Man Who Found Caylee's Remains Denies Involvement

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 – updated: 6:14 pm EST January 13, 2009
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The meter reader who discovered Caylee Anthony's remains in December spoke at length Tuesday for the first time. Roy Kronk did an exclusive TV interview with Good Morning America (watch video images).

GMA INTERVIEW: Kronk Breaks Silence Images

VIDEO REPORT: Kronk Gives First Interview

RAW INTERVIEW: Bill Sheaffer Says Kronk May Help Defense

Orange County meter reader Roy Kronk told ABC's Good Morning America that he has been vilified, so he decided to tell his story. Kronk said life has been turned upside down since he found Caylee Anthony's body on December 11 and does not believe the media spotlight has been kind to him.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Kronk said.
He told GMA's Robin Roberts he has never met the Anthony family, that he had nothing to do with Caylee Anthony's disappearance and that no one tipped him off.

"Nobody tipped me off," Kronk said. "I figured this out by myself."
The former bounty hunter/bondsman said he just followed his own instincts when he was in the area in August for work.

"It just kinda made sense to me, if you were to get rid of something like that, and with the smell of swamp decay on either side of the road, it would be a good place to hide it," he said.
He then talked about the sheriff's office response to his calls in August.

"I drove over there. I called. The officer showed up. I showed him a picture of a snake that we had found on Monday. He looked kinda shaken up. It was a six-and-a-half-foot diamondback rattlesnake. He pulled his baton out and went down to the water's edge. He just swept his head back and forth. [He said,] 'I don't see anything' and pretty much that was it. He told me I was wasting the county's time and that they had all these other tips and that was it," Kronk explained.

Kronk then spoke of the day in December when he found a skull that was later found to be part of Caylee's remains.

"In December you went back to the same area. Why did you go back?" GMA's Robin Roberts asked Kronk.

"I had to go to the bathroom, so I went in there and I looked over and I saw a shape that didn't look quite right to me and when I pulled the bag up I basically looked down and there it was," he said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is still in the middle of its internal investigation of the deputy who met Kronk on August 13. The deputy, identified January 13 by the Orange County Sheriff's Office as Richard Cain, is still on duty in the area for now.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer told Eyewitness News that the meter reader, Roy Kronk, could end up helping Casey's defense (watch Sheaffer interview). Sheaffer said morning news viewers were not the only ones watching Kronk. Casey Anthony's defense team was likely to dissect every word, looking for inconsistencies in Kronk's statements.

"The prosecution has to be very nervous about a key witness such as he going on national television and making statements," Sheaffer said.

LAWYER SAYS LEE DENIED HE WAS ON PHONE WITH P.I.

It's some of the biggest evidence yet in the case against Casey and Eyewitness News and WFTV.com were the first to obtain the video of an Anthony family private investigator at the crime scene a full month before Caylee's body was found (watch video scene-by-scene images).

LEE'S ATTORNEY: Portion Of Interview With Tom Luka

VIDEO REPORT: Lee's Attorney Comments On Video

P.I.'s VIDEO OBTAINED: Raw Video Scene-By-Scene Images

Eyewitness News is working to find out who told that private eye to go there. The video showed that private investigator talking on the phone to somebody and detectives are pulling records to find out whom.

No matter why the Anthony family's private investigator was at the scene, conducting a search a month before Caylee's remains were found, the big question still is who was on the other end of the cell phone with private eye Dominic Casey in November, possibly directing him. Some wonder whether it was Lee Anthony and even his own attorney checked into it.

Eyewitness News watched the video with Lee Anthony's attorney, Tom Luka (watch interview).

The video shows the Anthony family's private eye, Dominic Casey, prodding and poking the ground at the crime scene and on the cell phone with someone.

"Is it Lee?" WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked Luka on Monday. "No, not that I know of. He denied ever talking to him," he said.

But Eyewitness News uncovered video of Lee Anthony and Dominic Casey at the jail together right after Lee's sister Casey was arrested there. So, Kathi Belich asked again.

"Is it Lee on the phone with Dominic Casey?" Belich asked Luka. "As far as I know, as far as my client is concerned, it's not him on the phone on November 15th 2008," Luka said. "Could it be somebody who Lee spoke with who then went to Dominic Casey and provided information?" Belich asked. "In the realm of speculation, it could've been anyone," Luka said.

Even though last week Eyewitness News heard that only Dominic Casey's colleague, private eye Jim Hoover who shot it, had a copy of the videotape at the scene where Caylee's remains were found almost a month later, Luka said he saw it last week and talked to Dominic Casey about it. Then he backtracked.

"How did you see it last week? Who showed it to you last week?" Belich asked Luka.
"Well, I take that back," Luka said. "I was not shown it. When it was on TV I saw it."
"Well, it wasn't on TV until last night," Belich told Luka.

"Well, I take that back. I did not see it. Did I see it? No, I did not see that video. I take that back. That was not the video I saw," he said.

Dominic Casey previously told Eyewitness News he was at the scene in November to rule out the possibility that Caylee's remains could be there. Then he said he was there to rule out that the area was a teen hangout years ago. Lee's attorney, though, told Eyewitness News that Dominic Casey told him he was there to rule out a psychic's tip.

During all that time, the Anthonys and their private investigators were insisting that Caylee was still alive.

LEGAL ANALYST QUESTIONS IF P.I. WAS TRYING TO HELP CASEY DEFENSE

Eyewitness News uncovered a new theory about why the Anthonys' private investigator was poking through the crime scene on videotape a month before Caylee's remains were discovered there. WFTV's legal analyst wonders if it all could have been done to help in Casey Anthony's defense.

"He is either inept, if we're to believe he was actually investigating the crime scene in order to locate the body, or he's inept as an actor," WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer told Eyewitness News.

Sheaffer said, no matter why the Anthonys' private eye was there a month before the remains were found, chances are great he had inside information.

"If he's just out there in order to make a defense tape then he has to know where the body is in order not to stumble upon the body," Sheaffer said.

Sheaffer said the defense might have wanted to try to show the body was not there in November when Casey was in jail. So that, if it were to be found by detectives after that, the defense could try to claim someone else left it there.

"The lack of outrage on the part of that attorney and the family speaks volumes," Sheaffer said.