Heartbreak of Cassie Carli’s daughter, 4, whose dad is behind bars over death of mom who vanished after custody handoff

CASSIE Carli's four-year-old daughter misses her mom "terribly" and is still unaware of the tragic fact she'll never be returning home, family members told The US Sun.

Little Saylor is currently under the care of her grandfather, Andrew Carli, in Navarre Beach, Florida, while her father Marcus Spenevelo, 37, remains behind bars on charges related to her mother's disappearance.


Cassie vanished on March 27 after leaving her father's home to meet Spanevelo for a custody exchange in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.

Her body was then found on April 2, buried in a shallow grave beneath a barn more than 300 miles away in Springville, Alabama.

Her cause of death has not yet been revealed pending the outcome of an autopsy.

Spanevelo was arrested in Lebanon, Tennessee hours before the shocking discovery was made. Police say he had ties to the barn where Cassie was found.

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He is currently facing charges of evidence tampering, destruction of evidence, and supplying false information about a missing person. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges, though is expected to be hit with more once Cassie's autopsy is returned.

Saylor was with her father in Lebanon at the time of his arrest. She was temporarily taken into the care of Child Protective Services before being reunited with her grandfather earlier this month.

Raeanne Carli, Cassie's younger sister, told The US Sun that Saylor is seemingly unaware of anything that happened to her mother and is still "just a beautiful, happy little girl."

However, she says Saylor is missing Cassie a great deal and regularly calls out for her.

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"Saylor is very good," Raeanne said. "She is still aware of what happened but she just misses her mommy terribly.

"I mean she's so young but we have all kinds of professional counseling for her – she's doing amazing."

FAMILY TIES

While the family waits for answers about how Cassie died, Raeanne said they're having to remain in contact with Spanevelo and arrange visits for Saylor to see him because he still has visitation rights as her last remaining parent.

"It's very upsetting," Raeanne said, "but when you're innocent until proven guilty and you're the last remaining parent, you still have rights as a parent.

"So we're working with him a little bit but [Saylor] is handling it all brilliantly. She's doing very well and is home with a loving family."

In an earlier interview with The US Sun, Raeanne claimed Saylor said "I don't want to be with dad" just days before Cassie disappeared and was later found dead.

"Right before my sister passed, she was telling me that Saylor kept saying, 'Mom, I want to be with you, I don't want to be with dad. I want to be with you, I don't want to be with dad,'" she alleged.

Raeanne said she believes her sister was consulting with lawyers around the time of her death to explore her legal options if Saylor really didn't want to see Spanevelo anymore.

"We were talking about it and Cassie said, 'I'm not gonna make her go with him if he doesn't want, but I don't know how that works.'"

When questioned as to whether Cassie ever raised the issue directly to Spanevelo, Raeanne responded that she thinks her sister did.

'MANY RED FLAGS'

Cassie and Spanevelo were for years locked in a bitter custody dispute over their daughter.

The pair met in 2018 and had only been dating for a few months when Cassie fell pregnant.

While still in the early stages of their relationship, Raeanne said her sister was determined to make things work with Spanevelo, but around five months into her pregnancy, she couldn't bear to be with him any longer.

"There were just too many red flags," Raeanne claimed. "She would tell us, 'he's controlling me; he's trying to manipulate me; I don't want to be with him.'

"But even after she broke up with him, she was hopeful that maybe they could figure out a way to co-parent together and stay civilized."

Any hopes of civility Cassie had were quickly extinguished, according to Raeanne, who alleges that Spanevelo became increasingly volatile and "emotionally abusive" towards her sister.

The bereaved sibling alleges that after Cassie gave birth to Saylor, Spanevelo attempted to plant recording devices in her apartment, tracked her phone, and tried to monitor her movements and to who she was speaking.

"I think he thought that if he could hear her doing anything she may not supposed to be doing in then he'd try to use it against her and try to make false reports to [Child Protective Services] to get Saylor taken away from her."

EX'S CLAIMS OF INNOCENCE

Spanevelo maintains he is innocent of any wrongdoing in the disappearance and death of Cassie.

He did, however, admit to having an "altercation" with Cassie on the night she vanished, though declined to elaborate further. Spanevelo also admitted having her phone but said he threw it out of his truck on March 29, the following day.

Raeanne said she was left furious when she saw Spanevelo appearing to grin in his mugshot, which was released by authorities last week.

"But that's Marcus," she told The US Sun. "Narcissists love any attention, good or bad.

"I don't know whether he's smirking because he knows America is watching or because he thinks he's going to get away with it," she added, "but that smirk is going to get wiped off his face real fast with all the evidence police have against him."

For family members of Marcus Spanevelo, there is no doubt in their minds that the 37-year-old "doting" father is innocent.

His aunt, Neiva Halauza, even went as far as to claim that she believes her nephew has been framed in a phone interview with The US Sun.

"Marcus is a great man, decent man, a working man," Halauza said. "He never steal from nobody and he don't touch nobody.

"He has pleaded not guilty because he didn't do it. I think Marcus was framed, 100%."

Insisting her nephew would "never hurt a fly", Halauza then made a series of wild and unfounded accusations about Cassie's family, calling them "no good" and insisting they were involved with "drugs" and "dangerous people."

"The relationship [between Spanevelo and Cassie] was no good," she said. "He just wanted the daughter to be safe, but she did a lot of drugs, would hang out in bars, and spend time with lots of other men.

"Someone set it all up and blamed it on him," Halauza added. "Why did the sheriff arrest Marcus? Why doesn't he investigate her family."

A 'SINISTER PERSON'

When asked about Halauza's claims Raeanne simply laughed.

While admitting she and other family members have struggled with substance addiction in the past, those battles took place more than a decade ago and she is now 12 years sober.

"I struggled with addiction when I was younger," Raeanne said. "When I was 18 I actually ended up being incarcerated for a short period of time. But after that I turned my life around."

In an earlier interview with The US Sun, Raeanne said she felt as though Spanevelo judged her for her past struggles – which happened long before they met – and refused to get to know her because of it.

She also claimed Spanevelo attempted to poison Cassie against her family, telling her "they're all messed up" and she should distance herself from them.

Though Cassie never fell for the alleged tricks, Raeanne said it appears Halauza has been "fooled" by Spanevelo into believing they're a no-good family, and that he can do no wrong.

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"Once again, he's a narcissist," she claimed. "He's probably got this poor woman thinking he is a good boy and he is a hard-working man but there's this whole other side of him she must not know, because my sister experienced that side and he's not a good boy.

"I feel bad for her I honestly do. Because he's got her fooled and she has no idea of the sinister person he really is."




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