The Landing

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Speaker 6 She is and will always be my sister.

Speaker 6 I don't know what happened to her. I don't get to say goodbye.

Speaker 7 It was so awful.

Speaker 8 If you took her, please just let her come home.

Speaker 9 She's missing. Where is she at?

Speaker 8 Just all so overwhelmingly horrible.

Speaker 10 This random payphone number called Heather's phone.

Speaker 9 I'm like, whose number is this?

Speaker 8 He found Heather's card at the landing.

Speaker 9 I was scared to death over that trunk.

Speaker 11 This crazy love triangle, kidnapping, potential murder?

Speaker 8 Yeah, this is Heather's life we're talking about.

Speaker 7 Terrifying.

Speaker 7 Makes your whole world fall apart.

Speaker 12 We're not giving up. Never gonna give up.

Speaker 8 I'm gonna bring you home. Somehow, some way.

Speaker 5 I'm bringing you home.

Speaker 11 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Vacation heaven.

Speaker 11 60 miles of Instagram-worthy sand and surf. And thrills at every turn.

Speaker 11 But leave the tourists behind and go inland a mere 20 minutes to a bend in the Waccamaw River. It's tranquil.
The trees are draped in Spanish moss.

Speaker 11 There's a boat landing here with a fancy name, Peachtree Landing.

Speaker 6 It's a quiet spot that you can go think.

Speaker 6 You don't get a lot of that in a small town. So when you find a spot, I mean, you go all the time.

Speaker 11 What happened here to 20-year-old Heather Elvis one December night in 2013 became an enduring mystery.

Speaker 8 I know that there is no way that Heather would not come home if she could come home.

Speaker 8 No way.

Speaker 6 You don't realize how much

Speaker 6 somebody's face means to you.

Speaker 11 until you can't see it anymore.

Speaker 11 A family anguished, clinging to hope, searching for answers, a journey that would consume them for years.

Speaker 9 One of my best friends came to the house. He looked at me and he said,

Speaker 9 He said, I hope she didn't suffer.

Speaker 9 I can't get that thought

Speaker 5 out of my head.

Speaker 11 Heather was born in 1993, the middle kid, sandwiched between elder brother Chris and younger sister Morgan. As Morgan vividly remembers, Heather would never let a label define her.

Speaker 11 She wasn't really a girly girl or a tomboy.

Speaker 6 She was somewhere in between. She would drive four-wheelers and play volleyball and shoot paintball guns.

Speaker 6 And then she'd turn around and put on a dress and go, you know, look beautiful for photos.

Speaker 11 Her parents, Debbie and Terry Elvis, say Heather was driven by a passion to create. She drew all the time, decorating the family house with her doodles.

Speaker 8 Everywhere you went in the house, there was some kind of writing or some kind of drawing or some kind of doodle.

Speaker 11 So her brain's working over time.

Speaker 8 Constantly.

Speaker 9 Just as a reminder, small desk in the house that I sit at has a computer at it. There's little sticky notes

Speaker 9 all over the top part of the desk.

Speaker 14 And the one that sits right in front of my face just says in her handwriting, Heather is amazing with a little heart on it.

Speaker 11 And Heather was amazing when it came to cosmetology, the art of makeup. In a way that only siblings can, she sparked Morgan's interest in it too.

Speaker 6 She said cosmetology was hers. She was, I was not allowed to have it, and I did it anyway.

Speaker 6 And that's kind of, you know, what sisters do is.

Speaker 7 Oh my gosh, tell me.

Speaker 6 Don't tell me no because I'm going to do it anyway.

Speaker 11 After graduation from high school in 2011, Heather began working at a local pub called The Tilted Kilt, where she became a hostess. Brianna Coltzer, known as Bree, worked with her there.

Speaker 10 She would welcome back to the table. She'd already have them laughing, having a conversation, saying when they were leaving.

Speaker 11 Brie shared almost everything with Heather, including her apartment.

Speaker 11 And when Heather confided that she didn't always see eye to eye with her parents, well, that was hardly unusual for a young woman determined to make her own way.

Speaker 10 They love each other dearly. It's just, I think, they knocked heads because

Speaker 10 Heather wanted to explore.

Speaker 11 As for boyfriends, Bree watched Heather go through ups and downs. Just recently, she'd emerged from a difficult relationship with an older man.

Speaker 10 I know for a fact she still have feelings for him. You don't just fall out of love.

Speaker 10 like that as much as sometimes we wish we could.

