Evidence Mounts Against Missing Tot's Mom

Fla. Police Say Mother's Car Smelled Of A Decomposing Body

(CBS/AP)  The mother of a missing 2-year-old is a person of interest in a case that is beginning to look like a homicide, prosecutors said Tuesday. Sheriff's deputies said they still hope to find the girl alive.

Casey Anthony, 22, is charged only with child neglect and lying to investigators. Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland set her bond at $500,000 Tuesday, saying the law did not allow him to hold her without bail.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that for two and a half hours, Anthony listened, and at times cried, as witness after witness - five in all - took the stand in the bail hearing that sounded more like a murder trial.

Strickland set the unusually high bail amount after hearing about evidence of human decomposition allegedly found in Anthony's yard and car. Her daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, has been missing since mid-June.

"Not a bit of useful information has been provided by Ms. Anthony as to the whereabouts of her daughter," Strickland said. "And I would add that the truth and Ms. Anthony are strangers."

Anthony is charged with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. Authorities say she did not report the girl missing until last week, and only then at her own mother's insistence.

Sheriff's deputies said Anthony's car smelled of decomposition, and a cadaver-trained German shepherd noted a smell of human remains in the car and her yard. They said they found a stain, dirt and what seemed to be Caylee's hair in Anthony's trunk. A search of the yard turned up no body.

Cobiella reports that detectives say a neighbor remembered Anthony asking to borrow a shovel around the time her daughter went missing.

"The risk of her flight if she is released on some low bond increases exponentially, especially now that she's heard this additional evidence and that she is their person of interest," said assistant state attorney Linda Drane-Burdick.

Deputies emphasized they were still looking for the girl - alive - and urged anyone with information to step forward.

Defense attorney Jose Baez requested bond around $10,000. He said Anthony's family can't pay a high bond and she has the right to freedom while facing lesser charges.

"This is not a capital case, and if it were they certainly would file it, if they had evidence to," Baez said. "There is circumstantial evidence of a possible homicide, I will give them that. But circumstantial evidence has not made them confident enough to charge her with any specific homicide or kidnapping, or any capital offense."

Anthony's parents became concerned after her car was towed from a check-cashing business where it had been parked for days. She and the child lived with her parents, and she told them she worked as an event planner at an area theme park.

Investigators say Anthony was unemployed, and a purported babysitter seems to never have existed. The mother and child hadn't been home in the month before investigators were notified that Caylee was missing. Investigators believe the girl's father is dead.

Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, acknowledged in court that her daughter had lied before, but said she was a caring mom. The registered nurse believes the girl is alive, and Casey Anthony lied to police because she was somehow threatened. Cindy Anthony said she would even sell her house to free her daughter.

"I know Casey as a person," she said. "I know what she is for a mother and I know there's only one or two reasons why Casey would be withholding something about Caylee. I believe that it's something that someone is holding over her and threatening her in some way."

Casey Anthony's face filled with tears at the hearing, watching her parents at the witness stand and again after Strickland set bail.

"Casey, we love you!" yelled Cindy Anthony as the courtroom cleared.

Her daughter nodded and sobbed before being led away in chains.

[repent2008]

Dear Forumn,

It is very tragic when something like this happens to a child, and we must protect our children and see that justice is done to those who kidnap and murder innocent children. I have to wounder though, why if CBS cares about this kids would they not cover and do an investigation of the Franklin Cover-Up that occured in Omahah Nebraska where they were operating child slavery and child *** rings where there was prominent local offcials involved and this ring even went all the way up to the white house and to other power officials. Former Neb Senator Jon De-Camp wrote a book about his investigation and the state senatorial committee investigation that was formed to investigate these matters. These child slavery rings do exist amd are ran by our own CIA and they include some very powerful people, why are we not demanding a real investigation into these facts? Where is the justice for these kids?. Our own CIA was running mind control experiments using torture and drugs under the Mk Ultra Program declassified many years ago and entered into congressional record, this program had an offshoot called the monarch program where children were tortured and exposed to satanic ritual abuse and sexual abuse because they figured out that if they tramutized a child enough that their mind would fracture into alternate personalities and then they could in effect brainwash and program these kids.

