True Crime Vault: The Devil's Triangle

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Speaker 9 Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart-stopping headlines come to life.

Speaker 7 The swamps of Horry County, South Carolina, are like a black hole.

Speaker 7 It is a place with some of the darkest, murkiest waters I've ever seen.

Speaker 14 There's this boot-sucking mud, snakes, even alligators.

Speaker 17 At four o'clock in the morning, Peachtree Boat Landing is a dark, desolate place.

Speaker 20 The only reason you'd go to the Peachtree Boat Landing is to put a boat in the water.

Speaker 3 There is no reason for a car to be there, abandoned in the middle of the night.

Speaker 10 I'm gonna do bad things.

Speaker 10 Do it like it's not me.

Speaker 17 The tires were not flat, the windows were not busted, the doors were locked, the car seemed in good working order, there was just nobody in it.

Speaker 7 In these swamps, anything can happen.

Speaker 7 Anything can disappear, even a body.

Speaker 7 There is no way this story is going to end well.

Speaker 7 I've been thinking of

Speaker 10 doing bad things

Speaker 23 Only a few miles from the dark swamps are these pristine beaches and the bustling boardwalks of the South Carolina coast.

Speaker 17 Myrtle Beach is about 75 miles of beach, white sandy beaches, very coastal low-lying areas, a lot of swamps and rivers, and intercoastal waterway connected.

Speaker 5 We have everything you'd want in a vacation destination. We've got the beach, we've got activities, we've got shows, we've got a lot of golf and tennis.

Speaker 30 We get 20 million tourists a year. We get a lot of transplants from the New York area, New Jersey, and then we have locals as well who have been born and raised here.

Speaker 31 The actual permanent population of Myrtle Beach is more like around 30,000, so this is still a really small town.

Speaker 32 Conway, I think, catches a lot of people off guard.

Speaker 18 I think they think Myrtle Beach is kind of all that's here.

Speaker 19 I call it small town USA.

Speaker 33 It's a nice little three-block downtown. Everything's kind of that red brick that you picture when you drive in.

Speaker 18 It's just got a slower feel than Myrtle Beach.

Speaker 37 When I first came down to Myrtle Beach to report on this story, one of the things that I noticed first was this great divide between the tourists who live on the coast and the locals who live west of the intercoastal inlet.

Speaker 39 And it was there that in December of 2013, a young woman, just 20 years old, Heather Elvis, disappears.

Speaker 2 When people talk about Heather,

Speaker 42 they smile.

Speaker 42 Because she was so full of personality. She lit up a room when she walked in.

Speaker 2 She's precious.

Speaker 44 She had a wonderful life. She had some beautiful life.
She lived it the way she wanted. She made her choices the way she wanted.

Speaker 45 We've always been a tight-knit family. Everybody does for everybody else.

Speaker 46 I would describe Heather as

Speaker 46 outgoing, free spirit, you know, loving life.

Speaker 46 She always wanted to live life to the fullest.

Speaker 47 She loved to makeup. She wanted to be in front of the camera and behind the camera and design everything that she wore in front of the camera.

Speaker 5 She didn't understand boundaries when it came to dreaming.

Speaker 26 Heather Elphus worked at a restaurant, a sports bar here called the Tilted Kilt.

Speaker 52 Tilted Kilt is an Irish-Scottish version of Hooters.

Speaker 52 So the girls wear kilts. It's like a sports bar.
So they have TVs everywhere. They have a whole bunch of different beers on tap.

Speaker 53 Heather was a hostess at Tilted Kilt where I was a manager. She was friendly to everybody.
She's always smiling. She had a contagious laugh that I would love to hear again.

Speaker 46 Heather and I worked at Tilde Kilt together. I actually helped her get that job.

Speaker 46 I talked to the managers and said they should bring her on, that she's a really great young woman and that she definitely would be a great addition to the team.

Speaker 47 It wasn't the most appropriate of uniforms, but

Speaker 47 at that age, you do what you can to rebel against your parents.

Speaker 30 Heather really didn't give a crap what anybody thought about her.

Speaker 54 She was a very free spirit and she expressed herself how she wanted to and she might have come off abrasive to some people, but she was just

Speaker 5 very real.

Speaker 35 It's funny because she looks like such a kid in those pictures.

Speaker 15 She looks like a kid.

Speaker 43 She was tiny.

Speaker 35 She was tiny. She was tiny.
She was just 20 years old and she was a little bit tired.

Speaker 55 I feel like I'm a short woman, but she made me feel tall.

Speaker 54 She was very tiny.

Speaker 22 And yet, there was a big personality.

Speaker 5 Very big personality.

Speaker 47 When you're young in Myrtle Beach, you don't think that bad things are going to happen.

Speaker 28 It came out of the blue.

Speaker 50 No one expected this to happen.

Speaker 40 But at about 4 a.m.

Speaker 20 on December 18th, that early morning, an Horry County police officer was on a routine patrol when he noticed that empty car in the parking lot.

Speaker 5 He got out because it was suspicious and that there's a car there this time of night. There's no lights, there's nobody around.

Speaker 5 He gets out, he checks the vehicle, there doesn't appear to be anything out of the normal, so he then gets back and continues patrolling.

Speaker 19 The next day, someone reported that car as a suspicious vehicle because of the length of time it had been sitting at Pete's Remote Landing.

Speaker 5 At that time, Officer Canterbury goes down and sees the car, runs the tag. When he runs the tag, he finds it belonged to Terry Elkis.

Speaker 45 I think I was sitting in the living room and I had a knock at the door.

Speaker 45 And Debbie went to the door.

Speaker 45 I saw through the window that it was a county police officer. And

Speaker 45 he was asking if we were missing a car.

Speaker 45 And I remember both of us looking in the driveway.

Speaker 45 No.

Speaker 11 He says,

Speaker 45 a green dodge intrepid. Oh, yeah, that's Heather's car.

Speaker 45 And then he goes on to explain that it's been found at Peachtree Landing, apparently abandoned.

Speaker 45 He asked if I had keys to it, and I said, yeah. He said, let's ride down and take a look.

Speaker 45 By the time we got there, it was dark.

Speaker 45 And

Speaker 45 he pulled in, had his lights on the back of the car,

Speaker 45 shined his spotlight on it. He says, that is?

Speaker 45 Yeah.

Speaker 45 So we got out to take a look.

Speaker 60 Mr.

Speaker 17 Elvis immediately suspected something was wrong.

Speaker 51 He knew that that was his daughter's only mode of transportation.

Speaker 17 It had no business being at that landing. She never went to that landing.

Speaker 44 So I was just sitting there twiddling my thumbs and waiting, calling Heather's phone. It was going straight to voicemail, which is way out of character with Heather.

Speaker 45 I thought the car might have been stolen because anyway it was parked.

Speaker 45 Maybe somebody took it and left it there. It really didn't hit me.
Where's Heather?

Speaker 45 Until

Speaker 45 he started looking through things.

Speaker 52 Clothes, art, shoes, purses, makeup, you name it, was in her car.

Speaker 5 But they don't find her phone.

Speaker 5 They don't find her wallet.

Speaker 5 They don't find a pocketbook.

Speaker 45 I could see the worry on his face.

Speaker 45 That's when I got worried.

Speaker 45 After we looked inside the car,

Speaker 45 he says, Let's look in the trunk.

Speaker 45 I think even though I still thought the car was stolen,

Speaker 45 I could feel my heart just drop.

Speaker 60 What was tonight near 40 inland? We'll be in the mid-40s right along the immediate coast.

Speaker 4 First, I thought the car was stolen. And now we're opening the trunk.

Speaker 44 Well, I was panicking and pacing the floor while he was at the landing.

Speaker 62 So I put the key in, I turn it, and open a trunk, and I look away.

Speaker 44 Heather's phone is an extension of herself, and it was always in her hand or very close by, and for her not to answer the phone wasn't right.

Speaker 62 He said, it's just stuff.

Speaker 62 And it wasn't. We closed the trunk back, and

Speaker 62 he looks around the perimeter of the landing.

Speaker 45 He walks around the edge, just looking into the woods and along the edge to see if there's anything out of place.

Speaker 62 And the area's like look dull.

Speaker 19 When they got back to Mr.

Speaker 50 Elvis' house, he knew how to access the phone records for the family. While Heather lived on her own, she was still very dependent on her father.
She was on his phone plan still.

Speaker 17 She still drove his vehicle.

Speaker 3 So he had access to these things.

Speaker 18 He was able to produce those records for Officer Canterbury.

Speaker 45 My panic had really set in because it's totally out of the ordinary. You know, Heather's never done anything like this before.

Speaker 11 Something's wrong.

