Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [62]
THROUGHOUT ALL THESE INTERVIEWS AND developments, our office was regularly updated on the investigation during frequent meetings with members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI. The FBI had become involved in the case early on when Caylee was reported as missing, and they continued to offer their support as the investigation shifted focus. Usually in attendance at the meeting were FBI agent Nick Savage (which I always thought was a great name for an FBI agent or a superhero) and FBI intelligence analyst Karen Cowan. Karen was our liaison to the lab and coordinated the transfer of evidence between the agencies.
These meetings were usually held in a large conference room at the sheriff’s office, and they were particularly helpful for getting me caught up on the parts of the investigation that I was not directly involved with. Detective Melich and Linda were in constant contact individually on every aspect of the investigation, and while Linda would fill me in during my meetings with her on a day-to-day basis, I had my hands full focusing on the forensics. There were many occasions at those meetings when I’d hear the investigators talk about something seemingly explosive, and excitedly I would turn to her and whisper, “Did we know that?” only to hear her response, “Yeah, that’s old news.” I remember one time in particular dashing into Linda’s office when I knew Frank was there. I was all fired up because I’d just learned about the “Bella Vita” tattoo, but when I got there, they just laughed at me, since they’d known of it for months. Such was the nature of being the case’s resident science nerd, I suppose.
Sometimes our sessions with investigators devolved into a larger discussion of the issues involving Cindy and Jose Baez. Both of them had used the media quite vocally to criticize how the case was being conducted, and the sheriff’s office was understandably frustrated with these public attacks. Cindy was constantly in the media, perpetuating a mythical image of Casey as the ideal mother and attacking the police for not chasing down the red herrings she threw their way. Whether it was someone who’d supposedly seen Caylee at the airport or witnessed Caylee in some security footage from a convenience store, Cindy always seemed to have some lead about Caylee’s whereabouts that, upon closer inspection, would turn out to lead nowhere. Yet Cindy spoke to the media with such frequency about these “leads” that there was always something she could accuse the sheriff’s office of not following through with. Cindy and George had even gone to the FBI in late August, citing frustration with the sheriff’s investigators who, they claimed, were focused on pinning a crime on Casey instead of finding Caylee.
All the agencies worked very amicably together and shared any information they had discovered. The FBI knew what the sheriff’s office knew: Cindy’s hints and tips had been tracked down and ruled out at every turn, wasting precious time and resources on what amounted to a lot of smoke and mirrors. Theories abounded that Cindy knew more than she was saying or that maybe George was involved in hiding the remains, though nothing was ever uncovered to indicate that either of those conjectures was true.
The investigators were equally frustrated with Jose. They perceived his approach to the case as two-faced. In public statements, he would profess a concern for Caylee’s safe return and promise Casey’s cooperation, only to thwart every attempt authorities made to get useful information from her. He, too, would then criticize the investigators for their