A South Carolina personal trainer, whose body was found after she vanished, died from heart problems following a “full mental crisis,” the coroner said.
Elena Moore, 39, died from complications of cardiac dysrhythmia with premature ventricular contractions, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher revealed.
Fisher added that the manner of death was natural and that authorities “never saw anything that indicated homicide.”
The bodybuilder was seen at a Planet Fitness in Lexington — about 14 miles outside Columbia — before heading toward a wooded area behind a nearby Lowe’s Home Improvement store on the night of June 11.
Her body was found days later on June 17, with neighbors reporting that she’d been exhibiting strange behavior in the week leading up to her disappearance.
Fisher said that Moore –– who spent the first seven years of her life in an orphanage in Russia before being adopted in the US — was first found to have had an irregular heartbeat when she was 14.
In March or April of last year, she was found to be suffering from anxiety and ADHD, and was referred to a psychiatrist but did not attend, according to Fisher.
Then, in June last year, she was told to wear a heart monitor when she was formally diagnosed with cardiac dysrhythmia, sinus tachycardia, and hypertension.
In the lead-up to her death, Moore was first reported missing on June 5 and was found after a 911 call, sitting on a curb, complaining of chest pains and in an “altered mental state,” Fisher said.
She had been pretending to be a DoorDash delivery worker and was taken to ER, the coroner said.
An assessment found that she was in “full mental crisis at this point” and Moore was involuntarily committed by the hospital to a local inpatient mental health facility.
“She’s diagnosed at this facility with an unspecified psychosis, with paranoia and delusions, anxiety, ADHD, mood disorder, alcoholism, and cannabis use disorder,” Fisher said.
Moore stayed at the facility for five days and did not appear to have been receiving her heart meds before being released on June 11, the coroner claimed.
Fisher said that Moore’s husband, Brannon Slice, was called and said he would pick her up but was told that the facility was putting her in a cab to go home.
But instead of going home, Moore took the taxi to a CVS where she had worked previously, told the manager that she was being stalked by the taxi driver and left the store with four bottles of wine and a bottle of water.
She was later seen at the Planet Fitness and near the Lowe’s and had also been spotted on surveillance cameras in a Publix car park and crossing a road at around 9:30 p.m.
Fisher said that the autopsy found no evidence of sexual assault or other traumatic physical injury.
She also pointed to high temperatures of 100F on the day of her disappearance, which she said could have exacerbated Moore’s heart condition.