Speaker 45 What's wrong?

Speaker 7 That's when police began piecing together the last known movements of Heather on the night she disappeared.

Speaker 14 So, December 17th, Heather went on a date with Steve Schiraldi.

Speaker 22 Like Heather, 21-year-old Stephen Schiraldi was active on social media, posting selfies and chatting with friends.

Speaker 37 It was actually on Instagram that he connected with Heather.

Speaker 53 Stephen and Heather had gone to high school together.

Speaker 53 And I believe Stephen asked her out on a date and she agreed to go. She was looking forward to that date very much.

Speaker 17 Stephen says they went to dinner at a place called Bandito's.

Speaker 64 After dinner, they went to an abandoned parking lot at a shopping mall where Stephen taught Heather how to drive a stick shift truck.

Speaker 45 We were watching TV and I got a text

Speaker 45 and it was a picture of Heather driving

Speaker 45 a small pickup truck, a big smile on her face.

Speaker 63 It was a picture of her driving Steve's truck.

Speaker 36 Below it she had written, learn to drive a stick.

Speaker 11 Ha ha ha.

Speaker 45 Because it was a sore point.

Speaker 23 I had tried to teach her how to drive a stick shift.

Speaker 45 You're proud and aggravated at the same time.

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 it was pride.

Speaker 17 Heather went to Stephen's house briefly to watch a movie. His mother corroborates that, and then Stephen took her home.

Speaker 45 He said he took her back to the apartment, dropped her off, and went home, and said that they'd either text or talked

Speaker 45 after that a couple of times for a few minutes.

Speaker 38 Police across the country know that in any missing person's case, the first 48 hours are absolutely critical.

Speaker 20 Right now, they're leaving no stone unturned.

Speaker 22 And as part of this initial investigation, they sent an officer over to the Tilted Kilt to see if Heather had missed work.

Speaker 59 One of the first things that investigators hear from Heather's co-workers is that there is a different man who they should be talking to, other than the man Heather went on a date with the night before.

Speaker 5 The manager said she's not working until tomorrow, but you really need to call Sidney Moore. There had been a relationship between the two of them.

Speaker 51 Sidney Moore, back in 2013, was a night maintenance man at various miscellaneous restaurants along the Grand Strand, one of which being the Tilted Kilt, which is where he met Heather Elvis.

Speaker 46 Heather and Sidney started talking. They noticed each other when he would start doing little things around Tilted Kilt.

Speaker 46 She noticed that, you know, he was good looking, he had a good attitude, and

Speaker 46 she went for it.

Speaker 38 Now he may have been good looking, but he was 37, which made him 17 years older than Heather Elvis.

Speaker 34 Sidney and Heather's relationship was certainly sexual in nature. I think that was a big driving force in that relationship.

Speaker 53 Sidney and Heather were having sex all the time, anywhere that they could.

Speaker 33 There were allegations that there was sex in the restaurant nearby during work hours, everything else.

Speaker 53 That did not make me happy whatsoever. So I did ask her about it.
I confronted her about it.

Speaker 66 What was the actual nature of their relationship?

Speaker 54 I mean, most people would call it a sexual relationship but from my opinion of talking to her they were in love.

Speaker 66 How long was it before that everybody knew that they were an item?

Speaker 54 I want to say it was probably like the end of summer, early August maybe.

Speaker 46 Having known Heather since we were little it was a little surprising but Heather was always a risk taker.

Speaker 52 She was pretty rebellious. She was one of those people when you told her no, it only wanted to make her do it more.

Speaker 46 She always wanted what made her happy.

Speaker 46 So I guess Sydney just made her happy when they were together.

Speaker 39 And like so many other people Heather's age, she shared her thoughts and her musings on social media, whether she was happy or sad, and she did so pretty frequently.

Speaker 33 I think for any 20-year-old, there's a strong

Speaker 33 social media presence and used it for everything, and that's their main form of communication. They're on Twitter, they're on Facebook, and there's not a great filter there.

Speaker 52 Heather did enjoy social media, and I think that that was one place where she could express herself openly and wouldn't be judged for it.

Speaker 54 There's no telling what would come out of that girl's mouth.

Speaker 54 She posted a lot of off-the-wall things you know at random times of the day.

Speaker 41 Sydney would sometimes come to bring her coffee and bagels, not to do a job, but literally just to bring her something.

Speaker 43 Yes.

Speaker 40 Did you find that charming?

Speaker 31 It was cute, even though we all thought that it was wrong on so many levels.

Speaker 47 I knew that she was talking to a boy named Sidney,

Speaker 47 that he was sweet and she was smitten.

Speaker 47 I had no idea he was married.

Speaker 10 I'm your nightmare while you're fast, fast.

Speaker 52 Heather received a phone call, and it was Tammy on the other end, and she said, I know you're with my husband.

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Speaker 17 At this point, Heather was missing, and they don't really know where she's at.

Speaker 16 However, they do know that she was having an affair with a married man who also worked at the Tilted Kilt by the name of Sidney Moore.

Speaker 44 We learned all about it in just that first little short period of time because everybody who wanted to help told us everything. More than we wanted to know, really.
I'm gonna do bad things.

Speaker 44 You won't see.

Speaker 31 When you're in love, you're in love.

Speaker 42 When you're 20, you don't always necessarily think through all of those things.

Speaker 10 Doing bad things to you.

Speaker 39 Sidney Moore was 37 years old.

Speaker 36 He had three kids.

Speaker 32 And he was married to a 40-year-old woman named Tammy.

Speaker 22 She was nearly twice Heather's age.

Speaker 5 Tammy and Sidney Moore were married over 15 years. When I got involved in this case, they had a son that was around 15, a daughter that was around 13, and another son that was around 10 or 11.

Speaker 17 Tammy Moore was definitely the more domineering part of that couple.

Speaker 28 She told Sidney where to work, when to work, what to do.

Speaker 17 If I would classify Sidney as anything in that relationship, it would be utterly submissive.

Speaker 7 They both had jobs at night or they worked at night. They would sleep during the day.
They were homeschooling their children.

Speaker 7 So literally, you could live in Myrtle Beach and never even run across these people.

Speaker 17 Prior to this affair, Sidney did have another previous affair.

Speaker 17 I think Tammy, being the domineering person she was, always was suspicious of Sidney, especially after the first affair he got caught having.

Speaker 52 It wasn't a secret to those that worked at the kilt. You know, we all knew about it.

Speaker 17 The affair between Sidney Moore and Heather Elvis was the worst-kept secret in Horray County.

Speaker 22 By now, Heather's relationship with Sidney had been going on for about three months.

Speaker 36 And there were lots of folks who worked at the Tilted Kilt with her who felt that this relationship had just crossed the line.

Speaker 52 There were definitely people that we worked with at the Tilta Kilt that did not agree with Sidney and Heather's relationship.

Speaker 52 One day, two of the girls decided to call the Toltekilt and pretend to be Tammy, Sidney's wife.

Speaker 53 I don't know if they were jealous, if they were upset that she was dating a married man. They decided to make a prank phone call and said, this is Tammy Moore.
I know about you and my husband.

Speaker 53 I need you to stop right now. And when Heather got that phone call, she totally freaked out.

Speaker 38 After that prank call, coworkers say that they didn't see Sidney coming around Heather anymore.

Speaker 37 Then by the end of October 2013, Sidney and Heather's relationship completely unraveled when Tammy found out, for real this time, about their affair.

Speaker 37 And it's at this point that Tammy confronted Heather.

Speaker 52 Heather received a phone call and it was Tammy on the other end and she said, I know you're with my husband, essentially. Like I know you've been sleeping with my husband.

Speaker 52 Sidney got on the phone and said you were just some girl that spread your legs. He pretty much belittled Heather and made it seem seem like it was nothing, and that he just used her for a booty cult.

Speaker 53 Heather was crying because they broke up, and she was very upset about it.

Speaker 17 After Tammy found out about the affair, she was absolutely livid.

Speaker 78 She did call Heather a lot, text Heather a lot.

Speaker 2 Someone's about to get their beat down.

Speaker 17 She was posting a lot of disparaging comments on social media, and Heather was legitimately terrified.

Speaker 79 You can tell me who you are right now, or I will find out another way.

Speaker 52 Nobody you need to worry about anymore.

Speaker 41 And what did they say, do you remember?

Speaker 54 Oh, she was threatening her.

Speaker 2 Hey, sweetie.

Speaker 79 You ready to meet the missus?

Speaker 54 Basically, just letting her know that she was there and she knew.

Speaker 12 And what did she say? Are you ready to meet the missus?

Speaker 15 That doesn't sound that bad.

Speaker 54 Well, she did mention something about Sidney taking his last breath.

