What I Learned About the Casey Anthony Trial, a.k.a. My First Mystery Writers Meeting
I attended my first RMMWA (Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America) meeting on Thursday. There was camaraderie, a themed cake (which was as delicious as it was fun), and a guest speaker. The speaker was Dr. Jane Bock, a forensic botanist who was an expert witness on the Casey Anthony Trial.
Dr. Bock was involved with a few pieces of evidence, but I found her involvement in the discovery of the body to be the most interesting. Caylee Anthony was last seen June 15 and wasn’t reported missing until July 15. In August, a man named Roy Kronk called the police and reported seeing a skull. The police searched the specified area but didn’t find anything. Then in December, Kronk called the police again and reported seeing a skull and this time, the police found something: Caylee’s skeleton, completely intact except for a foot.
Kronk made another phone call in November, this one telling his son to watch the news, that his dad was going to be a hero. Using leaf fall patterns, Dr. Bock showed that Caylee’s body could have been moved, meaning it’s possible that Kronk removed her body from the site and held onto it for three months, or until the reward for finding Caylee’s body had increased from $25k to $250k. Pretty disturbing, huh?
Over the course of two years, Dr. Bock spent considerable time with both attorneys and the Anthony family. The moment she realized Casey was innocent: in dealing with Casey’s father, George. Now, this guy’s a creep. He disposed of Caylee’s body in the exact same way he’d disposed of past family dogs. He’d been sexually molesting Casey her entire life; Casey was visibly relieved when her daughter’s DNA test yielded that George was not the father.
In the end, Caylee’s death was determined to be accidental and Casey was only found guilty of lying to the police, which she’d already served her full sentence for (apart from two days). For the record, George was never accused of anything. In fact, he received $200k for appearing on The Today Show.
Dr. Bock discussed other trials she’s worked on, the most recent being an 84 year old woman who was murdered in Pennsylvania, poisoned with morphine in her cup of Wendy’s chili. It turns out her granddaughter had been writing false checks in her name, and she’d just found out after a trip to her bank. The granddaughter was found guilty, and the daughter was found to be a co-conspirator.
This stuff actually happens. I mean, I watched bits and pieces of the Casey Anthony trial on TV, but it never quite felt like real life. Watching trials on TV can be good because people get to see the judicial system at work, however, the media is then given the opportunity to sensationalize and bias what really happened. Which bodes the question:
Should felony trials like the Casey Anthony trial be televised?
What I’m Reading: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Boys #2) by Maggie Stiefvater (supernatural characters + a quest to awaken a long dead king + kick-ass writing = can’t put it down)
What I’m Listening To: MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
I was sucked into watching the Casey Anthony trial. I thought George was creepy and didn’t even know about what you described in your blog. The cake in your photo looks really good.