True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Alexa Kenin. Picture credit: hfamousfix)

As you may know if you're subscribed to my blog or follow me elsewhere on social media, I'm a huge fan of the 1980s and I also like reading and researching true crime cases. I've written about a few cases on this blog (most recently the disappearance of Heather Elvis: Part one & two) and I will be including more cases in the future.

I try to write about cases that not many people know about (the Heather Elvis case is quite high profile but I was shocked to see that a lot of people didn't know about it), some maybe solved, others unsolved (interest in true crime seems to have blown up the past few years with the Netflix documentaries and beauty guru's on youtube including true crime cases in their videos. I have always been interested in criminology, the psychology of serial killers and why they do what they do, and studied criminology and psychology at university.

I also think it's important to help spread the knowledge of someones disappearance as people out there may have seen that person or know something and reading a blog post or watching a youtube video might jog their memory. I also write about cases that were solved, for example, with famous people who were murdered like Rebecca Schaeffer (who was so beautiful, talented and had the world at her feet) and not many people today, especially younger people remember or know who she was and I find that quite sad, so I like to write about these types of cases to help make sure that these people are not forgotten and still celebrated for all that they achieved when they were alive. I'm sure Rebecca would have gone on to have a fantastic career and may have had an Oscar by now if her life wasn't taken so horribly. I will include Rebecca's case on my blog in a future post, once I'm 100% with all the details, so look out for that one.

I hope to cover some cases that took place in the 1980s and I was thinking about this the other day, Alexa Kenin came to mind. As I mentioned before about Rebecca, Alexa's young life and acting career was cut short and a lot of people either don't know who she was or remember a little bit about her from her role in the 80s movie 'Pretty In Pink' and that's about it. So in this post I'm going to tell you a little bit about Alexa and the strange circumstances that surrounded her death at the age of just 23.

Grab a hot drink, get comfortable and let's begin....

Alexa's full name was 'Alexa Jordan Kenin' and she was born on the 16th of February 1962 in New York. Her mother was an actress and her dad was a doctor. Alexa's parents divorced when she was very young and her mother remarried a fellow actor.

Alexa began acting in 1972 in a Christmas TV special called 'The House Without A Christmas Tree'.

At the age of 10, Alexa was originally offered the role of Regan MacNeil in the horror classic 'The Exorcist' but she turned it down. (I imagine that she regretted that decision years later but how was she to know at the time that it would be so successful).

She was quite a busy little actress through the 70s and early 80s and even worked alongside Hollywood legends such as Bette Davis and Clint Eastwood. One thing's for sure, Alexa was on the path to an amazing career and she had achieved so much as a young star that some actors twice/three times her age could only dream about.

When Alexa turned 17, her mother divorced her step dad and they moved to Los Angeles. During this time, Alexa attended 'Beverly Hills High School' whilst maintaining her acting career.

Alexa continued to act in supporting roles through to the early 80s, some of these included: 'Little Darlings' (1980), 'Honkytonk Man' (1982) and 'Pretty In Pink' (which was released after her death) which was one of her last films and seen as her breakout role but her actual last official film was 'Animal Behaviour', this was released in 1989.

In 1985, Alexa took on her most famous role, playing Andie's (played by 80s icon Molly Ringwald) friend 'Jena' in the 80s cult classic Pretty In Pink. The film was written by the legendary John Hughes

At this point, Alexa had the world at her feet, she was working alongside the up and coming stars of the famous 80s Brat Pack. She had a fantastic career having previously worked with Hollywood legends and it seemed that this was going to be her next step up the ladder. At 23 she had a lot of experience and talent beyond her years and a lot of people who knew her said that she had the makings of an amazing actress. She would've gone onto a really bright future.

Sadly however, it was not to be. Shortly after she finished filming 'Pretty In Pink', Alexa was found dead in her New York apartment. No details were released about the cause of death at that time. 

What really happened to Alexa?

Well, because the newspapers (here's an article about Alexa's death from the New York Times) had not specified what exactly caused Alexa's death, the rumour mill went into overdrive and all sorts of stories were flying around. A lot of people couldn't understand how someone who was only 23 years old and had no history of severe illness could die so suddenly.

Some of the rumours going around at the time included: 

- Alexa was diabetic

- Alexa had a bad reaction to her asthma medication and died due to those complications.

- She took a deliberate or accidental overdose of heroin.

and the most shocking of all (which spread like wildfire and is still reported on certain sites today) was the story that Alexa was beaten to death by an ex boyfriend. There was also a rumour that she may have been killed by an obsessive fan but the the rumour about the ex boyfriend seemed to stick in people's minds. 

So, what was the truth?

From what I've read and researched, nobody knows for sure. On her death certificate it is noted that she died from ''Complications due to asthma'' but some people claim that this is a cover up as her family didn't want people to know that she had died from drugs. 

Other people are adamant about the ex boyfriend story but if that was the case, surely an arrest would be made and a trial would've taken place, there would've been news articles all over the place reporting the story.

Here's what other people have had to say about the circumstances surrounding Alexa's death:

John Cryer (who played 'Duckie' in 'Pretty In Pink'): ''There are several mysteries about her death. At the time we were told she had an allergic reaction to an asthma inhaler, but I heard years later that she had actually been beaten to death by her boyfriend or something like that. To this day, I don't know exactly what happened''. (Source: The 80s Server).

When Molly Ringwald was asked about Alexa she said that she believed that Alexa died of an overdose (I can't find anything to confirm whether Molly had indeed said this but I do know that the cast of Pretty In Pink were originally told that Alexa had died of asthma complications).

According to IMDB, she was murdered by her ex boyfriend.

Someone on a forum said that they knew Alexa's father and he had told them he sadly lost a daughter to drugs but didn't go into details. 

From MSN.com: 'Pretty In Pink' was dedicated to Alexa Kenin who died shortly after wrapping the film in 1985, at first the cast were told that she died of complications related to asthma but it eventually came out that she was killed in her apartment by an ex boyfriend.'. 

Someone left this post on IMDB: ''I'm writing this on the anniversary of Alexa Kenin's birthday. Alexa was a close friend of mine and much loved by all who knew her, especially me. I must correct any rumours because I feel that the truth is paramount to speculation. Tragically she died of a heroin overdose in her New York apartment on or about September 6th or 7th of 1985. Alexa had used heroin recreationally and was not an addict or daily user''. 

On Alexa's wikipedia page her death is listed as: 'unknown'. 

What are my thoughts on this? Well, I've seen a lot of people saying that they believe the ex boyfriend theory but like I mentioned before, if that was true there would be police involved, court cases, it would be all over the news. I think that some people mixed up Alexa's case with the death of the actress Dominique Dunne who was murdered by her ex boyfriend in 1982. 

The comments that the person wrote on the IMDB site sound plausible to me, that Alexa may have died of an accidental heroin overdose. In the 1980s a lot of people took drugs and some were lucky, it didn't end in tragedy but some people took them as a way to fit in it was part of the party scene. I could imagine Alexa taking something every once in a while to be sociable and on this occasion she accidentally took too much. I can also understand her family not wanting to share these details, they probably wanted to protect their daughter's image. This is just my theory, I could be wrong, I could be right.

Whatever the truth may be, I don't think we'll ever know the exact circumstances. What's known for sure is that it was a tragic end to a young life that was cut short at the age of 23. I often wonder what Alexa would be like now: she would be in her 50s, no doubt with so many more films under her belt, children possibly and she'd might have been taking part in all the 'Pretty In Pink' reunions with fellow cast members.

When 'Pretty In Pink' was released after her death, a tribute to Alexa and the film's set decorator 'Bruce Weintraub' was included in the final credits. 

Alexa is buried in New Montefiore cemetery in New York. 

I hope that wherever Alexa is, that she knows how much she is missed and that people still enjoy the performances that she gave in the 70s and 80s. She's a part of cinema history and will always be remembered fondly as feisty Jena from 'Pretty In Pink' 

Thank you as always for checking out my latest post, hope you'll join me next Sunday for another case. You can find me on Social Media or email me at caledoniankblog@yahoo.co.uk / jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

If you haven't already done so, please check out Part one!

A local policeman was patrolling the area around the Peachtree Boat Landing and found Heather's car parked up, nothing seemed untoward but he went to inform Heather's Dad 'Terry' just to be on the safe side. When he arrived at Heather's family home and asked him if his car was missing, Terry thought at first that the policeman had made a mistake, that all of his family members cars were there but then he remembered about Heather's car and decided to grab the spare set of keys that he had for her car and went with the policeman to Peachtree Boat Landing.

When they got there, Terry opened the car door and had a look inside (some people were not happy that the policeman had allowed Terry to touch what was considered a potential crime scene). Heather's car had clothes and items all over the place but to those that knew her, this was not unusual for Heather, she would always have things piled up and out of place. Terry did notice that her keys, purse and phone were missing. He tried calling her (as did many relatives and friends) over and over again but the call would just go straight to voicemail.

