SC - Heather Elvis, 20, Myrtle Beach, 18 Dec 2013 - #13

[Aint Bee]

Anything is possible. But if that case, I would think some phone contact would be necessary. I keep going back to her phone records. It seems like the phone records and phone pings may be the best thing they have to try to pin point her last whereabouts.

Its cases like this where I would want my children to have one of those Apps that provide a GPS locator on their phone and them at all times. Something that would show their location remotely and store the route taken. I know there are all kinds of Apps these days and I would insist on having one.

It would only be good until the phone was smashed or turned off, but at least it would provide more of a clue.

I agree about the phone records, but we don't know for sure all the details of the phone records. Nothing official has been released other than that initial police report, and it doesn't say for sure if there was other communication besides that between HE and SM. The way TE bristles (wildly bristles, with bloodlust) when any mention is made of any other possibility makes me curious. It may be a father who is convinced of one scenario, but it also may be a father desperate to "protect" his daughter and/or his family's reputation from what he perceives as a shameful situation.

 

[Hatfield]

I agree about the phone records, but we don't know for sure all the details of the phone records. Nothing official has been released other than that initial police report, and it doesn't say for sure if there was other communication besides that between HE and SM. The way TE bristles (wildly bristles, with bloodlust) when any mention is made of any other possibility makes me curious. It may be a father who is convinced of one scenario, but it also may be a father desperate to "protect" his daughter and/or his family's reputation from what he perceives as a shameful situation.

Agree. We just dont know enough. Whether he knows more or not we probably will never know.

I have thought about the apartment a lot. Like what if she just stepped outside while on the phone to get some air. I would hope LE interviewed everyone in her surrounding apartments. Even someone pulling up that saw her outside is a possibility.

I am just praying that LE has much more and is close to solving this. Things like video from other buildings and stores around the time of when she would have left her apartment. Hopefully some video captured her somewhere and we are unaware of it yet.

 

[Aint Bee]

Agree. We just dont know enough. Whether he knows more or not we probably will never know.

I have thought about the apartment a lot. Like what if she just stepped outside while on the phone to get some air. I would hope LE interviewed everyone in her surrounding apartments. Even someone pulling up that saw her outside is a possibility.

I am just praying that LE has much more and is close to solving this. Things like video from other buildings and stores around the time of when she would have left her apartment. Hopefully some video captured her somewhere and we are unaware of it yet.

Yes, because LE and CUE did several searches around her apartment as well as around PTL. That tells me they don't know for sure where she disappeared. If she DID disappear around her apartment, it is a definite clue that her car ended up at PTL.

 

[Hatfield]

I am wondering if there's a chance that LE knows exactly what happened due to actual evidence found and they are waiting to find Heather before they make an arrest? Would they do this? If it were me, and I were LE and knew what happened, I'd make arrests (I guarantee more than one person is involved/has knowledge of a crime) and try to get the person least involved to tell where Heather is and leverage a reduction of charges or sentence or something. It's a gamble but there's obviously a lot at stake for both sides. Does SC have any history of prosecution of a murder without a body? (For the sake of this thought, I'm assuming there has been a murder) Not just a circumstantial case, a case with some type of physical evidence but no victim found.
I'm just rambling. Hoping that they've got something. I know they know a lot more than we do but my hope is they have a lot more too.

Do any locals know the history of the state/district attorney for Horry County? That person's personality and track record could play into all of this as well.
I worked for the courts for a number of years and when high profile cases came up, you could almost predict with a good degree of certainty how they'd be handled (prior to arrests being made) depending on who the current elected State Attorney was for the county.
I guess I'm asking if anyone has any insight into this aspect of the case. What kind of person is the sitting DA for Horry County? What's their track record? Are they a risk taker? Do they have higher political aspirations? Are they frequently in the media? Are they a conservative prosecutor? Etc etc

All very good questions. Maybe someone local can give some insight for us.

There has been other cases where I thought there would be enough to charge someone and yet no charges ever happened. At some point in time, if I was a DA, I would want to risk going ahead with charges even if a circumstantial case. But I would wait quite awhile because it could take a long time before a hunter or hiker stumbles upon remains. If no body is found for maybe a year or so, I would probably go ahead with charges if I thought I had enough to try the case.

This is probably what goes through the DA mind. If they pursue too early with no body and lose the case. Then shortly after, a hunter stumbles on the body with tons of evidence pointing to someone, then they cant retry the person. That is an awful scenerio and probably feared by many a DA.
Time is on their side and not the perp(s) side if they wait. The problem is the victim family has to wait along with them which is terrible.

