On August 9, 2005, a healthy baby girl was brought into the world. This baby girl was named Caylee Marie Anthony. Caylee lived in Orlando, Florida, with her mother, Casey Anthony, and her grandparents, George and Cindy Anythony on 4937 Hopespring drive.  Caylee’s father is an unsolved mystery that Casey swore to never tell. Casey was brown-haired like her mother and was born with beautiful brown eyes. Caylee was a healthy and very loved girl who lived a normal life until she was pronounced missing on July 15, 2008, when her grandmother Cindy said she had been gone for a total of 31 days. 

On that day in July, Cindy placed three 911 calls to report her granddaughter missing and a stolen car. When the first 911 call was placed, Caylee Marie Anythony was thought to be missing but Cindy says she thinks the stolen car was thought to have been stolen by Casey. The car was a 1998 Pontiac Sunfire. On the second call from Cindy, she was much more scared sounding, she was sure now Caylee had been missing for 31 days. Cindy mentions that a babysitter was involved and had stolen her.  The cops immediately questioned why they had taken so long to call the police, and that’s when Casey gets on the phone and tries to explain they were trying to find Caylee through other resources and figure it out without involving the police. When the third 911 call was placed by Cindy, she was frantic and sounded very worried that her granddaughter may be in danger. However, when Casey was put on the phone, she was not frantic. She was calm and continued to talk to the police, sounding as if nothing at all was wrong. While on the call with Cindy and Casey, the police trying to find out what happened are asking questions such as their address, but Cindy and Casey bluntly ignored it. The police also asked for a physical description, the women said Caylee was three (Caylee was two almost three) and shared what she was wearing. They told the police the suspect is Zendia Fernaedas Gonzalez, Caylee Marie Anythony’s nanny of one and a half years. When the police arrived at the family home for the first time, an interview takes place to verify the information given during the 911 calls. Casey claims that she took Caylee to her nanny’s home and when she returned to pick up Caylee, the nanny nor Caylee could be found. After the police interviewed Casey, they immediately start gathering all of their evidence and start to put together their information.  As the police dig through everything Casey said and try to find more about  Cayless’ babysitter/nanny, they find out through a photo timestamp that Caylee was last seen alive at the Anythony family residence on June 15th, 2008. in the family’s pool. Seeing that this date was different than what Casey gave them ( Casey said she had last seen her daughter on June 7th), the police got suspicious. What else could Casey be lying about? On July 16th, the police arrest Casey; she gets charged with child neglect, making false statements, and obstructing an investigation. 

During a search of the Anthony household, a diary with some shocking things written was found. On June 21st, 2008, Caseywrote “Every day is a brand new beginning” and “ carpe diem- Seize the day” with no regret whatsoever.  

On June 17th, Cindy noticed the gate to the pool was open and the ladder next to the pool was down, which it never was before. On June 18th, a neighbor said Casey had come over and asked to borrow a shovel. Only 4 days after her daughter’s disappearance, Casey was caught on camera at a hot body contest with some of her friends. All of the friends she was with claimed that Casey seemed fine and had no problem having fun. 

The family car that was reported missing by Cindy Anythony was found abandoned at AMSCOT, which is a financial services company. It was noticed by employee Katherine Sanchez on June 27. There was a strong odor emanating from the vehicle, and the car was parked next to a dumpster. George Anthyony said that on the 15th, he arrived at the tow yard to retrieve the car Casey abandoned and that he could smell “ a pretty strong odor” and that “I was very concerned about it, I’ve smelled that odor before.” George was a former police officer. When the truck was opened up, there was a bag of trash with maggots all over it. On July 17th, the police decided to give the car a more in-depth search.  The back seat had nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. In the trunk, there was a bag of trash, pizza box, soda cans, food containers, and other normal garbage. A hair was found and showed signs of decomposition. It had no root and no DNA, but it matched Caylee’s type of hair.  Since there was no root or DNA, they were not 100% sure if it was from Caylee.  A can of air from the car was sent to two labs. One lab claimed the air had Chloroform present while the other said that there was only trash. 

On the same day as the car search, Cadaver dogs were taken to the family home. Two dogs were alerted at the same spot next to Caylee’s playhouse. Zenida, the nanny, was found. When she was brought in, she said she didn’t even know who Casey was. Casey completely made her up. 

After Casey was arrested three times, on October 14, Casey’s case was taken before a grand jury. Casey is indicted by the grand jury. The Grand jury agreed there was probable cause. On the same day, Casey was officially indicted on charges of 4 counts providing false information to the police, aggravvated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and 1st-degree murder. On October 21st, the charges of child neglect were dropped against Casey because the “ child is dead and the case is being treated as such.” On October 28th Casey is arraigned, where she pleads not guilty to all charges. Casey also revealed that as a child her father and brother would sexually assault her. On December 11th, Roy Kronk, who previously reported a bag seen near the family home, found Caylee’s body. The body was found in a bag, with her tiny skull found in a laundry basket that was in the trash bag. Her skull was wrapped in plastic and bound with duct tape prior to death. Inside the bag, there was a Winnie the pooh blanket, and plastic letters from a shirt Caylee was found wearing in photos. The shirt read “ Big trouble comes small.” There was also a heart-shaped sticker over the duck tape where the girl’s mouth would be, police later recall seeing the same sticker in Casey’s room. 

On May 24th, 2011 opening arguments began, and on July 5th, Casey was proven not guilty.