Heather's family and friends were hoping that Heather would return, that she possibly had a night out (they knew she'd been on a date), had a bit too much to drink and stayed at a friends house. It wasn't unusual for Heather not to check in with family members, afterall she was a young woman and people in their 20s don't tend to call their parents every 5 minutes. However the frightening fact that she was missing became clear so her family, friends and members of the local community set about searching for her, holding vigils and prayer meetings. They created posters, leaflets and set up a facebook page: Find Heather Elvis

Whilst police were looking for Heather and doing their investigations, suspicions soon quickly fell on Sidney and Tammy Moorer due to the evidence of the texts, phonecalls and public knowledge of the affair between Heather and Sidney.

Sidney and Tammy would also post on facebook about the situation and spoke very disrespectful of Heather and her family. Sidney posted: ''Heather was a girl who traded oral sex for Pumpkin Spiced Lattes'' amongst other things. Tammy also posted messages including a reply to a friend: '' Well, Sidney cheated on me in the months of Sept/Oct with a psycho whore who has since went missing''. Full transcripts of all the posts that Sidney and Tammy had made during this time can be found online.

The Moorers were also claiming to be victims of harassment by members of the local community and Heather's Dad Terry but nobody was ever charged.

The couple already had run ins with the law for Medicare fraud and Sidney had a previous altercation with his father in law.

(Sidney and Tammy Moorer. Photo cred: WMBF News)

Four months after Heather went missing, both Tammy and Sidney were charged with murder, indecent exposure and obstruction of justice. The murder and obstruction charges were later dropped in 2016 but Sidney was convicted of the obstruction of justice charge in 2017.

Two relatives of Heather's were also charged in 2014 with obstruction of justice for doing their own independent investigation into Heather's disappearance.

Sidney's 2017 trial ended in a hung jury, he's currently due to have a retrial (possibly this year. I've read that it could be around June or July but nobody knows for sure).

Shortly after the mistrial, both Sidney and Tammy were indicted on an additional charge of conspiracy. Tammy Moorer was convicted of both charges when she stood trial in October 2018. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

To this day both Sidney and Tammy protest their innocence and claim to have had nothing to do with Heather Elvis's disappearance or possible murder.

Bizarre behaviour: 

Sidney told police officers during his questioning that Tammy would handcuff him to the bed every night to make sure that he didn't leave the house.

Tammy also forced Sidney to get her name tattooed above his crotch and was overheard telling him ''Well, this wouldn't have happened if you didn't mess around with that girl''. A topless picture of Sidney showing off the tattoo was later posted on facebook, there was also a gun attached to his hip.

The Moorers also claimed that they couldn't have been anywhere near Peachtree Boat Landing because they were too busy having sex in another public place.

Both Tammy (40 at the time) and Sidney (37 at the time) were obsessed with Disney and when I say Obsessed, I mean OBSESSED.

At one point during their postings and ramblings on facebook they accused Heather's father of sexually abusing her and that he had something to do with her disappearance.

Two men who were unrelated to the Elvis family and the Moorers were arrested for trolling online and posting false information about the case. They were later released as the police had thoroughly investigated them and found them to be just a couple of sad guys looking to just troll.

To this day, none of Heather's family or friends know where she is, is she's still alive or what really went on in those early hours of that morning but all the evidence points in the direction of the Moorers.

Thoughts:

On the night of Heather's disappearance, Sidney was spotted on CCTV buying a pregnancy test and a cigar. Who buys a pregnancy test at that time of the morning and who was it for?

Who calls someone in the early hours of the morning out of the blue to tell them they're leaving their wife? you could say this could be the actions of someone drunk? Sidney to my knowledge was completely sober that night.

Why did Sidney lie about the phonecalls before he had to admit that they happened after the CCTV footage was discovered?

Why did he make out that the affair didn't last as long as it actually did?

Why did he call Heather from a payphone, was he doing that so it couldn't be traced back to him?

If he didn't care that much for Heather, why did he constantly come into work on his days off, bringing her Coffee and bagels?

There's quite a few details that I haven't touched on about Sidney and Tammy Moorer which you can find elsewhere online, I've focused on the main points but it all looks shady to me.

Because there is no body or any sign of where Heather could be despite searches it's really hard to know what really happened, all I know is that I very much believe, based on all of this evidence that they had something to do with Heather's disappearance.

Heather was a beautiful young woman and I believe that Tammy was jealous and angry (she had a right to be furious because of the affair but it was later found out that she was talking to younger men online) and could the thought of Heather being pregnant have pushed Tammy over the edge? A lot of people have said (and I believe this myself) that Tammy was the boss in her marriage to Sidney and that he did whatever he was told. I'm not letting him off the hook, I'm not 100% sure what he did or didn't do but I believe he was part of it and one is just as guilty as the other.

