Mommy's Little Girl

by Diane Fanning

“I have the garbage bag.”

  “How did you know about the garbage bag, and how did you get it back?”

  “We came to your yard last night and your night driver let us in, and we took the garbage bag out of your Dumpster and took it away.” Melich went on to explain how he got the information from George Anthony.

  Another drama played out that morning in Mount Dora. Shirley Cuza was surprised when she had a 6 A.M. visitor. Cindy knocked on the door and then used a key to come inside. She called out to Shirley, who asked, “What the heck’s wrong?”

  “Lee’s out here. Come on out. I’ve got something to tell you.”

  “Well, give me a minute,” Shirley said. She left the bathroom and went into the living room, where she sat down. Cindy stood in front of her wearing a solemn expression on her face. “Who died?” Shirley asked.

  “Nobody died,” Cindy said. “Casey’s in jail and Caylee’s missing.”

  Goose bumps raced up Shirley’s arms and across her scalp while Cindy explained how the abandoned car had led to Casey’s arrest. Cindy’s next stop was the nursing home. She needed to prepare her dad for the day’s news, too.

  Cindy called Ryan Pasley at 8:30 A.M. He hadn’t watched the news yet, but he caught up with the coverage later that morning and listened to details Cindy hadn’t shared—the Zenaida kidnapping story, the Jeffrey Hopkins connection and the suspicion swirling around Casey.

  Cindy called Amy, too. “I’m so sorry for any hurt that happened, that Casey may have lied to you or betrayed you or anything like that. I’m very, very sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Amy reassured her. “I still believe in Casey.”

  Detective Pedro Rivera went to Cast Iron Tattoo, where he interviewed Sean and Jonathan Daly and Danny Colamarino. Danny told him about Casey’s visit on July 15, and said, “It truly blows me away how normal she was.”

  In court that day, Casey, with her newly hired attorney José Baez, appeared before Orange County Judge John Jordan. He denied the motion for bail, chastising Casey: “You left your two-year-old child with a person who does not exist, in an apartment you cannot identify, and you lie to your parents about your child’s whereabouts. It appears to the court you care so little for your child, you did not even report her missing until five weeks later.”

  The judge ordered a mental health evaluation. On the current charges, Casey faced a maximum sentence of 7 years.

  At last, Casey had a place of her own—but not exactly the one she’d envisioned. Her residence was s 12.5-foot–by–7-foot cell, with a floor-to-ceiling door of Lexan, a clear glass substitute, located in Protective Custody Level One, in the high-security section of the Orange County correctional facility. It is the same area of the jail where love-crazed astronaut Lisa Nowak was once housed after she’d made headlines for assaulting a fellow astronaut’s girlfriend in a parking lot in Orlando.

  There was no illusion of privacy in Casey’s new room. She was allowed to leave for one hour a day to take a shower, sit in the day room, make collect phone calls or select books from the library cart. She had another hour for exercise in the jail yard where the only equipment was a volleyball and a basketball. The remaining twenty-two hours a day was spent in her fishbowl cell, unless she had visitors.

  Her attorney could visit her any day of the week, any time of the day or night. Family and friends had to adhere to the jail visitation schedule. When they did, they never were in the same room as Casey—they communicated via a remote video feed.

  For a party girl who found the rules in her parents’ house stifling, this total absence of freedom must have felt like cruel and unusual punishment.

  CHAPTER 30

  Detective Yuri Melich went to the Sutton Place apartment complex on July 17 and asked Tony Lazzaro and Cameron Campina if he and his detectives could look around and see if there was any evidence there to indicate that something had happened to Caylee. When Tony and Cameron agreed, Melich put three other investigators to work searching for clues while he talked with the two residents.

  Cameron expressed surprise at the turn of events: “I would never expect anything like that to happen . . . it seemed like a happy and loving relationship . . . It feels like we had the rug pulled out from under us.”

