There’s been a ton of news in the case of missing little girl Caylee Anthony.

But wait, there’s more…

Actress and former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were found murdered in Chicago:

The mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead Friday at a South Side home, and police were looking for a missing child who is the nephew of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.

“We can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the deaths of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson,” Hudson’s personal publicist, Lisa Kasteler, said in a statement. “No further comment will be made and the family has asked that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.”

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the deaths appeared to be the result of domestic abuse. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said autopsies for Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, were pending. [...]

Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson said a family member entered the home around 3 p.m. Friday, found a woman shot on the living room floor and left to notify authorities. Responding officers found a man shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry.

Jennifer’s nephew Julian is also listed as missing:

Authorities issued an Amber Alert for 7-year-old Julian King and were seeking a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban. The child was the grandson of the female victim, Patterson said.

The alert said the child was possibly abducted and could be accompanied by a man named William Balfour — considered armed and dangerous — who was a suspect in the double homicide investigation. Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, who has not been charged with a crime, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle. [...]

The two could also be in a teal or green Chrysler Concorde with a temporary license plate, a left front headlight hanging out and scratches on the left side of the vehicle, police said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jennifer and her family.

UPDATE:  It seems that there is a suspect in custody, and this whole sad story apparently stems from an ongoing domestic problem within the family:

The hunt for Jennifer Hudson’s 7-year-old nephew continues to intensify. And we’re told the operating theory among Chicago detectives is an “ongoing domestic dispute” between the suspect, William Balfour, and his estranged wife, Julia Hudson.

Chicago cops would not be more specific, other than to tells us there is an “underlying domestic aspect” to the investigation … that there was “trouble in the marriage.”

We’re told cops continue to interview people, but no one other than Balfour is in custody. As for Balfour, so far no charges have been filed.

Chicago cops are now using flyers with Julian King’s pic to find the missing boy.

The boy hasn’t been seen since the bodies of Hudson’s mother and brother were found Friday in her home in the South side of Chicago. The two had been shot to death.

The police will be handing out the flyers today all over Chicago, particularly on the South side.

According to CNN, which stated in an earlier report that Casey Anthony, mother of missing toddler Caylee Anthony, would surrender to police if indicted by a grand jury today. It seems as though that indictment has come to pass. Here are more details from CNN:

Casey Anthony was taken to jail after officers observed her switch cars on a highway and pulled her over, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Earlier Tuesday, Anthony’s lawyer said his client would turn herself in if the grand jury returned an indictment against her.

“She’s not running from this,” attorney Jose Baez said as his 22-year-old client wiped tears from her eyes during an impromptu media briefing before the charges against her were announced. “She’s doing her best to stand strong, to stand up to the powers that are working against her. And they threw the kitchen sink at her a long time ago.”

After the indictment, undercover officers followed Anthony as she traveled in her mother’s SUV. The officers saw the SUV stop under a highway overpass, at which point Anthony got into another vehicle and drove off. Officers made the traffic stop after she entered the second vehicle, the spokesman said.

Prosecutors are asking Anthony be held without bond.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to police.

Lawson Lamar, the state attorney for Orange County, Florida, said the first count is a capital charge — which could carry a penalty of life in prison or death.

The 19 grand jurors — 10 women and nine men — deliberated for about half an hour after hearing from police, a cadaver dog handler, an FBI agent and the missing child’s grandfather.

The article also pointed out, that despite efforts to recover the missing child, 3-year old Caylee whereabouts remain unknown. As the article stated, George Anthony, father to Casey and Caylee’s grandfather, testified before the grand jury. Mr. Anthony made a statement before stepping before the court:

“This is going to be very hard for me to do. The focus has always been on my granddaughter and always will be. I love my daughter, I love my wife, I love my son,” Anthony said.

He asked for the public to keep his family, especially Caylee, in their prayers. “If someone could take a moment out at 11 o’clock this morning and 11 o’clock tonight and just pray for her. That’s all I’m asking for. That’s all I can say.”

Prayers are something we can all afford to give for little Caylee.

For Glosslip’s extensive coverage of the Caylee Anthony case, please click here.

Just a quick update on the continuing case of missing toddler Caylee Anthony, and her mother Casey, who continues to maintain her innocence in the face of ever-mounting evidence against her.