Speaker 2 Your b is about to take his last breath.

Speaker 52 And Tammy was relentless. She would call her non-stop for hours and hours and hours.
She would call off Sidney's phone.

Speaker 46 The breakup between the two of them was nasty. It didn't go down well.

Speaker 46 It ended with threats.

Speaker 79 I'm giving you one last chance to answer before we meet in person. Only one.

Speaker 52 She was sending pictures of her and Sidney performing sexual acts, videos of, you know, the two of them together, I guess kind of to taunt Heather.

Speaker 34 Heather didn't shy away from responding.

Speaker 52 I think you're a little obsessed with me.

Speaker 79 Nah, it was a bore.

Speaker 63 She, I don't want to say, pushed Tammy's buttons, but certainly didn't just brush it off.

Speaker 80 Really?

Speaker 52 So that's why you're still childishly texting me from your cheating husband's phone?

Speaker 79 Your stank needs to leave me alone.

Speaker 12 Were you concerned for Heather, and was Heather concerned after those text messages came in?

Speaker 54 Heather was definitely freaked out. I think she was terrified of her.
I mean, her demeanor completely changed over the next few weeks.

Speaker 56 Like,

Speaker 54 she was very paranoid.

Speaker 53 Heather was genuinely scared. Like, she didn't want to ever see Tammy.

Speaker 48 In September 2013, Heather wrote on her Twitter page, once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and it did not end well.

Speaker 48 She probably was referring to her in Sydney.

Speaker 52 Heather just kept saying, leave me alone.

Speaker 6 Leave me alone.

Speaker 52 I don't want anything to do with this. And the calls did stop.
Finally, they did stop.

Speaker 3 Once Tammy finds out about this affair, the Moores take a road trip all the way out to California.

Speaker 17 But this is after purchasing a brand new Black F-150.

Speaker 5 It was a three-week trip, so it was a lot of time together. They drove all the way to California and drove back.

Speaker 19 According to the Moores, the purpose of the trip was to reconcile their marriage.

Speaker 19 Heather was heartbroken.

Speaker 45 It took a few weeks for Heather to kind of come back around, to become that bubbly type person.

Speaker 53 Heather started coming back to her normal self, always joking, always laughing, giggling, pulling pranks on people, the Heather that we've always known and loved before October.

Speaker 52 By the beginning of December, there was no communication between Heather and the Moores.

Speaker 46 Heather was really looking forward to her future after putting everything to rest with Sidney.

Speaker 76 By all accounts, Heather had moved on.

Speaker 37 She was dating again.

Speaker 12 In fact, on the night she disappeared, she was out on a date with someone new.

Speaker 37 But now, Heather was gone and gone without a trace.

Speaker 66 And police went to the tilted kilt, and that's where they were tipped off about Heather's affair with Sidney Moore.

Speaker 5 So the police immediately go to Sidney's house. They talk with him in December 20th, early morning, I'd say 2 a.m.

Speaker 21 When's the last relationship?

Speaker 81 Was it last night or night before? I can't remember.

Speaker 21 What's your relationship with her?

Speaker 82 There was a relationship.

Speaker 81 I broke it off.

Speaker 5 So he was trying to give the police this idea of, look, I'm over her. I haven't reached out to her.
I don't know where she is. I've had zero contact with her.

Speaker 81 At any point, did you go down around the Peachtree landing there?

Speaker 21 Yep.

Speaker 81 So there's nothing that's going to show up.

Speaker 66 Is there anything you want to say if she happens to be watching right now?

Speaker 16 Heather, if you're watching this, if you can see it, if you can hear it,

Speaker 72 we miss you.

Speaker 3 But we want you home.

Speaker 8 Tell me where you're at.

Speaker 8 I'll come.

Speaker 8 Doesn't matter where,

Speaker 8 doesn't matter when, doesn't matter why.

Speaker 3 Just tell us where you're at.

Speaker 80 We begin tonight with a developing story in Horry County as a 20-year-old Saucy woman is missing. I'm Allison Floyd.

Speaker 81 And I'm Tim McGinnis. Tonight, police are investigating her disappearance.
WPDE News Channel 15's Kayla Dorenzo joins us live from Peachtree Landing in Saucasy, where the woman's car was found.

Speaker 81 And Kayla, what's been going on out there all day?

Speaker 84 Tim and Allison, according to the Horry County Police Department, Heather Elvis's car was found in this parking lot here at Peachtree Landing on Thursday, but she hasn't been seen in nearly three days.

Speaker 84 And today, crews were out here searching for any signs that may point to exactly where she is.

Speaker 5 Originally, this case was just assigned out as a missing person. We did not know or have any reason to believe a crime had been committed in the beginning.
The car showed no sign of a struggle.

Speaker 5 There was no blood, no broken glass, nothing to believe that a crime had been committed.

Speaker 84 Detectives are continuing to investigate the situation.

Speaker 67 So, while crews were searching for any physical trace of Heather Heather at Peachtree Landing, police were combing through her phone records and almost immediately they noticed an unusual number of calls to an unfamiliar number.

Speaker 5 They then find out the number belonged to a payphone and that the payphone had called her phone that very early hour of 1:35 a.m.

Speaker 5 And then she immediately is calling the payphone back.

Speaker 50 Heather dials that pay phone back nine times. times.

Speaker 17 Not eight, but nine times.

Speaker 17 The only reason she could possibly be calling that phone nine times that she's never heard of before is to get the other person that just talked to her back on the line.

Speaker 5 They find that the payphone has surveillance video. They pulled the surveillance video.
It was very grainy. You see an individual walk to the payphone.
He's on the payphone over five minutes.

Speaker 5 Even though they didn't know who it was, they had evidence then that the payphone had been used. They call Sidney Moore back, they bring him into the police station for a more formal interview.

Speaker 43 Orange County police begin questioning Sidney about his whereabouts on December 18th, and he tells them that he and his wife Tammy were going around doing errands.

Speaker 22 And at one point, they stopped at a Walmart.

Speaker 72 Was that Walmart, actually?

Speaker 8 Market Beach, Walmart.

Speaker 85 Markle Beach, Walmart. Was your wife with you?

Speaker 71 Yes,

Speaker 71 yes, she was with me the whole time.

Speaker 14 They asked him about the payphone calls.

Speaker 85 Had you used any other phones that night? Your wife's phone? No. Did you make any payphone calls?

Speaker 8 No.

Speaker 85 I still have payphones.

Speaker 7 Who makes a phone call today from a payphone? Sidney Moore has a cell phone. Tammy Moore has a cell phone.

Speaker 7 And Tammy Moore used that cell phone to great length to harass and essentially stalk Heather Ellis.

Speaker 17 They were calling from a payphone to hide the call.

Speaker 85 There was a phone call made to

Speaker 85 Heather that night from a payphone at the gas station on 10th Avenue.

Speaker 85 We have video from that. Okay.
Did you try calling her just a minute, a second? You sure? Maybe.

Speaker 85 How about we start again?

Speaker 85 I did. I called her from the payphone.
What did you say?

Speaker 34 I asked her to please leave me alone.

Speaker 22 It sounded like a very innocent explanation, but Heather's roommate Brianna tells police a very different account of that phone call.

Speaker 61 At 1.44 in the morning, she called me.

Speaker 52 I was on winter break from college in Florida. She was hysterically crying.

Speaker 52 And she said, Sidney called me. My heart dropped because I was like,

Speaker 52 I thought we were past this. I said, why'd you answer?

Speaker 52 And she said, because it wasn't his number.

Speaker 52 She told me that he said he left his wife and that he was sorry and that he wanted to see her and be with her.

Speaker 48 And I told her, don't do it.

Speaker 52 Why don't you go to sleep, sleep on this, and we'll talk about it first thing in the morning.

Speaker 52 When Heather and I hung up that night, by the end of the phone call, I was under the assumption that she wasn't going to meet Sidney.

Speaker 5 That's when everything starts moving in a very different direction.

Speaker 37 After interviewing Heather's roommate, Brianna, about that conversation that Sidney and Heather had on the payphone, Police begin by reconstructing the movements of Tammy and Sidney that night.

Speaker 37 They begin by pulling security video from that Walmart in Myrtle Beach.

Speaker 28 Sidney spent approximately nine minutes inside that Walmart, then went and got back in the truck where Tammy was waiting outside.

Speaker 27 After that, they drove directly to the payphone where you see Sidney make the call to Heather Elvis.

Speaker 56 Day 20 in the search for missing 20-year-old Heather Elvis.

Speaker 30 Dozens of cars and horse trailers line the heavily wooded area.

Speaker 41 While teams of volunteers continue to search for any trace of Heather, police are now squarely putting the focus of their investigation on Sidney and Tammy.

