'Oh well,' mom says from jail, as her friend worries for Caylee

Amy L. Edwards and Bianca Prieto

Sentinel Staff Writers
July 26, 2008

Casey Anthony was angry. Her voice was cold. All she wanted was her boyfriend's telephone number.

In her first jailhouse phone call, a 14-minute recording released Friday, the 22-year-old at the center of a missing-child case expressed little concern for her daughter's whereabouts.

During the call, made a few hours after her arrest, she cursed at her mother and brother and said she didn't want anyone to go to her first court appearance. And when a friend got on the line and sobbed and pleaded with her to give up any information she had about 2-year-old Caylee Marie's whereabouts, Anthony was annoyed.

Friend: . . . If anything happened to Caylee, Casey, I'll die. Do you understand? I'll die. If anything . . .

Caylee Anthony case: Full audio of call from jail

Anthony [speaking at the same time]: Oh well.

Friend: . . . happens to that baby.

Anthony: Oh, my God, calling you guys -- a waste. Huge waste.

The phone call reveals the private tension between Anthony and her family members, who pleaded with her to tell them what happened to the child. Anthony has told Orange County investigators that a baby sitter vanished with Caylee in June. Detectives have suggested the sitter does not exist.

During one exchange, Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, told her daughter she wouldn't be in jail "if you had told them the truth." Casey Anthony would not discuss it and asked again for her boyfriend's number.

Cindy Anthony: Whose fault is [it] that you're sitting in the jail? You're blaming me that you're sitting in the jail? Blame yourself for telling lies. What do you mean it's not your fault? What do you mean it's not your fault, sweetheart? If you'd have told them the truth and not lied about everything they wouldn't --

Casey Anthony: Do me a favor and just tell me what Tony's number is. I don't want to talk to you right now. Forget it.

Casey Anthony remained behind bars Friday as her family worked to meet her more-than-half-million-dollar bail on charges of child neglect, filing a false statement and obstructing a criminal investigation. Her parents and brother Lee spoke with her for the first time since July 16 in separate videoconferences at the Orange County Jail.

Cindy and George Anthony ran to their vehicle after their visit and wouldn't tell reporters what they discussed with their daughter. George Anthony, seemingly in good spirits, said he thought his granddaughter is alive.

On Friday morning, the granddad made another public plea for volunteers to help distribute fliers about the disappearance and T-shirts with Caylee's photo on the back. At least 40,000 fliers and more than 200 shirts have been handed out so far, he said.

Speaking outside his home, George Anthony said he could not wait to hear his granddaughter call out her name for him -- "Jo Jo" -- and was looking forward to throwing a block party for her upcoming 3rd birthday."I've gotta get my granddaughter back," he said.Mom, lawyer talk alone.

Earlier this week, at a bond hearing for Caylee's mother, Orange County detectives painted a grim picture of that prospect. They described a mysterious stain and hair found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire and a foul odor associated with rotting human flesh.

Her attorney, Jose Baez, spent more than two hours at the jail Friday afternoon, speaking separately with his client and investigators from the Sheriff's Office. Neither he nor investigators released any information.

Details of the mother's July 16 jailhouse conversation emerged the same day Orlando police released a 911 call Cindy Anthony made to have her daughter arrested after allegedly stealing the family car and money.

During that two-minute call, Casey Anthony can be heard asking her mother to give her one more day to find Caylee before getting authorities involved.

Confusion about which law-enforcement agency would handle the complaint took up the majority of the call, which eventually was transferred to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

While a dispatcher was transferring the call, the recording captured a snippet of the mother and daughter's conversation: 'I've given you a month'

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 ended when an Orange County Sheriff's Office dispatcher picked up the line.

That call led to the discovery of Caylee's disappearance and Casey Anthony's arrest.

During the jailhouse call, Anthony exploded when told that people say she's lying.

Casey Anthony to friend: Nobody's [expletive] listening to anything that I'm saying. The media completely misconstrued everything that I said. The [expletive] detectives told them [expletives]. They got all of their information from me, yet at the same time they're twisting stuff. They've already said they're going to pin this on me if they don't find Caylee.

Urged repeatedly by her brother to tell what she knows, Anthony insists she has cooperated with investigators.

Casey to friend: I have no clue where Caylee is. If I knew where Caylee was, do you think any of this would be happening?