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that, it was game on. Mason would ask a question, and Dr. G would go into an unchallengeable medical explanation. Mason would try to interrupt, but she would ignore him. He challenged her opinion that the death was a homicide and not an accidental drowning, and she pointed out that in all the records of drowning by children, in 100 percent of the cases, rescue was called. “No matter how stiff that body is, they always call 911 in the hopes that the child could be saved,” she said. She pointed out that there was no reason not to report the incident if it had been a drowning. She also said that there was no other logical conclusion for the facts presented in this case other than that it was a homicide. She continued, “There is no child that should have duct tape on its face when it dies. There is no reason to put duct tape on the face after they die.” As much as Mason tried to out-argue her, she applied her science and experience to answer every single one of his challenges.

Dr. Michael Warren followed Dr. G in our list of witnesses. He offered one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence in the case. He was the head of the C. A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida. In order to demonstrate that the duct tape could be used as a murder weapon, we had asked him to prepare a demonstration. We provided him with three photographs: one of the skull, one of a full face of Caylee, and one of the duct tape. The tape and skull pictures had small rulers in the frame, referred to as “scales,” to establish size. By matching the scales in the two photos, Dr. Warren’s lab was able to magnify them enough to match them up and overlay them. Then, by comparing and aligning anatomical features like teeth and the bridge of the nose, he was able to overlay all three photos. He then created a video with a dissolve feature, making the photo of the skull transition to the photo of Caylee’s live face, then back to the skull. The duct tape was overlaid in both pictures to indicate where it would have been when Caylee actually died. It was heartbreaking to watch. Once again, I was surprised at how little visible reaction I saw in the jury. Still, Dr. Warren’s presentation appeared to have impacted Casey greatly. Judge Perry had to stop the trial. “Okay, ladies and gentleman of the media, Ms. Anthony is ill, we are recessing for the day,” he had to announce when the proceedings abruptly came to an end.

The defense was outraged by the introduction of the video, calling it inflammatory and insisting that it presented only one of a number of possible scenarios. They had lobbied the judge to prevent it from being entered into evidence and had filed a motion for a mistrial related to its being shown to jurors. But Judge Perry agreed with our argument that it was important and “highly relevant” in determining the role of duct tape in Caylee’s death.

After the trial resumed the following day, we called Dr. Neal Haskell, the prosecution’s sixtieth witness. Haskell was our forensic entomology expert. He was a professor of forensic science and biology at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, and a nationally known expert in his field. Haskell testified that he had found flies related to decomposition in the trunk of the Pontiac, flies which were known familiarly as “coffin flies.” According to Haskell, Caylee’s body probably would have been in the trunk a very short time, based on the bug evidence. He then compared those flies to those collected at the scene where Caylee was found and described how they were consistent.

Our final forensic expert, Elizabeth Fontaine, was also testifying to a very emotional piece of evidence. She was the latent fingerprint analyst at the FBI lab, the same agent who’d seen the outline of a heart shape on the duct tape. In the minds of the public, the “heart on the duct tape” had taken on a life of its own. Images of Casey’s mouth, covered with a piece of duct tape embellished with a bright red heart, flooded the Internet to the point where people thought there really was a sticker on the tape,