  At 3 o’clock that afternoon, Detective Appie Wells met the Anthonys’ neighbor Brian Burner at his place of work. He told the detective about the shovel Casey had borrowed from him in June. Wells followed Brian to his home on Hopespring Drive, where they met a crime-scene investigator who took the tool into custody.

  After an hour-and-a-half-long interview with Brian, Wells went next door to the Anthony home and knocked on the front door. The Anthonys welcomed the detective inside. Three attorneys sat in the family room talking to Cindy—two of them represented Casey; the other was a friend who was looking out for Cindy and George’s interests.

  Wells explained the purpose of his visit to Cindy and the lawyers, and received her permission to examine the house and the yard. George walked out on the back porch with the detective. Wells told him about the borrowed shovel and said, “We want to examine the backyard for any evidence of freshly turned soil or any suspicious disturbed areas.” George walked through the area, with Wells pointing out spots that he thought might look suspicious.

  He unlocked the door to each of the three outbuildings in the yards to allow access. “My wife and I already searched through the sheds, but you’re welcome to check behind us. Cindy even moved Caylee’s play house and looked underneath it for anything suspicious.”

  After consulting with his supervisor, Wells called for a more thorough search, complete with cadaver dogs. K-9 Deputy Jason Forgey and his dog, Gerus, had already been put to work at the forensic bay of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on West Colonial Drive. On command, Gerus worked from the driver’s-side front fender in a counter-clockwise direction, alerting Deputy Forgey at the rear passenger fender, indicating that the dog detected the odor of human decomposition in the trunk of the Pontiac.

  The dog and his handler reported next to the Anthony home. They pulled up by the single-story home and walked to the wooden fence and through the gate to the backyard. After the crime-scene investigator had made thorough photographic documentation of the area, Gerus received the command and responded. Gerus zoned in on the plastic play house sitting on twenty-five pieces of square concrete that covered a 36-foot-square patch of ground. He did not alert at the 12-inch-wide and 5-inch-deep area of disturbed soil behind the swimming pool.

  Osceola County Sheriff’s deputy Kris Brewer arrived with her cadaver canine, Bones. That dog alerted in the same spot as Gerus, but also found two other areas of interest—a patch of ground near the screened patio porch and a spot to the east side of the playground area. All three areas were flagged.

  The detectives moved the play house off of its platform and, using hand shovels, they excavated the area of disturbed soil behind the pool, but found nothing of interest. Darkness descended on them as they worked. The investigators called off the search until the next morning. They wrapped the backyard in yellow evidence tape, planning to return the next morning at 8 A.M.

  On Friday, Crime Scene Investigator Melissa Cardiello moved the 16-inch-square flat concrete blocks to examine the ground underneath. The weed barrier appeared to be undisturbed. She removed the weeds in one corner and saw that the roots had likewise not been disturbed.

  At a spot marked the previous night, she found an area of wood chips. She scooped them up. The next layer was a black plastic weed barrier that had no breach in it. In three other areas, she found the same covering of mulch atop a similar barrier. Beneath one, she found three hair ties and a piece of plastic. A plant root grew through the center of the tie. None of the locations showed any signs of disturbance.

  Cardiello also searched through the three sheds. In one, she found a teddy bear in a plastic bag. It was shown to Cindy Anthony, who didn’t recall ever seeing it before. In addition to the outdoor search, de
tectives went into the home and seized electronic equipment belonging to Casey and her parents.

  Investigation of the car continued in a bay at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office forensic garage. They found a page of paper filled with different variations of the signatures Casey would sign if she married Tony Lazzaro and took his name. Crime Scene Investigator Gerardo Bloise collected dirt from both rear fender wells and secured it in marked petri dishes. Using an UltraLite-ALS (alternate light source), he examined the interior and exterior of the car, finding two suspected stains on the carpet in the cargo area. He recovered hairs from the trunk, as well, and removed the spare tire cover for analysis in a lab.

  After photographing the stains, Crime Scene Investigator Michael Vincent used swabs and sterile water to take samples from the suspected areas. Presumptive blood tests came up negative.

