CASSIE Carli died in an undetermined manner, an autopsy report revealed, as questions remain about the mother's gruesome death.
Cassie, 37, was found buried in a shallow grave inside a barn in Springville,Alabama, on April 2, around 300 miles from where she was last seen alive in Navarre Beach,Florida, on March 27.
According to an autopsy report obtained by WFLA, Cassie's cause and manner of death have been ruled as "undetermined".
The surprising ruling has stomped prosecutors about whether they can prove Cassie's ex, Marcus Spanevelo, is connected to her death.
The autopsy also leaves unanswered questions Cassie's family has been seeking for months.
“The wait has been agonizing,” Cassie's younger sister, Raeann, previously told WFLA, also calling it "unacceptable."
More on Cassie Carli
“The family is struggling to heal. [Carli’s] daughter has so many questions, and we can’t even provide answers or solace without knowing what’s going on.”
On the night she vanished, Cassie had gone to meet her ex-boyfriend - the father of her four-year-old daughter, Saylor - for a child exchange in the parking lot of a local restaurant.
However, she was reported missing the following morning after she failed to return home with her daughter, Saylor, and a series of odd text messages were sent to loved ones from her phone.
Spanevelo, 34, was then taken into custody days later in Lebanon, Tennesse, and charged with evidence tampering, giving false informationconcerning a missing personinvestigation, and destruction of evidence.
Most read in The US Sun
TORTURED SOULTragic final days of Mariah Carey's sister revealed in heartbreaking detail
SIDELINE VIEWChiefs star officially out of Chargers game after Reid makes Kelce decision
'PRAYERS UP'NFL star collapses on sidelines and is stretchered away in neck brace
FAVORITE TARGETKelce and Mahomes in social media ‘spat’ just a day before Chiefs game
Cassie's body was found in a barn on a property linked to Spanevelo just hours later, police said.
'BRING YOUR GUN'
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Raenne described Spanevelo as an "extremely abusive" narcissist whom Cassie grew increasingly frightened of in the weeks following her death.
So much so that Cassie once issued her sister an ominous warning, allegedly telling her, "If something should happen to me, it was him."
"He was never physical with her or put his hands on her, but he knew she feared him and I think he used that against her," Raeanne said. "But he would also be kind to her sometime and try to get her to bring her to guard down."
Raeanne likened Spanevelo's alleged volatility to a rollercoaster, claiming his moods were "just up and down and unpredictable".
"She would be on alert because of it," Raeanne said. "Because there were times when he would erupt and be in certain moods on certain weeks.
"Cassie would say he was being crazy and would sometimes ask my dad to come to a child swap with her, telling him 'please bring your gun', because he has a concealed carry."
Cassie was also considering obtaining her own concealed carry permit in the weeks before her tragic death but had cooled any urgency because Spanevelo had grown more amicable in recent weeks, bringing her "guard down," Raeanne claimed.
Her father, Andrew Carli, has also recently stopped accompanying her to meet with Spanevelo and exchange custody of Saylor.
While Raeanne says Spanevelo "never laid a hand on Cassie," her purported fear he could harm her stemmed from the way he would say things to her and the look in his eyes when he said it.
"It may have been something small, but it was the way he would say things to her and the way he looked at her that would freak her out," Raeanne said.
"He was just eerie ... she would tell me, ‘he’s got this look in his eye and it’s just frightening.’"
'EXTREME EMOTIONAL ABUSE'
Cassie and Spanevelo were for yearslocked in a bitter custody disputeover their daughter. In August last year, Raeanne launched a GoFundMe page to help Cassie with her mounting legal fees.
A post on the fundraiser, written by Cassie, referred to Spanevelo as a "master manipulator," an abuser, and a narcissist.
"During my pregnancy, this man’s abusive control and manipulation escalated. But having battled infertility in my first marriage, I desperately wanted a family. So, I justified his erratic behavior as long as I could," she wrote.
After breaking up with Spanevelo, Cassie wrote that he "filed dozens of false police reports" and called child protective services "so many times, I nearly came to know most of the staff by name."
Elaborating on her slain sister's claims, Raeanne alleged that Spanevelo was both verbally and emotionally abusive to Cassie throughout her pregnancy and after Saylor's birth.
"The verbal abuse was particularly bad," Raeanne said. "He would body shame her when she was pregnant, and just everything she did wasn't right or good enough for him.
Read More on The US Sun
Read More on The US Sun
"He called her stupid, said she didn't know anything, that she was going to be the worst mother ever - just anything to put her down and make her feel inferior to him.
"The emotional abuse was just extreme. So extreme," she further alleged.