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Nancy Grace
Caylee Anthony First 24 Hours
Aired January 01, 2009 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Anthony is a 22-year-old mother. That`s a fact. This is her beautiful 2-year-old, Caylee. That`s also true. But the rest of the story is blurry at best, false at worst.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anthony claims she dropped her daughter off at this apartment on June 9, and when she came back, the baby-sitter was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything she has told them so far has led nowhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Anthonys admit Casey has lied to them again and again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caylee`s mother, Casey, abandoned her white 1998 Pontiac in the parking lot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... tell what she knows about Caylee`s whereabouts and the little girl`s wellbeing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A sheriff`s deputy has testified Casey Anthony`s car did smell of decomposition and one of their dogs smelled human remains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her own mother, locked up in jail, continues to keep her secret locked up, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: A beautiful little 2-year-old Florida girl, Caylee Anthony, vanishes into thin air, last seen by her mother. In a stunning twist, baby Caylee gone for an entire month before she`s even reported missing. And it isn`t her mom who finally calls 911, it`s little Caylee`s grandmother.
So why didn`t Mommy call police? The grandma`s 911 call ignites a desperate search, a police investigation, and lie after lie by the tot mom, but still no sign of Caylee.
Tonight, the crucial first 24 hours in the search for Caylee and the police investigation that follows.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE (voice over): Amazingly, it all starts here at this local check cashing shop, Amscot, Casey Anthony`s white `98 white Pontiac Sunfire left abandoned in the parking lot for days. Mom Casey calls her live-in, Tony Lazzaro, saying she`s run out of gas.
He shows up, and Casey Anthony leaves the Pontiac behind, saying her dad will take care of it.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ANTHONY LAZZARO, CASEY ANTHONY`S EX-BOYFRIEND: I got a call to come pick her up, that she ran out of gas. I asked her where she was, and she said that she ran out of gas at that corner and that somebody helped her push her car into the Amscot. So then I went and picked her up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No child that night before?
LAZZARO: No child with her at all. She had some groceries and some clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where were the groceries from?
LAZZARO: They weren`t actually groceries from the store, it was from her house. She had some freezer pops and, like, some Tyson chicken or something to make for dinner that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From grandma`s house?
LAZZARO: Yes, because it wasn`t in any bags. It just looked like normal plastic bags.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: June 15, Casey Anthony`s parents, George and Cindy Anthony, get a letter from Johnson`s Wrecker Service. It reveals the tot mom`s car has been towed to the wrecking yard and has been sitting there for nearly two weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S MOTHER: We received a registered letter. It was stuck on our door. I did not find that registered letter until the Sunday before Tuesday, which was what, the 13th, I guess. And when we opened it up -- I mean, it just said that there was a registered letter waiting for us at the post office because, obviously, you can`t go find out on that Sunday.
So the letter was stated, that was put on my door on the 11th, but I didn`t find that letter until the 13th. On the 14th, my husband had a chance to go get the registered letter. So that`s why I was talking technical because you`ve been so technical, and I`m trying to be as cooperative as I can. So on the 15th is when we got the registered letter, my husband did, and when he found out it was from a towing company is when we found out about the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: George and Cindy Anthony head to Johnson`s wrecking yard, and it`s there the heart-wrenching story of Caylee Anthony begins to unravel.
After settling the $500 towing bill, the manager leads George to his daughter`s car. When they open the driver`s side door, the car reeks a the smell the manager tells police knocks him back. It`s the smell of human decomposition.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S FATHER: The wrecker -- I don`t know what the gentleman`s name, I still don`t know. I`m sure you guys know by now. But he opened up the door, and he says, Whoa, does that stink. And I said -- I sat in the car for a second, opened up the passenger door because I was trying to vent that thing.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: At this point, grandmother Cindy hasn`t seen her granddaughter for three weeks. She finds a scrap of paper inside Casey Anthony`s car. On it, the phone number for Anthony`s friend, Amy Huizenga. Also left behind, Caylee`s favorite baby doll. She refused to go anywhere without the doll, day or night.
Determined to find her daughter and her granddaughter, Cindy Anthony calls the friend, Amy.
In the meantime, Casey Anthony is driving Amy Huizenga`s car while she`s on vacation. Well, unfortunately, Huizenga left something behind, her checkbook. Anthony caught on grainy surveillance video at a local bank and Target, allegedly forging friend Amy`s check, racking up hundreds of dollars worth of lingerie, sportswear, groceries, even cases of beer. No toys, no diapers, no baby clothes, nothing, not a single thing for little Caylee.