Speaker 11 But on December 17th, 2013, everything was falling into place for Heather Elvis.

Speaker 11 She got a new job as a makeup artist, had a date with a new guy, even learned how to drive a stick shift in her date's truck. There she is, around 10, in a picture she texted her dad.

Speaker 8 She was proud of herself. It was a good day for her.

Speaker 11 And you too must have been so proud of her that day.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think

Speaker 9 the picture was, it was like, I did it without you, you know, but you couldn't help but be proud of it.

Speaker 11 And then, two days later, a knock at Debbie and Terry's door. A police officer with an odd question.
Were they missing a car?

Speaker 8 That was his exact words. Are you missing a car? And I looked in the driveway and I, nope, they're all there.
Not thinking about

Speaker 8 that he found a car somewhere.

Speaker 11 Was Heather's car registered in her name? Yeah, it was still in our name. So that's why he's at your doorstep.

Speaker 8 Terry came up right behind me and asked what was going on, and he explained that he found Heather's car at the landing.

Speaker 11 What was going on? If Heather's car was at the landing, then where was she?

Speaker 11 A family holds on to hope.

Speaker 9 One of the local hospitals said that a Heather Elvis had come in on their own and had been released.

Speaker 11 But fear creeps in.

Speaker 6 It felt like something was wrong.

Speaker 9 He said, Let's take a look in the trunk. I was scared to death to open that trunk.

Speaker 11 Heather Alvis's parents didn't know what to think. Two days earlier, their daughter had been all smiles out on a date.
Now, a policeman was at their door.

Speaker 11 He just found Heather's car at Peachtree Landing, abandoned.

Speaker 9 The officer said you have extra keys or spare keys to the car. I said yes.
He said we'll grab those and let's go take a look at it.

Speaker 11 Heather's mom Debbie tried calling her daughter's cell phone and it was just going straight to voicemail.

Speaker 8 It wasn't ringing.

Speaker 11 While her dad Terry rode down with the officer to the landing.

Speaker 14 Well as we pulled up to this direction we he could see that the car was sitting

Speaker 14 facing the water.

Speaker 11 He took us there, explaining what the officer showed him that night.

Speaker 14 He had shined the spotlight on the back of the car. He checked the tag.

Speaker 11 It was his daughter's Dodge Intrepid. Right away, Terry could see something was off.

Speaker 9 But instead of being this way, the car was turned this way.

Speaker 14 Basically taking up two, possibly three parking spaces.

Speaker 9 I unlocked the car for him and

Speaker 5 he stopped and he put on gloves.

Speaker 9 He handed me a pair of...

Speaker 9 He said, just to be on the safe side.

Speaker 11 Terry Elvis couldn't understand it. The last time he heard from Heather was when she sent that photo from her date.
She was fine. Now she was nowhere to be found.
He was searching her abandoned car.

Speaker 9 On the center console, her driver's license was there.

Speaker 11 That's weird.

Speaker 9 And a couple of other business cards and identification cards. But there were no keys.

Speaker 11 That's when the officer said something that made Terry Elvis's heart skip a beat.

Speaker 9 He said, let's take a look in the trunk. And I went back and I turned a key and he said, let me open it.
I said,

Speaker 9 you know, just let me lift it.

Speaker 11 He held his breath as the lid to his daughter's trunk popped open. Were you worried about?

Speaker 9 I was scared to death to open that trunk. And we both looked in it and it was fine.
There was nothing there.

Speaker 11 There was plenty of clutter. No sign of foul play.

Speaker 11 By that point, Bree, who'd been out of town for several days, had gotten word her best friend Heather was missing.

Speaker 10 i called her dad who was with police at the time at the at peachtree and

Speaker 11 he had asked when the last time i talked to heather was bree told the two men that heather had called from their apartment a day earlier around 1 30 a.m tuesday fresh from her date and she started saying well you know i had an amazing date man i'm supposed to see him tomorrow when he gets off work But Bree said Heather didn't want to chat about the new guy.

Speaker 11 She was upset about a call she'd gotten from that older man she once dated. His name was Sidney.
Weeks earlier, he dumped Heather.

Speaker 10 Her exact words, Sidney called me. And I was like, what? And she was like, yeah.
And I was like, well, what did he say? She said he wanted to be with me and see me.

Speaker 11 Bree told her friend not to do anything rash.

Speaker 10 And she was like, you know what, you're right. I'm going to get some sleep.
I'm exhausted. And I love you because we always say I love you when we hang up and hung up.

