Caylee's Death: A Case Study

By using forensic entomology and knowledge about the lifespan of insects, forensic scientists were able to figure out just how long Caylee has been deceased after her disappearance. On June 16th, 2008, Caylee Anthony- daughter of Casey Anthony - was the final day she was seen alive(1). One month later on July 17th, 2008, Cindy Anthony- mother of Casey Anthony- calls 911 to report Caylee Anthony being missing for one month - 31 days. Cindy Anthony also states that Casey Anthony needed to be arrested for the theft of her car- on June 30th- and her money.

On July 15th, 2008 Caylee Anthony was reported missing by her grandmother after not seeing Caylee for 31 straight days. Casey Anthony had been telling her family that she was busy at work and that Caylee was at daycare or too busy for any time to be seen by her grandparents. This did not raise suspicion until Casey’s parents went to go pick up their daughters car at a tow yard. The car apparently smelled like a decomposing body was in it, or had been in it. Inside the trunk there was a plastic trash bag but there was not a body inside of it.

On October 3, 1984, Christine Jessop was reported missing by her parents. There were no signs of the nine year old girl despite the search by police and many community volunteers until over 3 months later, where she was discovered dead over 50 kilometres from her home on December 31, 1984. She was killed by multiple stab wounds, and police investigators believed she was also raped, supported by the physical evidence that is the discovered semen stains on her underwear. She was sexually assaulted before being stabbed to death.

her car used it to put a dead body in there. How else would there be evidence of a decomposing

They picked the locks on every trunk and found the bodies inside. Judd escaped them for a few days until she at last surrendered in a memorial service home on October 23.

The CCA police department began analyzing evidence that was collected in an abandoned building at the Lowry campus on 6th Ave and Alton way. The building was abandon and boarded up five years ago, but it showed signs of forced entry. During the Investigation of the scene, CCA police officers found a human skeleton. The skeletal remains were found dressed in what appeared to be a bloody t-shirt and jeans. No identification was found yet but one of the officers brought a theory to this case about a Caucasian woman name Sarah, who went missing five years ago last seen in Aurora and they assumed Sarah could be skeleton in the abandon building.

In the facts regarding the death of Caylee Anthony, it is mentioned that her remains were discovered in a swampy wooded area. The child’s remains were so fragmented and scattered that a cause of death could not be determined. The condition of Caylee’s remains and the location where they were found create a narrative of what happened to the victim once her life ended.

Charges for murder were dropped, but she was charged for providing false information to the police. Evidence collected during this investigation up until 2011 showed that Casey Anthony's car reportedly smelled like decomposing remains, she had traces of chloroform and gasoline in her trunk, and the body was found just a few miles away from the house, all evidence that pinpoints Casey Anthony as the murderer.

In the Casey Anthony case Jeff Ashton who is a former state attorney in Orange county Florida, and also the first prosecutor in the United States to get a conviction based on DNA decided to use a new Forensic method in the Anthony case. The smell of death would be the allowed as evidence for the first time ever. In the trunk of Anthony’s car was a stained area on the carpet and an odor. Ashton stated that the smell was that of human decomposition. That piece of carpet was removed, sealed and sent to Dr. Vass, a forensic anthropologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Voss has been studying human decomposition at the University of Tennessee’s “body farm”.

As the police and the investigators began their search, everything began to get intense. Detectives stated that they found strands of hair that matched Caylee’s hair in Casey’s Car. (Timeline of Casey Anthony Trial, ABC News Internet Ventures). When Casey was released from jail, she was sent right back it for first degree murder ; also she had been telling everyone false information. Everything she had stated was a lie. (Timeline of Casey Anthony Trial, ABC News Internet Ventures).

to this case is that the authorities found chloroform and hair that belonged to Caylee in Casey’s,

There are many things to do when you find a dead person's bones and have called the police. According to the text in “Dead men talking: Solving Crimes Through Science” by David Kohn you should “take a look at the crime scene and say, ‘What does this scene tell me?’” Which also means to look around and see if there is any evidence to what how the person's bones got there. It may sound dumb, but when they do this they get a lot of hints to what might have happened. So when I went to look around I saw that the dirt didn't have any grass growing on top of which meant that the bones were buried recently.

The evidence would indicate that someone had searched the word chloroform on that computer at least 84 times around the dates of the dates when Caylee Anthony was suspected to be missing. It was later that John Bradley would discover inaccuracy of the data caused by the software, which he would to authorities.

This conclusion lines up with what the textbook states about determining a time of death. The textbook lists many factors that can affect body decomposition including temperature, rainfall, and humidity (Lyman 284). Obviously it would be extremely difficult if not impossible for investigators to factor in all these variables given the fourth months between when the body was dumped until it was found. This makes it clear that investigators could not truly determine an exact time of death.

Forensic scientists can identify the body through dental records, DNA samples or if the fingers are intact, fingerprints.