Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [16]
“I’ll call if I need anything,” he said as she climbed out of the unmarked vehicle. Before he pulled away, Melich was approached by George Anthony, who related concern that his daughter was holding back information. Both he and his wife were worried that something might have happened to Caylee. George mentioned the putrid smell in the Sunfire’s trunk. The detective acknowledged their distress and said he would be in touch.
For the next several hours, Melich set out to confirm Casey’s story. He began at the Sawgrass complex, where he met with the manager, Amanda Macklin, and maintenance man, Dave Turner. Neither knew Zenaida, nor did they recognize the photograph of Caylee given to Melich by Cindy Anthony.
Macklin stated that Apartment 210 had been vacant for 142 days, and then ran Zenaida’s name through their computer database. Sure enough, they got a hit: a Zenaida Gonzalez who had come to look at an apartment on April 17. She was never a tenant, but she had completed a guest card and left a cell phone number. One lie.
Next, Melich looked into the apartment on North Hillside Drive. It had been the first apartment Casey visited with him, the location where she said Zanny had lived with a roommate in early 2006. Not only had no one named Zenaida Gonzalez lived there, but the complex itself was a seniors-only facility. Coincidentally, when the initial responding deputies had searched the Pontiac the night before, they’d found an address written on a piece of paper, an address that was right across the street from the seniors facility. It turned out that that address belonged to Casey’s ex-fiancé, Jesse Grund. So not only was there no way Zanny could have lived in the building, but there was another connection to the street that offered a possible hint of where the deception came from. Two lies.
As Melich turned this over in his head, it didn’t add up. Every clue that Casey had given them was looking bogus. That alone was disturbing, but when combined with the fact that the police were trying to use Casey’s clues to find her daughter and kidnapper, it didn’t make any sense. The obvious conclusion was that wherever Caylee was, Casey clearly did not want her found. So either there had not been a kidnapping, or there was some other reason that Casey was hindering their progress. Was she afraid? If she was, she certainly didn’t act like it. Melich had seen people lie out of fear before, and they usually weren’t as calm about it as Casey had been. Another possibility was that this was just a continuation of the power struggle with her mom, and when the right moment arose, Casey would fess up about Caylee’s whereabouts. If that was the case, though, Casey was taking this incredibly far, and was now using police resources to fight with Cindy. It was a concerning possibility, but not nearly as concerning as what actually happened next.
With new questions arriving by the minute, Melich went about trying to confirm other aspects of Casey’s story; only this time he knew he was dealing with a liar. By 9 A.M. Melich was at Universal Studios, looking for the friends, Jeff and Juliette, whom Casey claimed to have confided in about Caylee. More important, he wanted to see if the suspect, Zenaida Gonzalez, worked there, and if so, to learn more about her. He began with Universal Studio’s security manager, Leonard Turtora, and from Turtora’s office he called Casey, putting her on speakerphone.
Even though he was already at Universal, Melich lied, telling her that he was about to go to her place of employment and needed to confirm some contact information before he went there. Deception like this is a common tactic during an investigation. You never want a witness to know what you know; otherwise you lose your advantage. The hope is that if you let them lie to you and catch them in some small part of it, they will crack and abandon the lie in its entirety. Most people aren’t good at adjusting their lies on the fly, so their only options are to tell the truth or clam up altogether. At least that’s how it usually works.
Melich asked