Lawyer: Caylee Anthony's grandparents wait, agonize

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-caylee1508dec15,0,556636.story

Sara K. Clarke | Sentinel Staff Writer
December 15, 2008

Family members of missing toddler Caylee Anthony were "devastated" by the discovery last week of the remains of a small child near their home but held on to hopes Sunday that the child might still be alive as law-enforcement officers continued to comb the scene of the gruesome finding.

The family met with their attorney, Brad Conway, who said his clients are asking for privacy as they await positive identification of the body.

"They're devastated," Conway said. "They're realistic about the probability that it's Caylee, but they pray that it's not."

Orange County deputies and the FBI continued to search the crime scene Sunday for clues in the case of the missing toddler. Caylee, then 2, was reported missing in July, about a month after she was last seen by her grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. The toddler's mother, Casey Anthony, was charged in October with first-degree murder.

On Thursday, a meter reader found a skull less than a quarter-mile from the home of Caylee's grandparents, marking the first major break in the case in months.

Orange sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla said Sunday that thick undergrowth in the area where the body was found has made for slow searching.

"They're being very tedious and very methodical," he said.

Sheriff Kevin Beary said a search of the grandparents' home where the mother and daughter lived had yielded links to the remains that he would not reveal.

When asked whether he thought George and Cindy Anthony would be charged in connection to the crime, the Anthonys' attorney said "there's always something" that law enforcement could come up with but insisted his clients have done nothing wrong.

"If they do get charged, we will be prepared to aggressively defend them," Conway said.

At a news conference held Sunday evening, Anthony family spokeswoman Michelle Bart announced that Conway would be the new family spokesman or appoint someone at a later time. She said she would remain in the area to help the family out.

Back at the crime scene, a makeshift memorial continued to form at the edge of the area that authorities have roped off with yellow tape.

People came in their Sunday best to deposit teddy bears, flowers and other trinkets.

Darleen Mahoney, who used to live in the area, drove down from her home in Kingsland, Ga., to put flowers and a note at the memorial site. She has followed the case of the missing toddler on the Internet.

"I've had such a huge connection to this child," Mahoney said.

California bounty hunter Leonard Padilla -- who had previously bailed Casey Anthony out of jail on lesser child-neglect charges -- stood by a canal, taking photos with well-wishers and handing out autographs. At one point, Padilla had conducted his own search for Caylee.

"It's the soap opera in America where you don't have to pay the actors and it's all real," he said.