Caylee Anthony Murder
Caylee Marie Anthony (born August 9, 2005, in Orlando, Florida, died 2008) was a toddler who attracted international attention regarding the circumstances of her disappearance in June 2008 and subsequently discovered death. Her mother, Casey Anthony (born March 19, 1986), was indicted on October 14, 2008, for her first-degree murder. Police found Anthony’s account of Caylee’s disappearance suspicious after learning that Casey had not reported her daughter missing for more than a month; the last time Casey Anthony claimed to have seen Caylee was on June 16, 2008, but the child’s disappearance was not reported to police until July 15, 2008. On December 11, 2008, the skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony were found near the Anthony home by a meter reader, later confirmed on December 19, 2008 by the Orange County Medical Examiner to be those of the toddler. The cause of the child’s death is listed in the autopsy report as “homicide by undetermined means.” Casey Anthony is currently in jail, arrested on first-degree murder charges with a trial start date for some time in 2010. Her family maintains that she is innocent of all charges.
Disappearance
Caylee Anthony was first reported missing to authorities on July 15, 2008. Caylee’s grandmother, Cindy Anthony, reportedly called 9-1-1 when her daughter Casey Anthony, Caylee’s mother, would not tell her where Caylee had been. Cindy had not seen her granddaughter for weeks and became very alarmed when she admitted that she smelled the odor of a “dead body” in the trunk of Casey’s car. Cindy later denied what she said and revised her account, stating that the smell was from old, stale pizza. Police later determined that there was no pizza in the trunk, only an empty pizza box
Investigation
When Detective Yuri Melich questioned Casey Anthony about the whereabouts of her daughter, she stated the child was with a babysitter. The purported babysitter, Zenaida “Zani” Fernandez-Gonzalez, according to Casey, supposedly had been a caregiver for the child for over two years. When a local woman named Zenaida Gonzalez (not Fernandez-Gonzalez) was questioned by police on July 17, 2008, Gonzalez denied knowing either Casey or Caylee Anthony. When police asked the grandmother Cindy about the babysitter, Cindy said that she had no reason to doubt Casey’s account of Fernandez-Gonzalez’s caring for Caylee. However, in the nearly three years that Caylee was alive and living at Cindy Anthony’s house, neither of Casey’s parents nor any of her friends, boyfriends, family, or acquaintances had ever once met the purported babysitter.
From the start of the investigation, Melich had trouble determining the majority of facts of the case. For instance, initially Caylee’s grandparents, Cindy and George Anthony, told police that the last time they saw their granddaughter was on June 9, 2008 but authorities found a video tape, taken June 15, 2008, that shows Caylee reading a book. When the grandparents were questioned about the time discrepancy, Cindy Anthony said that she had been confused about the dates and recalled taking Caylee to see Caylee’s great-grandfather on Fathers Day, June 15, 2008. Cindy Anthony told police that her husband probably went along with the dates because he generally took his wife’s word on details.
When Melich began to investigate Casey Anthony, he found discrepancies in what she had told law enforcement in her signed statement. The preponderance of the information Casey gave, starting with the babysitter account, appeared to be false. For example, Casey told police that she currently worked at Universal Studios; when police escorted her to the studio facility, she led them to an office but then admitted that she no longer worked there. Casey also claimed she had been investigating Caylee’s disappearance on her own which is why she did not contact police earlier. However, friends and family denied ever having been asked by Casey about Caylee’s whereabouts. Numerous photos of Casey attending parties and bars while Caylee was missing were published by media outlets. On the December 10, 2008 episode of Larry King Live, Cindy Anthony said she believed the photos in question were “staged” photos for which Casey was remunerated, apparently for the promotion of a nightclub.
In July, KioMarie Cruz, Casey Anthony’s childhood friend, told local police to investigate the wooded area near Hidden Oaks Elementary School. On August 11, 12, and 13 of 2008, tips were called in to police by a utility worker, subsequently identified as Orange County utility worker, Roy Kronk, but ignored by Richard Cain. Caylee’s remains were found in a bag, discovered by Kronk, near the same wooded area on Suburban Drive, less than a half-mile from the Anthony residence on Hopespring Drive.
Arrests and charges
Casey Anthony was arrested for the third time on September 15, 2008, on new charges of theft, and was released shortly afterward.
On October 14, 2008 Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and was arrested for the fourth time.[15] She entered a plea of not-guilty to the charges that she killed Caylee.[14]
On October 21, 2008 the charges of child neglect were dropped against Casey. In a statement that morning, the State Attorney’s Office explained: “The neglect charges were premised on the theory that her child, Caylee Marie, was still alive. As the investigation progressed and it became clear that the evidence proved that the child was deceased, the State sought an indictment on the legally appropriate charges.” On April 14, 2009, prosecutors announced that they plan to seek the death penalty in this case.[17] Casey Anthony and her family maintain that she is innocent of all charges
Discovery and confirmation of death
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Part of the memorial for Caylee Anthony near where her body was found
On December 11, 2008, skeletal remains of what appeared to be a young child were found by Roy Kronk. It was reported that the skull had duct tape wrapped around it. Documents released to the public on January 21, 2009 determined that the duct tape was over the mouth area of the child’s skull and stuck to the hair on either side, and that the duct tape had a small heart shaped area of residue on its surface indicating a heart shaped sticker had at one time been stuck on the surface of the duct tape. On December 12, the remains were tentatively identified as Caylee based on strands of hair found with the remains as well as the age and measurements being a match for Caylee. On December 15, WFTV reported that more bones were found in the wooded area near where the skull was discovered.
