(Today’s column, prompted by a comment in “Why mothers kill”)
In July last year, a child was reported missing in Florida. What was peculiar about this report was that it was made a month after the mother first found out that her daughter had disappeared. In December, a child’s skull was accidentally discovered by a meter reader and was subsequently proved to belong to the missing child. The mother now faces murder charges and is due to go to trial next month (?).
The strangest part is that while no trauma had been found on the child’s remains, authorities insist she was a victim of homicide by undetermined means. My jaw dropped when I read that. How does one conclude that homicide had been committed if the manner of death is still unknown? What’s even more mind-boggling is how the authorities skirt the issue. In an article in a web log in the Discovery Channel web site (“Child Skeletal Remains Identified as Caylee Anthony” by David Lohr, December 19, 2009) Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia was quoted in a press conference:
My examination of the body and the evidence is complete barring no further bones being found and the anthropologic exam will be finished up shortly. The bones are completely skeletonized, with no visible soft tissue present and no ante-mortem trauma evident, meaning there was no trauma to the bones prior to death. Toxicology testing is still to be completed on the bone and hair. While this analysis may prove to be informative, it will be difficult to interpret levels from these specimens and thus will not be definitive in helping to determine the cause of death.
The manner of death though is an opinion based on available information including examination of the body information from the scene as well as circumstantial evidence. Based on all of this, the manner of death in this case is homicide. The cause of death will be listed as homicide by undetermined means. Should other pertinent information become available, the cause of death may be revisited.
While I would love to explain the forensic aspects of this case to you, and any of you who know me know I would love to do that, we must remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. This case needs to be tried in a court of law and not the media, thus I will not discuss specifics of this case at this time.
No doubt it’s a strange case and not only because the authorities seem to be to quick to accuse someone for the death of a child – Casey Anthony, the child’s mother. The authorities have released the case documents to the public, scanned versions are available at Crime Shadows and I have read them all — including reports by investigating officers, transcripts of Q&As with Casey Anthony, transcripts of telephone calls to the police and sworn statements by people with whom Casey associated at the time of her daughter’s disappearance. I wouldn’t be writing about this if all I had to go on were media reports.
Casey Anthony is 22 and her daughter, Caylee, had she lived, would have been three in August 9. Caylee went missing in mid-June last year but no report was made until a month later and not after Casey’s mother threatened to go to the police. The nagging question, then and now, is why would a mother wait for a month before reporting that her child is missing? As though that’s not enough for people to easily speculate that Casey must have been hiding something, sworn statements executed by her own friends and family paint a grisly picture of the 22-year-old – a habitual liar who took money from friends and who has a string of arrests for petty crimes.
Worse, when police officers started investigating the disappearance of Caylee, Casey lied incessantly about when she last saw her child and who the child was with at the time. She claimed she left Caylee with the nanny, a Zenaida Gonzalez, but the supposed nanny has never heard nor seen mother or child. And the supposed apartment of Zenaida never had a tenant by that name. Casey showed no emotion all throughout Caylee’s disappearance and the investigating officers noted it on more than one occasion.
Not surprisingly, what the public saw was a picture of a bad mother. But what most people seem to refrain from commenting on is that, in the absence of a motive and, even more importantly, in the absence of clear evidence as to how Caylee Anthony died, what justifies the murder charge against Casey? Is this a move to pacify public outcry? The public wanted to hold someone responsible so someone has to be accused, sent to trial and, possibly, to life imprisonment? Casey Anthony’s trial hasn’t even started yet but there are those who have already decided she is guilty.
Meanwhile, on eBay (ebay.com), someone is selling voodoo dolls with Casey’s head on them. Then, there’s this sleazy entity called Showbiz Promotions selling Caylee Sunshine Dolls supposedly to create awareness about missing children and promising to donate the proceeds to charity. Media has jumped right onto it, giving free (?) publicity to the Sunshine Dolls project. I can only raise an eyebrow. It’s still exploiting a family’s tragedy. There’s been outrage from some quarters, naturally, including Caylee’s family and Showbiz Promotions has suspended production of the dolls although their website is still very much active and says nothing about the discontinuance of the project.
What tragedy breeds… if it’s not quick condemnation, it’s exploitation.
So are we to believe that a child’s skeleton found wrapped in a blanket in a garbage bag with duct tape over its mouth shouldn’t be ruled a homicide?
