Attorneys for man charged in Heather Elvis disappearance want to delay retrial

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The attorneys for the Horry County man facing kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the disappearance of Heather Elvis from the Grand Strand area in 2013 asked a judge to delay his retrial for a year.

Sidney Moorer faces charges on kidnapping and conspiracy in connection to the case. His trial on the charges ended in June 2016 in a mistrial. But Moorer is currently serving a 10-year sentence on a charge of obstruction of justice in the case. He has not yet been retried on the kidnapping and conspiracy charges.

Moorer's attorneys asked for their client's kidnapping charge not to come to trial for at least a year. Prosecutors said they are ready to go to trial and would like to try the case before next January.

Judge Markley Dennis told the attorneys to look at their schedules for August for a retrial.

Prosecutors told Dennis they became aware that Sidney Moorer’s mother knows Dennis and went to school with him. They say it had come to their attention that she claimed she might even be related to Dennis.

“That’s news to me,” Dennis said. “I could be.”

Dennis said he did go to school with Moorer’s mother, but said given the fact that he gave Moorer’s wife the maximum sentence and gave Moorer himself a 10-year sentence on an obstruction of justice charge, he does not believe there is any issue with impartiality.

“I don’t have any problem with it but certainly I respect anyone who thinks I might,” Dennis said.

He was denied parole in November 2018.

In October 2018, his wife Tammy Moorer was found guilty of both kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnapping charges in connection with Elvis’ disappearance. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison on each of the charges, which she will serve at the same time.

She continued to maintain her innocence even after the verdict was handed down.

The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected a motion by Horry County prosecutors in October to try the two together.

Cellphone records indicated Elvis's last cellphone activity was in the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 2013. Her car was found at Peachtree Landing in Socastee one day later.

The Moorers had previously been charged with Elvis’s murder, but those charges were later dropped.

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