Speaker 11 As far as the Elvises knew, that was the last last time anyone had spoken with Heather. Now, almost 24 hours later, they started to worry.

Speaker 6 They felt like something was wrong.

Speaker 11 Heather's sister Morgan arrived home from a basketball game. Had they told you at this point what was going on?

Speaker 6 And I just kind of picked up what was going on through conversation. That Heather was nowhere to be found.

Speaker 11 That's when it dawned on them. They could retrace Heather's steps by way of her cell phone.
She was still on their family plan.

Speaker 5 Ended up going online and going to

Speaker 9 our cell phone provider because you can look at the call records. And they pull up the information and they emailed it to us.

Speaker 11 They could see the most recent calls their daughter made and received. After her call to Bree, Heather dialed another number several times.
These are the early morning calls.

Speaker 11 Yeah, and I'm like, whose number is this?

Speaker 11 The worried parents suddenly found themselves playing detective in the very real case of their missing daughter.

Speaker 8 We Googled the numbers, trying to figure out what they went to.

Speaker 11 And they got a hit. The numbers Heather dialed belonged to a man named Sidney Moore.

Speaker 11 They figured that had to be the ex-boyfriend Bree had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 5 And Terry's like, I'm going to call him.

Speaker 8 I'm just going to call him. Wow.
I said, Terry, you can't call somebody in the middle of the night.

Speaker 11 He did anyway. On the other end, a man answered.
The way Terry recalls it, the man was not happy.

Speaker 9 I said, you know you don't know me I said but I'm Heather's father Heather Elvis

Speaker 9 and before I could get the next word out I'm getting I'm getting cussed out left and right like cussing about what nothing just just cussing just like you know don't call me you know

Speaker 14 I don't know what you're talking about I don't know this person okay that's a very odd reaction but it's but it's just

Speaker 9 it's just cursing after cursing after cursing.

Speaker 11 The man who had dated their daughter was hotly denying he'd ever heard of her. As the hours ticked by, Terry and Debbie grew more anxious.

Speaker 11 They knew they needed a new plan to find their missing daughter.

Speaker 11 Two new on-camera clues. Someone at a pay phone.
It appears that this is someone she knows.

Speaker 7 Right, exactly.

Speaker 11 Then someone in a pickup.

Speaker 10 You can see a dark pickup truck go by. Soon after that, her phone goes dead and nobody ever heard from her again.

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Speaker 11 Her parents couldn't get in touch with her. Police couldn't find her.
And then all of Myrtle Beach was searching for her. Heather Elvis, a missing person.

Speaker 10 Volunteers keep searching for the 20-year-old.

Speaker 11 Heather's desperate parents called on everyone to scour the area. They printed out flyers.

Speaker 9 There wasn't a store front in Myrtle Beach that didn't have one or two flyers in it. And then they were in Georgia and Tennessee and Florida.

Speaker 11 They posted pleas online for information. They turned to the news media

Speaker 5 local.

Speaker 21 Is Heather alive?

Speaker 9 My heart tells me that my daughter's alive.

Speaker 11 And national, including Dateline's Missing in America digital series. The Elvises led our cameras into those agonizing early days.

Speaker 1 There's this hole that

Speaker 8 we all as a family just feel.

Speaker 11 And bearing silent witness to their anguish was another daughter, Morgan.

Speaker 6 I can probably count on one hand how many times I've seen my dad cry.

Speaker 6 And to see something like that makes your whole world fall apart.

Speaker 11 Police quickly turned their attention to Heather's new guy, the man who had been with her on a date that night. His alibi, that he dropped Heather at her apartment and returned home, checked out.

Speaker 23 The date has been questioned. He has cooperated with law enforcement, and

Speaker 23 he is not listed as a person of interest or a suspect.

Speaker 11 But what about the old boyfriend, Sidney? Police wanted to know more about his relationship with Heather. Her best friend, Bree, was just the person to tell them about it.

Speaker 10 He flirted with her just as much, if not more,

Speaker 10 than she flirted with him. It was mutual.

Speaker 11 Bree said that the two had met that spring at the Tilted Kilt, the pub where Heather had been a hostess. Sidney took care of maintenance there.

Speaker 10 You could tell that he really did care about Heather when he would come in and see her or just the little things, the texts or the calls to check up on her at work.

Speaker 11 But there was a big problem. Sidney was married, although Heather didn't seem to mind.

