A former North Carolina police chief was arrested last week after attempting to stage his suicide in order to avoid facing criminal charges committed while on-duty.
Anthony Spivey, who was resigned as police chief from the Chadourn Police Department last year after he was arrested on more than 80 felonies, did not attend a court hearing Monday.
His attorney told the judge that he had gone missing and may have even taken his own life, according to WECT.
But he was arrested Thursday morning while hiding in a creek behind his aunt’s apartment complex in Horry County, South Carolina – about 30 miles south of where police say he attempted to stage his suicide.
Now Spivey is facing more charges in addition to the long list of charges he had already been facing, including destroying evidence, embezzling state property, trafficking in opium and obstructing justice, according to the News & Observer.
Spivey became police chief in 2018 after the previous chief retired.
But beginning in 2019, he began stealing guns and drugs from the evidence room at the police station and selling them to his friends and family. He was arrested in April 2021, accused of stealing the following from the evidence room, WECT reported.
- $32,186.51 in cash
- Two handguns and a rifle
- 367 doses of Xanax
- 1 dose of hydrocodone
- 131 doses of Percocet
- 26.5 oxycodone
- 1 Oxycontin
- 1 ecstasy pill
- 2 clonazepam pills
- 3 Suboxone doses
- 2 doses of MDMA
- 1 dose of alprazolam
- 47 doses of methadone
- .48 grams and .62 grams of cocaine
- 3 buprenorphine strips
- 10 doses of amphetamine
- 11 “white pills” stamped “L484”
- Pill bottle containing prescription pills
- 18 “green” pills
Two months later, he was accused of embezzling $8,000 that was meant to go to a family whose child was battling leukemia, according to WECT.
He had resigned in April 2021 and was hired by an auto repair shop but then was arrested again in December 2021 for stealing two catalytic converters.
Also arrested last week was a couple accused of helping him stage the suicide, Dean and Debbie Sasser, charged with obstruction justice.
Dean Sasser who is reportedly a father figure to Spivey, lent the former chief his truck last week to go on a fishing trip.
The truck was found empty by a river along with a boat that was also empty. Inside the truck was a suicide note, prompting police to send a dive team into the river to search for his body.
“It didn’t really hit until I saw my truck and I saw the boat where it was located,” Dean Sasser told the News & Observer last week before his arrest.
“He had left a letter in the truck to all of us…saying his goodbyes. It’s devastating.”
