Mommy's Little Girl

by Diane Fanning

  In defiance of logic, Casey, once again, raised her right hand and swore that everything she said was true.

  CHAPTER 11

  After more than an hour of interrogation and still no answers, the investigators filed out of the conference room with Casey. Back out in the parking lot, Sergeant John Allen pulled up photos of all the women in the appropriate age bracket named Zenaida Gonzalez from Florida’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) system. Casey could not identify any of those drivers as her nanny.

  When Allen focused her attention on the Zenaida Gonzalez whom Yuri Melich had called that morning, Casey said, “She’s too old.”

  John Allen and Appie Wells drove Casey back to the central operations building of the sheriff’s department. Detective Yuri Melich drove back to the office alone, frustrated at his inability to crack Casey. Her friends were right—Casey was well practiced in the art of deception. They all told him she was a habitual liar.

  Jesse Grund said that he’d received a call from Casey on June 25. She wanted to get together, saying she was alone because Caylee had gone to the beach with the nanny for the weekend. He called Melich, he said, because it was contrary to what Casey had been telling police.

  Another friend, Kristina Chester, had another contradiction to offer. She said that Casey and Caylee had come to her house sometime between June 12 and June 14. She insisted that she was certain of the date range. The three of them had taken a walk together. Kristine was concerned when she heard that the toddler had been reported missing since June 9.

  Melich arrived at the operations center and prepared a charging affidavit. While working on that, he called George Anthony and got his approval to pick up the Pontiac, laptop computer and a few other items. He sent Detective Charity Beasley to the home on Hopespring Drive.

  The arrest document contained three charges: neglecting a child, providing false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. With the affidavit in hand, he sat down with Casey one more time.

  He gave her yet another opportunity to change her statement—one last chance to provide the information they needed to find her child. Casey persisted in repeating her story, again as if the repetition would somehow outweigh all the contradictory evidence.

  Melich must have been weary of her games. Perhaps he regretted being unable to charge her with murder, right now. But the evidence was not there. Not yet. By her own admission, Casey had neglected her daughter. By the testimony of others, he knew she’d lied and blocked law enforcement’s efforts to find Caylee. Those charges would have to do for now.

  He placed Casey under arrest at 4:33 that afternoon and escorted her to the jail. He vowed never to give up until he found the proof to charge Casey Anthony with murder—and to never stop until little Caylee was found. He hoped he was wrong about Casey. He wanted to see that precious toddler brought home safe and sound.

  It was not impossible, but he knew that it was as unlikely as a rose blooming in the snow.

  THE PAST

  “The past is never dead. It’s not

  even past.”

  —William Faulkner

  CHAPTER 12

  Alexander “Alex” Cuza was a first generation Romanian-American. During World War II, he served with the United States Navy as a radio operator on a ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean. After the end of hostilities, he married Shirley and they set up housekeeping in Warren, Ohio, the county seat of Trumbull County.

  Located near the Pennsylvania state line, just fourteen miles north west of Youngstown, Warren was situated in the area that has now come to be known as the Rust Belt. In its heyday, it was a highly productive center for manufacturing and industry, with a strong emphasis on steel. When Alex and Shirley started their family, the population of the city was just under 50,000. In a dozen years, the city’s population grew by more than 20 percent—with the Cuzas contributing four new citizens to that number.

  Alex continued on with the Navy for a few more years, experiencing another wartime assignment in the Korean conflict. While in the service, his first two sons were born: Daniel on May 18, 1947, and Gary on October 16, 1948.

  Money was tight for the young family eking out an existence on a serviceman’s salary. They lived in project housing in a run-down neighborhood.

  When Alex left the Navy, he worked for the Mullins Cabinet Company for fifteen years. Their third son, Rick, was born on June 4, 1953. Then on June 5, 1958, they had a daughter, Cynthia. Alex and Shirley were thrilled to have a girl, at last. All three boys were given middle names starting with an “A,” in honor of their father. Little Cynthia “Cindy” Cuza inherited her mother’s middle name, Marie.

  The Cuzas’ economic situation improved, allowing them to move to a nicer neighborhood in 1962. It was a close-knit, family-oriented community, packed with kids on every block. Then, Alex lost his job at Mullins. He worked maintenance jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads until he was employed by Thomas Steel.

  With a family of six, the budget was still tight. When Daniel graduated from high school, he went right to work at Packard Electric, where younger brother Rick joined him five years later. Gary finished high school in the top ten of his class. He received scholarship money, but it wasn’t enough. His parents could not afford to contribute to his schooling, and Gary had to work full-time while attending classes. After a year, it was just too much. He dropped out and joined the Navy, where he became a medical corpsman.

  Thomas Steel was absorbed into a European conglomerate and the plant closed. Alex was out of work again. He soon secured another factory job at a welding company and life got a little more comfortable for the Cuza clan.

  Being the first girl after a string of boys gave Cindy exalted status in the family. She often took advantage of her position, causing her brothers to nickname her “The Princess.” She steamed whenever her parents said “No.” It wasn’t unusual for one of her older brothers to say, “Look, you’re the girl and the last child, but the world does not revolve around you.”

