The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is currently working on a missing endangered persons investigation. They are currently searching for 37 year old Cassie Catherine Carli.
Cassie was last seen on Navarre Beach, Sunday evening, March 27th. Her car has been found but there have been no signs of Cassie.
Around 7pm, Cassie was meeting with the father of her 4 year old daughter, Marcus Spanevelo, for a custody exchange. 3 hours later, Cassie’s father recieved a text from Cassie’s phone saying she was having car trouble and her phone was about to die.
According to Cassie’s father, Marcus stated that Cassie started “freaking out” and he dropped her off somewhere in Destin, FL.
Sam Porter, a friend of Cassie, told WEARTV, the child’s father told Carli’s father that he dropped her off at Porter’s house, which Porter says was not true.
Porter says friends and family reported Carli missing Monday and began their search. Friends returned to the area Tuesday morning as authorities located the vehicle.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Porter says the location of Carli, her daughter and the daughter’s father are unknown.
In 2021, a gofundme for legal fee’s was created for Cassie.
Hello Dear Family and Friends,
GoFundMe
I am writing to you today with a heavy heart. I never imagined that I would be in a position in my life where it would be necessary to write this letter to you. Nonetheless, here I am.
So where do I begin? Let me begin at the beginning. In July of 2017, on the heals of one of the most traumatic events in my life, I met the man who became the father of my precious daughter. Like so many relationships I know, I was swept up in hidden deceit known as charm. This man was a master at the game of manipulation and though I could see all the warning signs of an abuser, I believed his excuses and became stuck in his web of narcissistic lies. Just months into the relationship, I discovered that I was pregnant. Let me be clear, I have never regretted my decision to become a mother. Saylor is truly the light and love of my life.
During my pregnancy, this man’s abusive control and manipulation escalated. But having battled infertility in my first marriage, I desperately wanted a family. So, I justified his erratic behavior as long as I could. By the grace of God and great friends, I chose to end the relationship with him. I knew that raising my daughter alone would be better than exposing her to a toxic homelife relationship.
When I ended the relationship with him, and he no longer had control of my mind, his web of lies and deceit spread like a wildfire. He filed dozens of false police reports. He call CPS so many times, I nearly came to know most of the staff by name. The passive aggressive abuse was so bad, I had to trespass him from my apartment on more than one occasion.
In 2019 I filed for sole custody of my daughter. The court allowed him to have bi-monthly visitation and ordered him to pay child support. To date, he owes me over 10K in support. A few weeks ago, due to child support delinquency, the state was set to suspend his driver’s license. Just days after that notice, he called CPS to report yet another false claim. He was allowed to pick up my daughter that day for his regularly scheduled weekend visit.
For over two weeks, I had no contact with my daughter or knowledge of her whereabouts. I called everyone I knew. I sought help from local police and every government agency I knew. No one could or would help me. My only hope was a powerful attorney who would not fall for his manipulation or believe his lies.
But great attorneys are expensive. My family has levered everything we have to try to raise the 10K needed to fight this man in court. Currently, I am over 5K short. I need your help. My daughter needs your help.
Foremost, please pray. Please pray and consider donating to this Go Fund Me. Every single dollar raised will be used to protect my daughter.
Thank you for your prayers and support. I love and value each of you.
-Cassie
A candle light vigil was by friends and family on held March 29th to bring awareness to the disappearance. You can view that here.
March 30th, Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office announced that they had confirmed Saylor is safe but that they continue to look for Carli.
“We had an indicator that led us to believe the entire time that she wasn’t in danger and that’s the track that we were going on, but we wanted to see for ourselves,” said SRSO spokesman Sgt. Rich Aloy. “So investigators physically went out and put eyes on the child to make sure that she was safe. We wanted to verify that with eyes on the kid, so that’s what we did.”
A community led search is also taking place in the area that Carli’s car was found.
