Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

TBO > News

Missing Orlando Girl Feared Dead

The Associated Press

Casey Anthony wipes tears from her eyes at a bond hearing at the Orange County courthouse in Orlando Tuesday. The 22-year-old mother reported her daughter missing last week, more than a month after the little girl allegedly disappeared. Anthony faces charges of child endangerment, making false officials statements and obstructing a criminal investigation.

The Associated Press

Published: July 24, 2008

Related Links

Caylee Marie Anthony

ORLANDO - Deputies said they are having a difficult time getting information from the mother of a missing 2-year-old in a case prosecutors said is beginning to look like a homicide.

Orange County sheriff's deputies said they still hope to find the girl alive.

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

He set the unusually high 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.

"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," Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane-Burdick said.

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

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

"There is circumstantial evidence of a possible homicide, I will give them that," Baez said. "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 think the girl's father is dead.

Share this: