Tammy Moorer back in Horry County as husband’s kidnapping retrial continues

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) – The jury will hear from more witnesses as testimony continues in the Sidney Moorer kidnapping retrial.

Moorer is charged in connection with the 2013 disappearance of Heather Elvis. He previously went to trial for kidnapping in 2016, which ended with a hung jury.

His wife, Tammy Moorer, was found guilty of kidnapping Elvis in October 2018 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Since her sentencing, Tammy has been at the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, but was brought back Wednesday to Horry County. Records at J. Reuben Long Detention Center showed she was booked at 3:16 p.m. It’s not clear if she will testify in her husband’s retrial.

A jury was seated on Monday and testimony got underway Tuesday.

Wednesday’s testimony centered around Elvis’ phone records and her contact with Sidney Moorer.

Danny Furr, a Horry County police officer, was the first to take the stand.

He said he went to where Elvis worked to see if they had heard from her or knew anyone that could have. Workers there told him to contact Sidney Moorer. Furr testified that he called the defendant and asked him about the last time he had heard from Elvis. The answers, according to the officer, didn’t match up.

Furr wasn't the only officer to think Moorer's answers were inconsistent.

A former Horry County officer responsible for Elvis' phone records also took the stand.

He interviewed Moorer two days after Heather disappeared.

“I thought it was odd during the interview that there was no contact, no contact, no contact then all of a sudden she’s stalking him,” John Martin, a former HCPD officer, testified. “He had mentioned notes, she drove by his house. It’s literally, ‘No, I haven’t seen her, I haven’t talked to her,’ then, ‘Oh yeah, I have called her and now she’s stalking me.’”

He said originally, when talking with Moorer, he told him he hadn’t heard from or talked to Elvis since the end of October but when Martin told him he had video of him at a payphone, his answer changed.

“Initially we asked him if he used a payphone call to her and he made the joke that there’s still payphones out there and then after a couple more questions during the interview he did admit that he did make the payphone call and he had been untruthful,” Martin said.

This payphone call was brought up several times Wednesday.

Law enforcement officers weren’t the only ones brought to the stand, an expert with the payphone company Moorer used also testified and broke down the number of times Heather’s phone interacted with the payphone.

During Tuesday’s witness testimony, prosecution brought Brianna Warrelmann, Elvis’ roommate at the time of her disappearance, to the stand.

Warrelmann said the last she heard from Elvis was the night she disappeared.

“The last thing I told her was to not meet Sidney," Warrelmann said. "Go to sleep and we would take about it in the morning.”

Testimony will resume Thursday morning.

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