Cassie’s sister, Raeann Carli did an interview with DatelineNBC three days after Cassie was last seen.
Raeann told Dateline that Cassie had been back living with their father in Navarre, Florida, because she had been in between jobs and also working on custody issues with Saylor’s father. “She was having to live with my dad until she got back on her feet completely,” Raeann said. “She went to go pick up Saylor because it was his weekend. This is a normal – every other weekend drop-off exchange thing. And they were just meeting right down the road this time.”
Raeann said that right now Cassie shares 50/50 custody of her daughter. She said that Cassie used to live in Destin, Florida and Saylor’s father lives in Panama City. But when Cassie moved further away, back to Navarre, they chose a location to exchange the child, right in the middle: a Walmart in Destin. “She knew to go to, you know, a public, well-lit place — all that,” Raeann said.
But on Sunday, March 27, 2022, they changed the plan at the last minute, Raeann told Dateline. They decided to meet around 7:00 p.m. at Navarre Beach, about a mile or so from where Cassie had been staying with their father.
Raeann said the area is familiar to their family. “Juana’s – it is a local bar that she – it’s always been there. So a big parking lot and people using the boat ramp, usually a nice public place,” Raeann said. “My dad said it was just a very brief, you know, ‘Be right back, Dad. I’m just – just going right to Juana’s.’”
Raeann said their father fell asleep and when he woke up, Cassie and Saylor still weren’t home. “When he woke up at 10:45 p.m., he immediately started calling my sister and no one would answer,” Raeann told Dateline. She said her father then received some text messages from Cassie’s phone stating that she was having phone and car troubles.
Raeann told Dateline that her father called her the next day, on Monday, March 28. “He called me at 4 p.m. on Monday because he said, you know, ‘She’s not back home,’” Raeann said. Their father decided to call the police that evening, almost 24 hours after she left for Juana’s.
Although Raeann said that the area was familiar to Cassie, Sgt. Aloy told Dateline that “the area that she was in was – was very dark. It was a parking lot.”
The sergeant confirmed that “the child has been safe the entire time.” When asked to comment further about the exchange that evening, he told Dateline that he “can’t talk to that just yet.”
Sergeant Aloy confirmed that Cassie’s car was found near Juana’s and is currently in the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office impound yard. And while he declined to discuss specifics of the search efforts for Cassie, “I can tell you that the sheriff’s office has searched several locations,” he said, adding that civilians have also joined in the search.
Sergeant Aloy said he was unable to share any information about Cassie’s bank and phone records, but emphasized that it is a very active investigation. “There’s a lot of work being done currently and that’s where we’re just waiting for the results of – of all their hard work,” he said, of the major crimes division. “We’re hoping we find her well.” He noted that officials do not suspect foul play at this time in Cassie’s case.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference on March 31st.
Watch the press conference here.
Notes from the press conference –
• Marcus was located and interviewed in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama child protective services checked on Saylor. She has not been interviewed.
• No cell phone or bank activity since Cassie went missing.
• Purse was left in her car. Won’t say what was or wasn’t in purse.
• Will have another press conference if a person of interest is named.
• Still examining surveillance video in the area.
• No evidence that points to homicide or abduction at this time.
• Not enough evidence to determine if she’s alive or deceased.
• FBI is involved.
• Won’t comment on if there was any actual car trouble but police do have the car in custody.
On April 2nd, it was announced that Marcus Spanevelo was arrested in Tennessee.
Cassie is described as 5’5” tall, and weighs 150 lbs. She has shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes. Her ears are pierced, she has a tattoo of a tribal mark on her lower back and a lizard with the letters L.U.A on her foot.
On April 3rd it was announced that the remains of Cassie Carli were found in a shallow grave in a barn in Alabama. Detectives found the remains while executing a search warrant at a property connected to Marcus Spanevelo.
Watch the press conference here.
Sgt. Rich Aloy advises anyone with information to call 911 or Crimestoppers.