get a tattoo of her name and huge letters on his lower stomach under his belly button. So whenever he had a shirt off, you could see the tattoo very clearly. The interesting thing about this whole situation is that both Sydney and Tammy have both stated that they had an open marriage, meaning that they could freely date other people while they stayed married and continued their own relationship as well.

And at this time, Tammy apparently had a lover of her own. So the fact that she was breaking up Sydney and Heather's affair didn't make much sense at all. But Tammy went even further beyond micromanaging Sydney's life and harassing Heather. She would often call the tilted kill and try to get Heather fired by saying that Sydney would stop repairing the restaurant if Heather remained an employee. We're not sure exactly what management thought about the whole situation, but they didn't seem interested in letting Heather go on account of Tammy.

But on one occasion, Heather was cut short from her shift because Tammy wouldn't stop calling the tilted guilt. Sometime in early November, Sydney managed to text Heather using his phone and tell her that Tammy was upset that he lied about the affair. Not the fact that he was having one. Especially since Tammy was having an affair of her own, she apparently was just upset that Sydney had been trying to hide it. But Tammy was definitely acting crazy, so I'm sure she was upset about the affair itself, too. After this, Heather and Sydney stopped talking again. A couple weeks later on November 19th, the more family drove down to Florida to visit Disney World and returned on December 11th. December 11th. Do you suffer from anxiety, stress, lack of energy, insomnia, pain?

You need to try loomie. They have a variety of products from tinctures to my personal favorite, CBD and aromatherapy pens. They have three different blends. Sleep, rise in shine, and love and lust. And they all help with different things, things to the CBD and unique blend of essential oils. CBD and aromatherapy, both combined and individually, help inflammation go down, they reduce chronic pain, improve your mood, help reduce stress,

and let you get a good night's sleep. This product is plant-based, all natural, and contains no THC, so it's completely legal in all 50 states. I puff on my loomipen every morning, and it helps me get through my days with ease. And to be clear, it's all vapor, so inhaling these natural and medicinal qualities isn't harmful to your body at all. Get 10% off your order using promo code GoingWest on their website, loomecbd.com.

That's L-U-M-I-C-B-D-D.com using promo code GoingWest. What's up gang, Heath here. Are you an armchair detective just like me? Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to solve a murder case? Then you need to try the revolutionary game Hunt a Killer. It's a monthly subscription box that allows you to sift through documents, maps, audio files, and more while eliminating suspects until you finally catch the killer. It's an awesome game you can play with your family and friends, play it on date night,

or crack the case by yourself. Daphne and I love this game, and we know that you will too. Hunt a killer also donates part of their proceeds to the cold case foundation, which we think is really cool. Right now you can use promo code GoingWest check out to receive 20% off your first box. That's promo code going west for 20% off your first box. Happy hunting, guys! So, in the story, it's early December and Heather is moving on.

She landed a new job doing what she loved at a beauty salon in Myrtle Beach and started going back to church regularly. She wasn't going to start her job until around Christmas time, so in early December she was still employed by the Tilted Kilt and the House of Blues. Over the past couple months Heather had gained some weight and went up a few top sizes for her Tilted tilted kill uniform. So she started to worry that she was pregnant, and potentially was Sydney's child. She had confided in her manager at work about this and decided to take a test.

The pregnancy test came back with an error. So apparently there are a few ways you can get an error on a pregnancy test. 1. You took the test too soon. There are certain tests out there that are specifically designed to tell you immediately, but most regular tests can't figure it out that quickly. 2. You didn't wait long enough to read the test. 3. You waited too long to read the test. You have about 5 minutes to read the test once the response comes up. But if you wait longer than that, the test may have changed or an error will come up.

