I know this is a few days old already, but thought I would add it anyway.
1st Presser
31st March.
Sheriff - A Navarre woman, Cassie Carli, 37 yrs. of age, was last seen Sunday the 27th behind Juana’s Pagoda in the parking lot. She was there to meet Marcus Spanevelo. They have a child in common, a 3 yr. old girl. They met there to do a child exchange. That was the last time, that we know of, that Cassie was seen. The next day, Monday the 28th, we received about midday, a call from Cassie's father reporting her missing. The next day, Tuesday the 29th, we find Cassie's car behind Juana’s Pagoda. And what we found concerning was, inside that car was Cassie's purse, and as you know, most women don't leave their purse behind when they go somewhere. So that caused us a little concern. Then, Wednesday the 30th we located Marcus in Birmingham, Alabama. Three detectives from Santa Rosa County drove up there to interview him. They made contact with him and also with Saylor, the daughter, and they called out Alabama Child Services who checked over the girl and that was that for that part. So, they interviewed him and came back here.
Right now we're currently in several different, I guess you could say, phases of this investigation, but we would like to thank Okaloosa, Walton and Bay SO for their assistance, as well as FDLE and the FBI. Currently, like I said, it's an ongoing investigation so I don't know how many questions I can answer, but feel free to ask me what you want to.
Reporter - Are there any specifics spots that you're searching right now, or any specifics efforts that you share with us?
Sheriff - Not at this time. I can say the search is ongoing, but I can't tell you any certain locations.
Reporter - Can you confirm whether there are searches beyond Santa Rosa county?
Sheriff - Yes.
Reporter - Can you give us any information about some of the people involved in this search went to Freeport yesterday?
Sheriff - I don't know the answer to that one. I mean we didn't send them there.
Reporter - No, it was the community led search.
Sheriff - I don't know.
Reporter - We talked to friends and family who all point their fingers toward Marcus when it comes to information that could lead to finding Cassie, and they believe he may know something about her disappearance. Do you feel like that's a fair statement?
Sheriff - I can say it's an ongoing investigation and he was the last one to see her, that we're aware of. So obviously we are intent on speaking with him again.
Reporter - Have any restrictions been put on him about leaving and where he's at in the country?
Sheriff - Not by us. No.
Reporter - Can you give us any sort of insight into what his story of events were when you interviewed him?
Sheriff - No I can't.
Reporter - Is there anything beyond just the purse being with the vehicle that leads you to believe that she didn't just walk off on her own, that you can tell us?
Sheriff - Not that I can speak to right now. But like I said, obviously, I've been married 32 yrs. and I'll tell you, my wife goes nowhere without her purse, so to think that she just left it there and walked off, that's what concerns us.
Reporter - Did you interview the child or was there anything from the story about the drop-off from the child?
Sheriff - No, we did not interview the child. Like I said, Alabama Protective Services responded out and I can't really comment on what they said.
Reporter - What was his connection to Birmingham? Was he like in the process of leaving or does he live there?
Sheriff - No, I think he had a jobsite up there that he works at.
Reporter - When you say her purse, is that like all of her... she left her ID all that stuff was still in the car or just a purse?
Sheriff - There were things in the purse we won't comment on, but there's things in the purse that, like I said before, we don't think she would just up and leave.
Reporter - She was last seen almost 4 days now. Can you speak to whether that's concerning to keep going yet another day with no sign of her?
Sheriff - Yeah, it's very concerning. We take everything seriously, missing person's cases, a lot of them, you know, we find the person, everything's fine but usually you don't go 4 days without hearing from them or them using a credit card or a cell phone or something. And right, as of now, we have none of that. So yeah we're concerned.
Reporter - So you can confirm that she's had no cell phone or credit card activity, since Sunday?
Sheriff - That we're aware of. That's why we didn't just assign a detective, our entire major crimes unit is working this. So you've got ten detectives that's pretty much all they're doing right now, is trying to locate Cassie.
Reporter - At any point do you plan to identify a POI in her disappearance if this continues?
Sheriff - Well yeah, definitely. If we develop information that points to a person, solid, yeah we'll definitely have another press conference, without a doubt.
Reporter - How many witnesses have you guys interviewed, approximately?
Sheriff - Phew. Ballpark.....
Reporter (
I think) - Really there's not a whole lot of 1st eye witnesses to....
Sheriff - So, I would say 5 or 6 right now. Because when you start talking about witnesses, they (talking about Cassie and M) meet by themselves together in this parking lot to do a child exchange. I mean there's....
Reporter - Is it typical to get major crimes in on the first couple of days in a missing person case?
Sheriff - It is when certain things pop up, like you find a person's car. I mean that worries us, so yeah.
Reporter - Have you all had any luck with surveillance video or anything in that area? I know it's out on the beach, but....
Sheriff - Yeah, we have. We've seen a bunch of video. The problem we have with some of it is - it's getting dark and that kind of thing, so we're still examining video.
Reporter - You've said that you're concerned and worried. Can you speak to...are you specifically concerned that it's a possible kidnapping or any other crime? I mean her life could be in danger right now.
Sheriff - Well yeah, when we look at this we consider her missing/endangered. In other words, we don't know what happened to her. We don't have any evidence specifically pointing to a homicide, or abduction or any of those. We just know that the way she has gone missing concerns us greatly.
Reporter - You said that the search has gone out of of Santa Rosa County. Can you say that it has gone outside of the state? Have you contacted other agencies?
Sheriff - Yes.
Reporter - Do you believe Cassie's alive?
Sheriff - I'm not really going to comment on what I believe. It doesn't really matter what I believe. The evidence is what we go on and right now we don't have enough evidence to determine if she's alive or whether she's deceased. We don't have that kind of evidence right now.
Reporter - Did you call the FBI to get involved or did they volunteer? How did that process go...
Sheriff - They volunteered.
Reporter - Where do you go from here?
Sheriff - They'll be examining evidence for us. Certain types of evidence that we don't have the capability of looking into. They'll take that. FDLE same way, they have certain software program's and things we don't have, that they do and hopefully they can help us.
Reporter - Were you ever able to determine if there was any problems with Cassie's car that you guys have?
Sheriff - We're not going to comment on that, but yeah, we do have the car in custody.