Caylee Anthony’s Remains Likely Found: Updates



Update: 2:28pm ET 12/12/08
Casey Anthony’s defense team says that Orange County Sheriff’s department has told them they are confident that the remains found yesterday ARE Caylee Anthony’s. The medical examiner has said there was evidence found that lets them already make a tentative ID that it is Caylee. There are reports that the child may have suffered a broken neck. Casey Anthony is reportedly still having panic attacks and is hysterical. Good. Should be good entertainment for the jail guards. It won’t, however, help any attempt at an insanity defense. She has nothing to bargain with now. Prosecutors may put the death penalty back on the table.

Update 7:18 ET12/12/08: Investigators took 7 huge bags full of stuff from the Anthony home, 2 vacuum cleaners, and several other items. The vacuum cleaners suggest the investigators are looking for fiber evidence to match what was found yesterday. The Anthonys are free to come back to their home now, although it isn’t certain that they will. It is still a media circus outside their home. Forensic scientists will be looking for any signs of intentional harm to Caylee, and the reports that the skull found had duct tape across it’s mouth is NOT a good sign.


Update 10:31 ET:
Crime scene tape is being placed around the Anthony home right now. The authorities just rolled up, hopped out, and began taping everything off around the house. Remember, cadaver dogs hit on Casey’s car, and in the back yard of the car. Police are guarding the entire property. Casey apparently had to take a sedative when she heard the news today. Shocker.

Update 7:20 pm ET: The black plastic bag found with the likely remains of Caylee Anthony is opaque, not able to be seen through. Tim Miller of Equusearch called off his first search for Caylee after he lost a 4-wheeler in this exact area to the mud and water. He feared that searchers would damage or destroy any possible evidence that might have been in the water. What a great call by Tim Miller.

Update 5:50 pm ET: Judge Andrew Napolitano says that the application for the search warrant tells him that the bag of bones was probably NOT where it was found today, when prior searches of the area took place. He says this could mean there were accomplices to the crime, and that this could be why the search warrant has been issued for the Anthony’s house. He admits this is a theory based upon his reading of the warrant application. I tend to disagree with the Judge, this is an area with a gazillion water-areas, the bag is rumored to have clothes in it, and could have been submerged for months. Why would someone else take Caylee, kill Caylee, and then dump her body just several doors down from her house? Also, remember, there is soil from the shovel that is involved in this case. The soil can be compared to the soil at the scene where the evidence was found.

Also, Jose Baez has just reached his office, and reporters are waiting to question him. It appears that the neighborhood is not being blocked off completely, as people from all over have descended upon the area around the Anthony home.

Update 4:45 pm ET: George and Cindy Anthony have just been escorted off of their plane by police. They will be leaving Orlando International Airport in a police escort, will not be going to their house, and will be going to an undisclosed location, possibly the Sheriff’s office. According to the Anthony’s spokesperson, Michelle Bart, they will not be returning to their home for at least the next 48 hours.

Update 4:15pm ET: Casey Anthony’s attorney Jose Baez has just filed an emergency motion with the court to preserve any forensic evidence in this case. This is a strong indication that Baez believes the remains found today are those of Caylee Anthony. These motions are normally granted, and prevent any type of forensic testing that would destroy the evidence, however since this is going to the FBI lab, it is unlikely that they are going to allow outside forensic people in there, or to handle evidence. There will be a hearing tomorrow at 10 am ET on this motion.

Snarkfood has been reporting all day on the remains found very near the home of the Anthony family, that are almost certainly those of little Caylee Anthony. Casey Anthony, Caylee’s mother, has been charged in her murder, and is currently in jail awaiting trial. You can read our earlier, detailed report at the story linked here.

It is rainy now in the area, and currently the authorities are removing the remains and other evidence from the scene so close to the home Caylee grew up in. The remains are reportedly being sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. The Anthony house is in complete lockdown, with no one being allowed inside except authorities. A search warrant has been executed for a complete search of the home.

Search warrants must be VERY specific. This means that something they’ve found today has triggered the need to search the house. They’ll be looking for tape, garbage bags, clothes… all types of evidence they may be able to match to the remains and other evidence found this morning. They may look for shoes that could match footprints found at the scene.

Fox News Orlando says that there will probably be a bulldozer brought in to the scene as well, because this part of the area has at times been underwater, and some evidence may now be IN the ground. Orlando Sheriff Kevin Beary says they will be searching the ENTIRE area, that they will take their time, and that there will be:

“No mistakes. The remains have been taken to the medical examiner’s office, they are securing the Anthony home and the crime scene, and will be out there all night long. The fact that the remains are of a small female child makes us think we may have Caylee, but there is a lot of work left to do.” He says that if anyone tries to come into the scene and mess around, they will be going straight to jail.