Likewise, perhaps the reason many are “quick to accuse” Casey Anthony is because she’s not cooperated with investigators from day one (actually misled them), and -yes- really hasn’t displayed any concern or emotion regarding her missing daughter from the onset. Quite the contrary- she seems rather annoyed at her mother’s questioning on the whereabouts of the child, and practically ends up laughing at her grieving mother in one of the latest jail videos. It’s very disturbing.
So how do you know that the duct tape is the cause of death? May be a case for child abuse or physical injuries but not necessarily homicide which could have been caused by something else. Fact is the ME herself said “undetermined means.” That the mother was not cooperative makes her guilty? What if she is mentally unsound and incapable of demonstrating grief?
From what you have relayed, I think this woman has sociopathic tendency. It may be hard to determine the cause of death since all they got are the skeletal remains of the child. But there are too many coincidental evidence to blame somebody else. Let’s say that the cause of death was accidental but I believe negligence was a major factor. She may had nothing to do with her daughter’s death but she is guilty in someway and has to pay for it. Poetic justice?
It’s possible that she’s protecting someone.
The ME ruled the manner of death to be a homicide based on the evidence, duct tape on the mouth, double bagged body, thrown in the woods. The cause of death is undetermined. The only one Casey is protecting is Casey! There is just too much evidence that points in her direction.
The circumstantial evidence points to a homicide but until the cause of death is known, it’s a guessing game.
They never had a cause of death for Laci Peterson and her killer sits on death row.
A grand jury indicted Casey for murder even before a body was found. They had enough evidence based on her dad’s testimony, from her actions/lies regarding the 31 days, from friends statements that she wanted to give away the baby and her mom wouldn’t let her, from the cadaver dogs hitting on the trunk and the back yard, from the forensics showing that human decomp was in the trunk, neighbors testimony that she had borrowed a shovel on the 18th and backed into the garage, and that’s just what they have shared so far. They have plenty more that they haven’t shared with the defense or the public yet.
Caylee’s body being found just around the block was just one more bar on the cell that will hold her murdering mother in jail for the rest of her life. (hopefully)
I have faith in LE and the FBI. Caylee will get justice.
(please delete my first comment)
Your completely off balance. Its obvious that this was a homicide. The duct tape around that little girls mouth might not be a cause of death but its definitely a form of torture.
Come on now. I know by law she is innocent until proven guilty, but come on! I really do not think that George, Cindy or Lee killed Caylee. They were the only people that had keys to the house. Oh wait a minute, maybe Caylee killed herself? Casey needs to tell the truth, not just to her family and all of us that fell in love with that beautiful little girl, but herself. Who would she be protecting, if not a family member she would have told the truth by now. Casey only cares about herself in case anybody didn’t notice. Whoever it was can’t hurt Caylee now. My take on this whole incident is that she wanted to party, she didn’t like the hold her mother had on her, and Caylee was getting older and could tell everyone that there was no nanny and how her mother medicated her so she could go out party up a storm and everything else Casey did. I think she felt that she had to get rid of her, to save herself (sick!) As far as Caylee’s father, maybe it was Lee or maybe even George.(they were saying that there was some incest going on) I really like George but if he were to be the father, that could be why he would like to die, so it won’t come out. Remember George and Cindy split for a while too, maybe it was too much for them both to survive a marriage. The last part of this is just my speculation. It might sound strange but hey this whole case is strange. Any comments back?
I forgot to add something. Remember Caylee was born in 2005, George and Cindy split for while in 2005…
Does anyone know where the father of this child is?
No, but I heard on NG last night that Cindy and George whenever they questioned Casey, she would say “no I have not told anybody anything, don’t worry” and then there was something about the father, like the family knows who it is.
In the beginning Casey and her family said that the father died in a car accident.
People are stunned with the lack of care and concern of a mother to her child. With or without evidence, the people played out as jurist can readily find the mother guilty of negligent homicide which does not require intent to injure or kill.
I agree that there has been a certainly been a rush to judgement in this case but there are reasons for that such as Casey’s reluctance to help authorities.
As for a motive, certain CNN show has made this case it’s bread and butter for months and on that show the motive seems to be Casey’s desire for freedom.
Why did she take Caylee and leave her mother’s home? We hear because her mother was tired of Casey’s stealing and they had a physical argument. It is also said Casey wanted to have an abortion and her mother wanted her to have the child. She may have resented Caylee because her mother loved her so much. If Casey is the sociopath she seems to be it would follow she might have done something to the child out of resentment. But here we are floating on a sea of speculation. There is no real evidence of that at this time.
