Caylee Anthony: Meter Reader Tried Three Times In August To Report Bag In Woods
In what could turn out to be a total blunder by law enforcement, the meter reader who found a bag containing a human child’s skull in an area near the Anthony home tried three times in August to report the suspicious bag:
An Orange County utilities worker tried three times in August to alert law enforcement of a strange gray bag on the side of Suburban Drive near the home of missing Caylee Marie Anthony, a sheriff’s official said Thursday.
Three times, deputy sheriffs checked the tips with no results. When curiosity led the same utility worker back to the same spot last week, he found the remains of a small child.
Now, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is trying to figure out what happened four months ago and how its deputies handled the calls. The tipster, who has not been publicly identified, is not considered a suspect and has been cooperating with deputies, officials said.
“We are attempting to be as thorough, as clear and as concise as possible with the information that we received. There was a window of opportunity, possibly …” Capt. Angelo Nieves said. “We had a deputy respond to this location.”
The meter reader “provided several phone calls to our Crimeline as well as our communications center,” the captain added during a late afternoon press conference. “We are currently following up on that sequence to determine the thoroughness of the response here to the scene.”
Over a three-day period in August, this meter reader attempted three different times to report what he felt was a suspicious-looking bag:
A sheriff’s official offered this outline of the three tips by the utility worker in August:
– On Aug. 11, the meter reader called the sheriff’s office communication center to report a bag on the “right side” of the road near the intersection of Suburban and Hopespring drives. The meter reader was not there when a deputy arrived. The officer cleared the scene.
– On Aug. 12, the worker called Crimeline, which collect tips on unsolved crimes. That information was documented and sent to a detective, who made a note that the area had been searched by a cadaver dog and the tip was closed out.
– On Aug. 13, after the worker called the communication center again, two deputies responded to the area — each arriving separately — and they met with the meter reader. At least one deputy checked the woods and cleared the scene for a second time.
“We will conduct an administrative follow-up to try to determine what occurred with the deputy when he responded out to the scene, why he handled himself how he did,” Nieves said.
I’d certainly hope so, although I have a feeling they will decide that the policeman did nothing wrong. After all, a bag found in a wooded area in the relative vicinity of a missing child’s home couldn’t possibly warrant further investigation. I mean, didn’t this deputy even poke the bag, or open it to look inside? Even if it was just trash that someone had thrown out, at least it would have been a definitive conclusion.
At first glance, it seems that this guy has been cleared of any wrongdoing and is just a concerned citizen who followed this on the news, like the rest of us, and remained doggedly determined:
VAN SUSTEREN: FOX’s Phil Keating is live at the scene in Florida. Phil, this is a very strange coincidence, that this man — the meter reader who found the skull on December 11 also saw a bag in August. If it’s the same color bag, it’s less weird to me, I guess. But what can you tell me about this?
PHIL KEATING, FOX CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of bags that were in those woods at the time when Caylee Anthony was reported missing. We even sent our own photographer in those woods, roughly 30 to 40 feet away from the present crime scene. You could see in that videotape there was a lot of litter, bags, trash, debris. This is an area which is known in the neighborhood as a place for teenagers to go get away from adults. An din fact, back in July, we spoke with one of Casey’s friends who told us when she was a kid, she would go back there.
So this gentleman, the county water meter reader, is one of so many in the Orlando area that are absolutely consumed with everything about this story about a missing child named Caylee Anthony. It has been on the news day in and day out here, not just the first month, but basically, until last Thursday. And it continues to be in the paper and broadcast nightly on the news. This is one of those many people who’s following every inch of the investigation. He looks at maps at home, I presume, sees this wooded area right near the house and suggests in three phone calls in August, You should go check this out. Next day, You should go check it out. Next day, You should go check it out.
According to the sheriff’s department, four months go by. No one’s ever found Caylee Anthony’s remains. The guy happens to be reading meters in the Anthony neighborhood. According to the investigators, last Thursday, gets to the corner, sees the woods down the street and decides, You know what? I’m going to go ahead and take a little break and take a walk through those woods and just whatever became of my tip, was there anything actually back there. And then in what has got to be the most shocking coincidence of the year, he actually discovers the remains he suggested police may find or deputies may find.
