When was caylee reported missing

It is the last time Caylee is reported to have been seen alive. June 30, Casey Anthony's car towed. The family car Casey Anthony had been using was found abandoned in front of an Orlando, Fla. When the towing company called Casey's parents, Cindy and George Anthony, they became concerned. Casey reportedly had told her mother that she was going on a "mini-vacation" to Jacksonville, Fla.

Cindy Anthony later discovered that her daughter had been staying with a boyfriend. July 15, Caylee Anthony reported missing. Cindy Anthony called and said, "I found out my granddaughter has been taken, she has been missing for a month.

In one of three calls placed to , Cindy Anthony said, "I found my daughter's car today and it smelled like there's been a dead body in the damn car. July 16, Casey Anthony arrested. Casey told police that she left Caylee at the apartment of a babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez, and that both were missing when she returned.

Police found, among other discrepancies with her story, that the apartment had been vacant for more than days. Casey was arrested and charged with child neglect.

July 22, New revelations at bond hearing. In a bond hearing for Casey Anthony, detectives revealed that they had found strands of hair that looked like Caylee's in the trunk of the Anthony family car, and that cadaver dogs had smelled human decomposition in the trunk. July 22, Casey Anthony called "person of interest. July 24, Grandmother reports sighting of missing Caylee. Cindy Anthony told reporters that Caylee was spotted in Georgia, but police could not verify that claim.

When Casey's mother called police to report Caylee missing, she noted that Casey's car smelled like "there had been a dead body" in it. Days later at Casey's bond hearing, a deputy testified that a cadaver dog trained to picked up the scent of human decomposition alerted him to the trunk of the car. October Raising additional questions for police was Casey's behavior during the time she said her daughter was missing.

Authorities described Casey as continuing to hang out with friends, partying -- and getting this tattoo, which means "Beautiful Life. She pleaded not guilty. December Many people, both locally and nationally, followed the case and searched for Caylee. On December 11, skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near the Anthony home by a utility worker. On December 19, authorities announced the remains had been identified as Caylee. Pictured here is a memorial for Caylee where the 2-year-old's remains were found.

May With prosecutors deciding to pursue the death penalty, jury selection began in the Casey Anthony trial on May 9, Spectators in the courthouse are pictured here as they wait for the trial's first day to begin on May 24, May Jose Baez, lead defense counsel for Casey Anthony, presented a different story during his opening remarks: he said Caylee Anthony was not murdered and was never missing.

Baez stated she died on June 16, , from an accidental drowning in the Anthony family's backyard pool. June During the trial, the prosecution alleged that Casey used chloroform on her daughter and suffocated her by putting duct tape over the little girl's mouth and nose.

They also alleged that Casey put her daughter's body in her car trunk before disposing of it. June Forensics expert Arpad Vass testified on June 6 that the only plausible explanation for the odor in Casey's car trunk would be the presence of a decomposing human body. Pictured here is an evidence photo of trash found in the trunk.

June During his testimony, Casey's father, George Anthony, denied the defense's claims that he sexually abused his daughter and that he was involved in his granddaughter's death. June Casey's mother, Cindy, also took the stand. Here, she's seen reacting to a photo of Caylee on a monitor during her testimony on June 14, , day 18 of the trial. June Judge Belvin Perry looks at evidence as it's presented during the trial.

June Jennifer Welch, a crime scene investigator with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, shows letters from Caylee's T-shirt that were entered into evidence. June Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton holds crime scene evidence during a cross-examination of entomologist Dr.

Tim Huntington. The country's interest in every update on the case was voracious; by the time it concluded, it had yielded record ratings for some networks. June 30, By the end of June , both the prosecution and the defense had rested their cases. Casey Anthony never testified. July 5, : The trial's jury deliberated for 10 hours and 40 minutes before reaching a verdict. Casey was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child.

She was found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement. July 5, Casey Anthony's defense team surrounded her in a group hug after the thenyear-old was acquitted. July The not-guilty charge divided many people who followed the case. July Others, such as Tim Allen, right, and David Antolic, held signs of a different tone in front of a jail in Orlando on July 16, , the day before Anthony was released.

July 17, Casey was sentenced to four years in jail with credit for time served. Aftermath: Seven years after being acquitted of the death of her daughter, Casey Anthony, pictured here with her attorney Cheney Mason in , resides in West Palm Beach, Florida. In , Anthony told the Associated Press she's still not "certain Ultimately, the jury acquitted the young mother of the most serious charges against her.

Now 32 years old, Anthony is living not-quite-out-of-sight in her home state of Florida; just last year, she gave a widely covered interview with the Associated Press. But the Casey Anthony case involved many other players. Ten years later, we spoke to some of those who were involved, to get their thoughts on how it played out and their perspective on why it struck such a chord with the public.

