Caylee Anthony's mother begged for another day in 911 call

Listen to the new 911 calls: 'I've given you a month' to find Caylee
Bianca Prieto and Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writers
July 25, 2008

Casey Anthony begged her mother to give her one more day to find her missing daughter before getting the police involved in the disappearance of Caylee Marie Anthony last week, new information was revealed in a 911 recording to Orlando Police Department.

Cindy Anthony drove with her daughter, Casey, to an Orlando police substation on Pershing Avenue on July 15 to have her arrested for "grand theft," she told a dispatcher. Casey Anthony had stolen both a car and money from Cindy Anthony, and Cindy had the documents to prove it, she said.

Confusion about which law enforcement agency would handle the complaint took up the majority of the two and a half minute call.While a dispatcher was transferring Cindy Anthony to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, a snippet of the mother and daughter's conversation was captured.

Cindy Anthony: 'Cause my next thing will be down to child (inaudible) thing and we'll have a court order to get her. If that's the way you want to play, we'll do it and you'll never...

Casey Anthony: That's not the way I want to play...

Cindy Anthony: Well then you have...

Casey Anthony: Give me one more day.

Cindy Anthony: No, I'm not giving you another day, I've given you a month...

The conversation, and the recording ended when an Orange County Sheriff's Office dispatcher picks up the line.

Yesterday evening, the sheriff's office released two later calls made from the Anthony home.

A distraught and sobbing Cindy Anthony told an emergency dispatcher her 2-year-old granddaughter had been missing for a month and that "it smelled like there's been a dead body" in the car driven by her daughter, Casey.

Thursday evening, the Orange County Sheriff's Office released two 911 calls made by Cindy Anthony on the evening of July 15. Cindy Anthony frantically asked the dispatcher to send deputies to her Lee Vista-area home because "I found out my granddaughter has been taken, she has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted that she's been missing. . . . Oh. My God, they finally admitted that the baby sitter stole her. I need to find her."

And, then, the most chilling passage in the 4 1/2-minute recording:"I told you my daughter was missing for a month. I just found her today, but I can't find my granddaughter . . . There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smelled like there's been a dead body in the damn car."

Casey Anthony has been in the Orange County Jail for nine days, held on more than $500,000 bail on charges including child neglect and making false official statements after allegedly telling investigators a string of lies about her daughter's whereabouts.

Earlier this week, after Casey Anthony's bail hearing, Cindy Anthony emphatically told reporters that the smell in the car was not one of human decomposition but that it came from a pizza that had been left in the car for some time. The tapes released Thursday conflict with those statements.

Confronted by reporters at her home moments after the tapes were released Thursday, Cindy Anthony said she stands by her daughter. When asked about her conflicting statements on the smell inside the trunk of the car, she said she initially believed something might have died in there: "It could have been a squirrel."

In the first call made to dispatchers, about 8:40 p.m. July 15, Cindy Anthony asked that a deputy be sent to her home to "arrest" her daughter for "stealing an auto and stealing money." In that call, Cindy Anthony was calm and said she finally found her daughter Casey after a month but that "I can't find my granddaughter."

After asking whether Casey Anthony had any weapons, the dispatcher asked: "Is she not telling you where her daughter is?""Correct," Cindy Anthony replied.It was nearly an hour later that Cindy Anthony made the second, frantic call.During that call, the dispatcher asked to speak to Casey Anthony. She was composed and unemotional throughout the conversation:

Dispatcher: Can you tell me a little bit what's going on?

Casey: My daughter's been missing for the last 31 days.

Dispatcher: And you know who has her?

Casey: I know who has her; I've tried to contact her. I actually received a phone call today, now from a number that is no longer in service. I did get to speak to my daughter, for about a moment, about a minute."

The dispatcher asks Casey Anthony about the stolen car, then shifts the conversation back to Caylee.

Dispatcher: And you last saw her a month ago?

Casey: 31 days. It's been 31 days.

911: Who had her? Do you have a name?

Casey: Her name is Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez . . .

Dispatcher: Why are you calling now? Why didn't you call 31 days ago?

Casey: I've been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which was stupid . . .

Lawyer questions releaseCasey Anthony's attorney, Jose A. Baez, said at a news conference Thursday that he disapproved of the Sheriff's Office release of 911 tapes in the case.

"I really don't understand law enforcement releasing that in the middle of a search for a 2-year-old girl," Baez said, adding the move does nothing to help find Caylee.

Baez called the news conference to announce that he had asked an appeals court to lower the "way-high" bail imposed on his client. The Anthony family has been unable to come up with the collateral required to secure bail. By the time Baez began his media briefing, reporters already had heard about the 911 tapes. Baez was pressed for answers.

Baez said he would not release information or tapes in the case "like law enforcement has."He also said he wants Casey Anthony out of jail to assist in the search for her daughter, perhaps by joining investigators to retrace her steps in the weeks since Caylee disappeared.

"She does not know where her child is," Baez said. "If she did, she would have told law enforcement, she would have told her family, me."After the Orange County Sheriff's Office news conference, sheriff's Chief Mark Strobridge said detectives have had a hard time reaching Baez.

"The last contact, as far as I know, one of our investigators left Baez a message," he said. "I don't know if he's heard back." Investigators have not spoken to Casey Anthony since before her arrest last week.

Detectives have been tight-lipped about the details of the investigation, releasing only a smattering of information. "We have a responsibility to release credible information that is germane to the case," Strobridge said.

"When we have more information that is verifiable, we'll release it." Caylee has been missing since June 15, but her disappearance wasn't reported until last week.