Since at this time there is no evidence Caylee was beaten, shot or otherwise physically abused we will have to wait to see what evidence they may find in the hair and bones.
It is quite possible that Casey is protecting someone else. A boyfriend, her brother, or anyone else she may have allowed in her life. I think it will be best for us to wait to see what they finally come up with forensically. I am certainly concerned that the jury would find this woman guilty no matter what the evidence shows just so they would not be attacked for letting an “obvious” murderer go free.
Good article, great questions. Thank you so much
Connie, why do you seem to defend the mother?
Nikita, that is something I couldn’t find.
Observer, what “seems” to be is not necessarily what is.
Observer, don’t believe everything Ms.Sassy says when it comes to legal matters. She likes to play the role of the “devil’s advocate”. : )
LOL BlogusVox. True, true. I do find it better to prompt people to think rather than to merely react to what they read and hear in media. The bandwagon mentality is just so popular, even when it defies logic, just like religion.
You are delusional, or IMO like the Anthony’s a liar covering up for that murdering slut. But nobody is this stupid, you are playing us to get a rise, to start an argument, right??
What a sad, pathetic, uninformed little blogger.
This type person is who is sending the child killer $20.00 a pop so she can stuff her horse face with crabmeat, porkrinds & gourmet chocolate, more Casey emnablers making her life easier in prison, just like her cover up agents, George, Cindy & Lee.
These people do exist, that’s what got OJ & Phil Spector off. Casey’s case isn’t a slam dunk as long as people like this are skulking around.
They’re who wind up in jury pools of murderers, hand by the defense, they are a dream come true for the Jose Baez’s in the world of slimy lawyers.
People, let’s keep our fingers crossed that in about a year from now, after this circus is hopefully over Casey will be in prison for life or even better on death row.
I too would caution that Anthony is innocent until she is proven guilty in a court of law-however if Anthony had entered into a plea deal, which I personally feel would have been the best course of action for the defendant in this case-then her guilt or innocene would no longer be in question-The question would be the How & the why Anthony could have done the unthinkable which resulted in the death of this baby.
I feel there is never a simple explanation as to what drives mothers to kill. Whilst the Anthony case has polarised opinions-It has also forced us to revisit the subject of infanticide. At the heart of this subject matter the onus remains firmly fixed on the protection of the child. The Atnhony case has highlighted our awareness of the vulnerability of the child-most people have embraced Caylee’s plight-have identified with the defenceless status of the baby-I personally feel it is a timely reminder of the need to protect children in society-there have been horrific cases of child abuse in the UK-children who were placed on the “at risk register”-but still lost their lives at the hands of the very people who were charged with their care. I feel that the agencies involved with these children should be held accountable, They must accept some degree of responsibility as clearly their failure to act & respond accordingly has cost these babies their lives. I think each & everyone has a heightened awareness of sex offenders, paedophilia, ect. & the dangers posed by them & their practices to children, but I think in many respects we fail to acknowledge the maltreatment of children in their own home at the hands of their parents. I hope that Caylee Anthony will serve to remind us, that there are very many other children who reside in a threatening environment. I think this is the challenge we face-We need to protect our children, and in order to do so, we need to acknowledge the realities of their sometimes vulnerable situtations in the home, We need to engage in serious & honest discussion on the pressures,stresses& strains that can prove as a challenge to the status of families. There appears to be a growing trend of murder/suicide whithin vulnerable families. It is a desperately sad reality that the pressures of modern living appears to take it’s toll on particularly vulnerable people. People who feel they must take the ultimate action in response to a permaneable problem/situtation because they are unable to identify other avenues/options open to them. As a society I think we need to be mindful to the realities of people & make every effort to promote awareness of alternate positive solutions.
Genalee, Wow, talk about bigoted. I’m not a little blogger. If you had bothered informing yourself a little, you would have known that. But then again, considering how you like to attach labels (she’s a slut? LOL) and ride bandwagons, it seems you’re not the type who likes to get informed.
I hope that a month from now, all bigoted people will be in rehab.
Ann, it may have a lot to do with people becoming parents before they are emotionally and psychologically prepared for the role. While there ought to be NO prior tests to determine who are fit to become parents, it might help if, upon discovering the pregnancy, every expecting mother go out of her way to seek competent counseling. NOT go to the so-called parenting experts (they’re money making businesses, first and foremost) but genuine family counselors.