Casey Anthony`s check scheme later lands her multiple fraud and theft charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPTAIN ANGELO NIEVES, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPT.: Orange County`s sheriff`s office detectives returned to the Anthony residence and placed the defendant under arrest for violation of Florida statutes dealing with economic crimes. The defendant was placed into custody without incident and transported here to the Orange County main office for processing of her paperwork.
The defendant is under arrest currently for violation of Florida statutes dealing with uttering a forged instrument, fraudulent use of personal information and petty theft.
She had used some moneys and checks in an account that did not belong to her. It belonged to someone else. That was known to her, and that was a violation of Florida state statute.
You have the investigative process. You have to make sure that you have your information that`s collected. We have to have information back from the banking institution. So there`s a number of dots that we need to point and make sure that our homework is properly done, and we`ll continue to do so. Remember that there is -- in any investigation of this magnitude, you have allegations and additional charges that may surface, and we`ll continue to investigate those, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Between 2:00 and 4:00 P.M., Casey Anthony stops at the Cast- Iron Tattoo shop and makes an appointment. She then heads to the Orlando International Airport to pick up friend Amy Huizenga, Amy Huizenga back from Puerto Rico, a trip Casey wanted to make herself but claims Caylee was the reason she couldn`t go.
After picking up her so-called friend, Huizenga drops Casey off at her current live-in`s apartment, Tony Lazzaro. Amy drives off with no idea she`s about to become involved in a major dispute between Cindy and Casey Anthony.
According to police, Huizenga receives a disturbing call from Cindy Anthony desperately wanting to talk to Amy. Cindy Anthony tells Amy if she doesn`t find Casey, Casey Anthony will end up behind bars.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
AMY HUIZENGA, CASEY ANTHONY`S FORMER FRIEND: The grandma called me and pretty much wondering where her daughter and granddaughter were, briefly explained some of the situation, offered to come pick me up from the mall. After some deliberation, I decided to pick her up on that offer. She sounded very concerned, told me that if she did not find Casey, she would end up in jail. And I...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma said that?
HUIZENGA: Yes. I decided to trust her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ask her why she would make a statement like that?
HUIZENGA: Well, she has told me that the car had been in impound since the 30th. They had just gotten it off. She hadn`t seen Caylee. She was pretty panicky.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Cindy tells Huizenga about the letter from the tow company and the stench in the trunk of Casey`s car. Amy confides the tot mom told her she`d run over something, an animal, with the car.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma ever ask you about a smell coming from the car?
HUIZENGA: She told me about the smell in the car ride back to Tony`s place, after she had picked me from the Florida mall. That was -- she was telling me the story about, you know, the fact that she`d gotten a letter from the impound saying that the car had been impounded since the 30th, they went to go pick it up, and that the car smelled like something had died and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma tells you that?
HUIZENGA: Grandma tells me that. And at that point I`m, like, Oh, yes, Casey told me she`d run something over with her car -- and then proceeds -- she proceeds to tell me -- She`s, like, Oh, well, you know, we didn`t know that, but proceeds to tell me the rest of the story, that the impound law, because they couldn`t -- didn`t have the keys...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, but didn`t you say that Casey blamed her dad for running something over?
HUIZENGA: Is what she told me, but we now know that...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s what she told you.
HUIZENGA: ... nothing Casey says is true.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: But Cindy Anthony goes on to blame the smell on pizza boxes, pizza boxes rotting, left sitting in the car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY ANTHONY: There was a bag of pizza for what, 12 days, in the back of the car, full of maggots, that stunk so bad. You know how hot it`s been. That smell was terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Next, the so-called baby-sitter Casey Anthony claims is a kidnapper.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Cindy Anthony reveals multiple lies Casey Anthony has told. Grandfather George never had a mini-stroke.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY: There is no ridiculous question...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have a stroke on the 13th that you were treated at the hospital for?
GEORGE ANTHONY: No. I`m curious where you got that from.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll shed light on it for you. You don`t look as if you had a stroke last month.
GEORGE ANTHONY: Let`s put it this way. A few years ago, I thought I almost did because I did because I did get (INAUDIBLE) but that was what, four, three years ago, just before I had my knee replacement or something like that, but...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your daughter, it seems, has a pattern that if she`s made a date with a friend or scheduled to do something, if she needs to come up with a reason not to do it, instead of just saying, I don`t feel like going, she comes up with some of the -- you had a stroke on the 13th and she was unable to go to Jacksonville with someone because she was busy at the hospital with you. So it`s always on the extreme.
GEORGE ANTHONY: That`s extreme, all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GEORGE ANTHONY: Because if I had a stroke, I wouldn`t be sitting here, talking to you guys. I mean, let`s put it this way. If I was, it`d be sort of like a miracle, so...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still have to ask.
