Caylee Anthony:
Famous “No-Body” Convictions

Jury box

The cases of Amanda Hartman, Casey Anthony, Caylee Anthony, Richard Crafts and Willie Crain

The case of the little missing three-year-old girl in Florida, Caylee Anthony, has riveted the nation. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, has been charged with seven counts of first degree murder even though Caylee’s body hasn’t been found. DBKP takes a look at other similar cases and whether the Florida courts have enough evidence to convict Casey Anthony of first degree murder. Cases that include oil drums, crab traps, and a commercial chipper.

Caylee was first reported missing to the authorities in Orange County, Florida, on July 15 by Cindy Anthony, Caylee’s grandmother. According to CNN, Cindy had to “plead” with her daughter, Casey, to “tell her” where Caylee was. Casey purportedly told her mother that she, Casey, hadn’t seen her 3-year-old toddler for “31 days”.

Caylee’s mother was arrested on October 14th after a grand jury returned seven indictments of capital murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to police.

An amber alert was issued for Caylee who has now been missing since June. Forensics will play a key part in the case against Casey Anthony: cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Casey’s car as well as the backyard of her parent’s home. Preliminary testing of air and carpet samples in the trunk of the car found evidence of human decompisition, along with an “an unusually large concentration of chloroform”. Other evidence against Casey include a neighbor who told police that she had asked to borrow a shovel.

Casey’s lifestyle at the time of Caylee’s disapearance may come into play: Casey spent a majority of her time partying in clubs and never mentioned that her daughter was missing. It was only until her mother and brother pleaded with her to tell where Caylee was that Casey gave a convulated story about leaving her with a babysitter. An investigation by the police found that the story Casey gave about the babysitter was false: an address she supplied resulted in an empty apartment, the “babysitter” turned out to be a woman who had never met Casey. Casey Anthony insists that her daughter is still alive. Her mother also maintains her daughter is innocent, even though it was her mother who first reported to authorities that her daughter’s car “smells like a dead body”.

According to FOX New’s Greta Van Sustern, two dates are key to the investigation: on June 18, a neighbor observed Casey back up her car into her parent’s driveway, something the neighbor had never seen before. What’s also important to note is that Casey and Caylee were living with her parents at the time of the little girl’s dissappearance. The same day, Casey borrowed a shovel from a neighbor. The car which Casey drove belonged to her grandparents. On June 24, Casey’s father allegedly wanted to open the trunk of the car and was met with “resistance” from Casey. When he opened the trunk he discovered gas cans that he had thought were “stolen” from a shed in the backyard. On June 27, the car was abandoned and towed to an impound lot. The Anthony family recovered the car on July 15. It was then that Casey’s mother, a nurse, noticed the car smelled like a “dead body”.

The Florida prosecutors that will try Casey Anthony for the first degree murder of her daughter are faced with the task of trying a case without the victim’s body nor any evidence as to the cause of death. Conviction for first degree murder in the Florida courts requires that the prosecution prove their case “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Even so, there have been similar cases that led to a murder conviction.

What are a few of these cases–that involved oil drums, crab traps and a commercial wood chipper?

Continue reading: The Caylee Anthony Case: Capital Murder Convictions Without a Body

by Mondo Frazier/LBG
Source: The Caylee Anthony Case: Capital Murder Convictions Without a Body

Mondoreb blogs at Death By 1000 Papercuts. Interested readers can e-mail him at
mondoreb@gmail.com. All DBKP stories are filed under Mondoreb at BNN. This story is by LBG.

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