Connie – I have been reading this blog for quite some time, and while you play good Defense Laywer or Devils Advocate, there is one thing you fail to acknowledge and that is the insurmountable evidence against Casey Anthony, and if you have followed the case, I suggest you start to research the character of Casey Anthony and what diabilical actions and lies she projected prior to her child going missing, and subsequently being found disposed of like trash, in garbage bags now proven to come from the Anthony home, in a laundry bag also proven to come from the Anthony home. Duct tape over the tiny skull and a sticker on her mouth. How very sad. Yes, that body is the same body Casey Anthony referred to as ” That Child” instead of ” my daughter or my little girl”. While I understand you may be exercising your rights regarding Constitutions etc, I will say this here and now, with confidence and wisdom. No one other than Casey Anthony killed Caylee. It will be proven in a court of law. And I ask you to take the time to think of that poor innocent child, how she ended up the trunk of a car, duct tape over her mouth, while her mommy was yelling and screaming at Geroge the grandfather to stay out of the trunk and leave the effing gas cans alone. She rushed to the trunk, therew the cans at him and sped off in the car. The same car that smelled like ” skunks”??? lol! No it smelled like decomp and even Casey’s own parents stated that fact to the police before they drank the Casey koolaid and realized their own daughter may have been the very person responsible for that smell. I suggest you research this case from the very beginning. Read ALL statements given by ALL parties involved. Read LE reports and more than that look at the tiny little child singing ” you are my sunshine”. A few days later she was dead and her mother was out paryting at a no clothes party – and waited 31 days to report the child missing. During that 31 days Casey was stealing from her friend Amy, writing fraudulent cheques, and living ” La Vida Loca”. Not a tear was shed! Connie, did you and do you think Scott Peterson was innocent? If you did, there was LESS evidence on him than there is on Casey Anthony. So in your attempt to redeem Ms. Anthony, and offer her some sympathy, I am going to ask you to offer some sympathy to the REAL victim. Caylee! Do your homework throroughly and dilligently and read every single statement made by every single person involved, look at reports released by the police and the findings at the crime scene. 2 and 2 don’t make 4 when it comes to anything Casey has said or done, and where I come from, it spells GUILTY!
There you said on the first sentence: “…the character of Casey Anthony and what diabilical actions and lies she projected prior to her child going missing…”
CHARACTER plays no role in determining guilt. Guilt is nothing more, and nothing less, than a question of whether or not she committed the act, period. It doesn’t matter if she’s the most evil person in the world or the most neglectful of parents. Past actions DO NOT determine her guilt. They only create bias against her.
So, you started your research by creating a bias. Everything else you read after that, you interpreted according to that bias.
There is no ‘bandwagon’ in case you forgot, Casey’s guilt is blatantly obvious to those who’ve heard the transcripts of the detectives & FBI interrogating Casey, Cindy, George, Lee, misleading the truth, liars all. Who waits 31 days to report their daughter missing, and only days after she’s ‘gone’ enters hot body contests, gets a tatoo that says ‘beautiful life’ moves in with a boyfriend, but tells no one not boyfriend, friends, family, Caylee is gone. These aren’t speculations, THESE ARE DOCUMENTED & PHOTOGRAPHED FACTS. No she’s at ‘Disneyworld’ she’s at ‘the beach’ with ‘Zanni’ yeah sure, whatever.
The video’s show the feds & police picking apart Casey’s stories and one by one disproving all her lies as well as Cindy & George’s, plus the wild goose chases the whole family sent law enforcement on, wasted time, money because of attempts to collude with Casey thereby hindering the search for Caylee.
The washed pants, the back peddling on the smell of a decomposing body in the trunk,giving the FBI the wrong hairbrush (Cindy didn’t hand over Caylee’s brush as they asked for) then bragged about in in an e-mail) also it smells like a dead body’s in the damn car, no wait it’s bad pizza, no it’s dead squirrels!
The wilf goose chase Casey sent detectives on to her non existent Universal office where Casey ‘worked’, but wait she lied & was unemployed, but only told them that as they were walking down the halls of Universal Studios, the non existent Zanni the Nanny no one ever saw, met, talked to on the phone, apartments Casey dropped Caylee off to Zaneida were a) a complex vacant for months b) a seniors only facility.
I think most of us have seen, read this & have arrived at our own conclusions from the facts, the evidence not just to jump on some mystical bandwagon. I’m not a follower, but decided there is no other conclusion to come to with a mountain of evidence & more yet to be released next week.