GEORGE ANTHONY: Oh, I know. This is getting so bizarre. This is just unbelievable.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: George and Cindy were no longer getting a divorce, and Casey Anthony stole money from her parents and grandparents.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
LEE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S BROTHER: Stolen money from Mom, I`ve been a bad daughter. You know, I`ve been -- she said, I`ve stolen money from you. You know, I`ve been untrustworthy, you know? And she goes, And maybe I have been a -- you know, a bad mother, a daughter and sister.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Cindy Anthony even questions whether Casey has a job, asking Amy, Where does Casey work? Well, Amy says, Universal Studios. Cindy also claims Casey is an unfit mother and vows she plans to seek legal custody of little Caylee.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HUIZENGA: She said that she was worried she hadn`t seen Caylee, she hadn`t talked to Caylee in over a month. Casey kept saying, She`s fine. She`s with the nanny. And she pretty much, you know, said that she thought Casey was an unfit mother and that if this goes on much longer that she would sue for custody of Caylee, if it got to that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did she think she was an unfit mom?
HUIZENGA: The going out, the partying. She -- I don`t know if you guys have seen the picture of Casey and the American flag. That`s from the "No clothes party" that we went to in May. She pretty much shoved that picture that she had printed it off from her computer in her face, and said, You`re at work, huh? So it was an issue that she had been watching Caylee, and Casey had said she was at work. And it was the going out, the partying...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the no clothes party?
HUIZENGA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So she was with the mom at the no clothes party?
HUIZENGA: Yes.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Then we learned both Cindy and George Anthony scared to open Casey`s car trunk. That was when they picked it up from the tow yard. They were both terrified Caylee was dead inside.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I first saw you that night, when I first came to your house, there was a mention of the car. And there was a mention of what you smelled in the car. Do you remember what you told me?
GEORGE ANTHONY: I believe that there`s something dead back there. I hate to say the word human. I hate to say that. When I first went there to pick up that vehicle, I got within three feet of it, I could smell something.
You look up and you say, Please don`t let this be. Please don`t let this be. Because I`m thinking of my daughter and my granddaughter first. I glance in the car on the passenger side, I see her seat`s there. I see some other stuff around in it. As I walk around to the driver side and I put the key in it, I said, Please don`t let this be what I think it is.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: 7:30 P.M. that night, Amy leads Cindy straight to Casey Anthony at boyfriend Tony Lazzaro`s apartment.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
LAZZARO: What happened was, I was just sitting there with my roommate, Nathan. We were playing video games, and she -- and Casey was sitting there at the couch also, on the laptop. And then all of a sudden there was a knock on the door. And I said, Come in, and there was Amy, just standing there with a miserable face.
And we were all -- we all looked confused. And then Casey then proceeded to go outside, and was -- me and my roommate went back to playing video games. Then I would say about a half hour later, Casey and her mother, Cynthia Anthony, came to the -- Casey stormed in and looked like she was in tears, and her mom said, Get your things. You`re coming with me.
And Casey said, No, I`m coming back. She said, OK, but I`m coming back. And she goes, No, get all your things.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: A mother-daughter confrontation ensues outside the apartment, with Cindy demanding Casey lead her to Caylee. Casey repeatedly insists Caylee`s fine and with a nanny.
Getting nowhere, Cindy Anthony forces Casey into the car. The blow-up continues in the car, with grandmother Cindy confronting the tot mom about all the lies and the horrible smell in the car. Casey simply sits there, refusing to talk.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HUIZENGA: Mrs. Anthony confronted Casey about a lot of those lies in the car, and she pretty much sat there, didn`t say a word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were in the car?
HUIZENGA: Yes. Well, because they took me back to where I live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did grandmother bark at Casey about the smell in the trunk of the car?
HUIZENGA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She did.
HUIZENGA: I don`t remember...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did she...
HUIZENGA: ... just saying that the car smells like (DELETED). And you know, (DELETED) terrified...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) or death, or did she go down the death road with her, like...
HUIZENGA: I don`t -- I don`t remember. It was very, very uncomfortable for me to be in the middle of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I can only imagine.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Finally, Cindy Anthony threatens to call police, and that is when, according to Cindy, Casey confesses Caylee has been missing a month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You called the police that night...
CINDY ANTHONY: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... for a reason.
CINDY ANTHONY: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What reason?
CINDY ANTHONY: Because after speaking with Casey, she -- I did not get to see Caylee, right? I was not satisfied with her answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Casey Anthony quickly blames the so-called nanny, saying she kidnapped the tot. Grandmother Cindy makes two frantic 911 calls to police.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: 911, what`s your emergency?
CINDY ANTHONY: I called a little bit ago, the deputy sheriff. I found out my granddaughter has been taken. She has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted that she`s been missing.
