Body of Missing Florida Mother Cassie Carli Found in ‘Shallow Grave’ in Alabama

Authorities located the body of missing Florida mother Cassie Carli in a shallow Alabama grave on Saturday evening, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson announced Sunday. The discovery came nearly a week after she went missing following a custody exchange meeting with her four-year-old daughter’s father.

Carli, 37, of Navarre, went missing on March 27 after meeting Marcus Spanevelo, the father of their daughter Saylor, for a custody exchange at Navarre Beach, WEAR-TV reported. Carli never returned to the home she shared with her father, and her vehicle was later located in the Juana’s Pagodas restaurant parking lot at Navarre Beach, where the meeting took place, Fox News reported.

According to WEAR-TV:

Santa Rosa County investigators interviewed Spanevelo in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday, which is when they announced the daughter was safe. The investigators later went to Tennessee, where they placed surveillance on Spanevelo — eventually leading to his arrest Friday night by Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and Tennessee Highway Patrol.

“The suspect is currently in jail in Maury County, Tennessee on charges of tampering with evidence and giving false info in reference to a missing persons investigation,” Johnson said Sunday in a press conference shared to Facebook. 

He later added that the tampering charge “is in reference to the victim’s phone.”

“He took her phone and basically got rid of it,” he said. Authorities have since recovered the device, though Johnson would not specify where. 

He went on to say Spanevelo failed to cooperate throughout the missing person investigation.

“He never cooperated at all with us, and that goes a long way,” he said. “I mean, you think about it – it’s your baby’s mother, and she’s missing, and you’re not going to cooperate with authorities – that’s kind of telltale.”

Johnson noted that additional charges could be pending contingent on an autopsy set for Monday morning. 

“The nice thing about this is that they’re holding him as they’re building their case, so they don’t have to worry about chasing this guy throughout the United States,” Professor Joe Giacalone of John Jay College of Criminal Justice told Fox News Digital.

Johnson said Spanevelo “does have a connection to the property” where Carli’s body was found but added that the sheriff’s office is neither revealing the precise location of the property nor how they received information that led them there as the investigation remains ongoing. However, the “St. Clair County Coroner tells Channel 3 the property is located in the 7800-block of Highway 11 in Springville,” the outlet reported.

Johnson provided an update on Saylor, saying she is safe and “has been checked on by the Tennessee Department of Children and Families.” He added that authorities are working to reunite the four-year-old with her family.

Cassie’s younger sister, Raeann Carli, told Fox News Digital that her sister had feared Spanevelo in the past:

Just in general, with her relationship with him, it has always been, she has had some fear of him. He’s always controlling, and tried to be manipulative, and she had some fear of him in the past. And what he’s capable of, or planning maliciously towards her.

Following Sunday’s press conference, Raenne shared a video thanking investigators for their efforts and provided an update on Saylor.

Watch Below: 

“I think we have a great case, and I think he’s either going to spend the rest of his life in prison, or he’s going to get the needle,” Johnson said Sunday. “Hopefully the needle.”