Evidence Links Remains To Caylee's House

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 12, 2008

(CBS/AP) The search for missing Caylee Anthony may be over.

A medical examiner found evidence among a child's remains that link them to the home of the missing toddler, the county sheriff said Friday, offering the strongest indication yet that the remains may be those of the 3-year-old girl who disappeared last summer.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said investigators searched the home early Friday after the medical examiner found "some clues that came out of the remains" that "linked it to the house." He would not say what clues were found.

"We took some things out of the house that the forensic people are very interested in," he said.

The remains were found Thursday by a utility worker on a wooded lot less than a half-mile from the house where 3-year-old Caylee lived with her grandparents and her mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassman reported that DNA testing of the remains is underway, and detectives hope to have a positive ID of the remains by this weekend.

Beary said his investigators and the FBI would work around the clock and through the weekend to identify the child.

Asked if he believed if the remains are Caylee, Beary said: "I think it's a good possibility, but I have to wait seven to 14 days for the DNA analysis."

There are no other similar missing-child cases in the area.

"I say my prayers every day and one of them is to solve this case," said Beary, who is retiring in January. "I just hope that we solve the case on my watch."

A judge denied a motion Friday filed by the defense to inspect the remains, saying they must wait for a positive identification.

"The investigation continues, and with this recent development, I believe that everybody is going to be probably re-interviewed and we're going to talk to everybody," Police Captain Angelo Nieves of the Orange County Sheriff's Department told CBS Early Show anchor Julie Chen.

The investigators' focus now: the Anthonys' home. Detectives searched it again overnight, with the family kept out.

CBS affiliate WKMG reports that crime scene detectives removed materials, including seven large paper bags and four boxes of evidence. They also seized four vacuum cleaners and two pesticide tanks.

CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said investigators are likely searching for possible matches between trash bags and duct tape found at the crime scene and what is at the grandparents' house. "If so, there is potentially a case against the grandparents," Bloom told Chen. "I emphasize 'potentially' for accessory after the fact, although no charges are pending against them."

It's the latest turn in a sad, six-month mystery in which a three-year-old girl disappeared one month before her mother reported the disappearance.

Caylee's mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even though the toddler's body hadn't been found. She has insisted that she left the girl with a baby sitter in June, but she didn't report Caylee missing until July.

But Casey and her family have insisted she killed no one.

"We still believe firmly that Caylee is alive," said Cindy Anthony, Caylee's grandmother, last month. "That's where our focus has been from day one."

And in an earlier, recorded jail conversation, Casey Anthony said this about her little girl: "She's not far. I know in my heart she's not far. I can feel it."

Lawrence Kobilinsky, professor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (who has also been retained by Casey Anthony's defense team), told Chen that Caylee's mother, when informed of the discovery, "is apparently quite upset by this finding.

"I'm sure she's having psychological counseling."

Kobilinsky said the first step is to identify the skeletal remains, which he said can be difficult, particularly for a young child. "So you really need to use techniques such as mitochondrial DNA analysis [daughters and mothers share the same mitochondrial DNA]. If there is any soft tissue that remains, the normal PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis that we hear about in criminal cases is applicable."

Testing, however, may be compromised because of the exposure of the remains to contaminants in the environment. "Keep in mind, this area was under water because of Hurricane Fay until a couple of months ago," Kobilinsky told Chen.

"We may not know the cause of death and that is a key factor here. Even the postmortem interval may not be established with a degree of accuracy, so there are still a lot of questions."

Prosecutors announced last week that they would not seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony. But if DNA tests confirm these remains are little Casey, prosecutors could have the evidence needed to make this a capital case after all: a body.

"If the defense had been able to go to trial without a body being discovered, hopes for reasonable doubt might have been compelling. If the body proves to be Caylee, then it immediately becomes an uphill case for the defense," former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said.

But law experts said it was unlikely the state would reverse its decision because prosecutors still have not determined a motive.

And depending on what the evidence yields, the discovery could also help defense attorneys.

Bloom said that if the remains prove to be Caylee, it drastically alters the defense of her mother: "If they can establish the manner of death is different than what the prosecution alleges, that would be helpful to them."

"If the body was tampered with, if wild animals got to it, if the evidence they get with it is contradictory in some way, then the job (for prosecutors) just got tougher," said Jim Cohen, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.

"This can verify or help to verify their theory: that the child was killed when the prosecution thinks she was killed," said Richard G. Lubin, a criminal defense lawyer based in West Palm Beach. "But until you do some of this scientific work, we don't know what it's going to show."

A spokeswoman with the state attorney's office said Thursday that officials wouldn't comment until the investigation was complete.

Even if it's Caylee, no one can say when the sorrow will end.

"It's a double-edged sword," said family friend Holly Gagne. "Either way there's pain, either way there's suffering. So there's no answer, no right answer."