Speaker 32 But rather than lend a hand in the search, Sidney and Tammy unleash an online tirade against the missing 20-year-old.

Speaker 5 The Moore's big push was to basically discourage anybody that was looking for Heather Elvis. They had a lot of negative things to say about the victim.

Speaker 5 Tammy and Sidney Moore were vicious at times on social media. I mean, Tammy Moore put out a Facebook post shortly after she went missing calling her a whore, saying these terrible things.

Speaker 7 We've all heard the term a woman scorned, right? And that's Tammy Moore was.

Speaker 7 But when you see these posts and you see the way she's behaving as an adult woman, a mother with three kids, the way she's hounding this 20-year-old kid, it's disturbing.

Speaker 45 It was a social media war, a campaign of pure terror.

Speaker 5 This case was the perfect storm for two families that were very outspoken, very motivated, and they weren't going to give up either side.

Speaker 87 Using Heather's phone records and her Gmail account, investigators began to piece together her movements.

Speaker 22 After that phone call from Sydney at 1:35 a.m., Heather ends up calling his cell phone several times between 3.17 a.m.

Speaker 87 and 3.21 a.m.

Speaker 22 Finally, he picks up and the two have a conversation for about four minutes.

Speaker 75 And it's at that point that Heather gets in her car and begins driving.

Speaker 17 We trace Heather's phone all the way to Peach Street Boat Landing.

Speaker 5 And once she gets to the landing, she's again calling Sidney Moore. 337, 338, 339, 340.
It was your four phone calls right in a row.

Speaker 75 This is why this is important because while Heather was making those phone calls, video surveillance cameras along the route to Peachtree Landing also show a black pickup headed in the same direction.

Speaker 66 Right there is the camera that caught what the FBI and the prosecutors say is that Ford F-150 going south towards Peachtree Landing.

Speaker 34 At 341 a.m. is when Heather's cell phone goes down.

Speaker 17 There's nothing else at the end of that road but Peachtree Landing and Heather Elders.

Speaker 17 I think anytime you have a missing person, the pressure on law enforcement is immense. Not so much from the community, but you have a family that's missing a daughter and they wanted to find her.

Speaker 5 We had the payphone call, which still wasn't enough. Then we kind of had to chase down what anymore and told the police to find out what was true and what wasn't true.

Speaker 5 During this timeframe, we also started beginning looking for surveillance footage along 814 and Mill Pond Road.

Speaker 32 When you look at a map, it's immediately clear that driving Highway 814 and Mill Pond Road is the quickest way connecting Peachtree Landing and Tammy and Sidney Moore's house.

Speaker 87 In fact, they're only four miles apart.

Speaker 24 So right up here is a surveillance camera that captured the image of a truck that looked very much like the one owned by Sidney and Tammy Moore driving towards Peachtree Landing.

Speaker 17 There's nothing else at the end of that road but Peachtree Boat Landing and Heather Elves.

Speaker 5 Heather's phone dies

Speaker 5 and then you see the truck immediately coming back across the same two cameras heading back to the Moore's residence.

Speaker 43 So, assuming that whoever was doing this was roughly driving the speed limit, they only had about 60 seconds at Peachtree Landing to do whatever they were going to do and get back on this road in time to be captured by those surveillance cameras at 3:45 a.m.

Speaker 5 At the time, Kidney Moore and Tammy Moore owned a 2014 Ford 150 truck.

Speaker 5 Horry County Police Department found there was only one, and it was Sidney Moore, who also happened to be the only person that lived that close to the landing on that truck.

Speaker 37 Once investigators discovered that apparent link between Heather's disappearance and Tammy and Sidney Moore, they pay a visit to their house.

Speaker 5 Originally, when the officers showed up at Tammy and Sidney Moore's house on December 20th of 2013, they noticed that there were cameras up outside the house.

Speaker 18 The goal after they saw that security system was to get a search warrant.

Speaker 5 However, once they went back, they found out that the surveillance system in there was a new system and that it had not recorded anything on December 18th of 2013.

Speaker 17 They had no idea what was on the new system, but they knew that they, out of an abundance of caution, they needed to seize that system.

Speaker 38 Investigators also scoured the Moore's black pickup truck looking for clues and they made an important discovery.

Speaker 51 It was a brand new F-150 fully loaded, had all the bells and whistles.

Speaker 17 In this truck was a GPS navigation system.

Speaker 3 We learned that it was possible to disengage this system and that's exactly what they did.

Speaker 73 It's like a camera SIM card.

Speaker 88 You push down it'll pop out.

Speaker 45 When you take it out, warnings will show up all over your vehicle.

Speaker 73 So it could not have been a mistake.

Speaker 5 It had only been taken out once and that was the night she went missing.

Speaker 88 Two months later, the police arrested Sidney Moore and Tammy Moore.

Speaker 45 They told us that morning that they were going to do it. They actually had officers come and sit with us at home to make sure that we were there and we were protected and we knew what was going on.

Speaker 89 Sidney Moore and Tammy Moore were the two people that were taken into custody earlier this morning.

Speaker 29 The breakthrough in the case came from a discovery made by Elvis' father. he says after he looked up her cell phone records.

Speaker 29 That number, the parents telling ABC News, belonged to 38-year-old Sidney Moore.

Speaker 45 It was a relief to know that something was getting started.

Speaker 60 We're going to begin with a break in the case of a young woman who simply vanished.

Speaker 80 Two people have been taken into custody.

Speaker 91 Both Sidney and Tammy Moore are being held here at the J.

Speaker 90 Rubin Long Detention Center.

Speaker 60 Immediately in this case, the defendants, the victims, everyone went to social media.

Speaker 62 It was like wildfire. It spread exponentially in a matter of hours.

Speaker 37 What began as a case dividing two families who lived just five miles apart quickly consumed the entire town. At this point, it seemed like everyone had an opinion.

Speaker 13 It seemed the whole town took sides.

Speaker 75 This was probably the first case where the social media took on a life of its own.

Speaker 5 I don't think anybody had seen anything like this case.

Speaker 92 I never experienced anything like it, where there were so many so-called facts that came from somewhere, but did not come from a police investigation.

Speaker 93 The state asked for, and the judge granted them a gag order.

Speaker 90 The order prohibits all parties, including defendants, prosecutors, and law enforcement agencies, from speaking to the media.

Speaker 32 And because of the severity of the alleged crime, Tammy and Sidney Moore were denied bail and sent to jail for almost 12 months.

Speaker 5 We then had another bond hearing in February of 2015. At that time, Judge Dennis decided to allow them to be out on an ankle monitor.

Speaker 44 It was just a very traumatic time, so

Speaker 44 we were in a fog.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors decided to try Sidney and Tammy separately. So Sidney goes on trial first in 2016 for the kidnapping of Heather Elvis.

Speaker 7 Now, prosecutors are not required to show motive when they try a case, but they do understand that motive often helps juries understand the background and what's really going on.

Speaker 7 And in this particular case, prosecutors were not going to disappoint that jury.

Speaker 63 In the weeks before Heather Elvis goes missing, she puts on noticeable weight. A fellow coworker at the Tilted Kilt, which provides the uniform to the employees, mentions that her bra size goes up.

Speaker 53 She went from an A-cut bra to a B-cut bra, then a B to a C.

Speaker 22 I mean, that's the kind of thing that typically happens when someone is pregnant.

Speaker 54 Yes, definitely.

Speaker 18 And remember that errand that Sidney ran at the Walmart the the night Heather disappeared?

Speaker 36 He made two purchases and he paid in cash.

Speaker 27 The motive was absolutely that Heather was pregnant. I think she was carrying his child and she wanted to be with him.

Speaker 7 If she is pregnant with Sidney's child, that changes everything.

Speaker 11 I'm gonna do bad things.

Speaker 11 You won't see it coming.

Speaker 11 What you said,

Speaker 11 I've been thinking of

Speaker 10 doing bad things to you.

Speaker 10 I'm gonna do bad things.

Speaker 17 Just do it like at four o'clock in the morning. Peach Street Boat Landing is a dark, desolate place.

Speaker 7 There is no reason for a car to be there, abandoned in the middle of the night.

Speaker 80 We begin tonight with a developing story in Oray County as a 20-year-old soccer sea woman is missing.

Speaker 59 A 20-year-old woman in an affair with a 37-year-old man.

Speaker 47 She was smitten. I had no idea he was married.

Speaker 61 Heather wrote on her Twitter page: once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love, and it did not end well.

Speaker 12 His wife sent text after text.

Speaker 46 Just threats after threats. It wasn't pretty.

Speaker 78 After Tammy found out about this affair, they literally stalked Heather Elms.

