A former North Carolina police chief who staged his suicide to avoid prosecution on nearly 90 criminal charges including theft of weapons, drugs, and cash from an evidence room was found hiding in a cave or cove.
William Spivey, aged 22, was free on bail when he attempted to deceive the authorities to which he previously belonged in Chadbourn.
The suspect, who headed the Chadbourn Police Department, was captured Thursday near Loris, South Carolina, four days after he did not return from a fishing trip to the Lumber River and was reported missing.
The authorities found an abandoned boat in the river and a suicide note that the man falsely wrote.
An unloaded caliber .22 rifle was located inside the boat.
“Investigators quickly concluded that the evidence collected did not support a suicide scenario,” the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said.
Spivey, who is accused of embezzlement of state assets, destruction of evidence and opium trafficking, among other charges, was supposed to attend a court hearing in the case this week.
The Horry County Police Department received a tip indicating that Spivey was hiding out in an aunt’s apartment in the outskirts of Loris.
When agents arrived on the scene, the defendant escaped into the woods, where he was finally found in a cave around 1 am yesterday.