The Caylee Anthony Case

On Father’s Day, 15 June 2008, Anthony took Caylee to visit her grandfather. This was the last day Caylee was seen alive. The following day Anthony left the family home in Orlando for a work assignment in Tampa, taking Caylee with her. She apparently told her friends that Cindy had informed her she wanted her to move out. Anthony moved in with her boyfriend. Whenever Cindy asked to talk to her granddaughter, Anthony made excuses that the child was unavailable or out with her nanny, Zenaida.

About a month later, George and Cindy found a notice from the post office alerting them to a certified letter. George retrieved the letter, which informed him that his daughter's 1998 Pontiac had been towed and was in a car yard. When he went to pick it up, George noticed an awful odour emanating from the boot of the car. He thought it smelled like a decomposing human body. He opened the trunk, but it contained nothing more than a bag of rubbish.

The odious smell also alerted Cindy, who had growing suspicions about not being able to reach her granddaughter. She phoned the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and reported Caylee missing. During a 911 call, Casey Anthony also reported that Caylee had been missing for the past thirty-one days.

Detective Yuri Melich of the Orange County Sheriff's Department found several discrepancies in Anthony’s statement. The first was her allegation that Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny called Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzales and that she had been too scared to report this. The family members told Melich that none of them had ever met Zenaida. Anthony also claimed that she had been working at Universal Orlando Resort, but when detectives took her there, she could not identify her office and admitted that she had been fired five years before.

Although Anthony was arrested the day after Caylee was reported missing, it was only five months later that the decomposed body of her daughter was found. The five-month delay could have been prevented if the police had reacted more diligently to the reports of a meter reader, who claimed to have seen something suspicious in the forest near the Anthony home, scarcely a month after Caylee’s disappearance.

Anthony was arrested on 16 July 2008, the day after Caylee was reported missing. She was charged with giving false statements, child neglect and obstruction of criminal investigation. At first she was denied bail, then on 22 July 2008, her bail bond was set at $500 000.In the meantime on 11, 12 and 13 August, meter reader Roy Kronk alerted the police to a suspicious object found in a wooded area near the Anthony residence. 

Officers did eventually accompany him to the forest where he claimed he had seen a skull, but they found nothing. It is alleged officers were reluctant to enter the swamp area due to snakes.

Anthony’s bond was posted on 20 August 2008 by bounty hunter Leonard Padilia, in the hope of her assisting in finding Caylee’s body. Anthony was released the following day. But her freedom was short-lived when she was re-arrested on 29 August, for an unrelated cheque fraud case.

On 5 September 2008, Anthony was released when her parents posted her bond and she was fitted with electronic tracking device. Three days later protesters outside the Anthony family home chanter 'baby killer'. On 15 September she turned herself in again over an additional cheque fraud charge, but her bond of $ 1 250.00 was paid and she was released the next day.

A month later, on 14 October 2008, she was indicted on charges of first-degree murder aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, four counts of providing false information to the police. The judge ordered that Anthony be held again, without bond. A week later the charge of child neglect was dropped. She pleaded not guilty on all counts. Caylee was still missing and no body had been found.

This changed when on 11 December 2008, when Kronk again called the police and this time they found the body of a child in a rubbish bag. Duct tape was sticking to the skull. A Winnie the Pooh blanket that matched Caylee’s bedding at home and a laundry bag were also found at the scene. Eight days later, medical examiner Dr Jan Garavaglia identified the body as that of Caylee’s and found the cause of death to be undetermined.

The trial commenced on 24 May 2011. The lead prosecutor was assistant state attorney Linda Burdick and the defense was led by Jose Baez. Judge Belvin Perry presided. The prosecution called for a death sentence.

The police produced around of four hundred pieces of evidence. The prosecution claimed that Anthony had dosed her daughter with chloroform, covered her mouth with duct tape to suffocate her, kept the body in the trunk of her car for a few days and then disposed of it. The car was found abandoned with the bag of rubbish in the boot, near a dumpster. The prosecution attempted to introduce a new test for the first time which was supposed to prove that the odor was consistent with that of a decomposing human body.

Other evidence included computer searches relating to chloroform and neck breaking. Traces of chloroform were found in Anthony’s car. The prosecution claimed that the motive for the murder was that Caylee had become a burden to Anthony’s lifestyle. Anthony’s reputation came under severe attack, both inside the court and out. She was crucified by the media.

The defense retaliated by disputing all the forensic evidence as fantasy and referred to the chequebook prosecution. One of their witnesses, Dr Werner Spitz testified that the duct tape could have been placed on the skull after the body had decomposed and that the crime scene photos had been staged. No evidence of human decomposition could be established in the trunk of the car. Under cross-examination it was put to Roy Kronk that he may have moved the body of Caylee and that he had allegedly claimed that finding the body would make him rich and famous. It was even alleged that Kronk could have killed Caylee.

The defence offered an alternative explanation for Caylee’s death: that she had accidently drowned and that Anthony and her father had covered up the accident. Medical examiner Dr Garavaglia ruled out drowning as the cause of death.

On 5 July 2011, the jury found Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. She was found guilty on four counts of providing false information to a police officer. These referred to her lying about her employment, lying about the fictitious babysitter, lying about informing two employees at Universal Studios of Caylee’s disappearance and lying that she had received a call from Caylee on 15 July. Judge Perry sentenced her to one year in jail and a one thousand dollar fine for each of the four counts. Because of time served and credit for good behaviour Casey Anthony was released on 17 July 2011.

Time Magazine referred to the case as the social-media trial of the century. CNN and NBC set up two-storey air-conditioned structures outside the court building. Anthony had posted the following message on MySpace on 7 July 2008: “What is given can be taken away. Everyone lies, everyone dies.” Time Magazine referred to the Twitter account NinthCircuitFL as the most trustworthy, giving live feedback to ardent followers. Posts on Facebook came in too fast to be counted.

One newspaper predicted the trial would cost more than that of OJ Simpson. Another headline read: 'Monster Mom partying four days after tot dies'. People fought with each other outside the courtroom to gain access to one of the fifty seats allocated for the public. More than five hundred people waited outside the courtroom for the verdict and a female news anchor was so upset when she had to read the verdict that her colleagues had to assist her.

Members of the jury later indicated that lack of evidence was the reason for the verdict.

Besides the civil law suit of Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzales, Anthony is facing suits from the Texas EquuSearch who assisted in the search for Caylee. A Florida judge also ruled that she pay almost $ 250 000.00 to law enforcement agencies for investigation costs.

Law makers in four states have begun drafting legislation enforcing parents or guardians to inform authorities of a child’s disappearance within a specific timeline. This law is dubbed Caylee’s Law.

Some of the letters Anthony wrote when she was incarcerated have been released. In one she writes: 'I had a dream not too long ago that I was pregnant. It was like having Cays all over again.'