Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [58]
Shirley greeted the officers warmly and invited them inside. It didn’t take long for her to confirm that Casey had stolen money from her. The first time had been on Caylee’s second birthday, August 9, 2007. Shirley noticed one of her checks missing and found out that Casey had cashed it at a local Publix supermarket for $54. Shirley was mad at her granddaughter, but said she forgave her.
A couple of months later, however, she noticed $354 missing from her bank account. It was this theft that Rick had told the investigators about. Shirley had again confronted Casey, who admitted to the theft but used the excuse about needing a phone for her job at Universal Studios. As in Rick’s version of events, Shirley didn’t buy Casey’s story. Shirley said that she would have pressed charges, but for Caylee’s and Cindy’s sake she didn’t.
When asked if she knew anything about Casey’s supposed nanny, she said she had heard the name Zanny for more than a year, although she had never seen, met, or spoken to the woman. She also confirmed that Cindy had acted as if she didn’t know that Casey was pregnant at her son Rick’s wedding in 2005.
Shirley knew that Casey and Caylee had left the house in mid-June. Initially, her daughter had told her that Casey and Caylee were “going to bond.” But the story later changed to their going on a vacation and then to their going to Tampa. Shirley admitted that she thought the stories her daughter was telling her were “a lot of bull on Casey’s part.” During the month Casey was gone, she said that Cindy would talk to Casey on the phone, but every time she’d ask to speak with Caylee, Casey would say they’d be home “tomorrow.” And tomorrow never came.
ON SEPTEMBER 5, DETECTIVE MELICH received a phone call from Richard Grund, the father of Casey’s former fiancé, Jesse. Richard agreed to meet with Melich and Sergeant Allen later that day. Although Richard and George Anthony were not really friends, Caylee’s disappearance had brought them back into contact. Richard told the detectives that after Caylee was reported missing, he had offered to help the Anthony family in their search efforts. On the second Sunday that the family was holding a vigil for Caylee, Richard called George, but he got voice mail, so he left him a message. “Why aren’t you doing what ex-cops do?”
According to Richard, George called him back immediately and said, “Here’s my answer to your question as to why I’m not doing what you think I should be doing: because my wife doesn’t want me to.”
Richard went on to explain to the police that Cindy ruled that household. “Whatever Cindy wants is what Cindy gets,” he remarked. Adding to Richard’s sense of unease was a recent conversation with Cindy in which she told him, “You know, I could lose both my girls on this one.” This was the first time he believed that Cindy knew something was wrong.
He also had some interesting things to add about Casey, Caylee, and the nanny. He explained that while Jesse was engaged to Casey, she had claimed to be working full-time, but she didn’t have a babysitter. Richard said that his son decided to give up his only day off from work to watch Caylee on Mondays. Soon other people in his family were watching the child two other days a week.
“So now Caylee’s at our house three days out of the week during work,” he said. “I think Casey was there at night and on the weekends. I don’t have a problem with that because Caylee’s a wonderful little girl. But I work out of my house, and this was a severe disruption to me. So I began to press Casey, ‘Have you found anybody yet?’ And then when she finally said she found someone, it was really odd. Rather than just saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve got that worked out,’ she said, ‘Yeah, I found this lady, Zenaida Gonzalez, and she watches my friend Jeffrey Hopkins’s son, Zachary. And Zachary and Caylee play together, and they love to be together. So this’ll work out great.’
“I’m thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a whole lot more information