Casey Anthony’s mom: ‘I know Caylee is alive’

Even though her daughter Casey has been indicted on charges of abusing and murdering her own 3-year-old daughter, Caylee, Cindy Anthony continues to insist that the little girl is alive.

“I know Caylee is alive,” Cindy Anthony told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Wednesday from Orlando, Fla. “I know my daughter. There is nothing in this world that could make me believe that Casey did anything to Caylee. There has never been any child neglect, child abuse or anything. This young lady loves her child, more than I love Casey.”

Cindy Anthony applauded a court ruling that will turn over to her family the names of people who have called authorities to report suspected sightings of Caylee Anthony since her disappearance.

‘Truth will be told’
“There’s a lot of people out there that have seen Caylee,” Cindy Anthony said. “We’re going to reach out to those people once we get their names and we’re going to go ahead and start tracking them down ourselves … I know in my heart that we are going to find Caylee before this trial takes place.”

Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar thinks differently. On Tuesday, his office obtained a grand jury indictment against Casey Anthony on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators about Caylee’s disappearance in June. Casey Anthony, who is also facing charges for passing bad checks that she used to buy such items as beer and lingerie, said nothing to reporters as she was taken to jail.

Earlier Tuesday, tears ran down her cheeks as she stood by the side of her attorney, Jose Baez, during a press conference. “Casey Anthony is Public Enemy No. 1,” the attorney told reporters. “This family has had to withstand something like nobody has ever seen. We just ask people to respect that and understand what Casey Anthony is going through.”

Neither Cindy Anthony nor Baez has denied that the 22-year-old single mother has lied to investigators during the three months that the case against her has been building. They continue to insist that the public will understand during the trial why Casey Anthony kept Caylee’s disappearance a secret and why she has behaved as she has in the months since.

“The truth will be told in the end,” Cindy Anthony said. “It will be heard in a courtroom. People will understand why her behaviors are such.”

The smell of death
Casey Anthony kept her daughter’s disappearance a secret from even her parents for a month. When she admitted in July that Caylee was missing, she said that the child had been abducted by a baby sitter. But the address where she said the sitter lived proved to be an empty apartment, and the woman named as the baby sitter had never met the Anthonys. Casey Anthony also lied about her employment status.

TODAY Casey Anthony is now in custody on charges of abusing and murdering her daughter.

It was Cindy Anthony who alerted authorities to her granddaughter’s disappearance after smelling a strong odor of death in her daughter’s car, which had been left in a parking lot because, Casey Anthony said, it had run out of gas. The Anthonys later said the odor came from remains of a pizza, then that it came from one or more squirrels that had died in the car’s framework.

However, investigators say that cadaver-sniffing dogs identified the odor as coming from human remains. Published reports have said that traces of chloroform, human hair and the residue of a decaying body have also been found in the car.

“This investigation involves intricate forensics that are on the cutting edge of science,” Lamar, the state attorney, told reporters Tuesday.

Baez has charged that Lamar pushed for the murder indictment because he is running for reelection in November and wanted to impress voters.

‘They haven’t been looking’
While the grand jury was deliberating Tuesday, Cindy Anthony spent the time with her daughter in Baez’s office.

“I just wanted to be around her as much as I could,” the mother said. “We’ve known that they’ve been building a case against Casey from day one, and they have not been looking for my granddaughter. Her attorney has been preparing for this since day one.”

TODAY Caylee Anthony is still alive, her grandmother insists.

Cindy Anthony said it was very difficult for her daughter waiting for the indictment to come down. “Not only is she facing the charges, I told her the night before: ‘You know, they haven’t been looking for Caylee.’ She’s lost her daughter. Someone has her daughter,” Cindy Anthony told Vieira.

“My love for Casey is stronger every day,” Cindy Anthony said. “My love for my granddaughter is stronger every day.”

Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their search for Caylee Anthony — but they are looking for a body, not a live little girl.

“We have not achieved our primary objective in this investigation,” Orange County Sheriff Kevin Barry told reporters Tuesday. “We have not recovered little Caylee Anthony.”

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