They came because they were missing loved ones, but hope in the candlelight remains

The nighttime vigil had one common theme: everyone who came was missing someone and the dozens of candles they lit honored them all. In the flicker of the flames sparked a glow of hope.

“We’re all out here today because we’re missing somebody, whether it’s we’re missing Heather, we’re separated by a loved one during the holidays or we’re just having a hard time during Christmas or we’re here to support somebody else who’s having a hard time,” Heather Elvis’ mother, Debbi Elvis, told the crowd.

Community members, mourning the loss of loved ones separated by distance, death or both, gathered at Peachtree boat landing on Sunday evening to remember the ones they have lost on the third anniversary of Heather Elvis’ disappearance.

The drop-in event from 5-8 p.m. Sunday was called “The Second Annual Night of H.E.L.P.P.” The acronym stands for “Hope. Encouragement. Love. Purpose. Perseverance,” according to the Find Heather Elvis Facebook page.

Heather Elvis was last seen Dec. 18, 2013. A 20-year-old at the time, her car was found locked and abandoned at Peachtree boat landing. She remains missing.

Elvis’ family holds prayer vigils monthly on the 18th. Last year’s anniversary vigil took on a new tone as the family created an event that wasn’t solely about Heather, but one that invited everyone who was missing a faraway loved one to come to Peachtree boat landing and write their loved one’s name on a luminary.

“We make the holidays all about family and Santa Claus and giving gifts and being together,” Debbi Elvis said. “Being together is so important we forget about what Christmas is all about.”

She told the crowd that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and the hope that came into the world and that remains in the world through him. Death lost its sting, when Christ died for us, sealing a permanent hope that when families lose a loved one they will see them again, she said.

Debbi Elvis lit her candle first, then shared its flame with her family. Together, they passed the light onto others in the crowd – spreading the light, she said, of hope.

“Grief … will hit you when you least expect it,” Kirby Winstead, a local grief counselor, told the group. “I believe only God can heal a broken heart, but time is a salve that will help those wounds and as time progresses, those waves will get a little smaller. They’ll get a little further in between, but it’s not that you’ve forgotten them.”

Winstead encouraged the crowd to “talk to God this holiday season” and to take time to listen to God’s response.

Terry Elvis, Heather’s father, lit a candle at a memorial for his daughter near the boat landing – where Heather Elvis’ car was found abandoned three years ago. The mystery of what happened to Heather Elvis the night she went missing remains unsolved in the courts.

The case

Married couple Sidney and Tammy Moorer were charged with murder in February 2014 in connection with Heather Elvis’ disappearance. The murder charges were dropped earlier this year, but they each remain charged with kidnapping in the case.

Sidney Moorer was tried on the kidnapping charge in June, and a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial. Prosecutors sought a new trial. Circuit Court Judge R. Markley Dennis Jr., who presides over the case, ruled in favor of a motion filed by Sidney Moorer to change the second trial’s venue. The judge switched the re-trial’s location to neighboring Georgetown County after a hearing on the matter in September.

A date for that new trial and for Tammy Moorer’s trial has not yet been set.

Elizabeth Townsend contributed to this report.

This story was originally published December 18, 2016 at 6:42 PM with the headline "They came because they were missing loved ones, but hope in the candlelight remains."