Speaker 10 Heather had it in her head that he was going to leave his wife. She swore up and down that he was going to leave.

Speaker 11 Bree knew that would never happen. Sure enough, in October 2013, Sidney's wife got wind of the affair.
He broke things off with Heather.

Speaker 10 It hurt her. It...

Speaker 10 It hurt me to see her go through that.

Speaker 11 Sidney told police he was home the night Heather disappeared, but he did say that Heather called him. Police went back to her phone records where they saw that call to Sidney.

Speaker 11 And they also found a mysterious number that had never called Heather before. Investigators traced it to a payphone at a gas station.
A security camera was pointed right at it.

Speaker 10 This random payphone number called Heather's phone, called it once. It lasted about four minutes.

Speaker 10 And then she actually tried to call that number back multiple times.

Speaker 11 Marissa Tansino covered the case for NBC affiliate WMBF-TV.

Speaker 11 It appears that this is someone she knows if she's having a conversation that's lasting that long and she's repeatedly calling back.

Speaker 7 Right, exactly.

Speaker 11 Was it Sydney? They pulled the security footage from the gas station.

Speaker 10 You can see somebody walk up to the payphone and place that call to Heather Elvis.

Speaker 11 Police wondered if that somebody was Sydney. They asked him to come in for another round of questioning.
If he'd been home, what was he doing at a payphone, calling Heather? He finally fessed up.

Speaker 10 Sidney Moore told them in an interview with police. I made that phone call to Heather.

Speaker 11 Investigators began to build a timeline from Heather's phone. At 1.35 a.m., Sidney called Heather from the payphone.
Nine minutes later, at 1.44, Heather called her friend Bree.

Speaker 11 Between 2.29 and 3.05, Heather called the payphone nine times, but no one answered. Her phone did connect to Sydney's cell phone at 3.17 a.m.
for four minutes.

Speaker 11 Then, from 3.25 to 3.37, her phone was in her car on the way to Peachtree Landing. But where was Sydney around that time? Police didn't know.

Speaker 11 That is until a woman who lived near the landing here told police her home had a security camera. Perhaps she thought it captured something around the time of Heather's disappearance.

Speaker 10 Around 3:30 in the morning on December 18th, you can see a dark truck, pickup truck, go by her home.

Speaker 11 Police believe it was Sidney's truck. It was a huge break.
Police believe they could now place Heather Elvis in her car and Sidney Moore in his truck, heading for Peachtree Landing at the same time.

Speaker 10 And then soon after that, her phone goes dead, and nobody ever heard from her again.

Speaker 11 It was 3:42 in the morning.

Speaker 11 Police now had a theory. Somehow, Heather had become a problem for Sidney.
So he lured Heather to the landing and killed her. And there was more.

Speaker 11 Investigators believed Sidney and Heather weren't alone. Someone else was at the landing.

Speaker 11 Who was that mystery person at the landing? And why would anyone want to harm Heather?

Speaker 17 The fire, the jealousy, explodes into utter rage.

Speaker 11 Terry Elvis isn't exactly sure when he realized his daughter probably wasn't coming home.

Speaker 11 Maybe it was the afternoon, long after Heather disappeared, when he was standing at his mailbox talking to his best friend.

Speaker 9 One of my best friends came to the house. He looked at me and he said,

Speaker 9 he said, I hope she didn't suffer.

Speaker 9 I can't get that thought.

Speaker 5 What about him?

Speaker 11 The not knowing made it worse. And then, stunning news.

Speaker 24 New developments tonight in the Heather Elvis case.

Speaker 11 Two months after Heather's disappearance, Sidney Moore, Heather's ex-boyfriend, was arrested. And he didn't go to jail alone.
He was joined by his wife, Tammy Moore.

Speaker 11 Both were charged with Heather's kidnapping and murder. Was this surprising to people? Tammy and Sidney Moore are parents.
They have three children.

Speaker 11 And then now they're involved in this crazy love triangle kidnapping potential murder?

Speaker 10 Yeah. It's something that you see in a dateline episode.
It's not a storyline that matches up with two people who have three children, are supposed to be happily married.

Speaker 11 In her first televised interview, Tammy told us her marriage was a happy one.

Speaker 16 We were a normal family. You know, it was about our children.
Our kids always came first before anything.

Speaker 11 Tammy homeschooled the kids, and Sidney worked at local restaurants. They enjoyed cookouts together and family vacations.

Speaker 16 I've always loved Sidney, but I hated the things he'd done.