911 OPERATOR: OK, what is...
CINDY ANTHONY: Get someone here now!
911 OPERATOR: OK. What is the address that you`re calling from?
CINDY ANTHONY: We`re talking about a 3-year-old little girl! My daughter finally admitted that the baby-sitter stole her. I need to find her.
911 OPERATOR: Your daughter admitted that the baby is where?
CINDY ANTHONY: That the baby-sitter took her a month ago, that my daughter`s been looking for her. I told you my daughter was missing for a month. I just found her today, but I can`t find my granddaughter. She just admitted to me that she`s been trying to find her herself. There`s something wrong. I found my daughter`s car today, and it smells like there`s been a dead body in the damn car.
911 OPERATOR: OK, what is the 3-year-old`s name?
CINDY ANTHONY: Caylee. C-A-Y-L-E-E Anthony.
911 OPERATOR: Caylee Anthony?
CINDY ANTHONY: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: How long has she been missing for?
CINDY ANTHONY: I have not seen her since the 7th of June.
911 OPERATOR: What is her date of birth?
CINDY ANTHONY: 8-9-20 -- Oh, gosh, she`s 3 -- 2005. Caylee`s missing! Caylee`s missing! Casey says Zanny took her a month ago. She`s been missing for a month!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: That same night, 11:00 P.M., grandmother Cindy calls Amy Huizenga in tears to give her the heartbreaking news.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HUIZENGA: Cindy dropped me off, and then I did not hear from either of them until 11:00 o`clock, when Cindy Anthony called me and told me that -- she had told me when she dropped me off, she`s, like, I`ll let you know what happens, and you know, if Caylee is OK, and all that stuff, and called me crying at about 11:00 o`clock that night, saying that, you know, Casey was gone -- or Caylee was gone and that Casey said the nanny had ran off with her, like, a month ago.
And you know, that`s the first I heard of that story. But she called from me from her cell phone at 11:00 o`clock on the 15th.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Meantime, Casey Anthony reaches out to numerous friends to report Caylee`s been missing over a month.
Next, more on the critical first 24 hours of the Caylee Anthony investigation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Cindy Anthony`s 911 calls are the beginning of a bizarre case. After the frantic calls, multiple police interrogations, written statements by family and friends, investigators head out to the Anthony home.
Detectives meet with mom Casey in private, confronting her about her version of events, even offering her a chance to change her story and tell the truth. But tough as nails, Casey Anthony refuses, reiterating the same story to cops -- her little girl was kidnapped by a baby-sitter Zenaida Gonzalez.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I asked you this at the onset and I asked you before we moved on to tape, and I`ll ask you again just to make sure we`re clear. Is there anything about this story that you`re telling me that is untrue, or is there anything that you want to change or divert from what you`ve already told me?
CASEY ANTHONY, CAYLEE`S MOTHER: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you cause any injury to your child, Caylee?
CASEY ANTHONY: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hurt Caylee or leave her somewhere, and you`re worried that if we find that out that people are going to look at you the wrong way?
CASEY ANTHONY: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you`re telling me that Zenaida took your child without your permission and hasn`t returned?
CASEY ANTHONY: She`s the last person that I`ve seen with my daughter, yes.
The horrible thing that happened is, this is the honest to God`s truth of everything that I`ve said, I do not know where she is. The last person that I saw her with is Zenaida. She`s the last person that I`ve seen my daughter with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know that that`s not true. That can`t be the truth because if that were the truth, everything you would have told us would have been on the money. The addresses you would have taken us would have been on the money. Everything else would have matched.
If you had told us the truth, we wouldn`t be here at Universal Studios, at a place that you`ve been fired since 2006, with you trying to explain to us, you know, you got an office and all that stuff.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: According to Casey Anthony, between 9:00 P.M. and 1:00 A.M. June 9, she drops Caylee off with nanny Zenaida on the stairwell at Sawgrass Apartments, then heads to Universal Studios for work.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to go through this, and I want you to stop me at the part that isn`t the truth, OK? You take your daughter and you drop her off on June the 9th, OK, at somebody -- at a baby-sitter`s house, OK? Now, this is a baby-sitter that lives at this apartment, OK, that`s been vacant.
CASEY ANTHONY: I dropped her off at that apartment...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
CASEY ANTHONY: ... at the stairs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh you just walked her -- you dropped her off and you...
CASEY ANTHONY: I walked her to the stairs. That`s where I`ve dropped her off a bunch of other times besides just that day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And when you dropped her off, who took her at that point?
CASEY ANTHONY: Zanny did. She took her at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you left her in Zanny`s care on June the 9th, OK? So far, that`s right, OK?
