commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Unless you know her personally, or are a friend of the family, although you may have a modicum of sympathy for Tammy Moorer (after all her husband Sidney hurt her feelings badly by having sex on multiple occasions with cute, young Heather Elvis), it’s impossible to justify murdering Heather (assuming this is what happened) based on jealousy (or for any other reason). It takes two to tango and Sidney is certainly just as responsible as Heather for the fact the two of them apparently “got their limbs all entangled.”
Nonetheless, Heather is almost undoubtedly very dead while Sidney rocks on, albeit in county jail.
Although Tammy and Sidney have been in custody on first-degree-murder charges since February, the case against them, although apparently quite strong, up until now has been largely circumstantial. That may be beginning to change, however, given that there now appears to be some suggestion that the skeletal remains of an adult body found on Oak Street near International Boulevard outside of DeLand, FLA on March 20th could turn out to be (I repeat: could turn out to be) the remains of Heather Elvis.
DeLand, FLA is about 40 miles north of Orlando and 58 miles from Walt Disney World.
Michael Smith of myhorrynews.com writes:
A new report about human remains found in Florida says the remains belonged to an adult and were skeletal in nature, but there still are no indications whether or not they belong to Heather Elvis.
“We’ve been in contact with Horry County Police as well as many other agencies regarding this case and the possibility of the remains matching missing persons in their respective jurisdictions,” said Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the remains.
“I’m not willing to say when the contacts took place with Horry County Police or the nature of the discussions,” Davidson said.
The Horry County police, of course, are prohibited from commenting on the report out of Volusia County due to a local gag order that’s been imposed. Local prosecutors and defense attorneys are also not allowed to discuss the case due to the gag order.
Prepared on Tuesday, July 29, the preliminary report from the Volusia County (Fla.) Medical Examiner’s Office provides the following new information about the state of the skeletal remains:
The remains were wrapped in a pink bathrobe, curtains and a homemade Mickey Mouse print bed sheet.
Spokesman Davidson stated that the remains have not been identified. He did not disclose whether the clothing and linens found with the remains are still in the possession of Volusia County authorities or whether they’ve been shared with other police agencies (which of course could include the Horry County police).
It is known that the Horry County police contacted the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in March to discuss the remains to determine whether there was any connection to the Heather Elvis case (translated: whether the remains might be what was left of Heather Elvis).
Part of the reason the remains captured the attention of Horry County police is because the Moorers (who were huge Disney fans) visited Orlando, FLA frequently, which, of course, is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from DeLand.
In fact, the Moorers vacationed in Walt Disney World in January, about three weeks after Elvis disappeared on December 18, and a month before police arrested them on Feb. 21.
Spokesman Davidson said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is performing DNA analysis of the remains. He did not say how long that process would take. He did state, however, that “there hasn’t been a confirmed match to any known cases and the identity of our victim is still unknown at this time.”
The Volusia County report is now posted online to the National Unidentified Person’s Data System, which operates under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Justice.
This report represents the first public disclosure about the human remains since they were sent to the University of Florida for testing and identification in April of this year.
The report states that the remains belong to an adult of unknown age. The race, ethnicity and gender of the victim cannot be determined.
Body conditions were classified as “not recognizable” and as a “near complete or complete skeleton.” Nor could the victim’s weight and height be estimated, and time of death could not be determined. Furthermore, fingerprint information was not available and there were no other distinctive body features found…
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On balance, there seems to be little, if anything, about the skeletal remains that tie them to Heather Elvis (and/or Tammy and Sidney Moorer), unless a positive DNA match can be made. I don’t know enough about DNA testing to know what sort of matches are possible when dealing with remains that are largely skeletal in nature.
There is one non-skeletal piece of powerful circumstantial evidence, however, that could tip the scales in favor of conviction at trial and that is the homemade Mickey Mouse print bed sheet. It is well known that Tammy Moorer was/is a huge Disney fan and their house was reportedly filled with Disney and Mickey Mouse stuff.
Did Tammy and/or Sidney make homemade Disney/Mickey stuff? I don’t know but that would seem to be an easy question for the investigators to answer. It’s even possible that Mickey Mouse print bed sheets were found when the Moorer residence was searched and were taken into evidence.
But this theory is not without flaws. First of all, the Southeastern part of our nation is full of hardcore Disney/Mickey Mouse fans. You can be certain that Tammy Moorer was far from the only one. Any true Disney fan with a sewing machine could knock out a Mickey Mouse print bed sheet. Also, isn’t Tammy Moorer rather a crafty early middle-aged thing? Well, perhaps not. Luring and murdering Heather (assuming the Moorers are responsible) was probably not very smart. Perhaps Tammy was foolish enough to dump Heather in a homemade Mickey Mouse print bed sheet made by her own hand?
But do the authorities have any way of proving that the Mickey sheet found wrapped around Heather was Tammy’s? It could have been another Mickey-lover killing a different victim for entirely different reasons.
Also, and I am certainly not suggesting there is any malfeasance going on, but we know, evidence can be doctored or exaggerated. Given Tammy’s love for Mickey, one would be hard-pressed to come up with a more powerful piece of circumstantial evidence in the Heather Elvis case than a Mickey Mouse homemade print bed sheet wrapped around her skeletal remains.
In addition, when the Moorers traveled to Disney World three weeks after Heather’s untimely disappearance, one would assume that they were accompanied by their three kids. Unless they took two vehicles, one filled with wholesome children and good, clean family stuff, and the other filled with Heather’s skeletal remains, it would be rather tricky to transport what was left of the body without the kids getting “wind” of it.
All in all, there are still a great many unanswered questions, and although the mind immediately wants to think the skeletal remains are Heather’s (all right, we’re pretty darn sure that she’s dead), based on good old American fair play, we would be premature in jumping to that conclusion without further hard evidence.
Please click here to read our previous posts on the Moorer-Elvis saga:
The Sound and the Fury of Tammy Moorer!
How Tammy and Sidney Moorer May Have Lured Heather Elvis to Her Death
Heather Elvis’s Father and Sister Receive Death Threats
Swingers Sidney and Tammy Moorer Charged with Murder in Death of Heather Elvis!
Myrtle Beach Couple Arrested in Heather Elvis Missing Persons Case
Can Tammy and Sidney Moorer Be Convicted of Murdering Heather Elvis without a Body as Evidence?