Mental Illness May Determine Fate Of Mother Of Missing Caylee Anthony
Woman Charged With 1st-Degree Murder
POSTED: 9:13 pm EST November 6, 2008
UPDATED: 11:05 pm EST November 6, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The mental health of Casey Anthony, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the disappearance of her daughter, Caylee, could be the key to determining her fate, according to a Local 6 News report.
Anthony, 22, remains jailed and is scheduled to go to trial in January. Caylee was last seen in mid-June but was not reported missing until a month later.
Anthony has undergone two psychological evaluations, but the reports have been sealed by the judge who ordered the tests after Anthony's arrest in July.
Local 6 News investigative reporter Tony Pipitone interviewed Lake Mary psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Hall, who has not examined Anthony and could not comment to her specifically, but he has studied women who have killed and their motivations for the killings.
"You have to look at the motivation -- why they're doing -- why they think they have to (kill their own child)," Hall said.
Psychiatrists focus on five general reasons, Hall said.
Altruistic, which was explained as the person doing the child a favor.
Psychotic, when the killer is having hallucinations or delusions.
Accidental, which usually result from abuse.
Revenge, getting back at someone, usually a spouse or the child's parent.
Unwanted child.
Hall said that only in extreme cases can the killer be found not criminally responsible for the death.
"You have to have a severe mental illness, and two -- due to the severe mental illness -- you have to not realize what you were doing was wrong," Hall said.
Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who is in a psychiatric hospital after drowning her five children because she said she was battling Satan before calmly reporting the deaths to police, is an example of that type of person, Local 6 News reported.
Pipitone said the prosecution of Anthony thus far seems closer to that of Susan Smith, who let a car containing her two children roll into a lake, where they drowned. Smith blamed carjackers who never existed, and she's serving a life sentence in South Carolina.
"She was interested in an individual, (and) he said he didn't want to be with a single mother. She killed her two kids. There was concealment, it was planned out, she made false statements to police, she was trying to avoid detection (and) she knew what she'd done was wrong," Hall said.
Investigators believe Anthony is concealing the location of her daughter's body.
"No more lies. No more bull coming out of your mouth. We've been very respectful. We're taking our time and talking to you, but we're tired of all the lies. No more lies. What happened to Caylee?" Orange County sheriff's Detective Yuri Melich said in a July interview at Universal, where Anthony had said she worked.
"I don't know," Anthony said.
"You do know," Melich replied.
"I don't know," Anthony repeated.
"What happened to Caylee?" Melich asked.
"I don't know where she is. That's the God's honest truth," Anthony said.
If Anthony were delusional, she would really believe that she worked at Universal and left Caylee with an imaginary baby sitter, Pipitone said. The state claims that Anthony is lying.
Psychiatrists, like Hall, routinely determine whether someone is delusional or simply deceptive.
"You have to look at what the motivation is there. Is it that they don't want to admit they're really unemployed? Do they have to let people think they're greater than they are? So there could be personality factors, (a) need for narcissism, needs to seem greater than they are. Or they could be trying to hide embarrassment or shame," Hall said.
If Anthony has no severe mental illness, there's no way she can avoid prison, if convicted, Local 6 News reported.
"People found insane go to the state mental hospital, but that's reserved for truly psychotic people. Casey just doesn't seem to fit that bill," Pipitone said. "She's not been convicted of anything, but clearly she has issues that could lead to the death penalty being taken off the table or mitigate against a death sentence if she ever were convicted."
New Documents Released
More than 500 pages of documents pertaining to the Anthony case were released Thursday by the state attorney's office.
The documents include never-before released interviews of Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony.
In an interview about retrieving Casey Anthony's car from an impound lot after it was found abandoned at an Orange County Amscot, George Anthony said the smell in the car was terrible.
"I believe that there's something dead back there, and I hate to say the word 'human,'" said George Anthony, who told detectives he knew something was wrong and was nervous to open the trunk. "I think I whispered out to myself, 'Please don't let this be my Caylee.'"
George Anthony said he also saw a basketball-sized stain on the carpet of the trunk, Arm & Hammer laundry detergent and a plastic garbage bag contaning a pizza box and maggots.
George Anthony said in the interview that the smell was so bad that he had trouble breathing as he drove the car home. He said when he pulled into the garage, his wife came out and said, "Jesus Christ, what died? It was the pizza, right?"
In a separate interview, Cindy told detectives that she was concerned someone would take the car.
"We parked it in the garage, opened everything up, took the battery out of it just in case someone came home to try to get the car. We took the battery out of it. (You) never know," Cindy Anthony said.
It was later revealed that there was never any pizza in the trunk, only the empty box, Local 6 News reported.
George Anthony also admitted to detectives that Casey Anthony lived life on the edge, but said he was shocked to hear that his daughter was partying at Fusion, an Orlando nightclub, during the first month after Caylee's disappearance.
Also, in an interview with an Orange County sheriff's detective, George Anthony said his daughter had once told him that she was robbed at gunpoint while she was working at Sports Authority. George Anthony said he confronted the manager of the store about the incident only to be told that Casey Anthony never worked there.