Here's what they had to say:. These statements have been edited for length and clarity. The Judge: 'What really happened? I thought the state had proved its case. I thought, while they may have had some flaws in their case, that there was a high probability that Casey would be found guilty of some form of homicide, and that did not occur. A number of jurors said the reason that they came back with "not guilty" was because the state could not prove how Caylee died.

The defense threw out a lot of theories. They threw out that she drowned. They tried to build on the inference that the gate was open, and that the ladder was down and that she was known to go out of the door and go up to the pool because she liked water.

I mean, there was no evidence that that happened. Those were inferences. But they were logical inferences that they were permitted based upon those slim factors to argue Justice is always served in a case where the facts are litigated before a jury, the jury looks at the law through their lens and they render a decision.

People may not agree with that decision, but when a case goes through the process that we have all agreed to live by, then justice is served. Here we are, 10 years away from her death, and people still think about it. And there's one question that is on everyone's mind: What really happened? Until that question is answered, there will always be someone searching and someone wondering what that answer is. The Medical Examiner: 'Science took a backseat on the truth'. You know how hot it's been.

That smell was terrible Cindy : It was our first visitation with Casey that actually gave us insight into what was going on with her. Casey : I wish I could've come to anyone sooner. I wish that, like I said, that none of this would have happened. In those jailhouse visitations with Casey, which were recorded on video cameras, the Anthonys probed for answers on where Caylee could be. Casey : I don't know, Mom. I haven't been able to talk to anybody.

I don't know. I'm hoping that if there's people involved there's as many people that are dumb enough to open their mouths and say something. Casey : All I want is to see her, to hear her laugh, to see her smile, and just be with her family.

From the information they were able to glean from their daughter, George and Cindy now believed that Caylee was being held by a group of tough characters associated with the baby-sitter -- characters who had been threatening Casey, and who were now preventing her from talking. At a bond hearing a week after her arrest, a tearful Casey watched as her parents told a judge they would do everything in their power to support their daughter, and find Caylee.

Cindy : There's only one or two reasons why Casey would be withholding something about Caylee. And I think it's something that someone is holding over her and threatening her in some way. But the Anthony's belief that Caylee was still alive, being held by someone, was about to get a boost from an unlikely source. George : Each moment that went by, it just - I found it harder and harder to believe that these guys were just going through motions.

And I just, I couldn't accept that from them. By August, the Anthonys - George and Cindy - were growing frustrated. The police, they believed, had given up on looking for their granddaughter, Caylee, and were intent on implicating their daughter, Casey, for murder.

But public sentiment was turning against them. Bianca Prieto : I mean, the protesters are egging them on. Bianca Prieto : People have gathered. All hours of the night. One month after Caylee had gone missing, the besieged Anthonys got a boost from an unlikely source: a black-hatted, black-dudded bounty hunter from out west, named Leonard Padilla. Padilla, a reality show veteran, made a public announcement about bailing casey out, and getting the real story out of her.

Leonard Padilla : I believe she's still alive. I believe she still can be found. Leonard Padilla : I think she is a self-centered egotistical little spoiled brat. It turns out, the bounty hunter got the same story from Casey that she'd given police, with some slight variations Leonard Padilla : She says, "Zenaida held me down.

Samanatha, her sister, grabbed the baby put her in the car with the kids. Zenaida handed me a list. It's got 30 days instructions on what to tell the people.

Dennis Murphy : Let's call it your baloney detector. Is it going off? Dennis Murphy : And you called her on it at that point? Leonard Padilla : Yeah. She says, "Get outta my house.

You're not gonna talk to me like a cop. Get outta here. Anchor : Busted again. Casey Anthony is back in jail tonight just a few hours ago, deputies descending on her parent's home and rearresting her, as the crowd as you can hear outside that home cheered. But Padilla didn't have to wait too long to get his bail money back.

A week after getting out of jail on her original child endangerment charges, Casey Anthony was arrested again -- this time for fraud -- those checks she had allegedly stolen from her friend's car. Within hours though, the check fraud charges would become old news, as the orange county sheriff's office revealed the preliminary findings of its forensic investigation into what happened to Caylee. Orange County Sheriff's Office, Captain Nieves : We had higher hopes of finding her alive, and that hope has somewhat diminished.

In their initial search, crime scene investigators from the sheriff's office had processed Casey's car, after a cadaver dog alerted them to a hit. Among the findings by the FBI lab -- signs of human decomposition on that strand of hair taken from Casey's car trunk -- hair that DNA analysis showed could have come from Caylee or Casey.

And that wasn't all. Air samples from the car had also been sent to the University of Tennessee's forensic anthropology center, also known as the body farm, where researchers gather data on how bodies decay. Ron Stucker : What it's telling us right now, based on the evidence that's been processed -- that, yes, there was a decomposing human body in that car. The sheriff's office had also sent samples from that car trunk to the Oak Ridge national laboratory in Tennessee, and got back perhaps the most devastating findings of all Elevated traces of chloroform found in the spare tire cover and trunk liner.