But wait, there’s more…

While long having been a “person of interest” in the disappearance of her daughter, Caylee, Casey Anthony has now officially been named a suspect:

Orange County deputies are now calling the mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony a suspect in the girl’s disappearance.

Casey Anthony, 22, was first called a ‘person of interest’ by investigators in mid-July , but only recently did they begin to refer to her as a suspect.

Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Angelo Nieves said there was no new evidence to prompt the change.

“Her information has been suspect since we began this investigation,” Nieves said. “This is a person who has been uncooperative since the first day.”

A person of interest is someone law enforcement wants to speak to in order to provide information about a case, Nieves said. A suspect, on the other hand, is someone who is believed to have been involved in crime.

Anthony has been charged with child neglect and filing a false statement to law enforcement. She faces several check fraud charges in unrelated cases.

“Over the past two and half months we have been diligently working to resolve the case of the missing child,” Nieves said. “The information she has provided has proven to be false.”

And it has been learned that investigators are now searching in a couple of new areas:

Both wooded areas they’re searching are not far from where Casey Anthony lives with her parents. One is near the Amscot at Goldenrod and Highway 50 where Casey abandoned her car in late June. Investigators have searched the area more than once with cadaver dogs.

The other area is closer to Orlando International Airport, where a driver told investigators she saw a car like Casey’s white Pontiac Sunfire parked in the median days after Caylee disappeared and she saw someone slight of build wearing a baseball cap and what looked like athletic wear walk out of the woods, someone she believes could have been Casey. It was odd to her because it’s not a popular spot for joggers.

We’ve been following this case for a while now and have read many documents and seen many interviews with people connected with it.  I happened to catch this interview, and I thought it was one of the better ones I’ve seen.  On the Today show Thursday morning, ex-fiance Jesse Grund (who came across as very well-spoken) urged Casey to tell the truth and stop paying games:

“Casey, tell the truth. This isn’t about you anymore. This is about Caylee,” Jesse Grund said at the end of an interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer Thursday in New York. “Stop dragging people’s lives through this. Stop destroying people’s lives and tell the truth. What happened to Caylee?” [...]

It is said again that Cindy Anthony believed, possibly still does, that Jesse is the one who knows where Caylee is:

“My number one suspect has been Jesse all along,” Cindy Anthony tells a detective, who replies: “We know that Jesse doesn’t have Caylee.” Grund confirmed that he has taken a polygraph test to clear his name, and told Lauer he’s been cooperating in the investigation into the disappearance of the little girl.

He says that while he felt it was impossible that he was Caylee’s father (later proven by a paternity test), he treated the little girl like she was his own:

When Casey Anthony became pregnant with Caylee, she initially told Grund that he was the father. Even though he didn’t think it was possible — they had broken up before she became pregnant — he involved himself with Caylee and treated her like a daughter.

“I petitioned for a paternity test, and there was zero percent probability” that he was the father, he told Lauer. He also explained why he took a paternal interest in Caylee when she was born: “My attitude was, until the paternity test comes out, I’m not going waste time or miss out if this really is my child.”

He reveals that even though he caught her in lies and stealing from him, he never thought that she was a bad mom:

Since the disappearance, Casey Anthony has been portrayed as almost a pathological liar. Police interview tapes show detectives telling her that everything she told them about the disappearance had proved to be lies. Lauer asked Grund if he saw evidence of that.

“At the very end of our relationship, absolutely,” Grund replied. “At the very end, she started to lie about things. I was one of the ones she stole money from. She stole $250 from me, and then made up an excuse why she couldn’t pay me back, or made up excuses why she couldn’t be places with me. I found out she was actually seeing someone else at the end of our relationship.”

It was a radical change from the young woman he had been briefly engaged to.

“She was a very good mother, Matt,” Grund said. “She was very doting. She was devoted. Caylee was the center of her universe.”

Lauer asked if he saw any indication that Casey Anthony was having trouble coping with being a single mother.

“Absolutely not. No, not at the beginning,” Grund said, “Not when Caylee was a baby. There was no indication she was having any problems being a mother.”

Casey Anthony has been portrayed as a woman more interested in partying than in being a mother, but Grund repeated that in the beginning, she wasn’t like that at all.

“She was very much into being a homebody and loyal, and she was wanting to spend the rest of our lives together,” he said. He traced the transformation in Casey Anthony to when she formed a closer relationship with her mother, from whom she had previously distanced herself.