Speaker 5 They were chasing her.

Speaker 72 We are here because she can't be.

Speaker 12 Then, a second look at images from a security camera.

Speaker 7 That is when prosecutors dropped a bombshell that nobody saw coming.

Speaker 19 There was a gasp in the room.

Speaker 52 I was just like, holy crap, this is it.

Speaker 35 Why would a defendant defy a court order just hours before she's set to testify?

Speaker 16 She is so narcissistic, I don't think she could help it.

Speaker 69 A missing daughter, a love affair, and a dark road that for her only went one way.

Speaker 52 Everyone at the Tilta Kilt knew about Cydney and Heather's relationship. It wasn't a secret.
At least to any of us, it wasn't.

Speaker 63 So in the weeks before Heather Elvis goes missing, she puts on noticeable weight.

Speaker 53 The uniform is a bra, a shrug, and a skirt. So there's three separate pieces that you can move up in sizes.

Speaker 53 She went from an A-cut bra to a B-cut bra, then a B to a C, and then the skirt went from a medium skirt to a large skirt.

Speaker 52 Heather had taken a pregnancy test while at work. I want want to say it was the beginning of November and she wasn't sleeping with anyone else other than Sidney.

Speaker 53 When she took the test, it came up error.

Speaker 1 I didn't really know if she was pregnant or not.

Speaker 52 I think it was kind of up in the air.

Speaker 63 If she's pregnant and it's Sydney's child, that certainly throws a new wrinkle into this story.

Speaker 5 I think it was in the beginning hard to imagine that two people like Tammy Moore and Sidney Moore would take the life of a young girl.

Speaker 5 So you felt like there had to be something more and we believed that it was because Tammy Moore thought she was pregnant.

Speaker 63 So initially when the Moores were arrested they were charged with murder in addition to kidnapping.

Speaker 5 Kidnapping in South Carolina means to decoy, invagle, or take another individual. So even the phone call from the pay phone that Sidney made to decoy her out was kidnapping.

Speaker 63 That murder charge was later dropped. I assume, given the lack of physical evidence in this case, no body, no blood, no murder weapon, that it would have been hard to prove for the state.

Speaker 80 The trial of the man accused of kidnapping Heather Elvis is now underway.

Speaker 47 I sat in that room and I thought that by the end of the week, if things went the way that we wanted them to, it would be like this release.

Speaker 96 Thank you, Your Honor.

Speaker 97 This time the state coach, Jessica Cook.

Speaker 51 One of the first witnesses we actually called to the stand was Jessica Cook. Jessica was one of the managers at the Tilted Kilt where Heather worked.

Speaker 96 Do you ever notice any changes in her fiscal appearance?

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 20 Remember that video of Sidney at the Walmart the night of Heather's disappearance? Prosecutors think they know why he was there.

Speaker 98 On that video, it shows Sidney Moore in his truck, F-150 drive into a handicapped parking spot, exit his vehicle, walk into the Walmart.

Speaker 98 The receipt showed that he had purchased a pregnancy test and a cigar-type cigarette, and he paid cash.

Speaker 63 The conjecture is that they're going to take it to Heather and make her take a pregnancy test.

Speaker 52 I think that if she was pregnant, I think that would be another reason why Tammy would want Heather out of the picture.

Speaker 32 According to Sidney, the reason he went to that Walmart was to buy a pregnancy test for his wife, Tammy.

Speaker 25 He insisted that they were trying to have another baby.

Speaker 3 There was no hard evidence of guilt to me.

Speaker 93 There was a bunch of bad character evidence, and there was a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 46 Tell this jury about how old you are.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors built what they believed was a very convincing case, knowing that asking a jury to convict based solely on circumstantial evidence is always a steep hill to climb.

Speaker 5 I think the surveillance footage was absolutely key, and that goes from the Walmart to the pay phone to the truck going down and coming back because it created a timeline that showed everything, all attention was on Tammy Moore and Sidney Moore and everything they did was very deliberate towards Heather Elvis.

Speaker 93 When the state rested, I felt pretty good about it. If the jury required proof beyond a reasonable doubt, we were in good shape.
So we did not put up a defense at that point.

Speaker 44 The whole thing is traumatizing. The most traumatizing thing about all this is not knowing where our child is.

Speaker 34 Everybody was just kind of waiting. I think most people thought it'd be several hours for a verdict.

Speaker 34 Right.

Speaker 45 This is a slam dunk.

Speaker 45 But it wasn't.

Speaker 82 The jury is still deadlocked and will be unable to resolve it. Therefore, I'll declare a a mistrial.
This case will have to be tried again.

Speaker 42 To say that I was shocked that Sidney Moore got off on a hung jury would be putting it mildly.

Speaker 52 I think all of us were wondering, what now? What do we do from here?

Speaker 7 The hung jury was a painful blow to the prosecutors and the Elvis family, and prosecutors were convinced that Tammy and Sidney were responsible.

Speaker 7 But getting answers about what happened to Heather remained a priority.

Speaker 25 Investigators felt sure that the Moores knew more than they were telling and they thought that maybe if they pressured them hard enough, long enough, one of them would begin cooperating with authorities.

Speaker 63 Sidney Moore then is charged with obstruction of justice for lying to police during the investigation. It's over the payphone call where he's on video denying it.

Speaker 63 And then, yeah, we all know he made that phone call.

Speaker 5 I know that Sidney Moore misled the police from the very get-go and we felt like this is a missing girl and the first 48 hours are so important.

Speaker 5 So that's why we decided to move forward with the trial.

Speaker 100 It only took the jury 50 minutes to decide.

Speaker 21 On the charge of destroying the death of this healing.

Speaker 63 He's found guilty of obstruction to justice and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Speaker 100 The Elvis family says today's verdict is the beginning, not the end.

Speaker 101 I think it'll be like dominoes. I think the first one fell.
I think the rest will fall into place.

Speaker 101 You can't hide it forever.

Speaker 36 While prosecutors fell short in their bid for a guilty verdict in Sidney's trial, they learned an important lesson.

Speaker 32 They needed more evidence.

Speaker 7 With Tammy's trial on the horizon, prosecutors felt very confident that a conviction in that case would bode very well for the retrial of Sidney.

Speaker 20 If getting answers about Heather was paramount, investigators understood that first they had to figure out who the mastermind was.

Speaker 5 If I had to pick a ring later, it was definitely Tammy Moore.

Speaker 17 She had the motive, he had the means and opportunity.

Speaker 27 If it wasn't for Tammy Moore, Heather Evas would be here.

Speaker 37 It's not often that a defendant in a felony case sits down to tell their side of the story without an attorney present on the night before they're expected to testify.

Speaker 40 Not to mention violating a gag order on them, but that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 60 Put it out, Dead Center.

Speaker 45 All right there, Scott.

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Speaker 52 When a family member or friend goes missing,

Speaker 52 it's like a part of you goes missing with them.

Speaker 52 gone.

Speaker 91 Well, it's been nearly five years since Heather Elvis disappeared. Today, the trial for one of the suspects, Tammy Moore, started.

Speaker 55 And you knew there was a prize to pay.

Speaker 50 In October 2018, Tammy Moore went to trial for conspiracy to kidnap Heather Elvis and kidnapping Heather Elvis.

Speaker 50 Order to the court, all right.

Speaker 72 We are here

Speaker 15 because she can't be.

Speaker 64 And she can't be here because she decided she can't be here.

Speaker 74 Prosecutors have never before made a clear link between Elvis and Tammy Moore, and her attorney says there is no link that can be made.

Speaker 64 Because Tammy Moore didn't kidnap anyone.

Speaker 64 She didn't conspire to kidnap him.

Speaker 5 Tammy Moore's case was definitely more difficult than Sidney's case. We didn't have her own video at Walmart.
We didn't have her making a payphone call.

Speaker 7 Even that evidence hadn't been enough to convict Sidney. So for Tammy's trial, prosecutors prosecutors realized they had to essentially redo their presentation of the case.

Speaker 5 I knew we could do better. When you collate evidence, police normally focus on that very tight time that she goes missing at.

Speaker 57 But we started looking at a much larger timeframe.

Speaker 62 Prosecutors tracked Sidney and Tammy's movements all over town before, during, and after Heather's disappearance.

Speaker 76 And what they found was damn.

Speaker 18 After Tammy found out about this affair, they literally stalked Heather Elms.

Speaker 5 They were chasing her, basically watching her to find out when she may be the most vulnerable.

Speaker 22 And based on this analysis, prosecutors were able to secure a second indictment for conspiracy to kidnap on top of the kidnapping charges they already had.

Speaker 5 We really decided we are showing these jurors everything we've got.

