Casey's Defense Examines EquuSearch's Records

Casey's Defense Examines EquuSearch's Records


Posted: 1:09 pm EDT October 4, 2010Updated: 6:37 pm EDT October 4, 2010

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Casey Anthony's lawyers spent hours Monday sorting through records from a group that tried to find Caylee's body. They're hoping to find something to show someone else murdered Caylee.

VIDEO REPORT: Lawyers Reviewing Records http://www.wftv.com/video/25278180/index.html

Casey's defense team spent the day behind closed doors in Orange County courtroom 19B, pouring over records pertaining to 4,000 Texas EquuSearch volunteers, getting names and numbers from the field team activity forms and calling them to find out whether they searched the Suburban Drive area where Caylee's remains were eventually found.

EquuSearch says 32 volunteers tried in late summer of 2008 to search the woods where Casey's body was eventually found, but they couldn't because it was flooded. Monday, EquuSearch founder Tim Miller told WFTV just that.

"Impossible. It was impossible to complete that area. It was impossible and, when we came back in November, conditions were better but," Miller said.

But still not dry enough for them to try again.

The defense has made claims that some volunteers have told them the area wasn't under water, that they did search and found nothing, which, the defense says, shows someone else put Caylee's body there after Casey was locked up on no bond.

"There's one witness after another that says the area was wet and under water, so if somebody says otherwise, they're either wrong or lying," Miller's attorney, Mark NeJame, said.

Investigators believe Casey murdered her daughter, hid the little girl's body in her car trunk for days and then dumped it in the woods around the corner from her house soon afterward.

Casey never reported Caylee missing, but by the time Caylee's grandmother did, a month later, investigators believe there was nothing left of her body but bones; then the rains came, hiding those bones until December 2008.

Casey's defense team wants to dispute that to try to prove someone else murdered Caylee. It says volunteer Laura Buchanan says she searched the area in late summer 2008 and found nothing. Another volunteer says Buchanan is working with the defense and is using a fake document to prove her claims.

Court documents show investigators are looking into it.

WFTV found an online post by Buchanan from October 20, 2008, six days after Caylee's mother, Casey, was indicted for murder. It says Casey's parents "Cindy and George are wonderful people if only others could see that. I know them very well."

In October 2008, Casey's parents defended her publicly.

"If somebody falsified something, I'm sure consequences will be paid. There's been a lot of time, effort and money put into this investigation, so I don't think those allegations will be taken lightly," Miller said.

The defense plans to spend another day looking over the EquuSearch records.

There's another status hearing for Casey's lawyers at the end of this month, but there are no hearings currently scheduled that require Casey to appear in court.

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