Some people were leaving nasty comments about Heather elsewhere on social media because she had the affair with Sidney. People make mistakes and she was only 20 years old. We've all done things we regret and you don't know what lies Sidney had been telling her, she thought his marriage was as good as over and she was quite naive. She doesn't deserve what's happened to her.

Right now, Heather should be enjoying her career in the beauty industry, living her life, being with her family and who knows, she could have been married with children by now. I don't believe that she ran away, she had everything to look forward to, things were getting better, she landed her dream job and a potential new relationship.

I'm glad that Tammy's in prison and like I mentioned earlier, Sidney is due his retrial so I will update on that when it happens. I hope the full truth comes out. I hope that one of them cracks and starts talking. The family and friends of Heather deserve closure. I'm not a psychic though, this is just my opinion and I would love it if Heather returned to her family.

Heather's tribute garden at Peachtree Boat Landing. Owner of photo unknown.

I hope the truth comes out soon, Heather deserves justice.

UPDATE 2020: Along with his wife Tammy, Sidney Moorer's re-trial resulted in him being sentenced to 30 years in prison. His re-trial took place in September 2019, Tammy was sentenced to 30 years in 2018. Both charged with kidnapping. Both still claim to this day that they are innocent. We can but hope that at some point one of them cracks and gives the Elvis family proper closure. 

You can also find me on: @CaledonianTweet (for all things related to my blog) as well as:

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For all enquiries and collaborations, please get in touch at: caledoniankblog@yahoo.co.uk

I've been following this case for the past few years and I was wondering whether or not I should post about it, but since Heather is still technically missing, I think that any bit of attention given to the case is important. I'm talking about the Heather Elvis case. I will be covering this case in two posts to try and break it up a little as there's a lot of information included.

I've studied Criminology at University and I've read a lot of true crime stories and this is a case that I've done a lot of research on and followed over the years, so grab a drink, get comfortable and I hope that you will also stick around for part two which I will be posting straight after this one.

Let's begin...

Heather Elvis is/was a beautiful 20 year old girl from Myrtle beach in South Carolina who seemed to have the world at her feet. Heather was creative, popular and had dreams of working in the beauty industry (Here is a link to Heather's twitter page for a glimpse of her personality and interests). Whilst she was studying towards a career in Cosmetology, Heather had two jobs, one was at a pizza restaurant and the other was at a place called 'The Tilted Kilt' (I'm sure my US readers will know of this restaurant but for those in the UK and beyond it's a bit like Hooters with a Celtic theme). One thing's for sure, Heather was not shy of hard work, she was/is also known for her kindness towards others. She once took a trip to Costa Rica and whilst she was there she would help out the locals, reading books to children and helping to build a roof for an old woman in one of the towns.

It was whilst working at 'The Tilted Kilt' as a hostess/waitress that Heather first laid eyes on a man called 'Sidney Moorer'. Sidney was a 37 year old maintenance worker who would go around all of the local bars and restaurants doing repairs. He was married to his wife Tammy who was 40 at the time and she was a stay at home mother to their children. Sidney met Tammy when he was 21 in a bar that they were both working it, they'd been together ever since and got married in 1997.

It was no secret that Heather had a crush on Sidney even though he was much older and the two of them would engage in harmless flirting at work. It soon became clear that Sidney was also attracted to Heather and the two began an affair. Sidney would often bring Heather coffee and bagels when she was at work (even on his days off) and they would hang out together. They would text each other back and forth and (according to a text message sent by Sidney during the affair that was seen by a witness) sometimes engage in kissing etc at work (I don't want to go into too much detail but I'm sure you get the idea).

Throughout the affair, it appears from what has been said from others, that Heather was under the impression that Sidney was in an open marriage and he told her that he no longer loved Tammy, that Tammy had her own boyfriend and that they were just together for financial reasons and for the sake of the kids. You have to remember that Heather was just 20 years old and at this point still learning about life, Sidney was an older man and more experienced and probably told her all of the things that she wanted to hear.

Heather began to have problems at work from some of her colleagues who weren't too happy about the affair, it became quite bitchy with someone writing on a board in the staffroom ''Stop F!cking a married man ok, thanks''. One of the girl's also phoned the restaurant posing as Tammy looking for Heather, Heather panicked and left work straight away thinking that Tammy was going to show up at any moment.

The affair lasted from June 2013 and came to an abrupt end in the October of that year after Tammy found out, it's not clear how she found out but she did and people close to Heather said that once the affair had been discovered by Tammy, it was like a bomb had gone off.

Heather (who was living with a close female friend at that time) received a phone call from Tammy saying ''You're going to end it with my husband''. Tammy then put Sidney on the phone and listened whilst Sidney began to tell Heather that she meant nothing to him, that it was over and that she was just someone ''who spread their legs'' amongst other insults.

