Dive teams were back in the water on the Lumber River this morning searching for the body of former Chadbourn Police Chief Anthony Spivey.
The sheriff’s office and other local agencies were joined by the Lumberton Rescue and EMS Water Rescue team early Tuesday. Helicopters and ground search teams are also in place, according to a press release form the sheriff’s office.
The disappearance is being treated as a missing person case. Spivey, 36, is 5’5” tall and weighs 140 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes.
Spivey was interim chief at the department before being promoted to the chief’s position on April 26, 2018. He submitted his resignation in March 2021, was arrested April 6 on more than 70 felony charges. He allegedly took drugs, cash and firearms from the Chadbourn Police evidence locker to support a drug habit, District Attorney Jon David said at the time. Spivey was later charged with taking around $8,000 collected for a pediatric cancer patient.
Spivey spent months in jail under a million-dollar bond awaiting trial before his bond was lowered to $500,000 secured. He was due in court Monday on charges he stole two catalytic converters from a Tabor City garage where he worked in December. The case was continued until Wednesday.
Longtime friend Dean Sasser said Spivey “was in a dark place” for several weeks before his disappearance. Sasser said Spivey considered him like a father, and often confided in Sasser and his wife. Spivey grew up in the Fair Bluff, Cerro Gordo and Chadbourn area. In addition to working for Fair Bluff, Tabor City and Chadbourn Police, Spivey served in the Marine Corps before becoming a police officer, Sasser said.
“He told me not too long ago he wished he was back in Afghanistan,” Sasser said. “He said at least there he knew who was on his side.”
Sasser was watching a documentary on George Washington this past Sunday when Spivey popped in his door and asked to borrow Sasser’s truck.
“There was nothing unusual about that,” he said. “I told him to go ahead. He said he would be gone about a half hour.”
Around 8:30 p.m., Sasser said, he became concerned. He called Spivey’s wife Eve, and asked if Anthony was around.
“She told me she hadn’t seen him for a while,” Sasser said.
“I was worried he had broken down somewhere, or his phone was dead,” Sasser said. They spent “a couple hours” riding around the area trying to find Sasser’s truck, to no avail.
“I knew he had court on Monday,” Sasser said. “We had talked about that. I figured he had gone down to the river to clear his mind before court.”
Eve contacted Sasser around 7 a.m. Monday, he said. Sasser said that friends suggested Spivey might be at a spot on the river called Big Lake, but neither Eve nor Sasser knew exactly where that was. They spent hours driving down back roads and through a hunting club before they ran into Wildlife Officer J.D. White.
“He said he knew where Big Lake was,” Sasser said, “and led us there,” but there was no sign of Spivey. They also checked a popular spot known as Canoe Landing, but again came up empty.
“Someone suggested we try the deer camp,” Sasser said, “so we headed that way. As soon as we came out of the trees, I said, ‘There’s my truck.’”
The pickup was backed up to the riverbank, Sasser said, and the tailgate was open.
“We knew Anthony had his one man boat with him,” Sasser said. “That’s how he would put it in the water. Drop the tailgate and ease it down.”
Sasser said he saw an envelope on the console in the truck, but the truck doors were locked, Sasser said. He then checked a hiding place Spivey often used, and found his keys.
“When I picked up the envelope and saw that it said ‘To family,’ I just thought, oh God, no,” Sasser said.
While White was calling for assistance, Sasser said he spotted Spivey’s boat some distance downstream, jammed under a large tree. In the incident report filed by the sheriff’s office, first responders found a .22 rifle in the boat.
“He never went in the woods without that rifle,” Sasser said.
Sasser, his wife and Eve Spivey stayed on the scene for several hours while searchers dragged and dove in the brown water of the Lumber. That particular section of the river is known for sometimes tricky, powerful currents. The camp is located several miles off the pavement, on a road that has sandy areas which bogged down several vehicles heading for the scene on Monday.
With tears in his eyes, Sasser vehemently defended the man he said “is a son to me. Or he was like my son.”
“Anthony was not on drugs,” he said. “These charges are false. He didn’t steal that money for that little boy – if he had, why would the boy’s daddy go to Anthony’s house and offer to help?
“Anthony was a good man. He was in a bad place, a dark place. Those months in jail took something out of him. Then everything in the news and on social media. He loved his family and he loved the Lord. He did a lot of good for people that nobody ever knew about. This is just – it’s hard to think he’s gone.”
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