 

[TedMac]

I look at the PR and I hesitate to consider who I would suspect who could be directly involved in HE's case just from that doc. I have two men, an OMM who I know little about and an alleged angry ex-bf who I know next to nothing about. Neither is making public statements to declare innocence or make denials. <Mod Snip>. And LE will only say that HE's date is the only one cleared. I can't theorize on this as there is more one aspect as to might be involved just from the report.

Then I keep coming back to the car at PTL. My gut tells me HE did not drive it there, but rather it was planted there by a guilty party. I've kicked that around about how a single individual could've planted the car there and left unseen - towed it there and drove off in tow vehicle, walked/jogged away, took a bike with them in the car, etc. To me the simple theory seems best - park the car and use the method that gets them not only away from PTL, but out of the area the fastest. Because the quicker they can vacate the area, the less chance of being seen. That doesn't involve a single individual, but someone with an accomplice to drive them away in a 2nd vehicle. And if they did by chance consider pushing or running the car down the boat ramp having a getaway vehicle is best if that plan goes badly.

That the car remained there for over 24 hours without being reported tells me that the guilty was either extremely lucky or they knew the activity around the landing in the winter. And I believe the car was there on the morning of the 18th. (I have nothing to base that on except that whatever happened was sometime after 6 AM on the 18th. Again, the less time the guilty has HE's car, the less chance they can be associated with or seen with it. IOW, get rid of it ASAP.) That is, they didn't just know of the existence of PTL, but were around it enough to be familiar with the activity this time of year. If the later is the case, they may have been surprised that the car was found before Saturday morning.

I think whatever happened, occurred quickly, and wasn't a coverup of an accident. To be done this quickly with no crime scene to be found, no body, no evidence and have the car at the landing early on the 18th had to be given a great deal of thought and planned in advance.

But again, all just theories on my part. Someone may look at the same data and see something entirely different.

BBM

I agree that this was well planned and no spur of the moment situation. I also feel that HE was carefully disposed of and because of this, she will be extremely hard if not impossible to locate. Sadly, without her this case may be impossible to solve. I sure hope not.

 

[Foxfire]

FYI for locals;

WIS Investigates: Human Trafficking (Thursday, February 6/2014)

WIS Investigates: Human Trafficking (Thursday, February 6) - YouTube

 

[eileenhawkeye]

In Horry County, the DA is the solicitor. Here's a page about him:

http://www.horrycounty.org/Departments/Solicitor.aspx

 

[Hatfield]

BBM

I agree that this was well planned and no spur of the moment situation. I also feel that HE was carefully disposed of and because of this, she will be extremely hard if not impossible to locate. Sadly, without her this case may be impossible to solve. I sure hope not.

Thanks TedMac + JRyan. I missed the original post and agree with that carefully thought analysis.

I first thought maybe a fight gone bad or something but due to lack of evidence being found so far, i tend to agree with a well thought out plan in advance. Maybe even waiting for the day of the date so another person would be suspected.

The only thing that kind of puts a damper on things is the phone records. If well thought out plan, then why not use a throwaway phone or a pay phone.
The phone part bugs me. Unless they thought it would help rather than hurt to have phone records.

 

[Foxfire]

All very good questions. Maybe someone local can give some insight for us.

There has been other cases where I thought there would be enough to charge someone and yet no charges ever happened. At some point in time, if I was a DA, I would want to risk going ahead with charges even if a circumstantial case. But I would wait quite awhile because it could take a long time before a hunter or hiker stumbles upon remains. If no body is found for maybe a year or so, I would probably go ahead with charges if I thought I had enough to try the case.

This is probably what goes through the DA mind. If they pursue too early with no body and lose the case. Then shortly after, a hunter stumbles on the body with tons of evidence pointing to someone, then they cant retry the person. That is an awful scenerio and probably feared by many a DA.
Time is on their side and not the perp(s) side if they wait. The problem is the victim family has to wait along with them which is terrible.

RE: That is an awful scenario and probably feared by many a DA

Yes it is a catch22, Hatfield. Many DAs/Prosecutors are also elected officials and a factor in prosecutions is the probability of a guilty verdict, imo. The CSI effect on many jurors has made it virtually impossible to get a conviction without forensic evidence, imo..

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/06/133497696/is-the-csi-effect-influencing-courtrooms

Is The 'CSI Effect' Influencing Courtrooms?

 

[YidArmyRach]

Anything is possible. But if that case, I would think some phone contact would be necessary. I keep going back to her phone records. It seems like the phone records and phone pings may be the best thing they have to try to pin point her last whereabouts.

