In a South Carolina courtroom Tuesday, a jury found Tammy Moorer guilty of kidnapping 20-year-old Heather Elvis, who vanished from Myrtle Beach in the early morning hours of December 18, 2013.
Following an 11-day trial, Moorer showed little initial reaction as the verdict was read Tuesday afternoon after less than a day of jury deliberations. Moorer maintained her innocence in a statement at sentencing.
Heather’s father, mother, and sister addressed the court with emotional victim impact statements before the judge proceeded to sentence Moorer to 30 years in prison for each charge: kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap. The sentences will run concurrently.
As Dateline has previously reported, the Horry County Solicitor’s Office alleged Tammy Moorer became enraged after learning her husband Sidney was having an affair with the much younger Elvis and may have gotten her pregnant. It maintained the Moorers conspired to lure Heather to a quiet, darkened boat landing where they abducted her.
The state contended that phone records showed Elvis’s cell phone was last used near the boat landing on December 18, 2013 at approximately 3:40 a.m. Police found her car abandoned there later that morning.
The state first charged the Moorers in 2014 with both kidnapping and murder. The murder charges were later dropped. Two years later, Sidney Moorer was tried for kidnapping, but the jury was deadlocked. At a separate trial in 2017, Moorer was found guilty of obstruction of justice. He is currently serving a 10 year sentence. The kidnapping case remains open. Sidney Moorer denies involvement in Heather’s kidnapping.
Heather Elvis’s body has never been found.