CASEY ANTHONY: Yes.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: When we come back, mom Casey Anthony refuses to cooperate in the search for her little girl.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CPL. YURY MELICH, ORANGE COUNTY INVESTIGATOR: Go back to your statement, you dropped off your -- you dropped off Caylee on June 9th and - - walk me through -- you dropped her off to go to work?
ANTHONY: Uh-huh.
MELICH: OK. Get off of work and go from there.
ANTHONY: I got off of work, left Universal driving back to pick up Caylee like a normal day. And I show up to the apartment, knock on the door, nobody answers. So I called Zenaida`s cell phone and it`s out of service, says that the -- the phone is no longer in service, excuse me.
So I sit down on the steps and wait for a little bit to see if maybe it was just a fluke, if something happened. And time passed. I didn`t hear from anyone. No one showed up to the house so I went over to Jay Blanchard Park and checked a couple other places where maybe possibly they would`ve gone a couple stores -- just regular places that I know Zenaida shops at and she`s taken Caylee before.
GRACE: Tot mom says she goes several places Zenaida frequents, a local park, stores. She even parties at nightclubs to find Zenaida and Caylee. Instead of calling police, though, she says she starts her own investigation.
We later learn that investigation includes multiple trips to nightclub Fusian, but photos show it doesn`t appear the tot mom`s looking for Caylee. Stunning and disturbing photos emerged of mom Casey partying, hanging out with friends, dancing the night away, even reportedly, the life of the party at the club`s hot body contest.
All just days, days after she says little Caylee`s kidnapped.
The name Zenaida Gonzalez quickly becomes the focus of the police investigation after tot mom says the babysitter`s a kidnapper. Police ask Casey to take them to known Zenaida locations, but this quickly degenerates into a big waste of time.
SGT. JOHN ALLEN, ORANGE COUNTY INVESTIGATOR: That makes sense to you? It makes sense to you that I`m trying to help the police find my daughter by giving them a bunch of bad addresses that makes sense to you?
ANTHONY: That`s what I said. Yes.
ALLEN: No, no. I`m asking you, that makes sense to you? My attempt.
ANTHONY: That part of it? No. Not at all.
ALLEN: My attempt to help him find my child, OK? What I`ve done to try to help him find my child is I`ve given him a whole bunch of addresses to go to that are bad addresses. That`s what I did to help him try to find my child. That makes sense to you?
ANTHONY: I took him to the last place that I`ve seen my daughter. Besides that I took them to other places that I`ve seen.
ALLEN: OK, when you -- when you brought us here, when you brought us here to go look in your office, that was supposed to help us how? Because everything we`re doing here is about finding your daughter, OK? So I want you, OK, to explain to me how coming here to go to an office that you don`t have, I want you to tell me how that`s helping us find your daughter.
GRACE: Casey Anthony agrees to show cops three of Zenaida`s last known locations, in hopes of making an I.D.
Their first stop, 301 North Hillside Drive where the tot mom points out a second floor window on the building`s northwest corner, claiming Zenaida lived in that apartment in 2006. But the building turns out to be a seniors` only living facility. No Zenaida.
Then they head to 2863 Conway Road, Sawgrass Apartments. The location Anthony claims to have last seen Caylee. Again, no Zenaida.
Their final stop, a town home community Crossings at Conway. Anthony tells cops Zenaida`s mom owns a condo here and that she dropped Caylee there many times in 2006 and early 2007, but then, once again, mom Casey runs into big trouble. She can`t point cops to the specific town home claiming she can`t remember the address.
Police approached three different town homes, but all three tenants say they don`t know Zenaida or Zenaida`s mom Gloria. Again, no Zenaida.
MELICH: So you`ve stayed at your ex-boyfriend`s house the 9th of this month when you`re staying at your other boyfriend`s house, Tony, the rest of the month?
ANTHONY: He`d been out of town. So I was staying over at another friend`s place while he was gone. I wasn`t staying at his apartment. I was staying with Amy and Ricardo and JP. JP and Ricardo own the house.
MELICH: So why didn`t, why didn`t you tell us you were staying there? We drove right by the house this morning, didn`t we, when we went to -- OK? And you`re pointing us at this old folk`s home which is another lie, right? Because Zanny never lived there. Am I correct?
OK. Why were you pointing at this old folk`s home and saying Zanny lived there at one pin the when she didn`t.
ANTHONY: Because she had gone there. I.
MELICH: She went to the old folk`s home?
ANTHONY: Yes.
MELICH: But you never dropped your kid off to her at an old folk`s home. You never went into the old folk`s home, you went to an apartment with her.
ANTHONY: No.
