A small update from local news that doesn't sound very good
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The search for Caylee Anthony in her grandparents' backyard turned out to be a dead end Friday, but a strong smell has led investigators to focus on an Orange County parking lot and a car that was found there.
The car was parked in a lot near State Road 50 and Goldenrod Road (see map) for a few days earlier this week. A business owner had it towed and it turned out to be Caylee's grandparents' car, one the toddler's mother drives.
The car or the parking lot might hold the only clues right now. Channel 9 has learned investigators came back to square one again Friday afternoon and searched for possible evidence at the place where Caylee Marie Anthony's mother had, for some reason, abandoned her car earlier this week.
While they didn't find anything at the parking lot, sources told Eyewitness News they might be finding clues in the white, 1998 Pontiac GT that Caylee's mother Casey left in the east Orange County parking lot. Eyewitness News has learned there was a stench in the car, which could indicate evidence of a body, but sources said investigators don't have any more than that to go on and they haven't figured out what the stench was from.
"We get information that comes in that sometimes suggests one thing, sometimes suggests another," Sgt. John Allen said Friday.
Friday morning, investigators brought cadaver dogs in to comb through Caylee's grandparents' backyard (see map) looking for anything that might explain what happened to her, all because a neighbor told them Caylee's mother had borrowed his shovel about a month or so ago, around the time she told investigators Caylee had disappeared.
Caylee's grandmother, Cynthia Anthony, said the shovel was for yard work and said Casey didn't have keys to the family tool shed.
"We have bamboo growing in our backyard. The only way to get rid of it is to use a shovel," Cynthia told Eyewitness News.
One of the dogs seemed to pick up on something, so police thoroughly searched the yard, under a playhouse, in the bushes and found nothing Friday.
"I got sick initially, because you get that thought, what if, but we knew deep inside there can't be anythiing wrong here," said grandfather George Anthony.
"If I have to go out myself, door to door, and look for this child, until the day I die, I will walk every inch of this earth and open every door and knock on every door everyday and I will look in every nook and cranny," Cynthia said.
The pair says they have faith in their daughter and are paying for her attorney.
Investigators, too, remained optimistic Friday.
"We're going to continue working in hopes that we find her alive, we find her alive and safe and sound," Allen said.
Caylee's mother apparently abandoned her car in the parking lot earlier in the week. When Caylee's grandparents found out two or three days later, it was then they also found out Caylee was missing and asked the sheriff's office to investigate. It is unclear, though, why Casey left her car sitting in the parking lot.
Casey Anthony's lawyer has said his client is cooperating with investigators, although investigators say that's not necessarily true. Attorney Jose Baez said Anthony has even volunteered to help investigators develop a composite sketch of the babysitter, with whom she insists she left her daughter with on June 9, the last time Casey saw Caylee. Detectives say the child's father died in a car accident.
Anthony is being held in the Orange County jail in protective custody, which means she doesn't have contact with other inmates. She's being held on a charge of child neglect, a third degree felony. She's also charged with making false official statements, which are misdemeanors. Prosecutors have 33 days to file formal charges.
Friends say Casey Anthony frequented nightclubs and most recently did events planning for a local entertainment company. She was a member of the Travel and Tourism Club when she attended Colonial High School.
My suspicions are that the mother knows exactly where that baby is.
Why (assuming she did something to her) would she not give her to the grandmother?
