SC - Heather Elvis, 20, Myrtle Beach, 18 Dec 2013 #27***ARREST**

[JaelynKL]

Well I pulled all the no body cases from SC. I don't think I missed any.

http://www.nobodycases.com/no_body2.pdf

Here is a trial in Horry County.
DEFENDENT: Owens, Alvin
VICTIM: Ernest Vereen
TRIAL: 1985?(mistake)
LOCATION: Horry County, SC
RESULT: Convicted of October 10, 1984 murder of 72 y.o. man.

Other SC trials
DEFENDENTS: Basham, Branden and Fulks, Chadrick
VICTIMS: Samantha Burns/Alice Donovan
TRIAL: 2004
Location: Conway, SC
RESULT: Defendants received death penalty in federal sentencing, Donovan was kidnapped from Wal-Mart parking lot. Donovan’s remains found in 2009 near NC border, 15 miles from where she was abducted, after one defendant confessed. Burns body was never found.

DEFENDENTS: Carson, David Cortez and Leon Jones
VICTIM: Darryl “Preach” Miller TRIAL: March 2010
LOCATION: Spartanburg, SC
RESULT: Found guilt of July 2005 murder and sentenced to 30 years each. Victim’s blood found in car belonging to Carson’s girlfriend despite defendants’ efforts to clean car. Also brother of woman Jones dated testified that Jones admitted he killed victim.

DEFENDENT: Coulter, Ronald
VICTIM: Edwina Simms, daughter’s father (?)
TRIAL: February 2004
LOCATION: Charleston County, SC RESULT: Defendant plead guilty to kidnapping and given 30 years. Body of victim, killed in April 2001, found in woods after trial when co-defendant led police to body. (Defendant plead during trial).

DEFENDENT: Gambrell, Johnny Ray VICTIM: Lois Bridges Gambrell, wife TRIAL: Nov. 2005
LOCATION: Anderson County, SC RESULT: Killed wife in Nov. of 2005, cremated her in backyard bonfire but DNA and bone fragments found in ashes. First trial ended in mistrial.

DEFENDENT: Harmon, Sam
VICTIM: Shakeima Ann Cabbagestalk, 10 y.o., stepdaughter TRIAL: Oct. 2008
LOCATION: Dillon, SC
RESULT: Convicted only of kidnapping not murder for July 1993 disappearance, sentenced to 12 years but may be out as soon as one year, http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/cabbagestalk_shakeima.html

DEFENDENT: Lynch, Kenneth VICTIMS: Portia Washington and Angelica Livingston
TRIAL: May 2012
LOCATION: Lexington, SC
RESULT: Defendant found guilty in bench trial for murdering two women in 2006. Was a death penalty case but sentenced to life without parole.

DEFENDENT: Maner, Dereck
VICTIM: Ericka Bradley, 17 y.o. girlfriend
TRIAL: February 2009
LOCATION: Allendale, SC
RESULT: Convicted of November 2006 murder and was seen arguing with girlfriend and son’s mother arguing in front of courthouse.

DEFENDENT: McCullough, Vartasha VICTIM: Kynande Kalehje Bennett, 6 y.o., daughter
TRIAL: February 2006
LOCATION: Conway, SC
RESULT: Convicted of September 2002 murder of her daughter and sentenced to 20 years. [[LINK: Charley Project, http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bennett_kynande.html]]

DEFENDENT: Richardson, Mark Anthony
VICTIM: Shelton Sanders, roommate
TRIAL: April 2008
LOCATION:Columbia, SC
RESULT: Mistrial declared in case of man missing since 2001.

DEFENDENT: Stephenson, Jack VICTIM: Melissa York, wife
TRIAL: Aug. 1998
LOCATION: SC
RESULT: Convicted for Nov. 1995 murder.

DEFENDENTS: Sullivan, Sean Rico and Kenneth Campbell
VICTIMS: Toby Jermele Bing and El Shanwdrae Jones
TRIAL: 2003
LOCATION: Bluffton, SC
RESULT: Convicted and sentenced to life for Feb. 1999 murder of both men. Shot in defendant’s house and body never recovered. [[Link: Charley Project, http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bing_toby.html]]

DEFENDENT: Weston, Jeffrey VICTIM: Frances Franchey, mother TRIAL: 2003
LOCATION: Richland County, SC
RESULT: Disappeared in 1998, defendant sentenced to 40 years. In 2008, defendant lead authorities to body he had buried near his mother’s apartment complex.

Sent from my celery phone from Tapatalk. Please ignore typos. My phone is lucky it is in one piece.

 

[Hatfield]

Ok - I'm back. For a few minutes anyway! LOL

The fall off the hill comment: He was kinda indicating that they have whatever evidence they need for the charges and that anything else that 'falls over the hill' will just be small stuff to add to the evidence gathered prior to their arrests.

He sounded pretty confident. Also - (and I don't think it prudent to explain the details) but I've been in a courtroom with Judge John presiding - and I think he is a sound judge.

