South Carolina fitness trainer's cause of death made public as coroner defends husband
Nearly four months after the body of a missing South Carolina fitness enthusiast was found, authorities have determined that 39-year-old Elena Katherine Moore died of natural causes stemming from a heart condition, ending months of speculation surrounding her disappearance.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher announced Friday that Moore died from complications of cardiac dysrhythmia with premature ventricular contractions, a condition involving an abnormal heart rhythm.
Fisher said the autopsy found no evidence of traumatic injuries, including broken bones, strangulation or sexual assault. Toxicology testing detected alcohol but no other substances.
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"We never saw anything that would indicate homicide. Nothing," Fisher said. "We were able to follow her path. We were able to pull her medical history, her mental history. We knew that this was not a homicide."
The coroner also addressed speculation surrounding Moore's husband, Brannon Slice, saying he was never considered a suspect or person of interest in the investigation.
Fisher went further, crediting Slice with repeatedly trying to get his wife help as she struggled with a serious mental health crisis in the days before her disappearance.
"The only person that really tried to help this girl to get her help through the system is her husband," Fisher said. "He reached out. He tried many times to get her help."
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Moore was found dead June 17, six days after disappearing following her release from a mental health facility.
Fox News Digital previously obtained an incident report showing that Slice reported his wife missing June 12, telling Lexington police she had been released from an undisclosed facility the previous afternoon.
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Fisher confirmed Friday that Moore had been involuntarily committed June 5 after experiencing what she described as a severe mental health crisis.
The coroner said Moore remained at the facility until June 11, when she was discharged and placed in a taxi. Her husband had offered to pick her up, but the facility arranged transportation instead.
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The taxi took Moore to a CVS on Sunset Boulevard in Lexington, where she previously worked. Fisher said Moore entered the store and told a manager that the taxi driver was stalking her and trying to hurt her.
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The manager contacted Lexington police, but Moore was gone by the time officers arrived. The taxi driver also went inside looking for her after she failed to return to the cab.
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Slice later told investigators that Moore had checked into a Planet Fitness at 6:38 p.m. that evening, according to an incident report previously obtained by Fox News Digital. She was subsequently seen on surveillance footage walking through a Publix parking lot on Old Cherokee Road.
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Fisher said investigators reviewed medical records dating back years, including evidence that Moore had experienced an irregular heartbeat since she was 14. More recent records documented cardiac arrhythmia, sinus tachycardia and hypertension.
During Friday's news conference, Fisher questioned why Moore had been discharged from the mental health facility despite what she described as a documented psychiatric crisis.
"This whole situation would be different if somebody at that mental health facility ... they all saw her medical, her mental crisis," Fisher said. "But yet she was released."
Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.