ORLANDO, Fla. – One year ago Wednesday the call was made that set the case against Casey Anthony in motion.
On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called 911 and reported her granddaughter Caylee Anthony missing. The following day, news broke that the toddler had been missing for a month before her mother, Casey Anthony, told anyone.
Recommended Videos
Before the 911 call was made, Casey Anthony picked up her former best friend Amy Huizenga from the airport. Earlier in the day, she cashed a forged $250 check from Huizenga's account, deputies said.
Also that day, Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, paid $400 to retrieve the car she had abandoned weeks earlier. In an interview with investigators, George Anthony, a former police detective, said the car smelled like death.
"So I do know what it smells like. It's a smell you never, never get rid of," George Anthony said. "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 my Caylee.' That's what I thought. That's what my heart was saying."
Cindy Anthony found Huizenga's phone number in the car and Huizenga helped her track down Casey Anthony.
Huizenga told investigators the call from Cindy Anthony popped "a big old bubble." She said George and Cindy Anthony were afraid either Caylee or Casey Anthony was stuffed in the trunk of the car, "because they had not talked to either of them. Because of the smell."
After finding Casey Anthony at her boyfriend's apartment, Huizenga said Cindy Anthony demanded to see Caylee.
"Casey's mom was pretty much, 'You're taking me to see Caylee now. I have to see her and I have to make sure she's OK.' Casey kept saying, 'She's fine; she's with the nanny. She's good,' " Huizenga told investigators.
Cindy Anthony eventually called 911 at 8:44 p.m.
"I have someone who I need to be arrested in my home. There's a possible missing child. I have a 3-year old that's been missing for a month," Cindy Anthony told the dispatcher.
Nearly an hour later, Cindy Anthony called 911 a second time.
"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," Cindy Anthony told the dispatcher.