April 4, 2022 5:41pm
Updated: April 5, 2022 1:15pm
One week after Florida resident Cassi Carli went missing, police found her in a “shallow grave” in Alabama, reported the Santa Rosa County sheriff.
Carli, 37, was last seen on March 27, when she met with the father of her four-year-old, Marcus Spanevelo, to pick up her daughter at a restaurant called Juana’s Pagodas in Navarre Beach.
The next day, she was reported missing. On Tuesday, authorities found her car and purse in a “boat overflow ramp near the restaurant where she had met the father of her child.
The Sheriff’s office announced that Spanavelo had been arrested in Lebanon, Tenessee on Saturday.
"We discovered her body while executing a search warrant in Alabama. It was in a barn, in a shallow grave," Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters at a news conference on Sunday.
"It's not the ending that we wanted, obviously, but we're hoping to provide a little closure for the family," he added.
Authorities have not yet revealed what led them to the barn. Johnson only said that the property where she was found was linked to Spanavelo “in a roundabout way.”
Spanavelo is being charged with tampering with evidence, giving false information in a missing person investigation, and destruction of evidence. He could face additional charges after the autopsy is completed. Police believe that Spanavelo acted alone.
"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," said Cali’s sister, Raeann Carli about Spanavelo.
"I think we have a great case, and he's either going to spend the rest of his life in prison or he's going to get the needle," Johnson said on Sunday. "Hopefully the needle."