Its cases like this where I would want my children to have one of those Apps that provide a GPS locator on their phone and them at all times. Something that would show their location remotely and store the route taken. I know there are all kinds of Apps these days and I would insist on having one.

It would only be good until the phone was smashed or turned off, but at least it would provide more of a clue.

I got my daughter in law to put that on my phone in case I ever go missing :floorlaugh:

Its linked to her phone, none of my sons wanted my phone linked to theirs (obviously don't want me knowing where they get to!).

Seriously though, I wish they would install it, even just in case of accidents - so I'd have an idea of where they were if they couldn't contact me.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I found a no body case in Horry County...from 1985:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vereen_ernest.html

Solicitor Jim Dunn has said this was apparently the first time in state
history a murder case came to trial with no body having been found.

2005 article:

&#8220;I know of at least two no-body cases that have been prosecuted in South Carolina,'' he said. &#8220;One of those was right here in Horry County , and there were convictions in both cases.&#8221;

I am guessing the one case in Horry County was the one I mentioned above.

A murder trial has been set for a woman who alleged that her 4-year-old daughter disappeared at a Kmart in Whiteville.

Vartasha McCullough White of Georgetown, S.C., is charged with murder in the Sept. 29, 2002, disappearance of Kynande Bennett.

It also looks like the Alice Donovan case was also a no-body trial.

This is regarding the S. Carolina Supreme Court:

In murder cases where there is no body , the Supreme Court ruled a defendant could be convicted if prosecutors prove the only explanation for a disappearance is that the person was killed.

Using circumstantial or direct evidence, prosecutors must show that a victim's habits and routine were disrupted, the court ruled. That must prove the person didn't voluntarily disappear.

The court ruled prosecutors then must provide evidence of criminal conduct, such as blood stains, linked to the disappearance.

 

[meinmyrtlebeach]

Here's the 48 hour crime map link. I don't know about a historical one.

http://www.horrycounty.org/apps/CrimeAnalysis/view.html

Did anyone notice the "found property" incident report here on the link above at PTL from yesterday? Wonder what they "found"?

 

[meinmyrtlebeach]

I tend to agree with everyone who stated this but he knew about the phone records and who the calls were to/from by 12/19 or 12/20 at the latest. I suspect that something else occurred or he obtained additional information before 12/22 which escalated things IF things did escalate on 12/22.
**A report was filed but a report is proof of nothing. It is simply an allegation that a crime has occurred. To date, as far as I know, no charges were filed.

I'm sure he figured out pretty quickly who the phone numbers on his bill for for. You can simply google a phone number and it will tell you what business/advertising/people etc that number goes with.

<Mod Snip>

 

[paris_paris]

Did anyone notice the "found property" incident report here on the link above at PTL from yesterday? Wonder what they "found"?

I did... at PTL. I was going to ask downstairs for someone to listen to that on rewind.

OK, I did ask downstairs.

 

[passionflower]

This is the historical one:

http://spotcrime.com/sc/horry+county/daily

No names given.

Also, public index search by name or date (names given): http://publicindex.sccourts.org/horry/publicindex/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

I really like these links!

 

[floridamomma]

I did... at PTL. I was going to ask downstairs for someone to listen to that on rewind.

OK, I did ask downstairs.

wait, we have a parking lot thread? or do you mean the scanner thread?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[ChristYTN]

wait, we have a parking lot thread? or do you mean the scanner thread?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

scanner.
I WISH we could have a parking lot thread.
lease:lease:lease:

 

[imamaze]

Working on a new thread, will be closing this one shortly...

 

[Irishboy]

Also, something nobody has really dug into is other internet activity. Maybe the GPS coordinates of each cell's activity throughout those early morning hours is more important than just the ping info bc since HE & SSM were in an affair, maybe they were using other methods of communication instead of the standard texting or emailing system. They could have been using a game app that has a chat feature is just one example that I'm talking about. Text msgs show up each time individually, whereas internet usage on an app shows up as a different mass log of the data usage, which sometimes takes longer to trace bc of roaming, connection via data plan or wireless network & such.

Le needs to do a tower dump.

Agree. made this same observation on another case in Abigail Hernandez - LE stated she befriended someone, but not how. There are many forums other than facebook including interactive games with this communication feature. Having the same app would be an important link, some of the data would still be retrievable from phones and PC's.

 

[bettiepageturner]

Did anyone notice the "found property" incident report here on the link above at PTL from yesterday? Wonder what they "found"?

Every other "found property" PDF I read from HC was drug paraphernalia. In one case a crack pipe fell out of someone's pocket in the back of a squad car, lol.