When Caylee vanished

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

Word association: you hear "Orlando" and images explode of castles and rides, Mickey and Minnie, leaping orcas and slack-jawed children dazed with the wonder of it all. It's not much of an overstatement to say that the Orlando economy is all about making kids deliriously happy.

But for millions of TV viewers, since last summer there's one Orlando child, in particular, who's been a reminder that the flipside of children's happiest dreams can  be the darkest of nightmares.

By now, you've seen their faces everywhere: Caylee Marie Anthony, the missing two-year-old girl, and her 22-year-old mother Casey. But tonight the question— where is Caylee? – may have been answered in the most unhappy way.

Thursday morning a meter reader for a local utility came upon what thousands of volunteer searchers had missed in the past six months: the skeletal remains of a small child, found in a plastic bag, just a quarter mile from the home where Caylee was being raised by her mother and grandparents.

The bones have not been conclusively identified as Caylee's. But the authorities say evidence found among the remains can be linked to Caylee's home. A weekend and more of testing by the FBI lies ahead. The new question is: is it really Caylee?

Tonight, we'll put the case together starting from the very first hours of this mystery, back weeks ago when we talked to the missing child's grandparents who believed fervently that the child was alive and in danger from unknown kidnappers.

George Anthony: She was threatened.  Caylee was threatened.  So are we.

And you'll hear from Casey herself... Her story in her own words.

Casey Anthony: I'm never gonna forgive myself because there's that chance that I might not see Caylee again and I don't want to think about that.

So let’s begin here: a quiet, middle-class neighborhood of Orlando, where George Anthony, a former sheriff's deputy now in the security business, and his wife, Cindy, a registered nurse, raised their son, lee, and daughter, Casey.

Cindy Anthony: Casey was always a good student. She was always the mom of the crowd. Always took care of everybody and they still call her Mom -- her friends.

After high school, Casey got a job working at the Universal Studios theme park, which is, incidentally, owned by this program's parent company NBC Universal. It was there Casey met a young guy named Jesse Grund.

Jesse Grund: It was kind of the love at first sight type of thing.

Jesse and Casey started dating in January 2005, and their relationship blossomed, though it did come as something of a shock to Jesse when Casey told him six months later that she was pregnant, and that he was the father.

Jesse: My exact words to her were, "I'm not ready to be a parent, and you're not ready to be a parent. Let's give the child up to someone, some family who can't have kids, who is ready to be parents." And she said, "No, I'm not gonna carry this child around for nine months, and give birth to it, and then give it up to somebody else. This is my child."

On August 9th, 2005 little Caylee Marie Anthony was born. Her birth certificate never listed a father -- a paternity test showed that it wasn't Jesse, the boyfriend. It didn't matter. Jesse was as smitten with the baby girl, as he'd been with her mother. Jesse proposed and Casey said “yes.”

Jesse: She was crying. And it was probably one of the happiest moments of my life.

But five months later, Casey -- who was still living with her parents -- broke off the engagement. She told Jesse she was happier on her own. And she did indeed seem happy. She took to motherhood with apparent joy.

And her parents couldn't have been more supportive. To them, Caylee's arrival seemed like a gift from heaven.

Dennis Murphy: Barely three.  But, she got her little-girl personality, huh?

Cindy: Oh, absolutely.  I mean, she lights the room and she controls the house. 

All of which makes the events of last Father's Day weekend, when Caylee Anthony suddenly disappeared -- that much more of a mystery.

That Sunday, June 15th, grandmother Cindy took Caylee to visit her great grandfather in his nursing home. This home video, taken during that visit -- contains the last confirmed pictures we have of Caylee.

Cindy: We spent a wonderful day together, and then Casey came home and we had a great evening that evening.

The next morning, Monday, George remembered seeing Casey and Caylee at home before he left for work.

George: I was still home in the morning getting ready to go do my job, you know, later that afternoon.

Cindy: That was the last time you saw Caylee.

George: Yeah. I'm sorry. It's just, it's (crying) it's hard not to cry.

When George and Cindy came home that night, Casey and Caylee were gone. That wasn't out of the ordinary -- Casey occasionally spent the night with Caylee away from home.

But she didn't return the next day, or the one after that.

Dennis Murphy: All of a sudden Casey is gone from the house?

Cindy: Right.

Dennis Murphy: She's not coming to her bedroom and the child is gone and...

Cindy: Right, and you know, she had an explanation every day where she was. And a reasonable explanation.

But four weeks later, she was still a no-show when on July 15th,  George received notice that their car -- the white Sunfire Casey had been driving -- had been towed. She'd abandoned the vehicle two weeks earlier, in the parking lot of a check cashing business.

Orlando Sentinel Reporter Bianca Prieto: That's when it's like, "Oh my gosh, Casey's car's been towed. What's going on?" And so, they go to pick it up. They get there and they say there's this overwhelming stench just coming from the car. You're three feet away and you can smell it.

George, the former sheriff's deputy, later told investigators that he knew the odor well.

George: It smelled, uh, like a decomposed body. I'm being very straight with you guys. I've got a sick feeling for a second because the car that was all closed up, if you're in, from me to you away from it, you can smell an odor, you don't forget that odor, no matter what it is, you never, ever forget it.

After retrieving the car, Cindy Anthony decided to take action -- she was determined to confront Casey face-to-face. But where was she?

Cindy: I had found a resume of one of her friends in the front seat. So, I just took her phone number off of there and actually when I called her, was very surprised that she had seen Casey just hours before.

The friend told Cindy she knew where Casey was staying that day, and agreed to take Cindy there.

Cindy: When Casey came to the door, you know, I asked her where Caylee was. She said she was with the nanny. I said, "Let's go pick up Caylee." And she said, "No, mom, you know, it's kinda late in the evening.

But Cindy wasn't buying. She gave her daughter an ultimatum.

Cindy: I said, "One of two things is happening. You know, either we're gonna drive to, you know, pick up Caylee or I'm gonna take you to the police station and someone else is gonna help me pick up Caylee." And she said, "Mom," she says, "It's okay. Take me.”

Dennis Murphy: Take me to the police?

Cindy: Yes.  And for her to say it, you know, to take her, I'm thinking now, "Something’s not right."

Cindy was about to find out how "not right" things were. She took Casey back home, and from there, she dialed 911.

Cindy: I have someone here that I need to uhm, be arrested in my home.

Operator: They're there right now?

Cindy: And I have a possible missing child. I have a three-year-old that's been missing for a month.

Operator: A three-year-old?

Cindy: Yes.

Operator: Have you reported that?

Cindy: I'm trying to do that now, ma'am.

But shortly after that 911 call, Cindy says she overheard Casey whispering something to her brother, Lee... Something about a babysitter, Zanny, that would set her into full-on panic mode.

Cindy: I heard her say the words that Zanny had taken Caylee. And that's when I flew into her room. And I said, "What the heck are you talking about?" And she just broke down and she said it had been, 31 days that she had seen her daughter.

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