Dive team combed NC river for ex-police chief feared dead — until he popped up in SC
The former chief of police in a small town near the coast of North Carolina was thought to have drowned after investigators found his abandoned boat in the river and the truck he was driving parked near the boat landing.
That is until a few days later, when officials said they caught him running from an apartment complex just over the border in South Carolina.
William Anthony Spivey, 36, was arrested just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 24 and taken to the detention center in Horry County, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. Spivey has 40 outstanding warrants for his arrest on failure to appear charges. His bond has been set at $1 million as a result.
Spivey was chief of police in Chadbourn, North Carolina, until April 2021. Chadbourn is about 130 miles south of Raleigh and just 60 miles north of Myrtle Beach. About 2,000 people live there.
Spivey resigned after the State Bureau of Investigation started looking into possible misconduct within the department, spurred by concerns over a lack of drugs being sent to the state crime lab. He was ultimately charged with 88 felony counts that include destroying evidence, embezzling state property, trafficking in opium and obstructing justice.
According to the Brunswick County District Attorney’s office, Spivey also stole guns from the police department’s evidence lockup and sold them to friends and family.
Spivey went missing around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20, WWAY reported. He was due in court the following morning but never showed up. Dean Sasser, a family member, told the news outlet Spivey had asked to borrow his truck and never returned. The sheriff’s office was called the next day after they reportedly found the truck near the Lumber River.
The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a Facebook post that Spivey was reported missing on Feb. 21 after he failed to return from a fishing trip. A dive team was deployed to comb the river, helicopters scanned from the air and tracking teams searched on the ground, the sheriff’s office said.
Friends and family feared Spivey was dead, telling investigators they thought it could be suicide. Sasser said Spivey had been having a difficult time, WWAY reported.
“It didn’t really hit until I saw my truck and I saw the boat where it was located,” Sasser told the outlet. “He had left a letter in the truck to all of us…saying his goodbyes. It’s devastating.”
The sheriff’s office said investigators collected handwritten letters from the scene as well as a “.22 caliber rifle with a discharged round” still inside. But they quickly determined the evidence didn’t support suicide.
Search and rescue efforts continued for three days while a criminal investigations unit conducted its own analysis, according to the sheriff’s office.
“As investigators collected video from surveillance systems and conducted interviews, it became even more apparent that the scene on the river was staged,” the sheriff’s office said.
Warrants for Spivey’s arrest due to his failure to report to Superior Court were issued on Feb. 23.
According to the Horry County Police Department, a tip came in on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 23, that Spivey might be in Loris, South Carolina.
Investigators with the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office met with patrol officers and detectives in Horry County before traveling together to an apartment complex on Watson Heritage Road, where they found Spivey trying to run. Officials said he was caught in the woods behind the complex at about 12:45 a.m.
Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene told WECT Spivey’s aunt lived in the apartment complex.
The investigation is ongoing, and more charges are expected, the sheriff’s office said.
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