Speaker 97 And at this time, the state college Jodie Davenport.

Speaker 5 The key witnesses really were those individuals that knew that she was dating Sydney more and at the time she thought she was pregnant.

Speaker 68 Do you know who she was having sex with?

Speaker 62 Sydney.

Speaker 57 Who was she stared at?

Speaker 4 Tammy.

Speaker 52 The state car was pretty. I had never been face to face with Tammy up until that point.

Speaker 68 Who's in this picture?

Speaker 44 That's Heather.

Speaker 52 You know, I'm giving my testimony and I'm speaking and being questioned.

Speaker 68 And how did she feel about Sidney?

Speaker 47 She loved him.

Speaker 52 And she's staring into my eyes and

Speaker 52 she has this way of being very, very intimidating. I mean, I get goosebumps still thinking about it to this day.

Speaker 5 Tammy Moore was an extremely dominant, controlling person.

Speaker 72 She takes his phone.

Speaker 72 He can't work at the Tilted Tilt anymore.

Speaker 64 She even chains him to the bed at night.

Speaker 72 I'm not speaking figuratively to you right now, literally, chains him to the bed at night.

Speaker 66 The prosecution also alleges that Tammy forced Sidney to get a tattoo of her name on his body.

Speaker 68 The state calls Jacob Melton.

Speaker 13 And they brought to the stand a friend of their sons to testify about what he heard Tammy tell Sidney.

Speaker 15 If you would have messed with that girl, this wouldn't have been happening.

Speaker 68 And she was referring to what, the tattoo?

Speaker 62 Yes.

Speaker 68 Okay, and where was it located on Sydney?

Speaker 62 On

Speaker 62 lower front waist.

Speaker 22 While the defense didn't deny the existence of the tattoo, they insisted that Sidney had gotten it long before he had met Heather.

Speaker 20 In fact, they presented photos of the tattoo in process during trial.

Speaker 63 The whole idea behind the tattoos and the handcuffing is to show Tammy's control over Sidney.

Speaker 63 The whole prosecution theory is that she grew so jealous over Heather that the two of them conspired to kidnap her.

Speaker 64 Eventually, Heather and her friends come to the realization she might be correct.

Speaker 12 When this gets out and becomes common knowledge, the fire, the jealousy that is in Tammy Moore explodes into utter rage.

Speaker 20 This is where the plan starts.

Speaker 64 This is where the conspiracy is born.

Speaker 22 But while there seemed to be plenty of motive, what the case lacked was the kind of direct evidence that juries often rely on.

Speaker 38 Testimony and evidence will show that Tammy and the missing woman were never together.

Speaker 57 Everything we had was circumstantial.

Speaker 5 But the circumstantial evidence we had, I don't think, could be contradicted.

Speaker 97 And the state caused Mike Melvis into this hand.

Speaker 65 We provide software that analyzes cell phone records during investigations.

Speaker 51 We were able to visually show the jury where they were based on the phone records.

Speaker 12 So we can see how the phone uses different towers over time.

Speaker 52 So you use it basically to show the phone's movement?

Speaker 45 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 5 Tammy and Sidney, both of their phones began following around Heather Elvich's phone after November 2nd.

Speaker 16 So that places Heather's phone up there that evening.

Speaker 65 Also on that same evening that we have Tammy's phone on the Sprint network.

Speaker 97 And now also Sidney Moore sitting in that area.

Speaker 65 Sidney Moore's phone is up there as well, yes.

Speaker 13 And on the night of December 18th, both Sidney and Tammy's cell phone pinged on the same tower near the payphone, proving they were together that night.

Speaker 5 And is Tammy and Sidney's phone in the area of this payphone at One Starting?

Speaker 65 Yes, they are.

Speaker 5 Immediately after that phone call, she calls her roommate.

Speaker 104 My exact words were, do not call Sidney back. Don't do anything rash.
Go to sleep and we'll talk about it tomorrow.

Speaker 68 When is the next time

Speaker 68 that you heard from us?

Speaker 62 I haven't.

Speaker 47 In a week like this, it's almost like you're just drowning. So, when you have moments like that, you have to reach out and hold on to other people because

Speaker 11 it's hard.

Speaker 47 The world kind of swallows you up.

Speaker 7 When prosecutors presented video surveillance footage showing that Ford F-150 driving back and forth from Peachtree Landing, just before and just after Heather disappears, they were actually able to call a person who teaches forensic video analysis at Quantica.

Speaker 62 The work that we do includes help with questions of primarily identification.

Speaker 34 He looked at the Morris truck and looked at the video, analyzed all sorts of headlights, testified about different types of trucks and the way their headlights worked.

Speaker 68 Is it your opinion today, after looking at everything you've looked at, that indeed it was the same truck as the known truck which belonged to Tammy Moore?

Speaker 45 Yes.

Speaker 34 When the state rested, they excused the jury.

Speaker 14 It was pretty clear Tammy wanted to say something.

Speaker 17 She is so narcissistic, I don't think she could help it.

Speaker 62 All right, and do you wish to testify in this case?

Speaker 104 I do not.

Speaker 14 When she said, yes, I want to testify, there was a gasp in the room.

Speaker 5 There's no doubt Tammy Moore thought I can convince this jury that I've done nothing wrong.

Speaker 95 So help me God and keep this receiver.

Speaker 31 These were Facebook posts, triple coupons, follow, school's all done.

Speaker 66 So it looks like you are putting together a timeline.

Speaker 95 It starts with early in the night at 1.47. My sister sister texts me.
At 3.10, I pull into the driveway.

Speaker 80 I text her, I got the ad and that I'm home.

Speaker 95 3.58, I make another post, and this is conversations that me and Sydney had that night.

Speaker 95 So I just, I want to make sure that everything that I did was accounted for, that it's looking normal, just like any other day in my life.

Speaker 37 I was surprised when Tammy Moore decided to sit down with me for an interview in violation of a court-imposed gag order on her the night before she was expected to take the stand in her own defense and without her attorney present.

Speaker 95 What we got accused of, neither one of us would ever do.

Speaker 106 Which part?

Speaker 95 The kidnapping. And at first it was murder as well.
And that's not, we're not those kind of people.

Speaker 95 I've never even had a speeding ticket.

Speaker 52 I didn't even have sex till I was 18 years old.

Speaker 66 There are people who say that you wore the pants in the family, that you were really the powerhouse here.

Speaker 95 The man that makes the money is the one that's running the house. I paid the bills.

Speaker 37 And the wife who gets her name tattooed on her husband's stomach

Speaker 95 right above the belt

Speaker 66 seems to be the one who makes the rules.

Speaker 95 But that's making it sound like he got a tattoo because I forced him to and I didn't.

Speaker 40 Okay, so since we're on that subject, after he had the affair with Heather, did you actually handcuff him to the bed?

Speaker 95 Never.

Speaker 69 It sounds like you're trying to hide or cover up something that seems completely natural, which is anger resulting from your husband cheating on you.

Speaker 4 I'm not at her.

Speaker 95 I am pinced at him because he's not being honest with me.

Speaker 66 Yet, the prosecution essentially alleged in the beginning that you were angry enough that your husband cheated on you, that you were ready to kill.

Speaker 95 That's what they say.

Speaker 4 And they're wrong.

Speaker 66 Were you angry enough that your husband cheated on you, that you were ready to kidnap?

Speaker 95 Absolutely not.

Speaker 69 It seems that the prosecution to some degree thinks that you are the linchpin here, not Sidney.

Speaker 95 They change it according to what they need to say.

Speaker 39 It seems like everybody is lying here, except you.

Speaker 95 And that's why I am terrified of tomorrow, because I feel like this town is going to crucify me because of all the lies and all of the that's happened.

Speaker 91 What happened to Heather Elvis?

Speaker 2 Well, after more than a week, the state has rested its case.

Speaker 91 Today, Tammy Moore took the stand in her own defense.

Speaker 62 You're out this time. The defense calls Tammy Moore.

Speaker 104 He's always a right hand.

Speaker 5 There's no doubt Tammy Moore, when she took the stand, thought I'm going to be running this courtroom while I'm up here.

Speaker 42 So help you, God.

Speaker 104 So help me, God.

Speaker 62 I had never heard her voice in person before.

Speaker 62 Did you learn who he was having the affair with?

Speaker 104 Not until the girl called me back and told me who she was. I had no idea.

Speaker 95 So the messages were never directed towards Heather.

Speaker 104 I was

Speaker 4 every time

Speaker 62 that woman

Speaker 62 used my daughter's name,

Speaker 62 it was like stabbing me with an ice pick. And did you feel like you had the right to know who it was?