And lastly, an error can come up if you didn't pee on the stick enough. So it's unclear whether or not Heather was actually pregnant. On the night of December 17th, Heather had a date planned with a 21-year-old named Stephen Scheroldy. They'd originally known each other from high school, but didn't really ever talk. They followed each other on Instagram, though, and that's how they started talking. That night, he picked her up and they went out to eat at a restaurant called Banditos Cantina, which is a casual ocean-front Mexican restaurant. After, they drove around different neighborhoods

looking at Christmas lights and then they went to the parking lot of the Inlet Square Mall where Stephen let Heather drive his car so she could learn stick shift. And Heather sent a photo of her driving to her dad and her friend slash roommate Bree saying, just learn to drive stick, I'm a pro. Her friend Bree drove a stick so she was excited to tell her that she was learning. Once they finished up driving around, they went back to Stephen's mom's house, which is where he lived at the time, and they watched a movie. The date went well, and around 1.15

a.m., Stephen dropped Heather off at her apartment in Carolina, Forest. They kissed goodbye and made a plan to hang out the next day. After Steven got home, the two texted back and forth a little bit until Steven fell asleep. Two days went by and Heather didn't answer any phone calls or show up at work. Since her roommate, Briah, hadn't been home anyway, this wasn't super alarming right away. But she was a little worried about Heather and she even messaged Stephen on Facebook asking if he knew where she was He told her that Heather hadn't been answering his calls or text and that they had a plan to hang out the day before and Heather didn't follow through On December 19th Heather's green

2001 Dodge Intrepid was found parked to skew across two spots in the parking lot of the Peachtree landing dock in Murdo Beach, South Carolina, which is about eight miles away from her apartment in Carolina, Forest. Her car was found locked, but once police arrived to investigate, they opened it to find that her phone, purse, and keys were not inside. The Hori County police immediately began the investigation to find her. Before we go any further, we want to talk about what happened after her date with Steven two nights prior. We're about to get into some very specific times and we're going to make it as clear as possible, so try to keep up. About 20 minutes after Steven dropped Heather off, so at 135 a.m, Heather got a call from a pay phone. It was Sydney Moore.

The phone call lasted 4 minutes and 53 seconds. After Heather got off the phone, she called her best friend and roommate, Bree, who was in Florida at the time visiting her family for the holidays. Bree later reported that Heather was upset because Sydney had just called her saying that he was leaving Tammy and that he missed her and wanted to see her. Heather was distraught because she was really trying to just move on from the whole thing, but both Sydney and Tammy kept trying to suck her back in, so she had no idea what to do. But Bri kept telling her not to meet up with him. The call to Bri was placed at their apartment and it lasted two minutes and twenty seconds.

About 45 minutes go by and at 2.29am, Heather tried to call back the number on the pay phone that Sydney called her from, but no one answered. Which makes sense because it was in the middle of the night and this was an hour after Sydney had originally called her. Her phone would later be pinged for a location at the time this call was placed, and it appeared to have been made from Longbeard's bar and restaurant in Carolina Forest. Within two minutes at 257 AM, Heather's phone is pinged at a Gustaf plantation drive, but then she turned around and returned to Longbeard's. At 316 AM, Heather called Sydney's cell phone, but he didn't answer that call either. She called him again and almost immediately, he answered. Sydney's phone panged at his house.

While they're talking, Heather was driving back to her apartment. At 3.19am, Heather returns to her home. Once they got off the phone, she tried to call Sydney again and he answered. This call lasts four minutes and fifteen seconds, and at this time, both of their phones are at their separate homes. So as far as we know, she was talking to Sydney, but she definitely could have been talking to Tammy. It's kind of impossible for us to know, but I feel like since she was making the call since Heather was making the calls Why would she keep calling to talk to Tammy? I'm sure it was Sydney Between 325 and 337 AM, Heather's phone reaches the peach tree boat landing in Murdle Beach

This boat landing is just three miles away from the morris home At 336 AM a private video surveillance camera catches a dark-colored Ford F-150 driving from the direction of the Moor family's home and towards the boat landing. It's important to note that Sydney owned a black Ford F-150. In the camera was located about halfway between the Moor residents and the dock. Two minutes minutes later at 3.38am, Heather is still at the boat landing, according to cell phone records, and she tries to call Sydney and he doesn't answer. A minute later, she called two more times, but with no success. At 3.39am, so at the time Heather tried to call Sydney again twice, yet another surveillance camera from

a business caught the same dark colored Ford F-150 continuing to drive in the direction of the peach tree landing dock. So as far as we're concerned right now, it appears that Heather is planning to meet Sydney at the peach tree landing dock for whatever reason. A couple minutes go by and at 3.41 am Heather attempts to call Sydney one last time. At 3.42 am Heather's cell phone activity ends. Three minutes later, the same business that caught the Ford driving towards the dock just six minutes prior catches it yet again. But this time it's's driving back towards the morrow's home.