“She started to pull away, and it started to become about her,” Grund said. “She started to party and drink — this lifestyle that now we’ve seen pictures of out there. And then the lying started to come … [When] she started becoming close with her mother, it started a transformation.”

But could she have harmed her child?

“The Casey that I knew, no,” he said. “But … who knows the real Casey? I think only she does. I think her personality has been so changed and molded over the years, I don’t even know if she knows who she is.”

His final words to Casey?

Addressing his ex-fiancé directly, Grund said: “We’re all done with having to listen to your lies and your stories that make no sense over and over and over again. So tell the truth about what happened.”

Yes, absolutely.  We are all tired of the lies.  The stories go round and round and they don’t make any sense.  Casey, for once in your life, do the right thing.  This isn’t about you any longer.  You can only attempt to twist the police around for so much longer before they drop the hammer on you.  Everyone is tired of your games, Casey.  Caylee deserves more respect than that.  If there was ever any tiny bit of love for your daughter, please…tell the truth.

Just tell the truth.

It’s been a rather quiet week on the Caylee Anthony case, which is probably a good thing…too much negative publicity and just plain junk going on there for a while.  Hopefully this means the police can concentrate more on finding Caylee and on gathering enough evidence to pin this crime on her mother, Casey.  Yes, I am more firmly convinced than ever that her mother was the cause of little Caylee’s death, but whether it was purposefully or accidentally remains to be seen.

Some updates in the case:

But wait, there’s more…

There’s some new news in the search for little Caylee Anthony, although it isn’t the news we want.  Over the weekend, a planned prayer vigil was cancelled, since such activities tend to draw violent protesters.  Also, the trust fund connected with HelpFindCaylee.com has been shut down:

[Attorney Paul] Kelley said the trouble started when SunTrust Bank told him they’d been getting harassing e-mails from people critical of the fund, and the bank was shutting down the account. Kelley said his firm got some of those same e-mails.

Kelley said he won’t reveal the exact amount in the fund, but he said it wasn’t much and that what was spent so far was used to pay for search-related items, like posters and water for volunteers. He also said he can account for every penny spent and that none of it went directly to the Anthony family.

Three more counts of check fraud against Casey have been added to the original ten.  An episode filmed recently about Caylee for the Dr. Phil show (yes, I couldn’t make this stuff up) is set to air tonight (Monday, September 22), so we can hear the good “doctor” pontificate on just why the family is screwed up and just how do they feel about that?  And the homeowner’s association is continuing their fight today to curb violent and late-night protests, going back before a judge today.

A recent article I wrote incited great feeling amongst GlossLip readers.  In it, I called for an end to violent protesting at the Anthony home, since the violent demonstrations are doing nothing but causing havoc in the neighborhood, creating a dangerous environment for the neighbors and children living in the area, and giving air time on television and the Internet to society’s lowest common denominator.  At this time, I would like to reiterate my stance yet again, simply because I don’t want misunderstandings, and I think perhaps there were some.  I apologize if there were.

But wait, there’s more…

DISCLAIMER:  I don’t have a problem with legal, organized, peaceful protests. (Any of the people at the Anthony house applied for a permit?)

I do have a major problem with jerks, hooligans, people looking to start a fight, trespassers, and people who take the law into their own hands.

Yes, this includes the behavior of the Anthony family, who (I believe) have acted just as bad.  I think the way they have handled this is nothing less than appalling.

Just so we are clear. I am not on the Anthony’s “side”. I am as upset with them as anyone, that is why I keep writing these stories. I want to see justice for Caylee, but I want it within the law. When ordinary citizens start taking the law into their own hands they run the risk of compromising the investigation and due process.

Welcome back my friends/To the show that never ends…

This is the second time this week I’ve used that lyric to describe a circus-like atmosphere surrounding a case.  I’m going to attempt an update of what has gone on since my last post on the subject.

But wait, there’s more…

UPDATE #2:  According to The Criminal Report Daily, here is why Casey was arrested again:

CAYLEE ANTHONY UPDATE 13
September 15, 2008
Casey Anthony faces new charges

Orange County investigators from the agency’s Economic Crimes Squad have arrested Casey Anthony for Uttering a Forged Instrument, Petit Theft, and Criminal Use of Personal Information in connection with their ongoing investigation into Ms. Anthony’s illegal use of a friend’s bank account.  The defendant was arrested without incident at the Orange County Jail following a scheduled visit with her home confinement release supervisor.  She was with counsel at the time of her arrest and is expected to remain in custody until her first appearance tomorrow morning.

