Child remains found near missing girl’s home
ORLANDO (AP) – A team of medical examiners and detectives was hustling to identify the skeletal remains of a child found in a wooded lot in central Florida Thursday, hoping to solve the six-month-old mystery of a missing toddler.
Caylee Anthony, 3, has been missing since June. On Thursday, less than a half-mile from where the girl lived, a utility worker stumbled upon remains of a small child.
There was nothing that immediately indicated the remains were Caylee’s. But Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said his investigators and the FBI would work around the clock and through the weekend to identify the child. Authorities searched the home where Caylee and her mother lived again on Thursday night, looking for more clues.
“Now the investigation continues,” Beary said. “There is a lot of lab work to do. There is a lot of DNA work to do. There is a lot of crime scene work to do.”
Caylee’s mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even without a body. She has insisted that she left the girl with a baby sitter in June, but she didn’t report her missing until July.
For the past several months, Anthony’s family, police and volunteers from around the country have searched for the little girl.
A member of EquuSearch – one of the volunteer groups – said they did not check the wooded lot at the edge of the outlying suburb in early September because it was submerged from heavy rains. When they returned in November, the site had been fenced off.
EquuSearch volunteer Deborah Smith said she believed the remains belonged to Caylee.
“I’m glad she was found before Christmas so they can give her a proper burial,” Smith said.
Allen Moore, a spokesman for the Orange County jail, said Casey Anthony was told about the discovery. She was placed under psychological observation, not suicide watch, and remains under protective custody. Her attorney, Jose Baez, visited her at the jail for about 90 minutes Thursday.
Forensic experts said it was harder for investigators to identify a child’s remains than an adult’s, but they would have a few methods to pursue.
Medical examiners would probably look at photos of the child along with the skull, hoping to make a bone structure comparison, said Dr. Lee Jantz, coordinator of the forensic anthropology center at the University of Tennessee.
Dr. Bill Manion, a pathologist and an assistant medical examiner for Burlington County, N.J., said DNA testing could determine an identification even without other DNA from the victim, “as long as we know who the parents are or siblings.”