The location where Caylee Anthony was found

This is the location where Caylee Anthony was found.

It is situated on Suburban Drive, which is a small road on the eastern outskirts of Orlando, Florida.

Although the Caylee Anthony memorial site is about 200 feet west, an aerial photograph from the court case indicates that most of her remains were actually discovered near this section of the woods.

Caylee Anthony goes missing

On June 16th, 2008, Casey Anthony left her parents' house and took her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, with her. At the time, she claimed that they were going to visit Caylee's nanny, Zenaida Gonzalez (Zanny), and that they were going to crash at her place.

This was the last time anyone saw the young girl alive.

The following day, Casey told her mother that she needed to travel to Tampa, Florida, on a work-related trip for Universal Studios. She also claimed that Caylee and her nanny would be accompanying her.

In the weeks that followed, Casey's mother, Cindy, repeatedly asked if she could see her granddaughter. However, Casey kept coming up with various excuses about how she was too busy working or how Caylee was elsewhere with Zenaida.

At one point, she even claimed that their trip back to Orlando was delayed because Zenaida had been injured in a car accident.

As time wore on, Cindy grew more and more suspicious of her daughter's excuses.

Cindy was so desperate to see her granddaughter that she created a MySpace account and messaged Casey. However, she never got a response.

When Cindy and her husband learned that Casey's car was in a local impound, they decided to investigate. Upon opening the trunk, an "atrocious" smell emerged. Witnesses said that it smelled like something dead had been inside it.

At that stage, Cindy decided to call 911 and report that her granddaughter, Caylee Anthony, was missing.

Shortly afterwards, Casey's "web of lies" finally started to untangle.

Investigation and arrest

Although she initially broke down and claimed that Caylee's nanny had abducted her, the police soon learned that Zenaida Gonzalez was a random stranger who had never met anyone from the Anthony family.

In other words, "Zanny" didn't really exist.

Furthermore, when detectives visited Universal Studios, they discovered that Casey hadn't worked there for years.

Upon realizing that they were being misled, the police decided to arrest her and charge her with child neglect, giving false statements, and obstruction of a criminal investigation.

Then, three months later, they charged her with first-degree murder.

Caylee's body is found in these woods

In August 2008, a local meter reader named Roy Kronk and two colleagues were walking along this section of Suburban Drive when he decided to go into the woods and relieve himself. While he was standing in the forest, he noticed a small white object that looked like a skull.

The next day, he called the police and met a deputy at the scene. However, they were unable to find the object, and the officer reportedly scolded him for "wasting his time."

On December 11th, 2008, Roy was working in the area again when he decided to reinvestigate the site. This time, he was able to locate the object and confirm that it was a human skull.

At that point, he called the police again, and a search team arrived at the scene.

After combing through the woods, they discovered the remains of a young child in a trash bag. A few days later, they widened their search and found more bones.

On December 19th, the medical examiner's office confirmed that the remains belonged to Caylee Anthony, who had been missing for nearly six months.

However, the victim's identification did not come as a shock to anyone, as the site in question was just a short five-minute walk away from the Anthony residence on Hopespring Drive.

Trial

Following a lengthy and highly publicized trial, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of the murder of her daughter. This outraged many members of the public, most of whom were certain that she had killed Caylee.

In the aftermath of the verdict, legal experts suggested that the prosecution team was unable to convince the jury "beyond a reasonable doubt". There were also claims that the jury didn't fully understand what "reasonable doubt" meant.

Notably, the prosecution was unable to produce a smoking gun that connected Casey to the death of her daughter. In fact, they were unable to prove how Caylee had died.

Although duct tape was discovered on Caylee's remains, there were no fingerprints or DNA on it.

As a result, the defense team was able to argue that the young girl had accidentally drowned in the Anthony family's swimming pool.

Many commentators have stated that the prosecution team spent too much of their time attacking Casey's character instead of actually linking her to the crime.

Instead of producing strong forensic evidence, they focused on her history of lying and stealing. This allowed the defense to claim that Casey was being prosecuted for mistakes that she had made in the past.

In the end, Casey got off because the prosecution was unable to produce strong evidence or answer key questions about the crime. As a result, the jury felt that they were unable to convict her.

Sadly, this means that we may never know what happened to Caylee Anthony, or how her body ended up lying in this damp wooded area for half a year.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

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