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.
Continued on the next page
