‘This was not a homicide’: Autopsy finds Elena Moore died of natural causes

A Lexington woman whose body was found in a wooded area near Lakeside Middle School in June died of natural causes — complications from a heart condition — not foul play, the Lexington County coroner announced on Friday, Oct. 9.

A Charleston pathologist ruled on Elena Moore’s cause and manner of death after conducting an autopsy and investigating the 39-year-old woman’s medical history, Coroner Margaret Fisher said in a press conference.

“We never saw anything that would indicate homicide. Nothing,” Fisher said, countering speculation that Moore was killed, a case that has made national headlines and dominated social media discussions.

Fisher said the case’s lead pathologist, Dr. Ellen Reimer of the Medical University of South Carolina, indicated that Moore died from complications of cardiac dysrhythmias with premature ventricular contractions.

Cardiac dysrhythmia, or cardiac arrhythmia, is an irregular heart rate due to disrupted electrical signals in the heart.

The State Law Enforcement Division, the lead police agency investigating Moore’s death, told The Chronicle on Oct. 9 that its investigation “is active and ongoing at this time.” It did not comment on the Lexington County coroner’s determination.

Fisher said Moore, who had been adopted from Russia when she was 7, was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat when she was 14. She was living in an orphanage before being adopted, the coroner said.

Moore could have continued to manage her irregular heart rate with medication, Fisher said, but she was experiencing a “full mental crisis” at the time of her death, preventing her from taking care of herself.

On June 11, the day she was last seen alive at a Planet Fitness and in a Publix parking lot in Lexington, records show Moore had just been released from a local mental health facility. The facility, which the coroner declined to name, put her in a cab even after her husband offered to pick her up.

Her husband, Brannon Slice, reported her missing the following day, according to police records.