Let’s not forget the ease in which Cindy lied & was willing to throw innocent people under the bus to get Casey off, Jesse Grund, Zaineda Gonzales. The Anthony’s & the defense are still bandying their names around, I suspect to pin it on one of them once the trial starts.
Both took & passed polygraphs & where cleared by the FBI, but none of that matters to the Anthony’s or baez, these people will be on stand by just in case they need to drag their innocent names through the mud again.
I don’t know, from a strictly practical point of view, perhaps turning off the genes to procreate until parenting preparedness classes are taken, and fiscal responsible is proven may not be a bad idea. Maybe even a personality test, to screen for mental illness, propensity for child abuse etc.
Think of how much it would reduce the overpopulation problem of the world, as well as parenting mistakes from ignorance, crimes from children who grow up delinquent because of poverty…the advantage would be numerous, and could be the turning point from turning men/women from animals at heart into civilised people.
Just musing…I have no illusion that this could ever happen or that it wouldn’t have unintended negative consequences…but still, my mind does wonder…
Ding Dong, all documented evidence says Caylee’s dead. That’s all it says. Despite the length of your comment, you’re banking on the mother’s failure to report the missing child. You’re probably not a lawyer but the failure to report, nor the “partying” while the child was missing, are not evidence that the mother committed murder. And I don’t see why the public feels obliged to draw conclusions at all. That is the task of the jury who will have the opportunity to weigh ALL the evidence — NOT JUST what the media decide to print and broadcast.
I used to think about that too, Pinayhekmi. Until I realized that competence (including financial capacity) changes over one’s lifetime. So, if at point A, a couple is deemed emotionally, mentally and financially capable of being parents, five years later (point B) after they have a had a couple of children, that might no longer be true. Their life experiences between point A and point B may have turned them into abusive individuals.
I’ve been following this case and thinking about it from the standpoint of a potential juror. Do I think she did it? Yes. Do I believe she did it? Yes. However, I haven’t heard anything so far that would compel me to convict her BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT on the basis of anything other than circumstancial ‘evidence’. I pray to God that the prosecution has more up their sleeve than they are revealing at present, because I believe with all my heart this woman is culpable in the death of this child. Despite the outrage over Casey’s behavior and lack of maternal leanings, which I completely agree with, I’m not seeing or hearing evidence that SHE DID IT . . . again, though I believe she did.
Hound Lover – the doubt only has to be ‘reasonable’ the jury instruction is not beyond any doubt at all. As a matter of fact the Suprime Court of the U.S. has ruled that the State can not be held to the burden of proving a case to an absolute certainty. Because there is doubt in everything. Reason governs the realm of probability and plausiblity. But, when you get into possiblities the endless flights of fancy can take you exactly where the defense wants you to go. ‘Death wax’ or, ‘grave wax’ in Casey’s car trash can on a paper towel is pretty damning, ‘coffin flies’ in that trash and in her trunk, as well, are damning. It is possible that someone might want to conceal a natural death or an accidental death but, probably not, because logic dictates that there would be little reason to conceal either of them. Circumstantial evidence is sometimes better then eye witness testimony. Or, haven’t you heard of DNA overturning convictions based on eye witness testimony. Casey Anthony’s demeanor and activities during the time that she claims her daughter was missing, her lack of emotion, and the lies that she told to impede the investigation into her daughters supposed dissappearance are all evidence. It is all evidence that she did it and she thinks she is going to get away with it. But it is not the only evidence that the prosecution has. As far as the autopsy ruling. Lacey Petersons death was ruled a homocide though the cause of death was undetermined and, Scott was convicted. There have people convicted of first degree murder in cases where the body was not found. Want me to find them I will. One involved a wood chipper and the other involved a small amount of DNA blood spatter in a horse stable. Surely if there was not a body the cause was undetermined. Flight 93 on 9/11 Somerset County Coroner Wally Miller said, the only recognizable body part he saw was a piece of spinal cord with five vertebrae attached. Miller later found and identified 1,500 pieces of human remains totaling about 600 pounds (272 kg), or eight percent of the total. All the people on board the flight were identified by December. The human remains were so fragmented investigators could not determine if any victims were dead before the plane crashed. Death certificates for the 40 victims listed the cause of death as homicides. Even if the mechanism or method of death is undetermined the circumstances can be indicative of a probable homocide. Caylee did not dispose of herself.