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Two detectives from the Columbus County Sheriff’s Workplace drove towards the Lumber River in southeastern North Carolina final Monday and listened to what Eve Waddell was telling them about her husband, William Anthony Spivey.
Mr. Spivey, the previous police chief in Chadbourn, N.C., who has been charged with greater than 70 felonies, went boating on the river a day earlier and had left a be aware in a truck indicating he wished to die by suicide, Ms. Waddell instructed the detectives.
However the boat, which was afloat, was empty, the authorities realized, and Mr. Spivey, who had a scheduled court docket look that Monday, Feb. 21, was lacking. Or maybe lifeless.
Shortly after midnight on Feb. 24, the authorities stated they discovered Mr. Spivey, 36, hiding close to an condo complicated in Loris, S.C., and charged him with obstruction of justice for staging his loss of life in what the Columbus County sheriff, Jody Greene, described as an “elaborate ruse.”
“To paraphrase Mark Twain: Information of Mr. Spivey’s loss of life has been tremendously exaggerated,” Jon David, the district legal professional for Brunswick, Bladen and Columbus Counties, stated at a information convention on Friday.
Mr. Spivey was being held within the Columbus County Detention Middle on Tuesday on a $6 million bond. No lawyer was listed for him within the jail’s information. A lawyer who had beforehand represented Mr. Spivey, Michael Mills, didn’t instantly return calls looking for touch upon Tuesday.
The seek for Mr. Spivey — which the authorities stated concerned the deployment of helicopters, boats and dive groups at a price to taxpayers of $64,205 — was the most recent in a collection of authorized troubles for the previous chief.
Final spring, Mr. Spivey was charged with greater than 70 felonies, together with stealing or destroying proof, embezzlement and opioid trafficking, stemming from his time because the police chief in Chadbourn, a city of 1,500 individuals about 120 miles south of Raleigh. Mr. David, the district legal professional, stated that Mr. Spivey repeatedly raided the division’s proof room, stealing medication and 1000’s of {dollars}. He additionally stole firearms and bought them to associates and family members, Mr. David stated.
Mr. Spivey was appointed chief in July 2018. He was suspended in March 2021, after a misconduct investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, and he resigned in April, in accordance with the Horry County Police Division.
He confronted an extra embezzlement cost in June, in accordance with the Columbus County District Lawyer’s Workplace, for the theft of $8,000 supposed for the household of a leukemia affected person.
Mr. Spivey was launched from jail in September after posting a $500,000 bond, Mr. David stated. In January, he was charged with larceny after he was accused of stealing catalytic converters from an auto restore store, in accordance with an arrest warrant from the Tabor Metropolis Police Division.
Mr. David summarized the most recent string of expenses as “irritating.”
Virtually from the second Mr. Spivey was reported lacking, the authorities doubted that he was lifeless. In an try and keep away from an earlier court docket listening to, he had claimed to be sick with Covid-19 and submitted a fraudulent be aware as proof, Mr. David stated. When officers heard of the suicide be aware, there was rapid skepticism, he added.
The skepticism intensified when investigators noticed proof that “didn’t help a suicide state of affairs,” the Columbus County Sheriff’s Workplace stated in an announcement.
Contained in the boat was a .22 caliber rifle with a discharged spherical in it. Investigators additionally reviewed surveillance footage and carried out interviews that provided additional proof that Mr. Spivey was alive and on the run, although they didn’t present particulars.
The Columbus County Information reported that its editor, Jefferson Weaver, had acquired a suicide be aware from Mr. Spivey that stated he had fallen “right into a darkish place.”
“I might do something to take this ache away,” the letter stated, “so I made this alternative!”
On Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Mr. Spivey. Investigators acquired a tip that night time that Mr. Spivey was in South Carolina, Capt. Kevin Norris of the Columbus County Sheriff’s Workplace stated on Friday. He was on the house of an aunt, Brenda Rowele, stated Michele Tatum, the general public data officer for the Columbus County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Shortly after midnight, officers discovered Mr. Spivey close to an condo complicated in Loris, S.C. After submerging himself in a creek behind the condo constructing and threatening that he would “must shoot” officers in the event that they tried to seize him, the authorities bought him on the bottom and into restraints, in accordance with an incident report from the Horry County Police Division.
Two different individuals — Debbie Bridgers Sasser and Harold Dean Sasser, a married couple who’re Mr. Spivey’s neighbors — had been arrested in reference to Mr. Spivey’s staged loss of life and charged with obstructing justice. Mr. Sasser let Mr. Spivey borrow his truck, which investigators discovered by the river, Ms. Tatum stated.
Michael Caviness, a lawyer for Ms. Sasser, didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Tuesday.
Sheriff Greene stated in an announcement that “further expenses and arrests are probably.”
“Spivey was discovered alive and nicely,” he stated. “We take into account {that a} job nicely performed.”
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