This camera was about 1.2 miles away from the dock. So if this truck was indeed Sydney's, it's definitely a very quick turnaround. Early that morning, a patrol officer had been doing his rounds and routine checks, and he actually came across Heather's car. So we know it was there that morning. And I don't know exactly when this was. It was definitely after like four o'clock, probably around four o'clock. So definitely after Heather would have been there. But this just confirms that her car was there that early and it had stayed there. Right, correct. So he noticed that it was parked strange, but he didn't actually think much about it because people left their cars there overnight all the time.

So he didn't call it in. Fast forward to December 19th, which was two days later, Heather's work, The Tilted Kilt, were the ones who called the police and reported her missing. Police spoke with Heather's manager who explained her relationship with Sydney Moore, and that they had broken up a couple months prior. The manager still thought that Sydney might know where Heather was. That's when police gave Sydney a call. When the officer told Sydney that he was the police, Sydney paused for a moment. The officer went on to tell Sydney that he was calling to see if he knew where Heather was and that she was missing. That's when Sidney said he hadn't talked to her in six weeks.

So right off the bat, he's already lying because we all just went through the timeline, so we know that he spoke to Heather two days prior to this. Sidney then changed his story and said that he had talked to Heather two days before, but that he only told her to stop contacting him and to leave him alone since she wouldn't stop calling him. But Sydney said he only spoke with her one time. It's interesting that Sydney would lie about this though because, of course, he doesn't want to come off as suspicious by telling the officer that they spoke numerous times that night, but cell phone records would tell police that he was lying. So this just really makes him look more suspicious. After this call, another officer went over to

Sydney's house to get a proper statement from him. Police found Heather's car, and since it was registered in her dad's name, the police had first contacted him to ask him why his car was parked there. Her dad immediately obtained phone records from Heather's phone, which we just went over. The day after Heather's car was found on December 20, 2013, police searched the peach tree boat landing, but didn't find any sign of Heather nor her belongings. They also figured out that Heather had just been on a date with a young man named Steven, so they brought him in for questioning.

They also conducted a polygraph test, but quickly determined that he was not involved in Heather's disappearance. Investigators went over to Heather's apartment to make sure she wasn't inside, and they found that her front door was unlocked. They didn't notice any sign of a struggle in the apartment, and they also noticed that her balcony door was locked. Police next conducted an interview with Heather's roommate and best friend, Bre. She explained to them that the last time they spoke was a couple days earlier when Heather

called her late at night after her date. Bre told them that Heather had an amazing date with Stephen, but that she was really upset since Sydney had called her asking for her back at 145 am. And this really perked the detective's ears because Sydney had told them the opposite that he wanted nothing to do with her. Once investigators viewed cell phone records that day, they had even deeper suspicion about Sydney more.

So they decided to pay him a visit. They asked him what his relationship with Heather was, and he explained that at that time, there wasn't one anymore since he had broken up with her. This is when Sidney brought up the fact that Tammy, his wife, had his phone for over a month and that she had found out about his relationship with Heather. He admitted that he spoke with Heather that night, but once again said that it was to tell her that they were through. He also mentioned that he didn't know where she was that night, that he had spoken to her from his bed, and that that was the end of it, because he didn't leave the house

after that. Sydney told them the whole story at the bottom of his driveway, and once he was finished, he asked them to leave, and they did. When they left, they went around looking for surveillance footage that would have been captured that night. But while they waited for it to arrive, they asked Sidney and Tammy if they would both come down to the Myrtle Beach Police Station so they can get some things cleared up. Police asked Sidney if he had called Heather from a payphone that night since they had seen

that call come through via her cellphone records. Sydney said no and he even joked asking they still have payphones. The payphone was located at a gas station in town and someone placed a call to Heather from it at 1.35am. This was the first call that Heather took that night and immediately after it she called Bree telling her that Sydney had just called her asking for her back. Police explained this to Sydney and also noted that they had surveillance footage from this gas station. The officer once again asked Sydney if he had made this call and he said maybe. And this is the most ridiculous shit. So Sydney makes a joke asking if there are still payphones as if he doesn't know because this backs him up even further that he didn't make the call.