Casey Connection To Apartment
An interview also released on Thursday shows that Casey Anthony had a connection to the Sawgrass Apartments, where she said she left Caylee with a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez before never seeing her daughter again.
Dante Salati, a friend who Casey Anthony had known since high school, lived at Sawgrass for three years. His apartment was located next to the building where Casey Anthony said she left Caylee.
Salati said Casey Anthony's last visit to his apartment was January 2007, and he had never seen Caylee at the complex.
A detective asked Salati, "Do you think if Casey would come in there to drop her child off at an apartment 500 feet away on a regular basis -- do you think you would have had some idea that was going on?"
"Yes," Salati replied.
Caylee Search Resumes
Meanwhile, the search for Caylee will resume as a Texas-based group seeks volunteers to begin its new effort.
Equusearch returned to Orlando Thursday and will likely begin searching for the missing 3-year-old near Orlando International Airport. A command post is expected to be set up in the area.
The Anthony family will cooperate with the group, although the relationship between the girl's grandparents and the search team has been strained in the past.
Tim Miller, who heads Equusearch, and bounty hunter Leonard Padilla will conduct what they hope is the largest search to date for Caylee.
Miller is hoping to get 3,000 volunteers -- especially those with horses, ATVs and boats -- to assist in the search.
Death Penalty Argument
Attorneys for Anthony on Wednesday urged state prosecutors not to seek the death penalty in the high-profile case, using baby photos of their client to help their cause, Local 6 News reported.
Local 6 News obtained the baby photos of Anthony that will be used by her attorneys in an effort to sway the state from pursuing the death penalty.
The photographs show Anthony as a baby, playing with her brother, Lee, and surrounded by family members.
An experienced defense attorney was recently retained on Anthony's behalf, and he's hoping the photos and his 30-page argument will convince prosecutors.
"In this case, no one knows how death might have happened, if at all," stated the document, which was also obtained by Local 6 News. "If death did occur, the death was almost certainly a tragic accident."
Anthony's defense team also raises the possibility that Caylee may have been poisoned by chloroform, saying, "Death may have occurred while the child was sedated or from an unwitting overdose of a sedative."
Anthony's attorneys are also trying to show prosecutors that their client is an unlikely candidate for the death penalty because of her age and lack of a criminal record. Attorneys said the evidence suggests Anthony was a good, loving mother but also a troubled woman who may be suffering from depression or other mental conditions, Local 6 News reported.
The defense admits that Anthony "spent money she does not have, wrote bad checks, had multiple unstable relationships and participated in risky behavior."
The request did not mention the baby sitter with whom Anthony said she left Caylee at an apartment complex before never seeing her again. But the argument is not a case strategy, Local 6 News reported, rather only an attempt to get the death penalty option off the table.
Cindy Anthony Statement
Anthony family spokesman Larry Garrison released a statement on Thursday from Cindy Anthony, a day after it was reported that her daughter's attorneys are seeking to avoid the death penalty in her Casey Anthony's case.
"I feel that a good attorney will plan for the worse case scenario and hope for the best.
"I know that Casey's attorneys know that she is innocent, but they cannot ignore how the media has already spun the facts and convicted her. Casey has been severely attacked by the media since she was first arrested, and anyone would be a fool to ignore that. All of the negative spin has done her an injustice.
"Just look at what it has done for poor Caylee. The media already has given up on looking for this child, when there is simply no credible or concrete evidence to prove that she is dead. The defense and the family will never give up on looking for Caylee.
"We continue to believe she is alive, and so should everyone else who has a conscience. I would ask anyone to ask themselves just how quick would they stop looking for someone that they loved," the statement said.
Delay In Other Case Sought
Anthony's attorneys have also asked a judge to delay her case on check-fraud charges.
Anthony was not present at the hearing on Wednesday. Anthony is charged with forging checks belonging to a friend.
Circuit Judge Stan Strickland has not yet ruled on the request.
Cell Phone Pings Track Casey
Local 6 News investigative reporter Tony Pipitone tracked the movements of Anthony by using cell phone records.
Pipitone said he tracked Anthony from Monday, June 16 -- the day Caylee was last seen alive -- until Monday, June 30 -- the day Anthony's abandoned car was towed from an Orange County Amscot.
The trunk of Anthony's car had a stench that investigators claim was from Caylee's body, Pipitone reported.
According to records, Anthony's cell phone "pinged" 20 different cell towers 754 times in the two-week period. Each time, her cell phone received or sent a text message or phone call, Pipitone reported.
Ninety-seven percent of the pings were to either her boyfriend's apartment near Winter Park, her friend's home in Orlando -- where she sometimes stayed -- her parents' home off Chickasaw Trail and the Fusion nightclub, where she was photographed partying while Caylee was missing, Pipitone said.
The other 3 percent of the pings -- especially during three days in June -- have raised questions, Pipitone said.