He said that normally he would file (in Columbia) the day before the bond hearing hear in Horry County - but that in this case - he will probably file in Columbia on Tuesday. He said he expects the hearing to happen at 10 - 10:30 on Monday. I think we can put some weight into that since he named the judge - so it's definitely on the Monday morning agenda for Judge John's courtroom.

Thanks so much for your local insight. It is very much appreciated.

We are so lucky to have a few people here that know the area.

 

[geevee]

Wild About Trial live streams some bond hearings, I wonder if they'll be able to cover this one? Someone who uses Twitter could slip them a tweet and find out, I suppose.

 

[SStarr33]

I would guess the "file in Columbia" part would be Federal charges.

Here is a list of Federal crimes:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I think this is going to be a very complex trial. You are charging two people with murder without a body. Did LE find evidence at PTL? How much of it was lost due to perhaps not realizing the significance of it until later? Why did it take them 2 months to get a search warrant? Did they not have much evidence before? Didn't LE say that the search at the house just helped to tie up loose ends, though?

Out of all the no-body trials in SC posted above, look at how many confessed, led LE to the body, or got a lesser sentence. How many have been sentenced to LWOP without confessing?

If this case did not have the amount of attention, tension, and pressure that it did, would LE have arrested them 2 months later?

 

[Hatfield]

This is a "pie in the sky" wish that someday may help solve cases like this. Since big brother is practically everywhere anyway then maybe someday there will be satellite imagery taken every 30 seconds or so of every location. Maybe at first it could be done in major cities and suburbs of those cities.

Then just like Google Earth they could backtrack and find certain vehicles and see exactly where they went on certain days at certain times.

In this case, I am hoping LE already has some video evidence along these lines. Hopefully proving certain vehicles passed certain videos at certain times. Which would at least prove Heather has to be in a certain general location. Like if her car enters the landing area and another car enters and leaves and maybe goes right home. And never leaves the home area till a day or so later. Combined with other trace evidence in certain vehicles like hair or blood evidence, then that would seem to prove that Heather either was placed in the river or was taken to the home in a certain vehicle.

This case is going to be interesting to watch. I have faith in local LE there. Everything they have done so far gives me confidence they will be successful in their prosecution.

 

[Cgs]

There is no need to bash Disney or people that like Disney because of your hate for TM. I hate TM too but my family loves Disney. We have season passes and we make reservations in advance because you have too and I will not bash Disney or people that enjoy it just because TM was obsessed with it any more than I wouldn't eat Italian food if I found out it was TMs favorite.

Can we stick to trying to find out where Heather is And what happened to her and stop bashing Disney and those that enjoy it. There are a lot of us and we do not kidnap and murder people.

Just trying to bring this back to Heather.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My apologies if my original post on this topic offended you! I was not bashing Disney or people who enjoy Disney. Having never had a Disney meal plan I had no idea that reservations were required so many months in advance.

My post was not meant to steer this thread away from the topic of finding Heather, it was in fact an observation of what I considered to be meticulous planning skills by TM and how they might have come into play in regards to Heather's disappearance.

 

[Hatfield]

I think this is going to be a very complex trial. You are charging two people with murder without a body. Did LE find evidence at PTL? How much of it was lost due to perhaps not realizing the significance of it until later? Why did it take them 2 months to get a search warrant? Did they not have much evidence before? Didn't LE say that the search at the house just helped to tie up loose ends, though?

Out of all the no-body trials in SC posted above, look at how many confessed, led LE to the body, or got a lesser sentence. How many have been sentenced to LWOP without confessing?

I have confidence that LE has enough to successfully prosecute.

I think we will end up finding out why there was such a delay up until that last arrest. My guess right now is that LE was waiting on certain video evidence and initial search evidence to be analyzed and once they got results back then they had enough to do the initial arrest on the financial discrepancy and the other IE charges.

The timing of when SM called LE and claimed he had a gun pointed at him and he locked himself in a place seemed to be just 1 day before the arrest so I do wonder if that event had something to do with the timing. Like maybe he told LE some more information that helped them with the case. Or maybe LE had bugged the hospital room and LE may have acquired more evidence that way. The timing of that event seems like it may have something to do with the timing of the arrests.

It is interesting how the charges got piled on after their initial arrest. Whether that would have happened anyway without that last search or not will be interesting to find out about.

 

[cluciano63]

JMO but maybe LE picked up possible DNA evidence during initial search and by the time they did the big search resulting in arrests, they had matched it to Heather.

 

[stillwatersc]

IMO if the prosecutor is not convinced he has sufficient evidence of murder, he will go for kidnapping (up to 30 years in SC). Getting a conviction on kidnapping along with the other charges could hold them for a very long time, providing more time to find Heather. They can always try for murder later.

 

[Motherof5]

I think this is going to be a very complex trial. You are charging two people with murder without a body. Did LE find evidence at PTL? How much of it was lost due to perhaps not realizing the significance of it until later? Why did it take them 2 months to get a search warrant? Did they not have much evidence before? Didn't LE say that the search at the house just helped to tie up loose ends, though?

