On a December night in 2013, Elvis Presley disappeared from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, after going on what appeared to be an ordinary first date.
She was a young woman with a job, friends, family, and plans for the future. Within hours, however, communication with her stopped. Her car was later discovered abandoned near the Waccamaw River, while several personal belongings were missing.
The investigation eventually focused on a married couple and resulted in multiple criminal convictions. Yet Elvis herself has never been found.
Her Last Known Movements
Elvis was last seen in Myrtle Beach at approximately 2:00 a.m. on December 18, 2013.
Earlier that evening, on December 17, she had gone on a first date. Her date reportedly drove her home afterward, dropping her off at her residence in the 500 block of Whiteriver Drive, near River Oaks Drive.
After returning home, Elvis called her female roommate, who was away visiting relatives.
The two women spoke about the date. The call began around 3:00 a.m. and continued until approximately 3:41 a.m.
That conversation became the last confirmed communication anyone had with Elvis.
She disappeared afterward and has never been seen again.
Her Car Is Found Abandoned
The following evening, at approximately 10:43 p.m. on December 19, Elvis’s dark green 2011 Dodge Intrepid was discovered abandoned at Peachtree Boat Landing along the Waccamaw River in Socastee.
The vehicle was locked.
But Elvis was nowhere to be found.
Her keys, purse, and cellphone were missing from the car, and those belongings have not been recovered.
The location immediately drew investigators’ attention. The boat landing sits on the outskirts of Myrtle Beach and is only about an eight-minute drive from Elvis’s parents’ home.
Elvis occasionally enjoyed going out on the water, but according to her loved ones, she did not normally visit the area late at night.
Why her vehicle ended up there became one of the central questions in the investigation.
The Relationship With Sidney Moorer
Before she disappeared, Elvis had been romantically involved with Sidney Moorer, a 37-year-old married man.
According to Elvis’s roommate, the relationship had ended more than a month before Elvis vanished.
However, phone records reportedly showed several calls between Elvis and Sidney during the early morning hours surrounding her disappearance.
The final call occurred around 6:00 a.m. on December 18.
Elvis’s roommate said that Elvis had been emotionally upset and crying. She reportedly told her roommate that Sidney had said he was planning to leave his wife and be with her.
Sidney denied making such a promise.
He also said that he had not seen Elvis since October, although he acknowledged making the 6:00 a.m. call. According to his account, he contacted her simply because he wanted her to stop calling him.
The conflicting accounts became an important part of the investigation.
Two Men Accused of Interfering With the Investigation
As investigators worked to determine what had happened to Elvis, authorities also focused on people who they believed had interfered with the case.
In January 2014, William Christopher Barrett and Garrett Ryan Starnes were charged with obstruction of justice.
Authorities stated that neither man was believed to have been directly responsible for Elvis’s disappearance. Instead, they were accused of interfering with the investigation and spreading false information through social media.
Barrett, who was a friend of Elvis’s father, reportedly attempted to carry out his own investigation and search for Elvis.
He denied intending to cause harm.
The Moorers Are Arrested
On February 21, 2014, Sidney Moorer and his wife, Tammy Caison Moorer, were arrested.
The couple initially faced charges that included two counts of indecent exposure and one count of obstruction of justice each.
The investigation soon took a much more serious turn.
Both were subsequently charged in connection with Elvis’s kidnapping and later faced murder charges.
Investigators believed the Moorers had lured Elvis to the Peachtree Boat Landing and that she had been killed there. Because Elvis’s body was never recovered, prosecutors had to build their cases without the discovery of her remains.
In March 2016, the murder, obstruction, and indecent-exposure charges against the couple were dismissed.
But the legal proceedings were not over.
Sidney Moorer’s First Kidnapping Trial
Sidney Moorer was tried for kidnapping in June 2016.
The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
Moorer was later convicted of obstruction of justice and received a 10-year prison sentence.
The kidnapping allegation, however, remained unresolved.
Tammy Moorer Receives 60 Years
In October 2018, Tammy Moorer was convicted of kidnapping Elvis as well as conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
She was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Authorities maintained that Tammy and Sidney had played a role in bringing Elvis to the Peachtree Boat Landing around the time she disappeared.
Although Elvis’s body was never recovered, prosecutors continued to argue that the evidence supported the kidnapping case.
Sidney Moorer’s Second Trial
Sidney eventually faced another trial.
In September 2019, he was tried again on charges related to Elvis’s disappearance.
This time, the jury found him guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The convictions provided legal conclusions about the couple’s involvement in Elvis’s disappearance, but they did not answer the question her family has lived with for years:
Where is Elvis Presley?
A Young Woman With Plans for Her Future
Before she disappeared, Elvis was described by her loved ones as responsible and socially active.
She had graduated from St. James High School and was working two jobs as a waitress—one at the Myrtle Beach House of Blues and another at the Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery.
She had also accepted an opportunity to work as a makeup artist at a local salon. She was expected to begin the new job during the week of Christmas.
Her life appeared to be moving forward.
She had friends, remained active on social media, and maintained regular contact with people close to her.
There was no known pattern of her simply disappearing without explanation.
That is one reason her family and investigators have long believed that she did not leave voluntarily.
A Mystery Without a Body
More than a decade has passed since Elvis disappeared.
Her abandoned car was found near the Waccamaw River, several of her personal belongings vanished with her, and two people were ultimately convicted of kidnapping-related offenses.
Yet the most important piece of the mystery remains missing.
Elvis herself has never been found.
The circumstances surrounding her disappearance continue to leave unanswered questions about what happened during the hours between her last known conversation and the discovery of her car.
For her family, the criminal convictions could not provide the closure that finding Elvis would bring.
Her case remains a reminder that even when a courtroom reaches a verdict, a disappearance can remain unresolved in the most important way—when the victim is still missing.