Town note
The town takes its name from a local swamp; the area was called Saucasty in the early colonial days.
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FILE 445 / 30 November 2023 / 171 MIN / full
Socasti, South Carolina... This is in eastern South Carolina over by the shore. It's right by Myrtle Beach... This is in Horry County. about 0:04:17
The town takes its name from a local swamp; the area was called Saucasty in the early colonial days.
about 0:05:34A skirmish between small forces of American and British troops took place near Socastee Creek in 1781.
about 0:05:56In the next hundred years it became a big centre for the production and distribution of naval stores, turpentine and tar.
about 0:06:07It had a sawmill, a turpentine distillery, a cotton gin and a grist mill.
about 0:06:59The town takes its name from a local swamp; the area was called Saucasty in the early colonial days.
about 0:05:34A skirmish between small forces of American and British troops took place near Socastee Creek in 1781.
about 0:05:56In the next hundred years it became a big centre for the production and distribution of naval stores, turpentine and tar.
about 0:06:07It had a sawmill, a turpentine distillery, a cotton gin and a grist mill.
about 0:06:59The historic district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
about 0:07:26The town has one of the ten operational swing bridges in South Carolina, built in 1935.
about 0:07:3842.6%
Biggest faith: Jewish, 0.0%
about 0:14:36White 74.9% · Black 6.9% · Asian 1.1% · Hispanic 14.9%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▲ almost double
Violent crime
▲ about a third high
Three-bedroom two-bath 1,200-square-foot trailer
about 0:17:21Four-bedroom five-bath 3,804-square-foot house
about 0:18:25Four-bedroom five-bath 3,000-square-foot house on 1.95 acres
about 0:19:11"24,657"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:13:13
"42 and a half"
Comparison: "a couple of years older than the normal". Direction: above.
As told in 2023 about 0:13:22
"about 47%"
Comparison: "slightly below the average". Direction: below.
As told in 2023 about 0:13:55
"19%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:13:59
"74.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:05
"6.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:05
"1.1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:05
"14.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:12
"32.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:54
"66.1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:54
"1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:56
"42.6%"
Comparison: "lower than most areas in South Carolina". Direction: below.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:36
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:14:48
"about 6.5%"
Comparison: "higher than the national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2023 about 0:15:05
"about $49,179 a year"
Comparison: "lower than the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2023 about 0:15:11
"90"
Comparison: "100 is regular". Direction: below.
As told in 2023 about 0:15:39
"$196,600"
Comparison: "way lower than the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2023 about 0:15:45
"$1,190"
Comparison: "right about the national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2023 about 0:16:23
"$79,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:17:21
"$724,900"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:18:25
"$1,270,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2023 about 0:19:11
"almost double"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2023 about 0:25:56
"about a third high"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2023 about 0:26:15
3.4 / 5 · average of 5
“Bought a home over a year ago and loves it; the house backs onto a creek leading to the waterway and the cul-de-sac is peaceful with great neighbours.”about 0:09:27
“A small community with a lot of hidden gems to find, getting bigger every day with new developments, stores and offices.”about 0:10:17
“Being a tourist-trap town makes the crime rate higher than other areas of South Carolina.”about 0:10:49
“It has a lot of improvements to make.”about 0:11:34
“Doesn't know a whole lot about them personally but has no complaints.”about 0:11:37
“The area is bad for locals and seems to be getting worse; the cost of living is going up and pay is at a standstill.”about 0:12:07
Heather Elvis was twenty years old in December 2013. She lived in her own apartment in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina and worked as a hostess at the Tilted Kilt, a pub and eatery in Myrtle Beach. Her parents, Terry and Debbie Elvis, ran a shop called Always Stuck On You in the Market Common area, and her younger sister, Morgan, was sixteen.
The marriage was not an equal one. It was common knowledge at the restaurant.
She went with him to his maintenance jobs. In November 2013 she sent Heather a message giving her one last chance to answer before they met in person, and asking whether the children wanted to meet her.
She told friends she was heartbroken and wanted the whole thing behind her. She had taken a pregnancy test at work in early November; it came back with an error, and nobody ever established whether she was pregnant.
On 17 December 2013 Heather went on a first date with Steve Schiraldi, a man her own age she had known at high school. They ate at Bandito's Restaurant and Cantina in Myrtle Beach, and then he taught her to drive a stick shift in an empty mall car park and took her to his mother's house in Murrells Inlet to watch a film.
The call lasted four minutes and fifty seconds. Heather then called the payphone back nine times. At 2.31 a.m. she left her apartment, and at 2.42 a.m. she reached Long Beards Bar, where she called the payphone nine more times. None was answered.
Two doorbell cameras further up the road recorded a black Ford F-150 heading towards the landing at 3.41 a.m. and coming back the other way at 3.45. Its built-in GPS had been deliberately disabled.
At four o'clock on the morning of 19 December, a Horry County sheriff's officer patrolling the Peachtree Boat Landing found Heather's green Dodge Intrepid, which was registered to her father, parked askew with the doors locked and no sign of a struggle. Terry Elvis came to look at it, and the trunk was opened in front of him; it was empty. Heather's driving licence was on the driver's console, but her phone, wallet and purse were gone.
The police treated Heather as missing. Investigators found a bag of cement, a spent shotgun shell and a bottle of cleaning fluid by the camper in the drive, which the prosecution later called a kidnapping kit, and the truck's GPS had been disconnected.
The phone records and the payphone footage broke the alibi. Phone data placed Heather at the landing at the time the truck came and went.
Heather Elvis has never been found.
December 18th, 2013 / Peachtree Boat Landing, Socastee, South Carolina
As told in the episode, on 30 November 2023.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
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