Because what, payphones still exist? When the officer says that they have surveillance, Sidney like kind of starts to sweat because he knows that he made the call from the payphone. And now he thinks police have a video of it. And then he changes his answer to maybe? Then Sidney tells the officer, okay, I did use the payphone that night to call Heather. But then he's stuck by his original story of not seeing her that night. But how can we trust him now?

He has already been caught in multiple lies, and this is just his second time being interviewed by police. Yeah, he's pretty much the king of being a bullshit artist. Every time that police come at him with something, he backpattles and says, oh, well, okay, well, maybe I did, but I didn't do this, right? So ridiculous. Sydney told police that he couldn't have met up with Heather

because his wife handcuffed him to the bed each night, and that he agreed to be handcuffed for six months to rebuild trust in his marriage. And this completely blew police away. They couldn't believe that his wife handcuffed him to the bed each night so he couldn't leave. But at the same time, he was at a gas station calling Heather at 1.30 in the morning. So he wasn't handcuffed then, but he was an hour later. I think this makes the whole being handcuffed that night thing really unreliable. But Tammy told police that they had been together the entire night. Because Sydney's statements were all over the place and they had already caught him lying,

they asked Sydney if he would take a polygraph test. But he told them that confrontation made him nervous. So he would only do it if he had his lawyer present. He never ended up taking the paragraph because he just kept refusing. And this has upset a lot of people through this case because if he's innocent, he should just take it. A team of rescue divers searched the Winnya River, which is the river that runs along the

Peachtree boat landing, and they didn't come up with anything relevant. Right after Heather disappeared, Sydney changed his Facebook cover photo to a picture of the Tammy tattoo, and in the photo you can tell he's shirtless and you can see his pants, as well as a gun holster to his right hip. A couple months past and neither Tammy nor Sydney were arrested for the disappearance of Heather Elvis. Investigators were still working at the case, and still, no one had heard from or seen Heather. In February 2014, Sydney went to police and told them that, because they had falsely made him the main suspect in this case, that people in town were firing guns at his car while he drove around with

his family. Police did check this out, but they didn't see any signs that his truck had been hit with any bullets at all. On February 21st, police finally obtained a search warrant for the more residents. Police searched the property for more than 11 hours, but they didn't state what evidence they found in the house. Whatever it was, it led to the arrest of both Tammy and Sydney Moore. They were charged with murder, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and two counts each

of indecent exposure. We know that the indecent exposure charges were the unwarranted photos sent to Heather of Tammy and Sydney having sex, and the obstruction of justice was specifically against Sydney for originally denying that he had ever used the pay phone and that admitting to doing so. But again, police did not go into detail regarding what they found that led them to the murder and kidnapping charges. 11 months after their arrest, in early 2015, both Sidney and Tammy were released from jail. Tammy's mother had worked with the police station to use her house as collateral for the $100,000

bond for their murder charges. Unfortunately, bond had been set fairly low. It's usually at least $500,000 for first-degree murder and $250,000 for second degree murder. Because they still didn't know where Heather's body was. But the police were convinced that she was dead and had been murdered by Sydney, Tammy, or both. However, the court required that the Moores agree to GPS monitoring so that they had to stay at least five miles away from the Elvis family home.

The Moores were looked down on and for good reason by all of Myrtle Beach. Sydney and Tammy couldn't work in town and therefore were unable to support their family. So they asked the court if they could move while the case was still pending and they were then granted the ability to relocate to Florida where they had wanted to move before Heather's disappearance. But since they were now moving to a new state at a new jurisdiction, they had to agree to extradition from Florida if they were to violate their bail conditions, or if they were to be charged with anything relating to the case in the future.

