Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [72]
When the skull was examined more closely, the duct tape was found to be three partially overlapping pieces with the brand name Henkel and with the text “Consumer Adhesives Inc. max temp 200 f Avon Ohio 44011” stamped on the back. The three pieces spanned the area from the jaw just below the right ear to the jaw just below the left ear. Small strands of hair still adhered to the tape, and the lower edge of the lowest piece of tape was bent in slightly, as if it had been pressed under the jaw. Though the tape was not adhering to the jawbone (also known as the mandible), some strands of the tape were. Dr. Utz found it unusual that the jawbone was still in its natural position in relation to the rest of the skull. He would later explain that during decomposition, when the strands of tissue holding the jawbone to the skull decompose, it always separates from the skull. The only time the mandible and skull are found in proper position is when there is something keeping them in place throughout that process, which in this instance was the tape.
There was still a lot to comb through, but even just these pieces of physical evidence were enough for us to begin relating things back to the Anthony house. A search warrant on the home was executed that very afternoon, specifically looking for those kinds of things that had been recovered at the site: any and all varieties of garbage bags or laundry bags; adhesive tape to include duct tape; all photos and photo albums, videos or CDs containing photos; Winnie-the-Pooh clothing, towels, blankets, or similar cloth items; toothbrushes and hairbrushes; and components that could be used to make chloroform, such as bleach and acetone. Even though Dr. Vass had discovered large amounts of chloroform residue in the carpet sample taken from the Pontiac, police had not returned to the Anthony home to initiate a chloroform search. The December search turned up nothing except household bleach. No acetone was found.
During the search, detectives found a number of items that connected to the crime scene. A laundry bag of the same Whitney Design brand as the one with Caylee’s remains was found in the garage. Whitney Design was a Target product, and the canvas bags lined with coated plastic were sold in sets of two, one rectangular and one cylindrical. Caylee’s remains were in a cylindrical one. A rectangular one was found in the house. Cindy would later acknowledge having purchased the cylindrical bag as well. She said that a neighbor, Brian Burner, had given her a whole bunch of plastic balls for a ball crawl for Caylee, and Cindy had used the bag for the balls. However, now she couldn’t say where it was.
Moving to the shed in the backyard, they found boxes of trash bags like the ones at the crime scene: giant-size standard black trash bags. Although they were the same kind, the product was so common that it would have been impossible to say definitely that the ones at the crime scene had come from the home. Perhaps more definitive was that they found the same brand of duct tape that had been attached to Caylee’s skull. The tape from the crime scene had been Henkel, not a common brand, and the words stamped on the back made it fairly easy to match. This same information and logo appeared on a swatch of duct tape that was stuck to the vent hole on one of the two red gas cans in the Anthonys’ back shed—the gas cans that Casey had taken from George when her car ran out of gas.
Venturing back to the house,