Speaker 11 Tammy told us she'd found the affair upsetting, but quickly got over it. She said within a day or two, she'd had a nice conversation with Heather on the phone.

Speaker 16 I said, I'm not mad at you. And she said, well, and then she told me the stuff that they had done and what had happened.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors didn't buy Tammy's story for one minute, but they had to drop the murder charges. After all, they didn't have a body.
How did that feel when they told you about that?

Speaker 6 There is some tiny bit of justice in the world for a brief moment, and then all of a sudden, it's like it never happened.

Speaker 11 But it wasn't over yet. It was only just beginning.
Both Sidney and Tammy still faced kidnapping charges. Sidney was up first.
His trial began in the summer of 2016. He pleaded not guilty.

Speaker 22 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

Speaker 11 The prosecution's case was purely circumstantial. There was no physical evidence.

Speaker 11 But they argued those surveillance videos and phone records proved the last person to talk and meet up with Heather was Sidney. However, the jury deadlocked.

Speaker 11 A mistrial has been declared in this case against Sidney Moore. The prosecution didn't give up.
When it came time for Tammy's trial, they came up with a bold new strategy.

Speaker 11 They argued that Tammy had not only been Sidney's partner in crime, she'd been the mastermind calling all the shots.

Speaker 10 They believe that she was the ultimate brains behind this whole plan.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors said it all boiled down to this. Far from being the understanding wife who had accepted Sidney's affair, Tammy had been consumed by it.

Speaker 17 A fire of jealousy was lit in the defendant. She was livid.
She was angry.

Speaker 11 An anger that became something more sinister when Tammy heard a rumor around town. Heather might be pregnant with Sidney's baby.

Speaker 17 When this gets out and becomes common knowledge, the fire, the jealousy that is in Tammy Moore explodes into utter rage.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors said that rage wouldn't be satisfied until Heather was out of the way. They said it was obvious how much the affair had upset Tammy by the way she had treated Sidney afterwards.

Speaker 11 She said she beat the hell out of him. This witness said Sidney had a tattoo of Tammy's name across his abdomen.
His understanding was that Tammy made Sidney get it.

Speaker 10 The state's theory was that was Tammy's way of saying you're mine and you're never going to be anyone else's.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor said Tammy had even chained Sidney to the bed with handcuffs.

Speaker 17 I'm not speaking figuratively to you right now. Literally chains him to the bed at night.

Speaker 11 But as angry as she was at Sidney for cheating, the prosecutor said Tammy was furious with Heather. She'd sent her several texts.
The prosecution said some of them were threats.

Speaker 11 Heather was really afraid of Tammy.

Speaker 10 She was. Her friends had played a prank on her one time at work where they pretended to be Tammy calling Heather's phone and she was absolutely terrified.

Speaker 11 And the prosecution said if there was any doubt about the way Tammy felt, just look at this nasty Facebook post Tammy had written after Heather disappeared, calling her a psycho whore.

Speaker 8 She could have said, oh, I'm so sorry this girl's missing and I hope you find her and left it alone. But no, she goes on the attack.

Speaker 11 Tammy is the one with the motive.

Speaker 24 She is the hunter.

Speaker 11 And it was a hunt, the prosecution said. This expert witness told the jury he'd use cell phone data to track the Moore's movements.

Speaker 11 In the days before the disappearance, they showed up near Heather's workplace. Some of the bars she liked, even her home.
The prosecution suggested the couple was stalking her.

Speaker 11 Then, in the early hours of December 18th, with Heather's roommate out of town, the prosecutor said the couple struck. It began here.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor showed the jury surveillance video of Sidney walking into a Walmart and purchasing a pregnancy test for Heather.

Speaker 24 Soon as they leave from Walmart, they go and call her.

Speaker 26 Why?

Speaker 24 Because the test will struck her.

Speaker 11 The prosecution's theory was that Sidney had called Heather to come and get the test, take it, and then meet up with him later at the landing.

Speaker 11 They said what she didn't know was that Tammy would be there too.

Speaker 24 There's no doubt Sidney is debate

Speaker 24 in this hunting. He's the baked.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors admitted they couldn't say what happened to Heather at the landing, but they asked the jury to use their common sense.

Speaker 11 An investigator showed the jury a photo of several items found on the Moore's property.

Speaker 21 There is a spent shotgun shelf basin. There is a bag of concrete mix here.
And off to the side up here is some type of a bottle of a cleaning solution.

