Detectives digging for body of man who vanished in 2015

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Deputies with Lake County Sheriff's Office in Lake County, Florida are searching for a man who disappeared in 2015, but he wasn’t reported missing until just last month.

Detectives have been digging near the home of Michael Shaver, using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.  After digging for nearly a full day, authorities said they have made a discovery, but they are not elaborating. 

Investigators say they recently went to haver’s home, near Clermont, where they say they met with his wife, who said she also hadn’t seen her husband since 2015. Deputies said, at first, she invited them inside to talk. 

“Upon speaking to her for a few minutes, the conversation ended up making its way outside the home, at which time she stopped being cooperative, and she requested her attorney,” said Lt. John Herrell with the Sheriff’s Office, following that interview.  

Scott Amatuccio, the missing man’s close friend, is the one who contacted the Sheriff’s Office about the disappearance.

“He has two kids that he loves dearly, and it’s not his character to get up and leave and never come back,” Amatuccio said. 

Amatuccio says he hasn’t seen Shaver in years. He says for a while, he chalked it up for their busy lives. But in mid-February, he asked deputies to check on the 36-year-old. 

“I got this gut wrenching feeling that something is not right,” he explained. 

A search for Shaver is underway after nearly three years. 

“I want answers and I think everybody wants answers. Nobody just gets up and disappears out of the blue like this,” Amatuccio said. 

Deputies have called the case mysterious and suspicious.