By MARK WANGRIN
ORLANDO, Fla.
Skeletal remains found in the woods are the Florida 3-year-old who has been missing since June, but they don’t reveal any clues about how she was killed, a county medical examiner said Friday.
A utility worker stumbled upon the remains last week, less than a half-mile from where the girl lived. DNA tests confirm that the remains match Caylee Anthony’s genetic profile, said the medical examiner, Dr. Jan Garavaglia.
Caylee’s mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even though no body was found. She has insisted that she left the girl with a baby sitter in June, but she didn’t report her missing until July.
It took authorities several days to analyze the remains, and some tests are still being completed. Some of the bones were as small as a pebble and had been scattered, and the fragments were hard to find by excavators who searched on their hands and knees, authorities said. The bone fragments did not reveal any trauma before death, Garavaglia said, but exactly what happened to the girl remains a mystery.
“Bottom line is, folks, no child should have to go through this,” said Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary.
A search team said they did not check the wooded area sooner because it was submerged in water. Beary said his department was investigating reports that the utility worker who called in the tip leading to the discovery of the remains had tried several times in August to call in his suspicion about a bag in the area.
“If we missed a window of opportunity we don’t know,” he said. “I’m not throwing anybody under the bus because we don’t know. That’s why we conduct an administrative review.”
Casey Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez, was with her at the Orange County Jail shortly after she found out the news from a jail chaplain, said Todd Black, a spokesman for the attorney. She was notified about 15 minutes before the news conference about the positive identification. Black said he wouldn’t comment on her reaction.
A message left for the attorney representing George and Cindy Anthony, Casey’s parents, was not immediately returned.
The Orange County utility worker, Roy Kronk, identified himself at a brief afternoon news conference. He said that he had contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s office in August to report that he had seen “something suspicious, a bag, in the same area.”
Reading from a statement, he said he was cooperating with the sheriff’s office and FBI and would not discuss details with the media.
David Evans, his lawyer, said Kronk is not involved in the girl’s disappearance.
“His participation in this matter is strictly as a concerned citizen with a sharp eye, good instincts,” Evans said. “Those who have speculated to the contrary could not be more wrong.”
Evans asked that the media give his client and other utility workers their privacy.
The case captivated the community where the little girl’s family lived, and Caylee has been a staple on national news as her grandparents pleaded for tips, promising that the girl was still alive.
Caylee’s grandmother first called authorities in July to say she hadn’t seen the girl for a month and her daughter’s car smelled like death.
Police immediately interviewed Anthony and soon said everything she told them about her daughter’s whereabouts was false. The baby sitter was nonexistent and the apartment where Anthony said she had last seen Caylee had been empty for months. Anthony also lied about where she worked, they said.
Other troubling details emerged: Photos surfaced of Anthony partying after her daughter went missing. Friends said she was a habitual liar, but also a good mother.
Last month, the Orange County State Attorney turned over almost 800 pages of documents showing someone used the Anthonys’ home computer to do Internet searches for terms like “neck breaking” and “household weapons.”
In mid-March, someone searched Google and Wikipedia for peroxide, shovels, acetone, alcohol and chloroform. Traces of chloroform, which is used to induce unconsciousness and a component of human decomposition, were found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car during forensic testing, the documents say.
