Investigators have found the body of Cassie Carli in Alabama, nearly a week after the 37-year-old mom disappeared during a custody exchange in Florida.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said Sunday the body was identified via a tattoo after it was found “in a barn in a shallow grave.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Carli’s ex-boyfriend — and the father of her 4-year-old daughter — is in jail in Tennessee, charged with tampering with evidence and giving false information in a missing person investigation.
Johnson said that Marcus Spanevelo has been “totally uncooperative” during the entire investigation.
“Since we’ve been dealing with him, he’s been acting like a dirtbag,” Johnson said. “I don’t see that changing.”
The sheriff said information gathered in the course of their investigation led them to the property in Alabama where they served a search warrant Saturday evening and found Carli’s body. He said that Spanevelo has a connection with the property, but he declined to say what that was. The information did not come from Spanevelo, he said.
“All he said was ‘lawyer.’ That’s all he said.”
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“It’s not the ending we wanted, obviously,” he said, “but we’re hoping it will provide a little closure for the family.”
Before his arrest, Spanevelo had not been officially identified by investigators because he had not been charged with a crime or named a person of interest. Santa Rosa officials had said they wanted to speak with him again, however, because he was the last person known to have seen Carli last Sunday, when she was supposed to pick up their daughter during a custody exchange at a Navarre Beach parking lot.
When she didn’t come back from that meeting, family tried texting and calling but got no response until three hours later, when her father got a text from Carli’s phone saying she was having car trouble. She was not heard from again.
Both Carli and her daughter were initially reported missing, until investigators found the little girl with Spanevelo in Birmingham, Alabama, where he has a job.
The search for Carli continued. Then, on Saturday, authorities announced Spanevelo’s arrest in Maury County, Tennessee. Investigators said at the time that the 4-year-old was safe, and Johnson added on Sunday that the girl had been checked out by the Tennessee Department of Children and Families and that she was safe with family members.
Johnson said an autopsy on Monday in Huntsville, Alabama, would determine Carli’s cause of death, and the state attorney would consider additional charges against Spanevelo at that point.
“We have a good case,” he said. “I think he’s either gonna spend the rest of his life in prison or he’s gonna get the needle. Hopefully the needle.”
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[Featured image: Marcus Spanevelo/Maury County Sheriff’s Department and Cassie Carli/Facebook]
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