South Carolina authorities identify body as missing Lexington trainer Elena Moore

A tip that came in after news coverage led Lexington officers and firefighters to a body near Old Cherokee Road and Northlake Drive, and the Lexington County Coroner’s Office later identified the remains as Elena Moore, a 39-year-old personal trainer at Wolf’s Fitness Center. South Carolina officials said Friday that the death investigation is now in the hands of the state law enforcement division.

Moore was last seen June 11 at Planet Fitness at 560 Whiteford Way in Lexington, where police said she signed in around 6:40 p.m. Surveillance later showed her walking through a nearby Publix parking lot at about 9:17 p.m., wearing an olive-green zip-up hoodie and black athletic pants, and heading toward Old Cherokee Road. Her husband, Brannon Slice, reported her missing the next day, June 12.

The search tightened on Wednesday, June 17, after officers received a tip that Moore had been seen near North Lake Drive and Old Cherokee Road. Responding personnel found a body near that intersection and made a preliminary match based on the clothing description. The coroner’s office then positively identified the remains as Moore.

Police have not said whether they suspect foul play, and Lexington Police Chief Terrence Green declined to say. An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday, June 21, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, with additional information expected Monday. Investigators have not released a cause of death.

The case has unsettled Lexington, a city of about 23,000 west of Columbia, where the first days of a missing-person investigation often depend on fast witness checks, surveillance video and public tips. In Moore’s case, those pieces came together across just a few days: a gym check-in, a later sighting near the Publix parking lot, a tip prompted by coverage, and then the recovery of the body near a road intersection that neighbors know well.

Moore’s husband has been cooperating with investigators, and her friend Lauren Beasley said Moore had not mentioned any personal troubles and that the two last spoke about a month earlier. For a community that has followed every development closely, the identification brings a measure of certainty, but not yet answers about how Moore died or what happened in the hours after she was last seen.