  CSI Bloise moved the Pontiac to the auto theft garage in order to put the vehicle on a lift. He collected dry vegetation and a leaf before returning the car to the forensics garage.

  Shirley wrote an email and sent it to both her sister Mary Lou and her son Rick, giving a synopsis of the events that had led to her granddaughter’s arrest:

  Even before the judge the next day, she wouldn’t say truthfully where she was or is. Everything she told them and wrote in her statement proved to be a lie.

  She talked about Casey not working for two years and running up bills and also using Cindy’s credit. She [Cindy] is wiped out. Now Cindy is talking bonding Casey out. So, she’s as nuts as Casey is. Where does she think Casey would go, except to her house and finish stealing her blind . . . I’m really a mess over this.

  One thing that often occurs in the case of a missing child, didn’t happen here. Authorities did not issue an AMBER Alert, because of the length of time since Caylee had disappeared, and because the known information did not meet the requirements of the established criteria.

  CHAPTER 31

  The afternoon of July 18, George and Cindy roamed around their house and yard trying to think of any little thing that could have happened to their granddaughter. “You know, George,” Cindy said, “I hope she didn’t—something happened—she didn’t panic. Caylee coulda got outside real quick.” They both thought back to the day that Cindy had come home and found the pool ladder propped beside the pool.

  That day, Attorney Baez attacked the sheriff’s office, saying, “police really haven’t been looking for Gonzalez, they’ve been digging in the grandparents’ backyard.”

  Law enforcement was in fact looking for the missing little girl by running down leads—forty of them had already been received by the end of Friday, and they kept coming in by phone, fax and email in Orange County as well as on the hotline at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Some were actual sightings, sending officers out to investigate and verify or eliminate. One person reported seeing Caylee at Chuck E. Cheese’s on the day of her mother’s arrest. On Thursday, someone else thought they’d seen her in the lobby of a Bank of America branch.

  Throughout the investigation, a large number of tips came from people whose knowledge was indirect—psychics from around the world, people who’d had dreams of Caylee and those who claimed they’d received a special message from the Lord. The leads were all over the place.

  Conflicting visions abounded. Caylee was covered with leaves, next to a stream, or in a barn, or buried in a field full of telephone poles, in the Anthony backyard, in a playground, or in a landfill. One believed that Caylee was in Lucedale, Mississippi, with the KKK, who’d paid for her because they use children in their cult rituals.

  Another, claiming that she’d gotten all of her information from Caylee’s great-great-great-grandmother, had a story about a person finding Caylee on a bus and turning her over to Child Protective Services—but Caylee was now dressed as a boy and going by the name “Robert.” This caller explained the stench in the Anthony car by saying that Caylee had bought a cat and forgotten it in the trunk of the car. Someone else thought it was vital for the police to know that Caylee’s Care Bears lunch pail was filled with “Dingos and M&M’s” and stashed inside of a cupboard in a house on Centennial Drive.

  Kid Finders Network, an organization in West Palm Beach that helped families in searches for missing kids, donated fliers and began building a mobile billboard detailing Caylee’s disappearance, scheduled to hit the roads of Orlando the next week.

  On Saturday, July 19, two dozen family members, friends and volunteers gathered at the Publix grocery store at Lake Underhill Road and Chickasaw Trail. They set up a tent, marked car windows with urgent messages and sallied forth to distribute fliers in the area.

  Gentiva employees—Nilsa, Charles, Deborah and Debbie—stopped by the Anthony home to pick up fliers. Cindy no longer appeared angry. She seemed calm, focused and determined. Before they left, Jesse Grund arrived. Cindy threw her arms around his neck and said, “We’ve got to bring this little girl home. We’ve got to find her.”

  The team from Gentiva canvassed Tony’s apartment complex, handing out fliers. Other groups distributed them at the University of Central Florida in the Conway area, in downtown Orlando, at large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, and at major intersections.