Of course, everything here is pertinent, whether or not these remains have been here five or six months and whether they ultimately will be identified as Caylee’s. If both of those come true, then there’s going to be serious questions raised (INAUDIBLE) Orange County sheriff’s department as to why it wasn’t until August 13…
VAN SUSTEREN: But that…
KEATING: … Following the third tip from this guy, that they finally went thoroughly into those woods and not so thoroughly at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well, that’s a whole different issue. That’s whether the police have done their job effectively, the way they’re supposed to according to procedure. The more bizarre thing to me is why this guy in August is the one who gives the tip, and he’s the one who actually finds it in December. And quite reasonably, I’m curious about that because the whole idea of the defense is whether or not somebody’s moved it, move it, if, indeed, that is Caylee, and whether or not somebody else did something. So I mean, it’s, like — it’s more than just whether the police have followed up on a tip. There’s a lot more to this.
The site was flooded in September when Texas EquuSearch was there, and when they came back in November the site had a fence around it. A volunteer said that searchers had attempted to canvass the area, a secluded place where Casey and her friends used to party, but the terrain was steep and full of snakes. The meter reader initially said that he found the bag when he went into the woods to relieve himself, but now it seems that he was possibly following up on what the police didn’t seem to be able to. This time, instead of calling a tipline, he went straight to 911.
It is kind of weird, though, that he is the one who found the remains, seemingly by accident, after the area had already been searched, and after he had been there three times already. But, Florida has had so much rain and flooding that I’m sure trash and debris has moved from one spot to another. It’s hard to say at this point and only time will tell if he is truly an innocent citizen or if there’s something more to this story.
Another interesting thing about the site is that there appears to be what might be a hardcover book in the underbrush, and it is believed that it could be similar to one that we’ve seen Caylee reading while sitting at her kitchen table. If you look at this photo gallery, you can see what they are talking about (I put an arrow in the photo above). Caylee was last seen leaving her house with a backpack. When my kids were little, they took their favorite toys with them in their little backpacks, and often took books in them to look at.
I don’t mean to come down too hard on the police, because this sounds like an isolated case of incompetence and not indicative of the department as a whole. In their defense, they have received many, many tips on where Caylee might be, from neighbors and psychics and people all over the country. They may have thought this guy was just another crackpot and there may in fact be more to his story that it appears. But then again, if you’re faced with a bag in a wooded area in fairly close proximity to where a missing child was last seen, wouldn’t you at least open it to see what was inside?
We are a blog, not hard-hitting news. These are our opinions. GlossLip has continuing coverage of the disappearance of Caylee Anthony here.
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highly odd. almost… suspicious. and they just announced that the remains are caylee which makes it even more unusual.
Comment by jessica thomasson — December 19, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
i hope they have enough evidence to convict that witch “mother” of caylee for this. she deserves the death penalty.
Comment by sally — December 19, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
I’ve created an updated post here.
Comment by k — December 19, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
In no way can I imagine why police weren’t all over this area especially since it was so close to the home. It seems like another police bungled job, snakes/water/whatever. There are wet suits to go into areas like this and they just didn’t want to be inconvenienced. I’ll bet the meter reader has lost a lot of sleep worrying over this, poor guy tried to tell them to no avail.
Comment by Jan — December 19, 2008 @ 4:16 pm
[...] Source: k [...]
Pingback by Celebrity Blog | Babelogs | Celebrity Gossip » Blog Archive » Caylee Anthony: Meter Reader Tried Three Times In August To Report Bag In Woods — December 19, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
i believe that would be caylee’s book.
also, i dont know if any of you believe in orbs, but it looks like they are flying around and i believe that is caylee, one of the orbs are right above the book, i believe she is playing with her favorite book. poor little caylee, may she rest in peace.
Comment by maddie's mommy — December 24, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
I’m sorry, but those are flashes from the sunlight radiating in the camera lens. I get them all the time when I don’t use my lens adapter to cut out the glare.
Comment by k — December 24, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
k is absolutely correct; the “orbs” are only light on the lens. I would hope that if Caylee’s spirit is among us, she would visit places she knew and loved and felt safe, rather than in the lonely wooded area where she was so unceremoniously dumped like ordinary house-trash. Shame on that sorry excuse of a “mother” of hers. May Caylee live on in Peace and Light.
Comment by Kitt — December 28, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
Orbs is a hard discussion. not everyone beleives in the ‘afterlife’ of spirits. I do. I have seen way to much to consider coincidence. I was in an area where a ‘ghost’ or spirit was following myself and my son. He shows up in a pic standing in front of me. Later I capture “orbs” then a “mist or cloud” with a face in the center. The way I see it.. why don’t these reflections of dust or water ever show up when I’m at the beach taking pictures? Sand and water everywhere! Take what you want from those pics and make your own decisions. Discussion about it seems to be a dead end because science always has the answer some how or some way.
Comment by Sandie — January 11, 2009 @ 10:59 pm