Speaker 11 The prosecution suggested it was nothing less than a kidnapping kit. What the Moores might have needed to kill Heather and dispose of her body.

Speaker 11 How hard was it for you being in that courtroom every day, hearing these details, having to see Tammy?

Speaker 6 Most days when I woke up, I didn't want to come to the trial, but I went because when you see

Speaker 6 your parents hurting, you wish that you could take all their pain away.

Speaker 10 And something like this, I mean, it's an impossible task for me to do.

Speaker 6 But you can do small things.

Speaker 6 You can sit with them

Speaker 6 and you can hold their hands when they need it.

Speaker 11 After seven days of testimony, the prosecution rested. And the defense announced Tammy was going to testify in her defense.

Speaker 11 As hard as it might be to listen to her, that was something Morgan didn't want to miss.

Speaker 17 Did you kidnap Heather Elms?

Speaker 16 No, I did not.

Speaker 11 Tammy Moore on the stand and on the offensive.

Speaker 12 Tammy was just indignant.

Speaker 16 There's answers to this mystery, and they refuse to solve it.

Speaker 11 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition, too.

Speaker 11 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 11 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 11 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 11 Tammy Moore said her kids should have been tackling homework and hanging with friends. Instead, they were sitting in a courtroom watching her be accused of a terrible crime.

Speaker 11 Tammy is the one with the motive.

Speaker 24 She is the hunter.

Speaker 27 Nobody deserves this. I just want to get home to my children and take care of them.

Speaker 11 Tammy believed she was being victimized by a relentless prosecutor.

Speaker 16 Heather's not getting justice by putting an innocent person in jail. She never will.

Speaker 12 I think that from the beginning, Tammy was just indignant that she was even charged with this.

Speaker 11 Greg McCollum is Tammy's defense attorney.

Speaker 26 They cannot prove to you that anybody named Moore ever went to the boat landing at the end of Peachtree Road.

Speaker 11 The defense told the jury to look at the evidence, or lack of it,

Speaker 11 starting with Heather's car.

Speaker 29 The vehicle did not indicate that anything occurred inside the vehicle.

Speaker 11 The police officer who processed Heather's car testified he couldn't find any evidence of a struggle. Investigators found no trace of a crime inside the Moore's house or truck either.

Speaker 11 And speaking of their truck, the defense said you couldn't tell whether it actually was Sidney and Tammy's truck caught on camera heading towards Peachtree Landing.

Speaker 12 You have low-image, low-resolution surveillance video. Our position is that you absolutely cannot draw any conclusion beyond the fact that that may be a certain make and model.

Speaker 11 This video did not pass the smell test for you.

Speaker 12 This video didn't even give off an odor, okay?

Speaker 11 Another piece of flawed evidence, according to the defense, was the cell phone data that seemed to suggest Tammy and Sidney had been stalking Heather.

Speaker 12 I would say you could compare their phone activity to anybody else's who lived and worked in the area. Those are where the nightclubs are, there are restaurants there.
It would appear that that I were

Speaker 12 stalking her as well if you just looked at where my phone went.

Speaker 11 The defense said that what the jury really needed to understand was a simple fact. No piece of evidence put Tammy at the landing.
If anything, her alibi placed her miles away.

Speaker 28 Did Tammy's children stay in the house there with you where your mother, Polly, lives?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 Tammy's sister Ashley told the court she was babysitting Tammy's kids on the night of December 17th. She said Tammy and Sidney went out together in the hours leading up to Heather's disappearance.

Speaker 11 But Ashley remembered when her sister came home. She texted me that night saying that she was home.

Speaker 28 Do you know about what time that was?

Speaker 16 It was the beginning of 3 o'clock in the morning. I believe it was 3.10.

Speaker 11 For the defense, it was a time stamp. proving Tammy was home well before Heather went missing.
That wasn't all, he said.

Speaker 11 Both Sidney and Tammy's phones were on and pinging from their house, not from the landing when Heather was there.

Speaker 11 It was all so hard for Morgan to listen to. Someday she wished she hadn't come to court.
But that all changed during a crucial moment in the trial.

Speaker 6 When I found out that Tammy was going to testify, I really wanted to be there because I do look like Heather.

Speaker 6 And...

Speaker 6 She ran into me in the hallway, and it was the first time she had ever really made eye contact and been up close and personal with me. And I could hear her audibly gasp.

Speaker 11 But when Tammy took the stand, she seemed confident, ready to tell her story. She told the jury she wasn't a ruthless kidnapper.
She was a mom.

