Police have located the body of a missing Florida woman, her body was discovered in a “shallow grave” in Alabama, the Santa Rosa County, Florida, the sheriff said Sunday.
Cassie Carli, 37, was last seen on March 27 when she met her 4-year-old daughter’s father Marcus Spanevelo for a child exchange in the parking lot of a Navarre Beach restaurant, authorities said.
She was reported missing the next day, CNN reported.
Authorities recovered the victim’s car and purse Tuesday on a “boat overflow ramp” near the restaurant, investigators added.
Spanevelo was arrested in Lebanon, Tennessee, by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and state troopers.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson announced that the Major Crimes Unit had traveled more than 1,500 miles in a week, to look for evidence relating to Carli’s disappearance.
“We discovered her body while executing a search warrant in Alabama. It was in a barn, in a shallow grave,” Johnson told reporters.
Police have not yet revealed what led them to the location Saturday evening, but did say that the property was linked to Spanevelo “in a roundabout way.”
Johnson said he informed Carli’s family in person on Sunday and they were “crushed.”
“It gives them some closure that they know where’s she’s at now. But still, it’s their daughter … daughter, and sister and it is terrible.”
Carli’s daughter was located Wednesday with Spanevelo in Birmingham, Alabama. Johnson said that she was safe and now with her family.
Spanevelo is being held in Tennessee and faces charges of tampering with evidence, giving false information concerning a missing person investigation, and destruction of evidence, the sheriff’s office announced.
Spanevelo allegedly took Carli’s phone “and basically got rid of it,” Johnson continued.
“He was totally uncooperative, he never cooperated at all with us,” Johnson said when asked of the suspect was cooperating. “It’s your baby’s mother and she’s missing and you’re not going to cooperate with authorities – that’s kind of tell-tale,” he said.
The sheriff applauded the Major Crimes Unit for its work on the case.
“They went over 1,500 miles in this investigation, multiple search warrants on cars, phones, houses, properties, I just cannot speak highly enough about them,” he said. “We hate it that Cassie has passed away but it’s good to get closure for the family.”