Continue reading Caylee Anthony’s Remains Likely Found: Updates

Breaking: Remains Of Small Child Found Near Casey Anthony’s Home, Likely Caylee Anthony

Bombshell news as Orlando media sources are reporting that the skeletal remains of a small child have been found near the home of Casey Anthony, charged in the murder of her daughter Caylee. They were found about 10-15 houses away in a wooded, vacant lot. The remains ARE very probably those of littleCaylee Anthony, according to news sources. Everything seems to fit. There are no other small children missing anywhere in the area. The Sheriff has just said that this is now a top priority for the lab, and that they will work through the weekend if necessary.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Solomons said the remains were found around 9:30 ET. in the area of S. Chickasaw Trail and Suburban Drive by a utility worker. The location is less than 1/4 mile from the Anthonys’ home on Hopespring Drive. A meter-reader, who was about 20 yards into the woods when he found the remains. The utility worker picked up a bag and a skull rolled out of it. Residents said duct tape was found around the skull; local Fox news is reporting that the duct tape was around the mouth as well as the bag. “Because of the proximity to the Anthony home, this is a very significant find,” Solomons said. Three-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony has been missing since mid-June, but mom Casey didn’t report her being gone for almost a month. Casey Anthony is in jail, charged with Caylee’s murder.

Orange County Sheriff’s Office patrol cars are blocking Suburban Drive at Hopespring Drive. A section of woods near the intersection is blocked off with yellow crime tape. It is maybe a 4 minute walk from the Anthony home. Captain Angelo Nieves of the sheriff’s office said forensic detectives are inspecting the remains. He will only say the FBI is on the scene, that they are recovering the remains, and working with the medical examiner’s office to ID the body. Every indication, however, is that Caylee Anthony has been found. The area had reportedly been searched before, but is steep and often is swampy and has not been able to be searched recently. Remember, Casey Anthony had said that she “felt like Caylee was nearby.”

Geraldo Rivera is reporting that his sources say the remains ARE Caylee’s, and that the authorities have determined the remains are of a little girl, the correct size as 3 year-old Caylee. He says it appears that the plastic bag that the remains were found in…which could be matched to bags seized from the Anthony home, was sealed with duct tape. Geraldo’s sources inside the case said that “This is not a false alarm, there is every indication that this is the body of Caylee Anthony. The anthropologicals are in, and they match. There is every indication that this is Caylee Anthony.” He thinks that prosecutors could put the death penalty back as an option for Casey Anthony, depending upon the results of the forensics and cause of death.

Duct tape can be a great way to preserve forensic evidence. The adhesive side is an excellent preserver of fingerprints. This will be a treasure-trove of forensic evidence. Also, if Caylee had ever been to the dentist, an immediate ID can be made, and also the height of the child will be very telling. DNA tests will take a few days. Any clothing that could be in the bag will also help with identifying the remains. There still will be the question of how the child died. Forensic examiners can sample the air in the bag for chloroform, which has been suggested as the means of murder in Caylee’s mom Casey Anthony’s case.

The manner of death will be crucial in this case. If the duct tape is on her mouth, it would indicate a planned murder. If Caylee suffered, then you have Capital Murder, where the death penalty is not only an option, but arguably a must. If the death was caused by illegally imposed by chloroform, it could be Second Degree Murder.

Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch- who has conducted extensive searches for Caylee, got a call saying “Tim, it looks like we got her.” Tim says he’s hearing from his sources in the Orange County Sheriff’s department that they are remains found in a garbage bag, that they feel that it is Caylee, it will take a bit for positive ID. That is an area Tim’s group searched, but there was a lot of water at the time, conditions weren’t favorable at the time. It wasn’t an area they could search earlier in the year. It is near the “cell tower ping” area identified by traces on tot mom Casey’s cellphone. Tim Miller says he hopes that the remains are Caylee’s, and he hopes this part of the tragedy is over.

Sheriff’s Deputies are at the Anthony home right now, and no one is being allowed inside. It is now being considered a crime scene. George and Cindy Anthony are coming back from taping a show in California, and son Lee Anthony was watching the home. Again, no one is being allowed inside the home, except for the authorities.

Casey Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez, is reportedly at the jail right now with Casey, and has said he will not make a statement on this matter until the remains are positively identified. He was granted a motion today to delay the trial until March. He apparently sped back to the jail when the news broke, presumably to keep her silent. Stay tuned, Snarkfood’s updating this story here.