20-Year-Old Woman Vanished After Affair With Married Man And Now His Wife Is On Trial

The case of a 20-year-old woman who vanished in the middle of the night never to be seen since - weeks after allegedly ending an affair with a married man - is heading back to court, with the man’s wife on trial for a kidnapping-related charge.

Tuesday marked the opening statements of the trial of Tammy Moorer, who has been charged in connection with the 2013 vanishing of Heather Elvis, who had an affair with Moorer's husband Sidney.

Sidney Moorer, then 38, and Elvis met in 2013 at a restaurant in Socastee, South Carolina called The Tilted Kilt, where Elvis worked and Moorer provided maintenance services. The two quickly became romantic, according to the Charlotte Observer.

In July, she tweeted "ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL DRAG THAT MAN INTO THE MOP CLOSET AND HAVE MY WAY WITH HIM LORD HAVE MERCY," presumably of Moorer.

But months later it turned darker. 

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well,” she wrote in one September Twitter post.

Their affair ended in October after Tammy Moorer found out about it, according to Myrtle Beach Online. She then began harassing the young woman with threatening messages, prosecutors say.

Elvis’ roommate Brianna “Bree” Warrelmann told Crime Watch Daily that Tammy “basically tore Heather apart as a human being, and who she was as a person and made her feel horrible about herself.”

The 41-year-old even allegedly handcuffed her husband to their bed at night so he couldn't sneak out and he reportedly agreed to save their marriage, according to the Charlotte Observer.

However, she apparently continued to contact Elvis, texting her on Nov. 1: "Hey sweetie ready to meet the Mrs.," according to court documents cited by the New York Post.

Elvis responded in a text saying, “I think you are a little obsessed with me. I’m nobody you need to worry about anymore,” according to the Post.

The paper also reports that Elvis appeared to have been moving on with her life, even beginning to date again, when she received a call from Sidney Moorer the night of Dec. 18, 2013. They spoke for four minutes and Elvis later called a friend to tell them that Sidney Moorer said he was leaving his wife for her.

In the middle of the night - after a few phone calls between Elvis and Sidney Moorer's cell, according to investigators - police believe Elvis drove to a boat landing near Myrtle Beach where her car was later found abandoned. Her body was never found.

Initially, Sidney told police he didn't make the first call, but police had surveillance footage of him at the pay phone that did place a call to Elvis. He then admitted to police he made the call because he told her to  "please leave me alone because she had been leaving notes on our car," according to WBTW in Myrtle Beach. Tammy Moorer allegedly admitted to police that she was with Sidney when he made the call.

The same day she vanished, Sidney Moorer was reportedly captured on surveillance footage buying a pregnancy test, though he claimed it was for his wife, according to The State in Columbia. Several of Elvis' coworkers beleived she may have been pregnant because of weight gain around her hips, but a previous pregnancy test was inconclusive according to The State.

heather elvis

After Elvis' disappearance, prosecutors claim that Tammy Moorer went on a smear campaign against the missing waitress.

“Well Sidney cheated on me in the months of Sept/Oct with a psycho whore who has since went missing,” Tammy Moorer wrote in a Facebook post, according to CBS News after the young woman vanished.

The Moorers were arrested in February 2014 on charges of obstruction of justice, according to the New York Post. Charges of kidnapping and murder followed, but the murder charges were dropped in 2016, presumably for lack of evidence.

Sidney Moorer's kidnapping case ended in a mistrial in 2016 when a jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict, though he is currently in state prison for the obstruction of justice charges, according to the Post. 

The couple were indicted on conspiracy of kidnapping charges in 2017 and it's Tammy Moorer's turn in court.

tammy and sydney moorer

“We are here because she can’t be,” prosecutor Christopher Helms said during his opening statement on Tuesday, according to WMBF in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 

Prosecutors claim that the scorned wife plan to kidnap Elvis started after she found out she may have been pregnant, according to Myrtle Beach Online.

“She knows wherever she is,” Helms said while pointing to Tammy in court on Tuesday. “Sidney Moorer knows, and that woman right over there knows.”

Defense attorneys argued the state is trying to make a case work with little evidence. They compared it to trying to fit pegs into a misshaped hole. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Photos: Facebook, Reuben Long Detention Center]