  As the youngest, Cindy benefited the most from the gradual improvement in the family’s finances. Her parents gave her a car when she graduated from high school, and paid for her education at Trumbull Memorial Hospital, where she earned her degree as a registered nurse.

  While still a student, doing on-the-floor rotations at the hospital, Cindy tended to a young woman named Kathy Anthony. Her brother George came in for a visit—and he and Cindy hit it off right away.

  George and Cindy married and set up a home in neighboring Niles, Ohio. George was in law enforcement—first with the Niles Police Department, then as a deputy in the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office.

  Initially, Cindy did not work. Her choice to stay at home created tension between her and her brother Gary. He’d had to drop out of college because his parents couldn’t provide monetary support. Now his baby sister, with her education paid in full by Alex and Shirley, wasn’t even using her R.N. degree.

  George and Cindy’s first child, Lee, was born on November 19, 1982. Less than four years later, he got a baby sister when Casey arrived on March 19, 1986. Cindy continued the tradition established by her mother, christening her daughter with the middle name Marie.

  Cindy thought George should be earning more. She talked to Chuck Eddy, husband of George’s sister Kathy. He told her how well he was doing working at his dad’s automobile business in Austintown. Cindy thought that was an excellent idea for George. His father, after all, had owned Anthony’s Auto Sales in Niles for decades.

  George was reluctant to leave the sheriff’s department after putting in ten years there. But Cindy kept the pressure on him until he agreed. He turned in his resignation and went to work for his dad. At first, it looked like a brilliant idea. Cindy used some of the extra income to fix up their home—she even installed new tile by herself.

  Cindy, however, didn’t factor in the less-than-satisfactory relationship between father and son. George’s father had gotte
n him out of a lot of scrapes when he was a younger man, and still held that against him. Complicating things further, both men were known for their hair-trigger tempers. Fights began erupting on a regular basis. Usually they were wars of words, but one day, after George had been working there for about three years, things got out of hand. The elder Anthony shoved his son, and George shoved back—a little too hard. His father went through a large plate-glass window and into the front parking lot.

  His father was cut up a bit, but not seriously injured. Their relationship, however, was permanently wounded. “You shouldn’t be working here,” he told his son.

  Cindy worked part-time, bridging the gap until George bought a used car lot with the help of a second mortgage. Cindy continued working half days, thinking all was well with her husband’s business until the day George dropped the bombshell. His business was done. He’d made some bad investments, and as a result, he was losing the lot—and the house went with it. There was no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

  “Why didn’t you tell me we were in trouble? I could have gotten a full-time job,” Cindy shrieked. She loved her house and had put a lot of work into making it a nice home. Now, it was gone.

  CHAPTER 13

  Alex and Shirley Cuza grew increasingly uncomfortable living in their once-nice but now deteriorating neighborhood. Making matters worse, Alex injured his back and had to undergo surgery for removing some discs in his spine and fusing the others together. The cold winters in northeast Ohio brought on excruciating back pain. The couple wanted to move to the warmer weather of Florida, but they needed help to do so.

  Rick, one of the two brothers still living in Warren and working at Packard Electric, was the only one of the Cuza children with money to spare at that time. He and his first wife loaned his parents $10,000 to move south and purchase a home there. Alex and Shirley settled down in Mount Dora, in the interior of Florida, just northwest of Orlando.

  Life as Cindy had known it was now in shambles. She thought about her parents’ recent relocation and thought that Florida might be a way for her family to start over. She visited her mom and dad, hoping to find a job and a new home in the Sunshine State. She discovered both in Orlando.

  She was hired by Dr. David Osteen, an orthopedic surgeon whose clients included the players on the Orlando Magic basketball team. Buying a home while under the shadow of bankruptcy was a more difficult task. But Cindy accomplished that one, too, by assuming the mortgage of the current resident at the Hopespring Drive house.

  The new home came with the previous occupant’s 11 percent mortgage rate. It was high, but for the Anthony family, with their bleak credit standing, it was a blessing. They closed on their new home on October 4, 1989, buying it for $90,000.

  The strain between Cindy and George followed them to Florida. Cindy bore a lot of animosity toward her husband for losing the house and life that she’d loved. Her brother said it took her a long time to get past her resentment.

  Casey was 3-and-a-half years old when they moved. At the age of 5, Casey formed a life-long friendship with a little neighborhood boy her age, Ryan Pasley. They were constantly in each other’s company until his family relocated to Seminole County as he entered eighth grade.

  The Orlando Sentinel hired George as a route manager, supervising the drivers who made home deliveries of the newspaper. With both parents working, Lee and Casey spent a lot of time together and formed a close bond.

  Although Cindy and Casey went through a lot of the typical mother–daughter conflicts as Casey entered adolescence, overall, they had a strong and tight relationship. Casey was a good student and did not exhibit any behavior problems at school.