We will post the report/charging affidavit on our web site when it becomes available.

D/S Carlos Padilla
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Office of Media Relations

UPDATE:  Casey has been arrested yet again.  No word yet on exactly what the charges are although they could relate to theft from one of Casey’s friends.

And just in case you’re confused, the title is sarcasm.

First, let’s try and quickly get up to speed on the latest news in this sordid, never-ending case.  Over the weekend, investigators released recordings of Casey Anthony’s interrogation:

A series of responses given by Casey Anthony during police interviews are not consistent with a desperate mother who wants to find her daughter, a psychologist told Local 6.

“Most people who are interviewed by police officers don’t manage their emotions that well,” Dr. Deborah Day said of Casey Anthony during questioning over her daughter. “They get upset, they get agitated and they get angry.” [...]

The last time I got pulled over by the police on a minor speeding infraction, I got upset.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to be interrogated by the police if one of my children was missing.

In the interviews conducted on July 16, Casey continued to be a tough nut to crack:

“What happened to Caylee,” an investigator asks on the tape.

“I don’t know,” Casey Anthony said.

“Sure you do,” and investigator said.

“I don’t know,” Anthony said.

“Listen, something happened to Caylee,” an investigator said. “We’re not going to discuss where the last time you saw her (was). I’m guessing something bad happened to her some time ago and you haven’t seen her, so that part is true — is you haven’t seen her because she’s somewhere else right now.”

“She’s with someone else right now,” Anthony said.

“She’s either in a Dumpster right now, she’s buried somewhere, she’s out there somewhere and her rotten body is starting to decompose because what you’re tellING us…,” an investigator said. “Here’s the problem. The longer this goes, the worse it’s going to be for everyone. Right now, everything you’ve told us — we’ve locked you into a lie. Every single thing that you’ve told us has been a lie.”

Day said the only time she heard Casey Anthony get emotional on released tapes is when she talks about her relationship with her mother, Cindy. and not her daughter, Caylee, Local 6’s Jessica D’Onofrio reported.

A detective was pressing Casey Anthony about how she wasn’t living up to her mother’s expectations.

You can hear the recordings here.  The parts involving Cindy are pretty interesting, especially as there has been speculation that Casey murdered little Caylee as revenge against her mother.  Casey also pled “not guilty” to ten check fraud charges, the basis of her latest arrest.  Slowly but surely the police are building their case.

But wait, there’s more…

UPDATE:  According to the Post-Chronicle (yeah, well) Casey may be re-arrested tonight.  I’m not finding it anywhere else, though.  I’m a night owl, so if anything happens before I go to bed I’ll update again.

UPDATE #2:  Florida stations are starting to say the same thing:  WESH

UPDATE #3:  New charges have been filed against Casey Anthony:

1.Grand Theft Third Degree

2.Fraudulent Use of Personal identification Information

3.Forgery of a check

4.Uttering a forged check

5.Fraudulent Use of Personal Identification Information

6.Forgery of a check

7.Uttering a forged check

8.Fraudulent Use of Personal Identification Information

9.Forgery of a check

10.Uttering a forged check

Just when you thought this case could not get any stranger, it gets stranger.  On the heels of the “high-five” incident and news that a counselor advised Cindy Anthony to kick Casey out of the home after she was busted stealing money out of an account set up for the long-term care of her grandparents (thus possibly setting up the murder of little Caylee for revenge), it’s now being revealed that people actually want to pay Casey for her story:

A spokesman for Jose Baez said offers have come in as high as $1.5 million for book rights, movie rights, TV deals, even a pay-per-view offer.

“I can tell you just for interview areas alone they can range from $50,000 to $350,000. We’ve even had an offer come from an overseas company that specializes in pay per view and those offers can exceed $1 million,” Jose Baez Law Firm spokesman Todd Black said.

Black said they’re listening to all offers but for now not accepting anything.

“We’ve made it clear to everyone that their inquiry will be put in to a file and we don’t know whether that file will ever have to be opened,” Black said.

Much of it, Black said, depends on how extensive Casey Anthony’s defense will have to be.

He said they’re building a Web site for Casey Anthony’s defense fund and assembling a team of defense experts.

And here I thought this case couldn’t get any more repulsive.

But wait, there’s more…