GRACE: Getting nowhere fast police drop Anthony back at her parent`s home. George Anthony comes out and admits to cops he believes his own daughter, Casey, is holding back information.
George and Cindy Anthony say they`re in fear. They`re in fear something has happened to Caylee.
Not giving up, police return to Sawgrass to question the apartment`s manager and the maintenance man. Neither knows of a Zenaida Gonzalez and when cops show them a picture of Caylee, neither recognizes her, then, bombshell.
The manager and maintenance man reveal the apartment where Anthony claims Zenaida lives, number 210, it`s been vacant for months. Police even go inside to see with their own eyes. It`s empty.
Then a twist, the manager finds a Zenaida Gonzalez logged in the computer system. A Zenaida Gonzalez who did look at an apartment June 17th. The manager hands over Zenaida`s guest card to cops.
Detectives began checking name after name after name in the database. Jeffrey Hopkins, a coworker Anthony claims she told Caylee was missing. Juliette Lewis, another coworker Casey says she told Caylee was missing and, of course, the name Zenaida Gonzalez.
MELICH: Who else did you talk about this besides Jeffrey? You said you tried to call Zenaida`s mom. You talked to Jeffrey. Who else did you talk to?
ANTHONY: I talked to Juliette Lewis. She was one of my coworkers at Universal.
MELICH: She works -- you still work at Universal?
ANTHONY: Yes.
MELICH: What do you do at Universal?
ANTHONY: An event coordinator.
MELICH: OK. What is Juliette -- what position is she?
ANTHONY: She`s also an event coordinator. We work in the same department.
MELICH: Do you have a number for Juliette?
ANTHONY: Off hand, I can`t think of one.
MELICH: Is she in your SIM card?
ANTHONY: No, she`s not. Some of them are recent numbers. Her number just changed because she just moved back up north. She -- within the last two months has finished moving up to New York. She`s sub-leasing her apartment.
MELICH: So Juliette doesn`t work at Universal anymore.
ANTHONY: No, she does not.
GRACE: Not only did Casey Anthony say Zenaida was a babysitter, but also a seasonal employee at Universal.
MELICH: Where did Zenaida -- does Zenaida have another job besides watching children?
ANTHONY: She has a seasonal I.D. for Universal, however, the only job that I know that she`s had for the last few years, she`s been a nanny.
MELICH: So seasonal employee at Universal?
ANTHONY: Uh-huh.
MELICH: When was the last time she worked at Universal, do you know?
ANTHONY: I have no idea.
GRACE: But further investigation reveals Casey Anthony was fired from Universal April 2006.
Jeff Hopkins left April 2002 and Juliette Lewis, she never even worked there and neither did Zenaida Gonzalez.
MELICH: What about Jeff? You said Jeff worked here about -- until about two months ago?
ANTHONY: No, he hasn`t worked here for quite a while.
MELICH: Ten months? How long?
ANTHONY: It`s been at least 10 months.
MELICH: OK. He got fired in 2002. He hasn`t been an employee since 2002. What about the girl?
ANTHONY: Juliette?
MELICH: Yes. What about her?
ANTHONY: She left two months ago. That`s exactly what she had told me.
MELICH: Juliette never worked at Universal Studios.
GRACE: Next. More on the first 24 hours in the desperate search for Florida girl, 2-year-old, Caylee Anthony.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Before heading over to Universal, detectives finally locate the Zenaida Gonzalez connected to Sawgrass Apartments. She`s never met Casey Anthony or little Caylee and has never even worked as a babysitter.
Armed with new information cops call Casey Anthony who continues to insist she still works as an events coordinator at Universal, even giving them a work number and the name of a supervisor, Tom Manley.
But when cops call the number, it`s not valid and there is no such person as Tom Manley at Universal. Cops discover there is a Tom Mattson, however, who says Anthony`s not an employee there and never was.
Cops go back to mom Casey and ask her office location, but she can`t give them a building number, and now she says she can`t even find her work I.D.
July 16, 12:30 p.m. detectives go to the Anthony home and tot mom agrees to go with investigators to Universal. At the entrance they meet up with three employees. Anthony tells a security officer she works there, but she`s lost her I.D.
When he asks for a supervisor`s name Casey repeats Tom Manley. Then the security officer confirms what cops already know. There`s no Tom Manley at Universal.
For once, Casey Anthony falls silent.
The cops agree to take her back to her so-called office. Casey Anthony leads the way down the hallway as if she knows exactly where she`s going, but moments later, she stops in her tracks, turns around. She`s busted.
Tot mom admits it`s all a big lie, and she doesn`t work there. Police take Casey Anthony into a conference room to confront her about her lies. The whole thing caught on tape.
ALLEN: Our purpose in coming here was to do what? Go where?
