George Anthony Speaks About Investigation

http://www.wesh.com/news/17081458/detail.html


This Sunday it will be 56 days since nearly 3-year-old Caylee Anthony was last seen.

George Anthony spoke extensively with WESH 2 News on Sunday. He spoke, for the first time, about new evidence in gas cans that were removed from his home by investigators on Friday.

George Anthony said he asked his daughter in jail on Sunday, "Where is Caylee?" In a one-on-one interview with WESH 2 News' Bob Kealing, he explained his daughter's reply.

"'She's safe. I'm worried about the family,'" he said Casey Anthony told him. "She knows who has her daughter. I've got to believe her. Do I believe she got involved in something? Possibly, I don't know."

He said he had no problem with law enforcement taking a pair of gas cans as evidence from his home on Friday.

"My gas cans were stolen on the 24th of June. There's a report on that," he said. "They just wanted to come in and line everything up. They're doing a thorough investigation. I said, 'You guys do what you need to do. Take the shingles off my roof to bring my granddaughter back.'"

Sources close to the investigation said George Anthony admitted to the FBI that, when he first smelled his daughter's car, he thought it was the odor of a body.

"It was an overpowering smell, I admit that," he said. "It's a possibility that maybe my daughter ran over something."

He said that he now believes the smell came from the combination of a rotting pizza and a cleaning fluid bottle being left in a hot car for 15 days. George Anthony said his daughter told him about a jailhouse letter she wrote.

"My daughter said, 'Dad, I've written some things and given it to Mr. Baez,'" he said. "That's all she said, and I said, 'OK.'"

George Anthony said Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, has finished the paperwork to take her bond appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Authorities also confirmed on Sunday that Casey Anthony's on-again, off-again boyfriend Jesse Grund admitted to law enforcement last week that, in a June 24 cell phone conversation, he did not hear Caylee in the background.

He said he only heard Casey Anthony tell her daughter to get off a table.

George Anthony said that controversial photographs released of Casey Anthony partying date back to when she was pregnant. He said the family feels strongly that none of the photos were taken after the time Caylee disappeared.

Casey Anthony told her father that she is writing a lot and has turned all of that over to Baez.