Speaker 24 My youngest is on the far left over there.

Speaker 11 And she was a wife who'd found out her husband was cheating on her. Initially, Tammy said she texted the other woman's phone number to find out who she was.

Speaker 16 The messages were never directed towards Heather Elvis. They were directed to the mystery person.
I just wanted to know what was.

Speaker 11 At the end of the day, Tammy said the only reason she was angry with Sidney was because he wasn't forthcoming about his affair. In their marriage, they had an arrangement.

Speaker 16 I said, I think it's a good idea to have an open marriage for a little bit and just see if we're meant to be together. The only thing I ask of you is to be honest with me.

Speaker 16 Sidney wasn't honest with me, and that's why I got angry with Sidney.

Speaker 11 She said when Heather went missing, she and Sidney were working on their marriage, even hoping to get pregnant. That test Sidney bought at Walmart, she said, was for her, not Heather.

Speaker 11 Also, she denied that she made Sidney get a tattoo as punishment. She said he had gotten it long before he met Heather, and she had an answer about the handcuffs, too.

Speaker 28 Did you ever handcuff him to the bed and leave with the key so Sidney couldn't get loose?

Speaker 30 No, I have not. Sidney's a strong man.

Speaker 10 He could get out of anything.

Speaker 11 And Tammy had her own explanation for that so-called kidnapping kit. Sidney needed the concrete for work.
The cleaning fluid was for their dirty camper. And the shotgun shell?

Speaker 11 Probably just a spent casing from a turkey hunt.

Speaker 29 Did you kidnap Heather Ellis?

Speaker 16 No, I did not.

Speaker 2 Do you know who kidnapped her?

Speaker 16 I do not.

Speaker 12 Are you glad that you're able to tell people what happened and what you did do and didn't do?

Speaker 16 I want people to know the truth, and I too want Heather found.

Speaker 11 Tammy has said that she wants to find Heather.

Speaker 11 She actually liked Heather.

Speaker 11 She didn't do this.

Speaker 11 And yet she goes on Facebook calling her a psycho whore.

Speaker 11 Which is it?

Speaker 12 You know, I can't really, you know,

Speaker 12 explain everything that Tammy said or felt. I think it was a huge mistake to call her names and do that sort of thing.

Speaker 11 He said if Tammy had kidnapped Heather, why would she be writing nasty Facebook posts about her?

Speaker 11 The Elvises listened to Tammy's testimony about Heather with disgust.

Speaker 16 She deserves to be found.

Speaker 5 It was.

Speaker 9 It's so offensive to hear her name come out of that woman's mouth.

Speaker 11 You sat there so quietly in that courtroom. Did you just want to

Speaker 10 scream?

Speaker 8 It was infuriating, some of the things that she said.

Speaker 11 The trial was far from over. It was the prosecutor's turn to question Tammy, and the prosecutor wasn't going to pull any punches.

Speaker 11 Fireworks in the courtroom.

Speaker 24 This is a story about jealousy and deceit.

Speaker 26 They don't have one fiber, one teardrop, one piece of shoelace.

Speaker 11 High stakes in the jury room.

Speaker 3 The jury has

Speaker 5 reached a verdict.

Speaker 11 So help me God. When Tammy Moore took the stand in her own defense, she sailed through her direct testimony.

Speaker 11 But then came prosecutor Nancy Livesay.

Speaker 24 Miss Moore, do you know who I am?

Speaker 5 I do.

Speaker 24 Okay, and who am I?

Speaker 16 Nancy Livesay, you've made my life miserable.

Speaker 11 But Nancy Livesay was just getting started.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor's mission? To show the jury that Tammy was hardly the tolerant wife she claimed to be.

Speaker 11 When it came to Heather Elvis, the prosecutor argued, Tammy was angry, vengeful. And Tammy's text to Heather proved it.

Speaker 24 You've texted her. You can tell me who you are right now, or I will find out another way.
That way won't have a great turnout for you.

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 24 And at the time, how old were you?

Speaker 16 I think I was 41 or 42, I'm not sure.

Speaker 24 Okay, so do you know now when you sent her that text she was a 20-year-old girl?

Speaker 13 I know now. I didn't know then.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor suggested Tammy behaved like a stalker.

Speaker 24 And you've said on 11-11, I think the bitch is in Hatton.

Speaker 24 Isn't that what you said?

Speaker 10 If it's on there.

Speaker 10 Okay.

Speaker 24 Here's my question to you.

