Casey Anthony declines limited-immunity deal

Walter Pacheco Sentinel Staff Writer
September 2, 2008

Casey Anthony declined the limited-immunity deal with the State Attorney's Office this morning. She was given until 9 a.m. to take the deal. Her attorney, Jose Baez, did not contact the State Attorney's Office before the deadline.

The limited immunity would have protected her direct statements to investigators. However, any other evidence gathered from her statements is fair game if the case goes to trial.

Finding Caylee Marie Anthony is not a priority for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the girl's grandmother said this morning on a nationally televised show.

"It's unfortunate that it's going to take the average citizen to bring Caylee back to me alive and not the authorities," Cindy Anthony told NBC's Today Show host Matt Lauer.

Cindy Anthony said she still believes her granddaughter was abducted."I believe Caylee is with someone Casey had trusted," she said. "Casey has been betrayed." Larry Garrison, an Anthony family spokesman based in Los Angeles, also said he doubt's law-enforcement's efforts in locating Caylee Marie, who was last seen June 15. "I am not confident that the police will come in and help them out," Garrison told Lauer.

Their comments come after sheriff's office lead investigator, Sgt. John Allen, told local media that evidence found in the trunk of a car belonging to Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, "indicates that there was a dead body...and that that body was Caylee."

Cindy Anthony told Lauer that Allen was "speaking out of context." However, on Monday, the sheriff's office issued a statement explaining that the "laboratory evidence, along with additional evidence that has not been made public, leads investigators to the belief there is a strong probability that Caylee is deceased."

Meanwhile, the effort behind the search for Caylee Marie by Texas-based group EquuSearch appears to be dwindling. Close to 200 EquuSearch volunteers started searching for the missing girl Saturday, but a search director this morning said she has less than 35 volunteers today. "We worry that the community has soured on the family and not keeping Caylee first," search director Mandy Albritton. "It's sad that we've had such a low turnout."

The group has found 294 missing persons -- 87 of them still alive -- since it began helping law enforcement in 2000. Albritton said EquuSearch has spent almost $30,000 since they began searching for Caylee Marie. The non-profit organization is funded solely through grants and donations and their expenses include, travel, lodging and food for their volunteers, as well as office equipment, fuel, tables and chairs.

Albritton said that similar cases typically bring out close to 1,000 volunteers a day, but admits that those numbers begin to decline after the first day. The community "needs to come together as if they were looking for one of their own children," Albritton said. "We will stop searching when we exhaust every lead."

Casey Anthony is at the Orange County Jail after investigators re-arrested her at the family home Friday on charges that she stole and cashed hundreds of dollars in checks from a friend in July. Her bondsman subsequently revoked her $500,200 bail on earlier charges of child neglect and giving false information to authorities, making it unlikely she will be free again anytime soon.