Posted on 10/23/2018 12:35:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A South Carolina woman was found guilty of kidnapping charges stemming from the 2013 disappearance of her husband’s 20-year-old lover.
Tammy Moorer was sentenced Tuesday to 60 years in prison on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the case of Heather Elvis, a hostess who went missing from Myrtle Beach in December 2013.
Elvis allegedly had an affair with Tammy’s husband, Sidney Moorer, before she vanished and abandoned her car at a local boat landing. Nearly five years later, the young woman has not been found.
Moorer — who testified at the trial — maintained her innocence, claiming she never met Elvis face-to-face. Upon learning the verdict, she told the courtroom she was unhappy with her representation.
“I feel like I am begging for my life for something I had nothing to do with,” Moorer said.
Elvis’ family made tearful pleas Tuesday in court to punish the defendant with the maximum sentence. “Whatever Tammy and her husband did to Heather wasn’t enough,” Heather’s mom, Debbi Elvis, said. “They had to disparage and shame her in the public eye on social media and in the commuunity. Then that wasn’t enough. They had to attack our family.”
Both the Moorers were charged in connection with Elvis’ disappearance. The couple initially was charged with murder and kidnapping in 2014, but the murder charges were dropped two years later.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Heather was very attractive. That might explain why the husband strayed. But, what on earth would motivate him to cooperate with his wife in kidnapping and murdering her?
Fear of what she would do if he didn’t?
The picture of the wife in the article has a cross necklace. Think they would have airbrushed out any other symbol?
This prosecution makes no sense.
How can she be charged with kidnapping, but not murder?
Interesting case. However,there is no mention of any evidence.
Cheaper and less painful than divorce?
Just a thought
This has Lifetime Movie of the Week written all over it.
No “corpus delicti”? What was their evidentiary basis, I wonder?
There’s no body.
Note that Tammy Moorer is already serving a 10-year sentence for obstruction.
There was actually quite a lot of evidence:
“Elvis allegedly had an affair with Tammy’s husband,”
Right there... that’s why a NY newspaper is running with this story.
Thanks for the link. This seems to be the only “evidence” listed in the article:
“In the hours that followed, authorities said the couple lured Elvis to the boat landing around 3:30 a.m. Phone records showed that Elvis called Sidney Moorer’s phone from the landing four times.”
Is that enough to overcome reasonable doubt? Hard to say; it would be interesting to hear Sidney’s explanation as to why he called four times from the landing.
See the "Texas Cadet Killers" case. Teenager Diane Zamora induced boyfriend David Graham to participate in the kidnap-murder of classmate Adrianne Jones, after Graham confessed to Zamora that he had had some kind of relationship with Ms. Jones.
IIRC there were some doubts about whether anything actually happened between Graham and Jones, other than he killed her to keep Zamora.
“Prosecutors presented video surveillance, text message exchanges and phone call records between the couple and Elvis, alleging that the husband and wife drove around searching for the young woman in the early morning hours of Dec. 18. They stopped at a Walmart to buy a pregnancy test, which prosecutors said was intended for Elvis. Then Sidney Moorer called the young woman from a payphone.
In the hours that followed, authorities said the couple lured Elvis to the boat landing around 3:30 a.m. Phone records showed that Elvis called Sidney Moorer’s phone from the landing four times. “
I have a place there. This was huge news for a long time. Billboards and such. Some poor guy had a blind date with her that evening, dropped her off and she got a call from the husband. He was actually cleared pretty fast.
I hope they threw everything they could at them. Family has no closure.
“Prosecutors presented video surveillance, text message exchanges and phone call records between the couple and Elvis, alleging that the husband and wife drove around searching for the young woman in the early morning hours of Dec. 18. They stopped at a Walmart to buy a pregnancy test, which prosecutors said was intended for Elvis. Then Sidney Moorer called the young woman from a payphone.”
The accused’s other behavior gave them away. Obstruction. Threats.
It’s not true that circumstantial evidence can’t convict. It just needs to reach the ‘beyond the reasonable doubt’ level.
“Prosecutors presented video surveillance, text message exchanges and phone call records...”
Danged speed reading - I totally missed that sentence. Thanks.
Yep - they sure LOOK guilty. That they could “disappear” a body without a trace (DNA, internet search) is no small trick however.
They were found guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy, not murder.
Having done a fair amount of legal research over the years, LE may be holding back evidence that might be used for an actual murder charge should there be some more conclusive evidence uncovered.
Such criminals are usually on the left side of The Bell Curve.
Unfortunately, it appears that Elvis has left the building.
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