ANTHONY: I guess there wasn`t a purpose. There wasn`t a purpose whatsoever to come up here.
ALLEN: So we`re wasting time, valuable time, we ought to be spending looking for your daughter.
ANTHONY: I`m trying to think of places.
ALLEN: No, I.
ANTHONY: . where I know she`s been.
ALLEN: You`re not answering my question. Do you want us to help.
ANTHONY: Yes.
ALLEN: . find your daughter?
ANTHONY: I do want you to help.
ALLEN: Well, then you need to help me -- a good starting point would be to answer the questions, OK? If I say you were here because and then you just ignore that, like as if I never asked it, and go off in some other direction, does that answer the question?
ANTHONY: No.
ALLEN: OK. All right. Let`s go through this again. We`re here because? We got here how? To do what?
ANTHONY: Because I lied. Because I brought you up here. And honestly, I was reaching for.
ALLEN: No, stop right there. I want you to tell me how lying to us is going to help us find your daughter.
ANTHONY: It`s not going to.
GRACE: Tot mom confesses lying about her job at Universal. One of the locations she claims Zenaida Gonzalez lives, and admits she should have called police the day Caylee went missing, but she still insists last seeing Caylee June 9, Sawgrass Apartments.
During the entire interrogation, Anthony doesn`t shed a single tear. She never shows emotion over her missing girl, even laughing at times.
MELICH: Everything you`ve told us is a lie. You`re looking me in the eyes, you`re looking at -- everything you`ve told us is a lie. Every single thing. And you can`t, you can`t.
ANTHONY: No, it isn`t.
MELICH: Yes, and you can`t keep sitting here and tell us the same thing and getting constantly over and over and over again, we`re disproving everything that you`re telling us. You`re telling us that you lied to us. You`re telling us you`re giving us misinformation. Everything you`re telling us. OK? This needs to end.
ANTHONY: The truthful thing is that.
MELICH: This needs to end.
ANTHONY: . is that I have not seen my daughter. The last time that I saw her was on the 9th of June.
MELICH: And what happened to Caylee?
ANTHONY: I don`t know.
MELICH: Sure you do. You need.
ANTHONY: I don`t know.
MELICH: Listen, something happened to Caylee. We`re not going to discuss where the last time you saw her. I`m guessing something bad happened to her sometime ago and you haven`t seen her. So that part is true if you say you haven`t seen her because she`s somewhere else right now.
ANTHONY: She`s with someone else.
GRACE: Leaving no stone unturned cops pull up every single Zenaida Gonzalez in the system. Casey Anthony can`t identify a single one and she doesn`t recognize the Gonzalez from Sawgrass Apartments.
CAPTAIN ANGELO NIEVES, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPT.: We know that there are Zenaida Gonzalezes out there. The Zenaida Gonzalez that has been sought to us by Casey does not exist up to this point. What we need to do is receive information from Casey and nothing but the truth. We need that information.
GRACE: Again, at headquarters, detectives give Anthony a last chance to come clean, to tell the truth, but the tot mom digs in and sticks to her story.
July 16, 4:33 p.m. police place tot mom Casey Anthony under arrest for child neglect and, of course, lying to investigators. Cops continue passing along any new information about the investigation to mom Casey behind bars. Each time Casey Anthony insists she does not know where Caylee is and is still laughing at times.
The same day grandfather George turns over Anthony`s laptop computer to police. Forensic investigators discover photos of Caylee with her great-grandfather. Photos taken June 15, proving Caylee`s alive after June 9. That`s the day tot mom claims to have last seen Caylee.
George also tells police he sees Casey Anthony and granddaughter Caylee leaving the home the morning of June 16.
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S FATHER: The 16th is when I actually saw Casey and Caylee together. They were both leaving with backpacks and my daughter said she was going to work and she was taking Caylee to the nanny, to the babysitter.
And I know it was 10 minutes to 1:00 because I was watching this Food Channel thing that I watch between noon and 1:00. So -- I`m positive. That`s what I know for a dog gone fact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So she actually told you on the 16th I plan on staying at Zanny`s a late event?
G. ANTHONY: Yes. Most definitely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom starts calling -- apparently mom says that she had some form of a big deal going on at work, a convention. So they were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel.
G. ANTHONY: That`s what she told us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
G. ANTHONY: I mean that`s what my wife reiterated to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn`t have this conversation, just your wife.
G. ANTHONY: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And then they was -- they had to move that to Busch Gardens Tampa area?
G. ANTHONY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s where Zanny got in her car accident?
G. ANTHONY: Supposedly Zanny got in this car accident and Casey was following, like, some distance behind her. Zanny got involved in this accident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospitalized at Tampa General?