Dennis Murphy : Help us connect the dots. When I think of chloroform, I just think of old movies where someone puts it in a rag, and puts it on the person's face to knock 'em out. Is there any other explanation, in our daily lives, of chloroform occurring, being found?

Ron Stucker : When we first got that, one of our investigators began to call chemical companies in the Orlando area and say, "Hey, can I get some chloroform? They were like, "Nobody even asked for this. The presence of chloroform was also important because of something else detectives had discovered in the case. They seized Casey's home computer, and discovered some disturbing searches.

Someone had used the computer before Caylee disappeared to browse missing children's websites. Back in march, there were Google searches for "neck breaking" and "household weapons. Ron Stucker : It was on the computer is where we found that there were searchers for the word chloroform, and trying to find information about chloroform. And there was more on that computer that would cause friends, who had uniformly agreed that the devoted young mother would never speak ill of Caylee -- to pause.

Investigators uncovered instant messages Casey had exchanged with a boyfriend, shortly before Caylee vanished. In the messages, Casey -- who worked sometimes at a club, wrote "spending the day with Caylee is 10 times more exhausting than working a hour event.

Bianca Prieto : She calls Caylee snot head. Ya know, not a very loving term for a child. And still more. On July 7th, Casey made this chilling entry on her MySpace page. It read, "What is given, can be taken away. Everyone lies.

Everyone dies. Life will never be easy. Bianca Prieto : We don't know who this girl is. One thing that was very interesting, when we were trying to piece together a profile about her, is no one would talk. Bianca Prieto : Yeah. No one. Friends wouldn't talk.

The only people that were speaking on her behalf were George, Cindy, and Lee. Her family was still standing by her, even after the flood of forensic evidence. On September 4, an anonymous donor once again posted bond on Casey Anthony. Hounded by protesters and media alike, she returned home to her parents. But it was only a short matter of time before she would be back in jail again, this time on charges of murder.

On Oct. Among the witnesses called, her father, George. George : It's very emotional. I mean, no one wants to be called-- to talk about their family, in-- in such a way. But, I mean, it's-- I had to go do it.

I just had to go do it. For three months, the Anthonys had been bombarded with evidence that their missing granddaughter, Caylee, was dead, and that their daughter, Casey, was responsible.

But they refused to believe any of it. George : I just believe they're wrong, you know. And we've said in different conversations we've had with the Sheriff's department, "Prove it to me.

Prove to me what you got. Because my granddaughter is alive out there. And we're gonna find her. No matter how long it takes, I'm gonna find this little girl. The grand jury indicted Casey for first degree murder - which in Florida, can mean either pre-meditated murder, or murder committed in the course of other, underlying crimes.

That same day, before she was arrested, Casey appeared at a press conference next to her attorney -- her heretofore chilly public persona suddenly showing cracks. Jose : Casey is going through a nightmare and has been living a nightmare for the last several months. She has a missing child. She's also someone's child. This family has-- has-- has had to withstand something unlike anyone has ever seen. Casey pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her. A month after the indictment, more than a thousand volunteers from all across the country -- gathered in Orlando to search for the body of Caylee Anthony.

They concentrated on a mile radius -- where, according to signals off her cell phone, Casey had been in the days after caylee disappeared. Melanie : I think people need closure. And I hope we find her today, but I don't think the results are what everyone want it to be. Her family told us, up until this week, that they refused to give up hope that Caylee was still alive, kidnapped, they thought, by a woman named Zenaida.

Cindy : We believe that you know, Casey's been threatened. Our investigators are finding that everything that Casey has said has been true. They are putting, you know, everything together. Cindy : I don't know. Why does anybody lie when they lie? I don't really know. I know why she lied to me for the month of June is because she didn't, she was worried about our safety.

And she was worried about Caylee's safety. The grandparents say that for months, hundreds of leads on Caylee's whereabouts have been ignored by the sheriff's office -- leads like this one -- a possible sighting from Nov.

Cindy : There so many characteristics you know, that are Caylee. Are we percent sure it's Caylee? But what what person would not want to follow that tip to the very end? And they point out what they see as a major flaw in the prosecution's case -- that for Casey, a loving and devoted mother, to have killed her own daughter, just doesn't make sense.

Bianca Prieto : Everything we've been told is that Casey was a very loving mother. And it would be really hard to believe that she would do anything malicious to intentionally kill her child. Dennis Murphy : You love your daughter. Is it possible there was an accident? Something happened and Casey covered it up badly? Cindy : No -- Casey was always one, I mean, if Caylee fell and skinned her knee, you know, she was right there. If something happened, she'd been screaming bloody murder.

She'd a call , you know, if something would happened to Caylee. And if as that instant message chat suggested, Casey had felt burdened by Caylee, she could have easily given the child up to the grandparents -- she said as much in her interview with the police back in July. Casey : If I wanted to really just get rid of her, I would've left her with my parents and I would've left. I would've moved out.

I would've given my mom custody. Even the ex-fiance says the Casey he sees today just doesn't jibe with the Casey he once knew