Out of all the no-body trials in SC posted above, look at how many confessed, led LE to the body, or got a lesser sentence. How many have been sentenced to LWOP without confessing?

If this case did not have the amount of attention, tension, and pressure that it did, would LE have arrested them 2 months later?

Does it matter? They are working hard on this and that is what really matters at this point. :twocents:

 

[poppygirl]

Well I pulled all the no body cases from SC. I don't think I missed any.

http://www.nobodycases.com/no_body2.pdf

<snipped for space>

Thanks for pulling these up...looks like SC has a pretty decent track record with nobody trials.

 

[Canaille]

DEFENDENT: Gambrell, Johnny Ray VICTIM: Lois Bridges Gambrell, wife TRIAL: Nov. 2005
LOCATION: Anderson County, SC RESULT: Killed wife in Nov. of 2005, cremated her in backyard bonfire but DNA and bone fragments found in ashes. First trial ended in mistrial.

Snipped and BBM.

I have no further comment.

 

[MaliaMansly]

Snipped and BBM.

I have no further comment.

The thought absolutely sickens me.

^j^ Heather ^j^

 

[Momoffourboys]

For those following the Jasmine Joseph story...tragic ending.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?id=9448932

 

[eileenhawkeye]

[/B]

Does it matter? They are working hard on this and that is what really matters at this point. :twocents:

When/if one/both of them is acquitted, or receives a lesser sentence, then it will matter. It's not a good thing for LE to arrest people because of how the public will respond if they don't.

 

[cluciano63]

LE could have charged the pair with kidnapping and left it at that...hoping to find Heather before a trial, or just going for the max on that charge. Adding murder charges this early in a missing persons cases means they have enough evidence already to show she was murdered and that the M's killed her. Also, LE is not likely to proclaim a person dead without solid proof...telling the family and the community is difficult enough when they have recovered a body. I think they must have solid proof, same with Holly Bobo's case.

(This thread probably should read "deceased/not found" as several other threads do, here in the Missing forum...much as I hate to say so. People new to the case would have no indication she is a murder victim without reading for days. Seeking a live missing person is very different from the opposite. Anyway...JMO)

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Do we expect more prestigious lawyers to sign on for the case? SM has a public defender, whereas TM's lawyer is a family friend, right? And don't some defendants get a whole team of lawyers? I don't think they can afford that, but I suppose since it's high-profile, they could get some pro-bono. I am surprised there hasn't been one at this point, unless they are turning down their offers?

 

[Treelights]

LE could have charged the pair with kidnapping and left it at that...hoping to find Heather before a trial, or just going for the max on that charge. Adding murder charges this early in a missing persons cases means they have enough evidence already to show she was murdered and that the M's killed her. Also, LE is not likely to proclaim a person dead without solid proof...telling the family and the community is difficult enough when they have recovered a body. I think they must have solid proof, same with Holly Bobo's case.

(This thread probably should read "deceased/not found" as several other threads do, here in the Missing forum...much as I hate to say so. People new to the case would have no indication she is a murder victim without reading for days. Seeking a live missing person is very different from the opposite. Anyway...JMO)

I am a literal person, and at times I have difficulty discerning the meaning of how a person has chosen to use a word or words.
This article in its totality points in the direction that you speak about, and I understand that. My concern, or my lack of understanding the context of how the word "THINK" is used, makes me feel like there could be ambivalence, but Yet, reading the whole article, the pieces do come together it seems.......

What do you and others feel the word "THINK" means?


"Alright, we think we can get the murder charge.&#8217; We showed that to the judge and, of course, we got an arrest warrant.&#8221; "


Here is more of the paragraph.....


&#8220;Certainly there was a lot of strategy involved. In one way, this case is similar to others in that the more you look, the more you dig, the more you usually get. We started off with a baseline and that was us being capable of saying we can prove beyond probable cause that these two did, in fact, obstruct justice and public nudity,&#8221; he said. &#8220;As we added to it from the search warrant, we found we could get the kidnapping charge. We ran that by a judge and the judge said, &#8216;Yes.&#8217; So then after we did that, we looked at some more stuff and then we said, &#8216;Alright, we think we can get the murder charge.&#8217; We showed that to the judge and, of course, we got an arrest warrant.&#8221;

"The indecent exposure arrest warrants for the Moorers, released Sunday, showed the Moorers are accused of exposing themselves in public between Dec. 17 and Dec. 18 at 1325 Celebrity Circle and in Conway at Atlantic Avenue and Century Circle. The obstruction warrants also showed that Sidney Moorer impeded or interfered with the investigation into Elvis&#8217; disappearance by providing false, misleading or inaccurate information regarding Elvis&#8217; disappearance and their activities in the early morning hours on Dec. 18, which caused the agency to divert resources."


Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2014/02/24/4052596/couple-to-face-murder-charges.html#storylink=cpy

IMOO.

 

[cluciano63]

IMO, "think" we can get murder charge is a pretty reasonable thing to say, when there is no body. They know it is always a gamble, but believed they had enough to ask for murder and also to convince a jury, at least IMO.