At this point, prosecutors believed that the Moors killed Heather because of all of the threats, the fact that they had been talking in the moments leading up to her disappearance, and Sydney's truck had been seen on surveillance going towards the peach tree landing. The issue is they didn't have a body, they didn't have a witness, nothing for a fact without a doubt proved that Sydney and Tammy murdered Heather. Even though we pretty much know they did, we cannot say for sure. So in March 2016, prosecutors were forced to drop the murder charges against Sydney and Tammy because of the lack of hard-hitting evidence. For some reason,

they also dropped the indecent exposure charges. However, the kidnapping charges were still active. Three months later, in June 2016, the first trial relating to the Heather Elvis case began and a jury would decide whether or not they believe Sydney kidnapped Heather. During the course of four days, Heather's co-workers and friends described Heather in Sydney's relationship and even mentioned that Heather believed she may be pregnant with Sydney's baby. During these testimonies, the state also presented very interesting evidence. They showed surveillance footage from a Walmart on the morning of December 18, 2013. At 1.12 a.m., Sydney is seen parking his Ford F-150 in a handicap space and walking into

the store. At 119 AM, he purchased a cigar and a pregnancy test. At this point in time, Heather was just getting home from her date. Just 20 minutes later, Sydney would call her from a payphone at a gas station that was just up the street from this Walmart. Sydney states that he bought the pregnancy test for his wife, who was 42 at the time. It is possible for a healthy woman to get pregnant in her early 40s. A study from 2016 stated that about one in 10 women around the age of 45 can get pregnant. Those who do get pregnant have about a 50% chance that they will miscarry. Typically, a woman's chances of getting pregnant start really winding down around the age of

35. So while it is technically possible that Tammy could have been pregnant, it's pretty unlikely. Especially since Heather had just taken a pregnancy test on her own, but it came up as an error, it seems very likely that Sydney was buying this test to see if Heather was indeed pregnant. The jury deliberated for seven hours and were divided. Ten of them wanted to convict Sydney of kidnapping, while two did not believe he was guilty enough to convict. Because the jury was hung, the judge declared it a mistrial.

Sydney felt like it wasn't fair to hold the trial in Hori County since much of the area believed he was guilty, so the judge agreed to relocate the new trial to a neighboring county. A new trial was held one year later in July 2017. The trial once again showed cell phone records as well as video surveillance of Sydney and his truck. The trial lasted just three days, and this time, Sydney was convicted of kidnapping

and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which is the maximum sentence for a kidnapping charge. In November 2018, Sydney applied for parole, but he was denied. In April 2018, Sydney and Tammy were indicted by a grand jury on conspiracy to Kidnap. In October 2018, Tammy went on trial for her kidnapping in conspiracy charges. The court reviewed all texts sent back and forth between Heather and Tammy.

They also discussed the fact that Tammy handcuffed Sydney to the bed at night so he wouldn't sneak out. But Tammy's defense attorney stated that this was not in fact true, that they had only used Hankov's for sexual role-playing. But Sydney told police when he was originally interviewed that he was Hankov to the bed of reunites so he wouldn't have been able to leave and kill Heather. So this kind of goes against his statement, but we can't be sure which is true. They also stated that Sydney had gotten the tattoo that said Tammy on his lower stomach

in 2012, and that she didn't make him get it to prove his love for her after she found out about the affair. I think by saying all this stuff, they're trying to prove to the court that Tammy wasn't upset about the affair, so she wouldn't have kidnapped Heather because she didn't even care. They tried to paint her as this person who's not crazy and controlling, but I think it's pretty obvious that she is. According to Tammy, the night Heather disappeared, Tammy was with Sydney when he bought her the pregnancy test because they were trying for a baby, and that she stayed in the truck while he went

into Walmart. There is no video surveillance that she was in the car, but we also don that she stayed in the truck while he went into Walmart. There is no video surveillance that she was in the car, but we also don't see him in the car either, we just see him getting out. She said that they got back to the house at 3-10am, which is two hours after he bought the pregnancy test. When asked what they were doing out until 3am, she said they were having sex in the truck. This trial lasted 11 days, and Tammy was convicted on both charges for kidnapping and conspiracy and was sentenced to 30 years for each charge, but they were to be served concurrently, so she would spend 30 years in prison, not 60.

Right now, Tammy and Sydney remain in prison for their crimes. To this day, Heather's body has never been found. If you know anything about Heather's disappearance, please call the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1300. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to check out. Let us know what you thought about this case by commenting on our Instagram posts at Going West Podcast or sending us a tweet on Twitter at Going West Pod.

And make sure to check us out on Facebook as well. And if you want bonus episodes, remember to check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash Going West Podcast. And honestly, the best way you can help out our podcast and the easiest way is to just let your friends and family know. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. you you