  George made arrangements for more posters to be picked up at Staples downtown. A family member needed to run that errand, and Cindy volunteered. She stopped by the tent at Publix first. There, she spotted Annie Downing writing on car windows, and thought it would be a good opportunity to take her aside and ask her about what she knew. “Annie, you wanna go with me to Staples?”

  During the ride to the office supply store, Cindy found comfort chatting with one of Casey’s friends. She brought up her desire to gather up a bunch of Casey’s friends and try together to create a timeline of Casey’s movements in recent days. Annie thought that was a good idea.

  After dropping Annie off at the Publix tent, Cindy returned home, where Jesse and Lee sat at opposite ends of the dining room table working on the logistics of the search for Caylee. “Annie and I just had a really great talk. I think it’d be helpful if we get all of Casey’s friends together and kind of do a timeline over the last month and see where her head was at and what was going on.”

  “Mrs. Anthony, let me volunteer to be in charge of that timeline,” Jesse offered.

  “Well, Jesse, a lot of these friends I’m gonna be talking to, you don’t know. And I’d kind of like to talk to her friends first. Certainly, you can interject your stuff in the timeline.”

  “I really want to participate,” Jesse said.

  “Fine,” said Cindy, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen. She took notes as Jesse told her all he could remember. At this time, Jesse thought he recalled talking to Casey on the telephone the last week of June—more than a week after anyone had seen Caylee. He thought he’d heard Casey tell Caylee to get off the table during that conversation. He later told police that he believed he was confused about the date of the call.

  On Sunday, July 20, Christopher Stutz, Amy Huizenga, Troy Brown, Rico Morales, Jesse Grund and other friends gathered at the Anthony home to provide information to Cindy and each other. They vented their frustrations and concerns about the current situation and plotted out events on calendars.

  While they worked, George went next door to Brian Burner’s house. When Brian answered the door, George handed him a flier and told him that they were having a vigil for Caylee on Sunday evening. “You’re the one that turned in the shovel, right?”

  “Yeah, I turned in the shovel,” Brian said, wondering why he’d even asked, since it had already been all over the news.

  “Well, we’re trying to set up our own timeline, and want to know when you gave her the shovel.”

  “I think it was the week of the sixteenth, but I’m not sure,” Brian said.

  “I’m sorry we haven’t been able to come over and speak to you about what’s going on, but everything has been crazy.”

  Brian assured George that he underst
ood and said, “I didn’t turn in the shovel to make it like something bad had happened in your yard.”

  Kiomarie Cruz called Yuri Melich at 8:30 that night to tell him about the woods where she and Casey used to hang out in middle school. An hour later, the two met at Hidden Oaks Elementary School and walked back to the wooded area, just blocks from the Anthony home. Kiomarie was the first to point to this location—but she would not be the last. Those woods would haunt the investigation for months.

  Sixty people showed up in the Anthonys’ front yard for the first Caylee vigil on July 20. They prayed together and shared comforting thoughts with the family. José Baez stepped up to speak to the group in defense of his client. “I’d like to make it clear that my client, Casey Anthony, at no time refused to speak with law enforcement. A lot has been reported about this matter and that I am in some way standing in her way. I’d like to . . . direct everybody’s attention to the arrest report, which clearly states that the police were called out on the fifteenth of this month, and she spoke with them immediately on that day, and then on the following day, practically the entire day she spent with law enforcement. Only upon being arrested and might be detained that she invoked her right to counsel, as I think anyone would do in this country. We are focused on trying to find Caylee.”

  Cindy Anthony appeared on the Today show on the morning of July 21. She asked that police release her daughter so she could help investigators. Cindy also said that Casey had gotten a mysterious telephone call from Caylee last Tuesday, July 15.

  Ann Curry asked, “Cindy, if you could speak to your daughter, what would you say to her?”

  “My first words probably be: ‘I forgive you.’ I have not said that to her, although I told her that I love her and that I support her.”

  “Why would you say, ‘I forgive you’? Forgive her for what?”