Heather was devastated and it really knocked her confidence for a while afterwards. Her close friend that she was living with did her best to support her and over the next few weeks Heather worked on rebuilding her confidence, focusing on her dreams, goals and work. During this time Tammy would send nasty text messages to Heather's phone which included phone calls and even a picture of Tammy and Sidney having sex. Heather did her best to ignore them and only responded to one, she said ''I think you're a little obsessed with me, I'm nobody you need to worry about anymore''.

Tammy still continued with her harassment and sent Heather a text saying ''Hey Sweetie, are you ready to meet the Mrs?''.

Heather still continued to focus on her work etc and was doing really well, people had commented how she had gotten her smile back and was making jokes like she always did before. She was also a huge step closer to her dream as she was offered a job in a beauty salon which she was really excited about. Her confidence was coming back and she organised a date with a guy who was closer to her own age that she'd been talking to for quite a while, things were looking good for Heather.

As for the texts and calls from Tammy, Heather began to get used to them and continued to ignore them thinking that Tammy would eventually get bored and move on.

Whilst she was excited about all these positive changes in her life, Heather began to notice that she'd put on a bit of weight. She couldn't understand how this was happening and how quick it was. Her bra size had gone up three sizes and they had to give her a new uniform at work. This led her to take a pregnancy test that came back as 'error'. Heather told a friend that she was going to buy another pregnancy test and try again later.

The date that she had previously organised with the guy she'd been talking to had arrived and she was so excited. Her friend asked her what they had planned for the date but Heather didn't know, she just said that she was really looking forward to it.

17th December 2013:

Heather goes on a date with the young man (he was later interviewed, investigated and given a polygraph test which he passed) and they had a great time, they drove around looking at Christmas lights as it was one of Heather's favourite things to do during the Christmas holidays. Heather also sent a picture of herself having fun on the date to the close friend that she lived with (who was out of town visiting relatives) and her Dad Terry. The date started around 10pm and ended just after 1am. Heather was dropped off at her apartment and she and the young man arranged to meet up again the next day.

1:35am:

Heather (who was in the apartment alone as her friend was out of town) received a phone call out of the blue from Sidney Moorer (he was calling from a payphone which was unknown to Heather). The call lasted 4:53 minutes.

1:44am:

Heather calls her close friend (the one that she lives with) in tears and tells her that Sidney just called her and told her that he loved her and that he was leaving his wife (Sidney would later deny that this call had taken place until he was forced to admit it when the police had CCTV footage of him making a call at that exact same payphone at that time and was also spotted buying a pregnancy test and a cigar). Her friend told her to think properly about it and not mess up all the great progress she had made in the past few weeks over him. Heather said that she would think about it, do some internet browsing and then go to bed. This call lasted 2:20 minutes.

2:29am:

Heather tried to call the number that Sidney had previously called from several times but received no answer.

3:16am:

Heather then tries to call Sidney's mobile phone and receives no answer.

3:17am:

Heather tries calling Sidney's mobile phone again, this time she gets through and the phone call lasts for 4:15 minutes.

What was said during this phone call is unknown but after the call, Heather gets into her car and drives to a place called 'Peachtree Boat Landing' (Sidney and Tammy's home is approx 3 miles from the Peachtree Boat Landing. Sidney also denied that a phone call took place until he was forced to admit it after after the police confronted him with Heather's phone record. He then said that he did talk to her but only to tell her to leave him alone).

3:38am:

Heather tried to call Sidney's phone as she has now arrived at Peachtree Boat Landing but she receives no answer. She tries to call again at: 3:39am, 3:39:46 and 3:41 but there is still no answer from Sidney's phone

Heather's phone data ends at 3:41am

[At 3:36am and 3:39am, two CCTV cameras pick up a vehicle which is similar to that owned by Sidney and Tammy Moorer coming from the direction of their house headed towards Peachtree Boat Landing. At 3:45am and 3:46am, the CCTV cameras pick up the same vehicle leaving the Peachtree Boat Landing and heading towards Sidney and Tammy Moorers house]

Continued in part two...x

You can also find me on: @CaledonianTweet (for all things related to my blog) as well as:

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Check out my community page & promotional platform for bloggers on twitter: @TheBloggersPost

If you enjoy my content or I have helped promote/share your blog and you would like to say thanks, you can donate a coffee to me here!! & I will give you a special shoutout on twitter (I can also include your social media links if you like. Don't forget to leave me your twitter handle) 

For all enquiries and collaborations, please get in touch at: caledoniankblog@yahoo.co.uk