On December 19, 2008, medical examiner Dr. “G” Jan Garavaglia confirmed that the remains found were those of Caylee Anthony, the death being ruled a homicide and that she had been killed by undetermined means. No details of the DNA identification testing were given, such as the number of loci matched or the sources used in the match
Evidence
On Friday, October 24, 2008, a forensic report from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee confirmed results from a DNA test showing “evidence consistent with decomposition” based on five “key” compounds out of over 400 possible found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car. DNA samples cannot confirm whether the source is alive or dead. The only DNA testing by the FBI was limited to 752 base pairs out of 16,569 base pairs (less than 5% of the mitochondrial genome sequence). Whether or not the decomposition is human is still unknown but indicated as a possibility. The process has not been affirmed by a Daubert Test in the courts.
Traces of chloroform were also found in Casey Anthony’s car trunk and evidence was found that someone had searched the Internet on her computer for the use of the chemical and how to make it. No dates of the search were given and they did not establish if the searches were done by Casey. On November 26, 2008, officials released 700 pages of documents related to the Anthony investigation, which included evidence of Google searches of the terms “neck breaking,” “how to make chloroform,” and “death” on Casey Anthony’s home computer. No dates were given as to when the searches were done or by whom.
On February 18, 2009, documents released by the State Attorney’s Office in Florida indicated that the same type of laundry bag, duct tape, and plastic bags discovered at the crime scene were found in the house where Casey and Caylee resided. Heart-shaped stickers were also recovered by investigators. A heart-shaped sticker was found on the duct tape that covered the mouth area of Caylee’s skull. The documents also indicate that Cindy Anthony stated to them that a Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing from Caylee’s bed. This type of blanket was found at the crime scene. An entry from Casey Anthony’s diary was also released.
The entry is dated “June 21,” and reads:
I have no regrets, just a bit worried. I just want for everything to work out okay. I completely trust my own judgement [sic] & know that I made the right decision. I just hope that the end justifies the means. I just want to know what the future will hold for me. I guess I will soon see — This is the happiest that I have been in a very long time. I hope that my happiness will continue to grow — I’ve made new friends that I really like. I’ve surrounded myself with good people — I am finally happy. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t change.
A member of Casey Anthony’s defense team, spokeswoman Marti MacKenzie, contends that this entry was written in 2003 prior to the time that Caylee was born. The defense contends that the opposite page has “‘03″ written in one of the corners as the date, and the handwriting on the two pages match. However, there was no authentication that this is a date, or when it was entered in the diary or by whom. The prosecution acknowledged that it did not know when the entry was made.
Hundreds of pages of evidence were released to the public throughout the case under the Florida “Sunshine Law”, and published on the websites of several Orlando, Florida, news stations.
FBI laboratory documents from June 2009, released to the public in September 2009, stated that the fabric of the duct tape found on the remains and the duct tape found on a gas can at the Anthony family home were microscopically dissimilar in fiber composition and not consistent with originating from the same source.
FBI forensics laboratory identified on September 30, 2009 that a blood stain in the shape of a young child in the fetal position was found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car.
FBI documents released to the public in October 2009 indicated that two sources of DNA had been discovered in swabbings taken from the duct tape which was found on Caylee’s remains, neither of them Casey Anthony’s. One set of DNA, found on the shiny side of the tape, was found to be that of one of the FBI laboratory personnel and unrelated to the case. The other was an incomplete segment of DNA found on the adhesive side of the tape which did not match the DNA of Casey Anthony, her parents, the FBI analyst, or that of Caylee.
Coroners released a statement stating that Caylee has no chemical remains therefore there is no chloroform
Civil case
Casey Anthony is being sued for defamation by Zenaida Gonzalez, a 38-year-old Kissimmee mother of six, for damages including punitive. Casey Anthony told investigators that a baby sitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez — also known as “Zanny” — abducted 2-year-old Caylee Marie in June. It was reported that Anthony would be exercising her rights under the Fifth Amendment in response to written questions in the civil case
Casey Anthony
| Casey Anthony | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | March 19, 1986 Warren, Ohio, U.S. |
| Charge(s) | First degree murder, et al. |
| Status | Incarcerated in Orange County Jail |
| Parents | George and Cindy Anthony |
| Children | Caylee Anthony (deceased) |
Casey Marie Anthony (born 19 March 1986, in Warren, Ohio), Caylee’s mother, has been charged with the first degree murder of her daughter.
She was first arrested on 16 July 2008 for giving false statements, neglect of a child, and obstruction of a criminal investigation with a request that she be held on a no bond status until Caylee Anthony was located.
On 21 August 2008, Casey Anthony was released after one month of incarceration. She was released from the Orange County jail after her $500,200 bond was posted by California bounty hunter Leonard Padilla and his nephew Tony Padilla, a bail bondsman.
She was arrested again on 29 August 2008, on charges of forgery, fraudulent use of personal information, and petty theft for forging $700 worth of checks and using her friend’s credit cards without permission. Leonard Padilla subsequently rescinded the $1,500,200 in bail due to a lack of cooperation from Casey Anthony.
On 5 September 2008, Casey Anthony was released again on bail after being fitted with an electronic tracking device. Her $500,000 bond was posted anonymously, and later revealed that her parents, Cindy and George Anthony, signed a promissory note for the bond.
On 14 October 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and was arrested for the fourth time. She is currently in the Orange County Jail awaiting her expected 2010 trial date. The prosecutor intends to seek the death penalty
Play ‘Tot Mom’
Film Director Steven Soderbergh has created a play called Tot Mom based on the case, assembled from court and police documents and transcripts of the Nancy Grace show. Its premiere by Sydney Theatre Company was on 23 December 2009.
Source: Wikipedia