Body found in Lexington search for missing personal trainer Elena Moore

Elena Katherine Moore’s disappearance turned into a death investigation when a tip led officers and fire personnel back into the woods off Old Cherokee Road, where a body was found near 455 Old Cherokee Road at about 2:48 p.m. on June 17. Moore, 39, had last been seen alive after signing in at Planet Fitness on 560 Whiteford Way at 6:40 p.m. on June 11, and surveillance later placed her walking through a nearby Publix parking lot at about 9:17 p.m., headed toward Old Cherokee Road and the wooded area behind Lowe’s Home Improvement.

That trail matters because it is now the backbone of the case. Police say Moore was last seen wearing an olive-green zip-up hoodie and black athletic pants, the same clothing described on the body found in the woods. Authorities have not yet formally identified the remains, but the match was close enough to shift the case from a missing-person search to a homicide-style forensic response, with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division now handling the death investigation at the request of the Lexington Police Department.

The path to the recovery was not a straight one. A June 15 update from Lexington said a prior multi-agency search of the woods behind Planet Fitness and Lowe’s had turned up nothing. That operation pulled in the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, Lexington County Fire Services, Lexington County Emergency Medical Services, Lexington County Communications, SLED and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, but investigators still came up empty. The new tip, which pointed officers toward North Lake Drive and Old Cherokee Road, changed that.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said an autopsy will be scheduled in the coming days and that no cause of death has been determined. A witness described the recovery site as a 12-foot drop area where the body showed signs of decomposition over several days, details that could become important as investigators work to determine whether Moore died where she was found or was moved there later. That distinction will likely depend on the autopsy, scene processing, and any usable surveillance or witness information from the hours after 9:17 p.m. on June 11.

Moore was described by police as a 5-foot-7, 120-pound white woman with brown hair and brown eyes, and as a personal trainer at Wolf’s Fitness Center in Lexington. Friends called her bubbly and deeply rooted in fitness and health, with Mendy Miller describing the news as “complete devastation” and saying Moore was “always smiling” and “well-loved.” Flowers later appeared along Old Cherokee Road, a small but telling sign of how quickly Lexington moved from searching for Elena Moore to waiting on the coroner’s next answer.