  At Liberty Middle School, Jessica Kelly introduced Casey to someone who’d just moved to Hopespring Drive, Kiomarie Torres. Soon, the three girls were close friends. They had a favorite hiding spot in the woods behind Hidden Oaks Elementary School. They rode their bicycles down the hill beside the school, toting picnic basket and blankets. They hung out there for hours. Kiomarie liked the wooded hideaway so much that sometimes she came alone when Casey and Jessica were at track meets.

  When basketball season rolled around, Jessica spent a lot of time practicing and playing with the school team. Casey and Kio made it a twosome in their special spot, talking for hours on end, while snacking on food until the street lights blinked on and they had to go home.

  It was a great escape from parents for the three middle school students—and it added to their sex education. Often they spotted teenage couples doing “the mommy–daddy thing.” It was also a refuge from parental bias. If George was the only parent at home in the Anthony house, Kiomarie was allowed into Casey’s home and bedroom. However, if Cindy was there, Kiomarie was not welcome. According to Kiomarie, Casey said it was because her friend was Spanish, and Cindy didn’t want Casey hanging out with Hispanics.

  The secret meeting place lost its allure when the girls entered Colonial High School. After the graduation ceremony in the spring of 2004, the two girls lost contact. Kio doubted she’d ever see her school friend again, and never thought either one of them would ever return to their special hideaway in the woods.

  Another friendship Casey formed in middle school was with Melina Calabrese. They met in seventh grade when they were in the same class for English and Math. They talked incessantly about boys, developing serial crushes on those in their orbit. Some weeks, it seemed as if they both were head-over-heels for a different guy in each class period.

  Melina and Casey continued to hang out together through their high school years. Both were very social girls, interacting with their peers at school events, the mall and parties. But, Melina said, “We never did anything crazy.” Unlike many high school students, Casey was “very adamantly against cigarettes and pot.”

  George injured his knee and lost his job at the Orlando Sentinel. After rehabbing from his accident, he landed a service position with a pest control company. One day, as George headed into a customer’s house, he tripped over a curb and landed on his bad knee. He could barely walk. Once again he was out of work. This time, he underwent a more intensive round of physical therapy.

  According to what he told his family, he got bored with the period of inactivity that kept him at home alone for days at a time. With the help of a credit card he obtained without Cindy’s knowledge, he started gambling on line. Then, he got another and another, maxing out each line of credit as the amount he owed spiraled out of control.

  While George was jeopardizing his finances, his son Lee was starting out on his own. Right after graduation, he got a job managing a group of storage units. When that business was sold to another company, he had to move on.

  Lee got an even better job working with computers for a business that offered parking lot services for big events, including one of the largest of all, the Super Bowl. Not only did Lee earn good money for a young man without a college education, he also got an enviable perk—trips to the Super Bowl.

  In the spring of 2004, Casey neared her graduation from high school—or at least, that’s what everyone thought. About a week before the ceremony, Cindy asked, “Where is your cap and gown?”

  Casey shrugged and said, “They haven’t given it to me yet.”

  Three days before graduation, George and Cindy learned for the first time that Casey had a problem at school. Her counselor called and asked them to come in for a meeting. The Anthonys knew it was serious when they entered the counselor’s office and saw that the principal was there, too. Casey was not going to graduate with her class. When Cindy asked why not, she was told, “We offered Casey many options to get the required credits, but she didn’t take advantage of any of them.”

  George demanded to see Casey’s school records. The administrators refused; Casey was 18 years old—their hands were tied.

  George and Casey’s relationship had deteriorated badly in the previous two years. They didn’t want to add that volatility to the confrontation with Casey, so Cindy handled it
on her own. Casey insisted it was not her fault. “I took an on-line computer class and they didn’t give me credit for it,” she said. “I’m just one half-credit short,” she whined.

  Cindy believed her, but Casey was not telling the truth. There were no on-line class options, and Casey needed more than a half-credit—she was a few short of the minimum. Her classmates said that she’d just stopped going to class in her senior year.

  Although Cindy had invited her parents to the graduation, she didn’t bother to call them and let them in on the new developments. George, Cindy and Casey went to the ceremony and met Shirley and Alex there. Shirley was puzzled when she saw her granddaughter. “Where are your cap and gown?” she asked.

  Casey burst into tears, repeating her pitiful half-credit story. She told them she was sorry, but she wouldn’t be walking across the stage with her class.

  Back at the Anthony home, Cindy forbade her parents from telling any of her brothers that Casey did not graduate. Shirley and Alex promised they would not—and they kept their word. None of the siblings knew until more than four years later, when they were questioned by law enforcement.

  CHAPTER 14

  Cindy and George hadn’t given up on their daughter, despite the graduation debacle. They offered to provide the money for any educational expense Casey needed to get her high school diploma, but Casey never pursued it. Knowing of her desire to have a career in photography, they found a number of scholarship opportunities for her, but Casey did nothing about them, either.

  Instead, Casey got a job with Kodak, a company with a Universal Studios theme park contract. She snapped photos of people enjoying rides there and peddled those shots to the customers when they disembarked.