G. ANTHONY: That`s what we were told.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Treated for a concussion.
G. ANTHONY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then the next day the E.R. nurse discovered a large laceration behind the ear and they had to treat that.
G. ANTHONY: And kept her, I guess, an extra day or something if I remembered correctly, yes.
GRACE: Throughout all the lies, one thing is consistent, Casey Anthony`s version of events doesn`t add up. The more she tells police, the more holes appear in her story.
In her written statement Anthony claims July 15, 12:00 p.m. she gets a call from her missing girl. The first time she`s heard Caylee`s voice in four weeks. This alleged call comes in on the same date grandmother Cindy reports Caylee missing.
DEPUTY APPLING WELLS, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: Do you remember the phone call you were telling us about?
ANTHONY: Uh-huh.
WELLS: Is that true?
COLLINS: Yes.
WELLS: Did you actually talk -- what day it was it you talked to her?
COLLINS: Yesterday.
WELLS: You remember what time of day?
COLLINS: Around noon. It was from a private number.
WELLS: OK. And what did she tell you? What did your daughter say to you?
COLLINS: She said hi, mommy.
WELLS: And that`s it?
COLLINS: And she started to tell me a story, talking to me about her shoes and books.
WELLS: It`s important that you tell me -- I mean maybe there`s something in what she said that can help us figure out where she is.
What did she say?
COLLINS: I tried to ask her where she was and she just kept talking about the books that she had been reading.
WELLS: Right.
COLLINS: We have videos of her reading the story. She was telling me the story.
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: So she seemed happy?
COLLINS: A thousand times. She seems fine.
ALLEN: She`s fine, seemed happy?
COLLINS: She seemed perfectly fine. There was nothing in the background.
ALLEN: Telling you about a book, no -- sign of any type of stress at all?
COLLINS: Not at all.
ALLEN: Great. That`s wonderful. Let me ask you a question. Your daughter hasn`t seen you in over a month and she`s not.
COLLINS: She was excited. She was excited to talk to me. But at the same time, it`s crazy that she didn`t get upset when she talked to me, which.
ALLEN: Yes.
COLLINS: . had it been my mom.
ALLEN: Is that another thing?
COLLINS: . I know it would have been totally different.
ALLEN: Is that another thing that make sense to you?
COLLINS: She never gets upset when she talks to me, whether I haven`t seen her for an entire day or I had to work late at night and I didn`t see her almost the entire day until the next morning.
ALLEN: The last time.
GRACE: But cell phone records prove otherwise, revealing not a single call that could have come from little Caylee.
Remember Anthony says she drops Caylee off with Zenaida Gonzalez on a stairwell there at Sawgrass Apartments June 9? Police go so far as to check apartment surveillance video. No Casey Anthony. No little Caylee. No Zenaida Gonzalez.
When we come back, tot mom Casey Anthony`s web of lies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELICH: We even pulled a surveillance window from an apartment complex and they have to keep this by law for several days, OK? And we`re not seeing you over there. We`re not seeing you there at all that day.
You think that we`re stupid and we`re not going to do all this stuff?
COLLINS: I know you`re not stupid.
MELICH: OK?
COLLINS: That`s.
MELICH: We`re not seeing you there. So now, if -- you`re not there, and you`re not being seen there, and somebody`s already saying that you`re not there, and everything else you`ve told us is a lie.
GRACE: Then another twist. Anthony also says Caylee was kidnapped by babysitter Zenaida at Jay Blanchard Park. This is a whole new story. Mom Casey`s new story is that that Zenaida, Zenaida`s older sister, Samantha, and Samantha`s three children, also at Jay Blanchard Park.
After they snatch little Caylee, Casey claims the group leaves a so- called script for Anthony to tell cops over a period of 30 days. Zenaida, her sister, and the three young children allegedly take off in a silver Ford with Caylee.
Anthony never mentioned this Jay Blanchard Park story in her written statement or during the police interrogation caught on tape. Still insisting little Caylee kidnapped from Sawgrass Apartments.
Coincidentally, Jay Blanchard Park is the same location Casey Anthony claims she lost her BlackJack cell phone. But cell phone ping records reportedly place the young mom near the same park June 17, just one day after little Caylee is seen alive.
(On camera): It is universally accepted that the first 48 hours are critical when a child goes missing. Every minute, every second counts. So why would a mom who claims her daughter is kidnapped not call police or at least alert friends and family? It doesn`t make sense. And the more Casey Anthony refuses to cooperate, the more suspicions grow.
Tonight, still the question, where is Caylee?
Thank you for being with us inviting us into your homes for this special "Nancy Grace Investigates: The First 24 Hours of the Caylee Anthony Investigation."
I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
END
