Cause of death revealed four months after personal trainer Elena Moore mysteriously died in the woods after being seen at Planet Fitness
A South Carolina personal trainer who vanished after leaving a gym died as a result of underlying cardiac problems, officials announced.
Elena Moore, 39, disappeared after being seen at a Planet Fitness in Lexington in June of this year, her body was found in a wooded area a week later.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told reporters at a press conference on Friday that Moore died due to complications of cardiac dysrhythmias.
Fisher said that Moore also died as a result of premature ventricular contractions and that she had a history of heart and mental health problems.
She explained that on June 5 she was involuntarily committed into a facility after being in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Fisher, who refused to name the facility that held Moore in the days before her death, said that they had failed to give Moore her typical heart medication while inside.
On June 11 she was released from the facility, Fisher said, and officials called her husband Brannon Slice to let him know, who then offered to pick her up.
Health officials then put her in a taxi after telling Slice they would send her back to her home address, but the taxi went instead to a CVS Pharmacy.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said that Moore died due to complications of cardiac dysrhythmias and premature ventricular contractions
Moore was reported missing by her husband, Brannon Slice, on June 12 and her body was discovered by law enforcement five days later
After going inside, Fisher said that Moore told a worker that the taxi driver had been stalking her, causing the manager to dial 911.
Fisher said she then left the store on foot with four bottles of wine on her and later entered a Planet Fitness before she was seen walking into a wooded area.
A toxicology report found no substances other than alcohol in her system or signs of trauma on her body, Fisher added.
She said: ‘Her cause of death is listed as complications of dysrhythmias with premature ventricular contractions.’
According to the findings, Moore had a history of shortness of breath, exertion, heart palpitations, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, excessive alcohol use and a fatty liver.
Fisher added: ‘This case wouldn’t have got the attention that it got had Elena not been this beautiful, body builder who just happened to be married to an ex-cop.
‘We deal with cases such as Elena’s on a regular basis and nobody puts it all over Facebook.
‘Nobody is interested, there are cases of mental illness that we’re dealing with right now and nobody cares.
‘She was in a full mental health crisis – so many people missed it. The only person who really tried to help this girl is her husband. That’s it.’
Moore disappeared after checking in at a Planet Fitness in Lexington in June of this year, her body was found in a wooded area a week later
Moore disappeared after she was last seen at the Planet Fitness in Lexington, about 20 minutes outside of Columbia, on June 11
According to the findings, Moore had a history of shortness of breath, exertion, heart palpitations, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, excessive alcohol use and a fatty liver
On June 4, a week before her disappearance, Moore was caught by a doorbell camera about half a mile from the gym, appearing confused as she tried to enter a stranger’s home.
The footage, first obtained by NewsNation, showed a DoorDash driver delivering food at the door before Moore, wearing black clothes and oversized sunglasses, who picked up the order and handed it to the couple living there.
Moore can be seen briefly interacting with a DoorDash driver, then appears to be muttering to herself as the door opens and the order is collected.
Moore briefly seemed to try to walk into the home before the door was shut in her face, leaving her outside in the hallway.
Resident John Moore, of no relation, said the missing woman ‘seemed really confused and disoriented about where she was or whatever she was doing.’
Sarah Burleson, John Moore’s wife, told NewsNation that she later saw the missing woman going through a neighbor’s packages.
Moore allegedly told Burleson that she did not know what she was doing.
Moore was found wearing an olive-green zip-up hoodie with black athletic pants, the same clothes she was wearing on the day of her disappearance
The personal trainer was an active social media user, but abruptly stopped posting around a month before she disappeared.
On a second Instagram account, however, Moore shared emotional messages, including a recount of how someone let her ‘destroy’ herself to keep ‘us’ alive,’ messages seen by TMZ revealed.
In the post, Moore said that she felt ‘exhausting hatred’ from the ordeal and added: ‘I never wanted to look at someone I once loved with disgust and resentment.’
The heart-wrenching message detailed how a person ‘watched me love you with everything I had,’ only to ‘hurt me anyway.’
‘…you turned love into something painful, something heavy, something I now have to heal from every single day,’ the message continued.
‘I hate what you did to me. I hate the memories that won’t leave me alone, and more than anything, I hate that a part of me still mourns the person I thought you were.’