On Monday, June 16, Anthony's father, George Anthony, said he he saw his daughter and granddaughter leave his house at about 1 p.m.
"But if they did leave at that time, the cell records show they did not go far. Casey's cell phone communicated that afternoon through the same three cell towers she could reach from her home," Pipitone said.
At 1 p.m., Anthony made a 14-minute call to her boyfriend, Tony Lazzaro. At 1:44 p.m., she made a 36-minute call to her then-best friend, Amy Huizenga. At 2:52 p.m., there was an 11-minute call with ex-fiance Jesse Grund. All of the calls used cell towers that can be reached from her parents' home, Pipitone said.
But at 4:11 p.m., Anthony began trying to reach her mother, Cindy Anthony, making four attempts in two minutes, according to records. Anthony then traveled north from her parents' home and called Lazzaro for one minute at 4:19 p.m., Pipitone reported. Two minutes later, she talked to Grund for a minute, and tried to call her mother again at 4:25 p.m., Pipitone said.
There was no other communication from Anthony's cell phone until a call was made to Lazzaro's apartment at 5:57 p.m., records show.
Two hours later, Anthony and Lazzaro were captured on surveillance video at a Blockbuster, renting a movie that contains a scene of a rotting body in a car trunk, Pipitone said.
On June 17, Anthony returned to her parents' home around 2:30 p.m., Pipitone reported. At 4 p.m., her phone pinged a tower southwest of the house near Lee Vista Boulevard and South Goldenrod Road, an area where detectives have directed Equusearch volunteers to search for Caylee weeks ago.
At 5:20 p.m., a tower was pinged near Blanchard Park, another site searched in August by Equusearch. Anthony's cell phone went silent from 5:23 p.m. until 8:23 p.m., perhaps prompting investigators to search the area, Pipitone said.
"It was then that Casey's phone pinged a cell tower near boyfriend Tony Laazaro's apartment," Pipitone said. "By then, around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, Caylee had not been seen alive for nearly a day and a half. But remember, chemical evidence in the trunk of Casey's car indictaes the decomposing body was there up to 2½ days after death, so a key question for anyone looking for Caylee's body (is), 'Where did Casey go next?'"
On Wednesday, June 18, the day Casey's parents' neighbor said Anthony borrowed a shovel and backed her car into the garage, cell phone pings show that Anthony was at or near her parents' home from 2:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., Pipitone said.
Anthony's phone later pinged a different spot near the Econ Trail, south of Lake Underhill, records show. It's also a location that detectives guided Equusearch volunteers to look for signs of Caylee's body, Pipitone said.
Equusearch will return to that area Nov. 8 to continue the search, Pipitone reported.
Scientific evidence suggests that a body left its chemical signature in the trunk of Anthony's car after decomposing for less than 2½ days, which would be about the same time period between the aforementioned cell phone pings, Pipitone said.
"Circumstantial, but interesting," Pipitone said.
Key Date Investigated
Pipitone also sifted through thousands of documents, looking into whether Caylee died on June 16, the key date in the case.
Pipitone said to understand why investigators believe Caylee is dead starts early in the morning of June 16, when Anthony called Lazzaro from her parents' house.
The 80-minute phone call ended at 1:05 a.m., and Anthony then had a conversation via text messages with Lazzaro until Lazzaro called her at 3:08 a.m.
It is not known what was discussed, but less than 10 hours later, Caylee, who was 2 at that time, was seen for the last time by her grandfather, George Anthony, Pipitone reported.
"Ten minutes to 1 (o'clock) that afternoon on the 16th is when I actually saw Casey and Caylee together -- both leaving with backpacks -- and my daughter said she was going to work, and she was taking Caylee to the nanny, to the baby sitter," George Anthony said.
Just before 8 p.m., seven hours after Caylee was last seen alive, Casey Anthony and Lazzaro are seen on surveillance video visiting the Blockbuster store near his apartment on University Boulevard. Caylee is not in the video.
Lazzaro told Local 6 News that he had not seen Caylee at that point for two weeks.
The video is one reason investigators believe June 16 may have been the day Caylee died, Pipitone reported.
"What happened in the next hours is even more intriguing. Tony (Lazzaro) and Casey rented two movies for that night. One one of them (was) 'Untraceable,' which contains a graphic scene that is even more chilling when you consider where Caylee's body may have been," Pipitone said. "The movie shows an FBI agent being pursued by a sadistic cyber-stalker who pops the trunk of a car and is overcome by the smell of a fly-infested, rotting corpse left by the killer in the trunk of the car."
Investigators believe Caylee's body was left in the trunk of her mother's car, where it decomposed, emitting an odor that Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, identified, Pipitone reported.
"It smells like there's been a damn dead body in the car," Cindy Anthony said in a 911 call.
"Whether the movie scene is a clue to what Casey might have already done or was about to do -- or even where Caylee may have been on the same night they rented that movie -- only Casey can answer that, and she's not talking," Pipitone said.
Pipitone said he will continue to investigate the timeline into the case using cell phone records that show whom Casey Anthony was talking to or texting.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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