Speaker 24 How many times had you gone up there and her to believe that she was in Hatton? Because it certainly leaves the impression.

Speaker 30 Never.

Speaker 30 No.

Speaker 3 Then what makes you think the bitch is in Hatton?

Speaker 16 I was just being a jerk at the time, I guess, Nancy. That's all I can say.

Speaker 24 Have we ever met outside of this courtroom?

Speaker 6 I don't think so.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 24 Just didn't know when we got on a first-name basis.

Speaker 11 After 10 days and more than 40 witnesses, each side wrapped up.

Speaker 24 This This is a story about jealousy and deceit.

Speaker 24 And this story has been around for a long, long time.

Speaker 11 The prosecution driving home its case that Tammy had motive to kidnap Heather Elvis.

Speaker 26 They don't have one fiber, one teardrop, one piece of salt, one piece of shoelace at the boat landing.

Speaker 11 The defense arguing there was not a scrap of evidence to prove it. What would the the jury do?

Speaker 3 Ladies and gentlemen, I understand that the jury has reached a verdict.

Speaker 11 It took jurors less than four hours to reach a verdict. We, the jury, found the defendant Tammy Kaysen Moore guilty of kidnapping.
Guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap. Two counts.

Speaker 11 In court, Tammy took it stoically. Later, she was emotional.

Speaker 27 I told my kids if a verdict came in, I was going away because I knew that's what it would be.

Speaker 11 The Elvises got the verdict they wanted, but it wasn't going to bring Heather back.

Speaker 9 It didn't change anything. People say it didn't change the big picture.
It didn't change the little picture.

Speaker 8 You expect it to feel good.

Speaker 8 To be a victory, but it doesn't feel like that at all.

Speaker 11 Heather's sister Morgan looked across to the Moors.

Speaker 6 The only thing I saw was another family getting torn apart.

Speaker 11 Well, those children sitting behind their mom. Yeah.

Speaker 6 I'm sorry. And I have lived firsthand a family getting torn apart, and I wouldn't wish on anybody.

Speaker 11 Tammy Moore was sentenced to 30 years per count to be served concurrently.

Speaker 11 As for her husband Sidney, he too sat in prison, having been tried and convicted of obstructing justice by lying to police during the investigation. His sentence, 10 years.

Speaker 11 But the solicitor's office wasn't done with Sidney Moore just yet.

Speaker 11 Emboldened by the verdict in Tammy Moore's trial, it decided decided to retry Sidney Moore for the same two crimes, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Speaker 11 His trial began one year after Tammy was convicted.

Speaker 22 Sidney Moore

Speaker 17 and his wife Tandy Moore conspired, planned, and executed that plan to kidnap Heather Elvis on December 18th of 2013.

Speaker 11 This time, the prosecution stuck to its winning playbook.

Speaker 17 They took her from her community,

Speaker 1 from her friends, and from her family.

Speaker 11 Calling many of the same witnesses as they did during Tammy's trial.

Speaker 24 With their question about whether or not she was correct.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 The defense countered, arguing that the state's case was thin and that the police rushed to judgment.

Speaker 22 They've now come to you and asked

Speaker 22 that you believe that they've met their burden to beyond a reasonable doubt. And in so doing, they're saying that they've excluded all other reasonable possibilities.
But folks, they can't do that.

Speaker 22 The evidence just doesn't fit.

Speaker 11 The jury didn't agree. It deliberated less than two hours.

Speaker 1 The verdict?

Speaker 11 Guilty.

Speaker 11 At sentencing, the Elvis family told the judge finding Heather was more important to them than punishing the defendant.

Speaker 22 At this point,

Speaker 22 you could give him a day

Speaker 22 if you would just tell us where she's at.

Speaker 11 Then it was Sidney Moore's turn to respond.

Speaker 22 There's nothing I can give them. They're poetry.
And I know they've suffered.

Speaker 22 Nothing I can give them. And I'm sorry, but I can't.

Speaker 11 Like his wife before him, Sidney received 30 years for each count to run concurrently.

Speaker 11 As for Debbie and Terry, they're in the same place they've been since 2013.

Speaker 11 Living with the hope that one day they'll get answers about what happened to Heather, the young woman who had so many years ahead of her.

Speaker 6 And what would you say to Heather?

Speaker 8 I'm going to bring you home somehow, some way.

Speaker 7 I'm bringing you home.

Speaker 12 We're not giving up.

Speaker 12 Never going to give up.

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