Speaker 95 I did. I didn't go about it the right way, and I'm sorry for that.
It looks bad, but I just wanted to know who it was. That's all.

Speaker 62 You've been known to use some pretty salty language, haven't you? Right.

Speaker 52 She sat there and smiled the entire time. She batted her eyelashes, and it just seemed like she was an actress putting on a play.

Speaker 78 Tammy thinks, in my opinion, that no matter where she's at, she's the smartest person in the room.

Speaker 62 You know what time 0800 is? 8 o'clock a.m. You had to worry.
Was the jury really going to buy this? Did you kidnap Heather Ellis?

Speaker 95 No, I did not.

Speaker 62 Do you know who kidnapped her?

Speaker 95 I do not.

Speaker 62 Do you you know if she's been kidnapped?

Speaker 95 I do not.

Speaker 5 When Tammy first took the stand, she came across very credible,

Speaker 5 but I think we, through the evidence, already knew that there was a different side of Tammy Moore.

Speaker 14 Almost immediately, it got contentious between Nancy Lifesay and Tammy Moore.

Speaker 105 Ms. Moore, do you know who I am?

Speaker 104 I do.

Speaker 105 Okay, and who am I?

Speaker 104 Nancy Life Say.

Speaker 95 You've made my life miserable.

Speaker 5 She came off the cuff and was saying I had ruined her life. So I knew for her it was very personal.

Speaker 95 I think it was the next day she called. It was a nice conversation.
She was a nice girl. She wasn't mean to me.
I wasn't mean to her.

Speaker 5 It took very little to push her buttons.

Speaker 105 And you've said, on 11-11,

Speaker 68 I think the bitch is in hat.

Speaker 68 Isn't that what you said?

Speaker 95 It's on there. Okay.

Speaker 4 Then what makes you think the bitch is in Hatton?

Speaker 95 I was just being a jerk at the time, I guess, Nancy. That's all I can say.

Speaker 105 Have we ever met outside of this courtroom?

Speaker 95 I don't think so.

Speaker 62 Okay.

Speaker 68 Just didn't know when we got on a first name basis.

Speaker 5 That had to be the first defendant that had called me by my first name. I felt like that was a almost power play on her part.

Speaker 5 Me and you are equal, and I'm going to be controlling the temperament of these questions and answers.

Speaker 68 Ms. Morris, would you agree that the testimony has has been that the truck went down there on 8-14

Speaker 105 and milk?

Speaker 95 A truck, not my truck.

Speaker 68 But have you been in here for the testimony of the time of the video?

Speaker 95 People lie, Nancy.

Speaker 27 I think Tammy Moore is filled with such anger, rage, and arrogance that she couldn't help herself.

Speaker 3 Tammy's text and social media posts could account for every single minute, except for what seemed to be most critical, the time around 3.41 a.m.

Speaker 76 when Heather's cell phone went off the grid.

Speaker 68 Is there anything you have called on your phone, texted on your phone, or posted on Facebook at 3.35?

Speaker 95 I don't think so. Okay.

Speaker 68 How about at 3.40?

Speaker 95 Um, there's, I don't think so.

Speaker 68 How about 3.45?

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 68 She ain't on the phone at 3.35 or 3.40 or 3.50 or 3.55.

Speaker 68 She can't be. The only documentation you have shows before the truck goes down and after the truck comes back.

Speaker 68 Correct?

Speaker 95 If that's what you're saying to people,

Speaker 95 I don't know what time a truck went there.

Speaker 68 The one person in this room that knows what happened to Heather Elvis already told you from the stand. She said Heather was

Speaker 68 a nice girl.

Speaker 68 She already knows something that I don't know, that this family is uncertain about.

Speaker 68 I'm asking the 12 of you to look at the evidence and give this young woman and this family the ending that they deserve.

Speaker 50 It was such a contentious trial.

Speaker 17 I didn't know what the jury was going to do.

Speaker 5 The jury was at a very short amount of time. Prosecutors feel like that's never good for us.

Speaker 108 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 97 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 108 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted. and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 107 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 11 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without making him scared.

Speaker 107 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 92 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 18 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 108 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020, The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 2 Thousands of you watched online for the past two weeks as the state laid out its case against Tammy Moore.

Speaker 91 Today, the jury returned a verdict.

Speaker 5 I think the moments leading up to the verdict probably took five years off my life. I feel like it was very stressful.

Speaker 18 Deliberations lasted for four hours.

Speaker 50 But when we found out that we had a verdict,

Speaker 18 anxiety, I was nervous.

Speaker 28 Ladies and gentlemen, we have to send the jury to reach your verdict.

Speaker 8 Is that correct? Yes, sir.

Speaker 8 I just

Speaker 45 closed my eyes and kept them closed.

Speaker 45 I was almost afraid to open them.

Speaker 109 We, the jury, find the defendant Tammy Kaysa Moore guilty of seriously kidnapped.

Speaker 91 There you see it. Tammy Moore hugging her family minutes before the judge sentenced her to 30 years in prison.
Shortly after, officers escorted her to J. Rubin Long Detention Center.

Speaker 68 I felt so relieved,

Speaker 52 but I just felt like it wasn't enough. Because the way that Tammy has this smile and this look on her face made me realize I don't think she will ever say what she did to Heather that night.

Speaker 88 They've shown no remorse.

Speaker 62 They won't tell us anything we want to know.

Speaker 62 It's always somebody else's fault.

Speaker 77 Even though Tammy Moore's trial is over, the Elvis family have to still go through the trial of Sidney Moore.

Speaker 64 The retrial there is still pending.

Speaker 45 So, you know, we've got to wrap our heads around that.

Speaker 51 After Tammy was convicted in October of 2018, we retried Sidney in September of 2019 for the same thing.

Speaker 43 We can't give justice to Heather Elvis by giving an injustice to another citizen like Sidney Moore.

Speaker 47 We're going to show you that this man right here, Sidney Moore,

Speaker 94 and his wife Tammy Moore conspired, planned, and executed that plan to kidnap Heather Elvis on December 18th of 2013.

Speaker 71 You can't abduct somebody, you can't do all the things they're saying they're doing and not leave some trace of physical evidence.

Speaker 51 I had to make sure the jury understood that circumstantial evidence was just as effective, just as telling as a confession would be.

Speaker 94 The defense very well may dwell on the fact that this is a circumstantial kind of case. Most cases in criminal law, ladies and gentlemen of this jury, are circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 17 I think there were a lot pieces of evidence that pointed to the direction of the Moores, but for me, the defining moment in this case was the testimony of Donald DiMarino.

Speaker 86 The evidence you're about to give the court in this case will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So, help you, God.

Speaker 4 Thank you.

Speaker 37 Donald Di Marino is Tammy Moore's cousin, and he is a convicted criminal with a rap sheet.

Speaker 67 But he said back in 2014, Sidney showed him a very disturbing photo.

Speaker 103 Did he show you anything?

Speaker 45 Yeah.

Speaker 19 Tell Tell this jury who that picture was of.

Speaker 45 Heather Elvis.

Speaker 5 He told us he had seen a picture of Heather Elvis on the phone. She was clearly not alive and there was blood on her shirt and scratches on her face.

Speaker 4 In that picture, did Heather look like she was under her own free will?

Speaker 45 No.

Speaker 5 At that time, the judge would not have allowed us to get into the details of the photo because we were only trying them for kidnapping and not murder.

Speaker 20 Let me ask you this.

Speaker 45 After seeing that picture of Heather back in 2014, 2014, do you expect this family to ever hear from her again?

Speaker 77 No.

Speaker 17 Donald DiMarino, frankly, didn't have to testify.

Speaker 51 He didn't have to tell anybody what he saw.

Speaker 17 Tammy Moore was his cousin, and the last thing he wanted to do was go against family.

Speaker 7 Still, it was damaging testimony despite the fact that he couldn't produce the photograph. The question is, would anybody believe him?

Speaker 7 And the defense team was going to make sure the jury knew about his criminal past.

Speaker 15 What have you been convicted of in the past, sir?

Speaker 45 I have early charged and a couple of ghost ranges.

Speaker 62 Your drug is heroin.

Speaker 4 Isn't it?

Speaker 18 Donald Di Morino knows a lot of things. He's an addict.

Speaker 50 You can call him a thief if you want to.

Speaker 17 One thing he's not is a liar.

Speaker 66 Prosecutors confirmed there were no deals cut with Di Marino for his testimony, and it's impossible to know whether the jury believed him.

Speaker 22 And that's when prosecutors dropped the bombshell that nobody saw coming.

Speaker 52 There was a video presented during Sidney's kidnapping trial that none of us had seen before.

Speaker 5 Holy crap.

