Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [27]
George had given the police permission to process the vehicle, so they didn’t need a search warrant to proceed. The car had been brought into the garage by Johnson’s Wrecker Service, the same tow company that had removed it from the Amscot check-cashing lot on June 30. Crime Scene Investigator Gerardo Bloise was there to receive the car, along with a black plastic bag containing items that Cindy had removed from the car when it was at the house.
Bloise inventoried the contents: a doll, a backpack, a child’s toothbrush, a black leather bag, various papers, a dinner knife, a blue plastic crate, and plastic clothes hangers. The contents of a white plastic garbage bag were also inventoried. When George had picked up the car, the bag was in the car’s trunk, and the tow yard manager had removed it and hurled it into the Dumpster exactly as he had found it. Police had gone back to the Johnson’s Wrecker Service yard, and the bag had been recovered in its entirety from a Dumpster there. Inside the bag were a can of Copenhagen chewing tobacco; an empty bottle of Arm & Hammer laundry detergent; aluminum foil; part of a plastic hanger; a big pile of paper products; empty Sprite, Cherry Cola, Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew soda cans; an empty Milwaukee’s Best Light beer can; one hairpin; three plastic tie wraps; an empty Oscar Meyer plastic container; several dryer sheets; empty containers of Crystal Light; a cut-up pizza box; a receipt from the Fusian Ultra Lounge; a document from Full Sail University; an empty plastic bottle of Coke; a Crystal Light plastic bottle containing brown liquid; a cherry Coke carton; and a cardboard Velveeta container, among other things. There were maggots crawling on a plastic dinner tray.
Next, Bloise moved on to the car itself, photographing the exterior of the Pontiac, which was clean but not remarkably so. He then opened the sealed driver’s-side door and was immediately blasted by a smell he described as the “odor of decomposition,” quite startling in light of the physically well-maintained vehicle. The interior was tidy and vacuumed, although a few personal items were found on the seats. The right rear passenger seat had a car seat buckled in. The left rear passenger seat contained two pairs of black women’s shoes. On the front passenger seat were a brown belt, sunglasses, and a black case containing CDs.
Bad as the smell in the car was, the absolute worst of the odor was in the trunk. A dryer sheet found inside was not disguising the stench. The truck had been vacuumed but still had some type of dirt residue. Noting a stain on the right side of the trunk, Bloise cut two pieces from the D-shaped particleboard spare tire cover, surfaced with the same carpet as the trunk. He also collected a hair from that area, a hair from the middle area of the trunk liner, four hairs from the left side of the trunk area, and another from the directional light wire of the vehicle.
With a smell as potent as this, it was decided that a K-9 unit should be brought in, and so Detective Jason Forgey and his cadaver dog, Gerus, came for an inspection. Law enforcement has long recognized the superior olfactory abilities of canines, and they use different dogs for different purposes. Some are trained to separate the subtle differences between the body odors of individual humans and track those scents through the air. Others are trained to detect the presence of certain drugs or the chemical components of explosives. Still others are trained to detect the distinct odor of a decomposing human body: Gerus was such a dog. Normally Human Remains Detection Canines, or cadaver dogs as they are commonly referred to, are called in to find human remains; this call was a little different.
After circling the car just once, Gerus started showing interest by sniffing aggressively at it. Forgey opened the car door, and Gerus tried to get into the trunk from the backseat. Gerus then exited the car and ran another pass around it and alerted on the trunk for a second time. When the trunk was opened, Gerus