[uradum1]

Posted by toldyouso12

While you are lashing out with your proclaimations about the posters here, maybe you should toddle off and take a pill...something to take away that cynical and ignorant edge, some kind of dose of reality so you will understand that YOU are the arrogant big mouth, YOU think you know everything about everyone, and YOU are the stereotyping namecalling bully in here. And for SUER, kindness and tolerence are two concepts you have no clue about.

[uradum1]

Until women as a group respect themselves and stop taking advantage of handouts or opportunities that come their way due to gender or color or who they know or who they are married to or who they are born to--they have no room to talk about equality, respect, fair competition or anything else. I am a woman also--but I will be the first to say that my gender does not want...
Posted by toldyouso12

OMG, speak for yourself!! Who do you think you are generalizing all women??? You are hardly the all knowing truthsayer for all women - and I can tell you that you sure as heck don''t know what I want!!!! Yo uthink that WOMEN are the only ones who expolit, take advantage, and SUCK off of their birthrights???? Your perspective is blind and very narrow.

[uradum1]

A POLICE TRAINED CADAVER DOG KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SMELL OF DEATH & A ROTTEN PIZZA.
Posted by mstamos05

It wasn''t just the pizza that sytunk, there were maggots, and the biologics from them dying, defacating...

[uradum1]

Mom left her kid in the car and the kid suffocated. Mom panicked, put the body in the trunk and went into denial unti lthe body started to decompose. Mom buried the body in a vacant lot less than 5 miles from home, about 2 feet under.

[mstamos05]

SORRY TO SAY THIS TO THIS MURDER''S MOM & LAWYER, WHO CLAIM THERE''S ONLY CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AGAINST CASEY, BUT I THINK A POLICE TRAINED CADAVER DOG KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SMELL OF DEATH & A ROTTEN PIZZA.

[keithle1]

Something for Nancy Grace to go on about with other talking heads.

[cteal45]

This case has me really confused. If the mother and daughter live with the grandmother then why did it take a month for someone to realize that she was missing.

Casey and Caylee lived with the grandmother but Casey said she wanted some time to better bond with her child and so she left for awhile with Casey. After that, the grandmother spoke to her daughter several times, and each time she asked to talk to Caylee, Caylee''s mom said she was with a babysitter and at the beach or an amusement park. That sounded reasonable to the grandmother, so she never suspected that her granddaughter was missing. It was only when she met with her daughter (I think I heard that the grandmother picked her daughter up from somewhere) that she found Caylee was not with the mother. Casey told her mother that Caylee was asleep at the babysitter''s and she did not want to wake her up. The grandmother reportedly said "I am selfish and I want to see her now". I guess it was at this time that either the daughter admitted she didn''t knpw where Caylee was, or the grandmother just got suspicious. I think that the grandmother said "If you can''t show me Caylee, then I am calling the police" and that is what she did.

[deacon20081]

Sad the posts this evening are concerned with women''s rights and not a word about the BABY that is missing.
My sincere prayers are the she is found Alive and healthy.

[toldyouso12]

Isn''''t that kind of stereotyping yourself ,"all women" "all whites" Don''''t speak for me. This story is a bout a child, not your soapbox and good night now means off with this computer.



FYI--People who are really "kind and good" do not have to tout that or reiterate it on a computer or anywhere else--their actions speak for them. Usually, people who say that they are really "kind and good" or "nice" or "tolerant" or decent or whatever, usually are not--but they really, really hope you listen to their words and never get wind of their actions. Goodnight, you kind and good and tolerant and will hire anyone white woman who brought up your race and quotas and gender as cause to whine--you need some sleep--tommorrow you can start your laments anew--but here''s the deal--if you really only cared about the issue of the missing child--no one--I repeat No one, would have made you slip up and begin that long, lonely walk on the "poor me, I''m white and so mistreated by all the other races" kr@p. You needed to get that out of your system. Maybe--this is a daily thing for you, eh? LMAO. See that angry, whiney being in the mirror? That''s YOU. LOL