Speaker 52 This is it. This is the evidence that anybody that still had doubts needed to say,

Speaker 52 wow, they did this.

Speaker 110 All testimony is now underway and the retrial of Sydney Moore.

Speaker 80 Both sides are trying to make their mark on the jury that could close a six-year investigation.

Speaker 22 In September 2019, after a hung jury and a conviction for obstruction of justice, Sidney Moore thought that he might have a chance, but prosecutors had some surprises in store.

Speaker 105 Did Sergeant Brownhand say she was ten on the Bible?

Speaker 109 You saw him swear or cry.

Speaker 73 Sidney and Tammy Moore had had a home surveillance camera system in their house, which they tore out on the 20th and reinstalled a new one on the 21st.

Speaker 37 Now remember, Heather disappeared early in the morning of December 18th, and anything that would have appeared on the old surveillance system wasn't there anymore.

Speaker 58 But investigators confiscated this new system anyway.

Speaker 5 Once the police finally got their surveillance footage, they saw Sidney was washing the car and vacuuming the car out on December 22nd.

Speaker 106 This DVD

Speaker 106 is a copy of the video surveillance system that was in Namora's house.

Speaker 22 And what that security camera video shows is Sidney and Tammy spending hours cleaning their F-150 pickup truck.

Speaker 20 And not just cleaning the truck, but focusing on the rear passenger side.

Speaker 5 Originally, we tried to use the video in the first trial and we were denied. The judge felt like, look, a lot of people wash their truck.
It's a new truck.

Speaker 5 That's not going to be enough to get you there.

Speaker 106 I think that's mere suspicion once we went back and looked more at the footage and closer at the footage is when we found look there's more to this about 30 minutes into cleaning the truck Sydney starts a burn pile over in the side yard and starts burning some of the rags that they're cleaning with and it continues throughout the whole time they're there

Speaker 5 So that kind of pushed it forward and at that time the judge allowed us to play it and put it into evidence.

Speaker 68 Okay. Once the rags were burned, could you have gotten any evidentiary back?

Speaker 106 No, they were destroyed in the burn pile.

Speaker 52 Like to me, that just screams guilty.

Speaker 40 The defense claimed that burning the trash is common in the Moores neighborhood.

Speaker 5 Honestly, after we saw what was on the tape, we would have never dreamed they would have done that knowing that that video surveillance camera was there.

Speaker 5 That was kind of, I felt like the biggest mistake had made.

Speaker 40 That wasn't the only piece of new evidence the prosecutors put forward.

Speaker 17 Other than Donald D. Marino's testimony,

Speaker 78 I think one of the big moments of this trial was when Ashley Kaysen took the stand, who is Tammy Moore's sister.

Speaker 37 Tammy's sister, Ashley, was called by the defense to testify on Tammy's behalf.

Speaker 38 But who would she play better for, the defense?

Speaker 58 or the prosecution.

Speaker 12 The prosecutors asked Ashley about video that they claimed showed Tammy looking for police listening devices.

Speaker 5 You were looking for bugs, weren't you?

Speaker 57 You and your sister Tammy?

Speaker 57 Looking through, yeah, to see if the police had left any, I'm assuming, devices y'all were looking all through the tree.

Speaker 109 No, I don't recall.

Speaker 57 Okay, I can play this video and you can refresh your memory. You want me to refresh your memory?

Speaker 64 Sure.

Speaker 109 That's what we're following.

Speaker 109 Okay.

Speaker 5 You literally could see Tammy Moore with a mirror looking under items in the house and and in the yard trying to find out if the police had put anything there.

Speaker 109 It looks to me like she's pulling weeds out of her. Okay, keep looking what she did on the found.

Speaker 105 Keep looking. Okay, did she look like a mirror?

Speaker 109 I can't tell, I'll be honest. It's too far.
Either it's too far away or the picture is not good enough.

Speaker 50 The things she said, you couldn't reconcile it with the evidence.

Speaker 22 Still, despite Ashley's testimony, prosecutors argued that Tammy's actions on video were yet another piece of damning evidence against the Moores.

Speaker 7 Tammy Moore is a woman who's concerned about police surveillance because, number one, she hates losing control. And number two, she knows exactly what she did that night.

Speaker 7 She knows exactly where poor Heather Elvis is, and she doesn't want to get caught.

Speaker 62 I need additional witness, Mr. Jim.

Speaker 19 Your Honor, the state has nothing further.

Speaker 62 All right.

Speaker 19 Ladies and gentlemen, this would include the evidentiary portion of

Speaker 62 this process.

Speaker 19 Even though there may be suspicious behavior that we simply could not trust the circumstances enough to say that we're convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 18 Like I told the jury in opening statements, this is absolutely a circumstantial evidence case for two reasons. One, Sidney and Tammy Moore are not cooperating.

Speaker 45 They don't have to.

Speaker 105 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 17 But more than that, they lied, they misled police, they deleted records, they destroyed evidence.

Speaker 5 And I am here to ask you, at the end of this story, to give justice to this family and this community.

Speaker 52 These people have been patient and persistent.

Speaker 57 And I'm asking you to give them the ending to this story that Heather Elvis deserves.

Speaker 5 I'm asking you for justice.

Speaker 5 Thank you.

Speaker 45 Thank you.

Speaker 83 It's been 2,093 days since Heather Elvis could wrap her arms around her father, Terry, could kiss her mother, Debbie, and tell her little sister Morgan that she loves her.

Speaker 37 After six years, multiple trials, three convictions, and a lot of heartache, the Elvis family braced themselves for the verdict.

Speaker 67 As for the prosecutors, Nancy Livesay and Chris Helms, all they could do was wait and hope.

Speaker 62 I understand the jury has reached a verdict.

Speaker 17 I was frankly more confident going into these deliberations than I was during Tammy's trial. I had confidence that these people would do the right thing.

Speaker 5 I think the mastermind is Tammy Moore,

Speaker 5 but I don't for one minute think that she is any more guilty than Sidney Moore. I think they were equal participants.

Speaker 51 The verdict came back after two hours of deliberation this time, literally half the time they deliberated for Tammy's trial.

Speaker 62 I've asked more to please stand.

Speaker 62 You may publish the verdict.

Speaker 111 We, the jury, by unanimous consent, find the defendant, Sidney St. Clair Moore, on the charge of kidnapping

Speaker 111 guilty.

Speaker 45 Thank you, Lady General.

Speaker 17 Like Tammy, Sidney was also sentenced to 30 years on each charge to run concurrently.

Speaker 75 Do I feel he was wrongfully convicted? I mean, I feel the jury got it wrong.

Speaker 45 They tried to raise reasonable doubt, and that was their job, to raise reasonable doubt.

Speaker 60 But they didn't do their job because I wasn't doubting. Were you?

Speaker 60 No.

Speaker 18 I know the right people are behind bars. I have no doubt about that.

Speaker 50 The perfect solution would be to find Heather Elvis alive, but I don't believe that'll ever happen.

Speaker 5 I think eventually one of them will turn. I think 30 years is a long time.
I think once they find out that their appeals are denied, I think then they will be looking to tell the truth.

Speaker 42 After the verdict, I think the emotions that everyone felt were empty. There was no reprieve from the heaviness that's there because we don't know where Heather is.

Speaker 20 For six years now, they've met at Peachtree Landing in Sockestee.

Speaker 74 This event brings other families who have lost loved ones or are missing loved ones during a time of year when family really means the most.

Speaker 45 If I could talk to

Speaker 44 Cindy,

Speaker 44 I would want to tell him that

Speaker 44 this has been just a really long nightmare for everybody,

Speaker 44 but he could make it better if he would tell the truth.

Speaker 47 So I'm hoping that Sidney sees this and he remembers what it's like to care for her.

Speaker 47 At some point Sidney loved her or at least cared deeply for her.

Speaker 45 I hold out hope that

Speaker 45 I'll turn around one day at the front door and she'll walk in.

Speaker 45 Do I really think that'll happen?

Speaker 45 Deep down, no, I don't.

Speaker 45 Wait, I'll never give up.

Speaker 62 I think that at 20 years old,

Speaker 47 you're looking for someone to love you.

Speaker 47 That somebody out there wants to love you unconditionally and walk away from everything in the world for you.

Speaker 47 I know how happy she would have been

Speaker 45 that somebody loved her

Speaker 45 and she had this fairy tale ending.

Speaker 47 But she didn't.

Speaker 47 She didn't have that fairy tale ending.

Speaker 45 Somebody stole that from her

Speaker 31 and they stole it from everybody else here too.

Speaker 112 You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Friday nights at 9 on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

Speaker 4 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 6 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 94 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist.

Speaker 14 At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 6 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.