Free Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony by Jeff Ashton Page B

person in my life is missing and god only knows if I’m ever going to see her again.
C ASEY: I am the dumbest person and the worst mother I honestly hate myself.
C ASEY: The most important thing is getting Caylee back I truly hope that you can forgive me granted I will never be able to forgive myself nor will my family.
T ONY: Who is this Zanny nanny person?
C ASEY: Someone I had meet thru a personal friend almost four years ago she used to be my buddy Jeff’s nanny before she became mine.
C ASEY: I’m scared.
T ONY: Are you home?
C ASEY: Yeah almost twelve hours of stuff finally getting a shower I feel like hell.
T ONY: Where did you dropoff Caylee last time you saw her?
C ASEY: At her apartment at the bottom of the stairs
T ONY: Specifically where?
C ASEY: Sawgrass Apartments
C ASEY: Have told and showed the police the apartment
C ASEY: told them and drove out there with two different officers I just got back from the second drive.
C ASEY: If they don’t find her guess who gets blamed and spends an eternity in jail.
T ONY: Yea no shit, this is serious why would U say something sooner about this? To anyone?
T ONY: Oh and why are you texting me and not calling?
C ASEY: I talked to two people that have been directly connected to Zannie how can I sit there and be so blind and stupid it’s all my fault.
C ASEY: I was scared to admit it I was scared something was going to happen to my baby.
    The deeper Melich dug into Casey’s past, the more other stories arose. Casey’s former fiancé, Jesse Grund, also reached out to the police. He and Casey had met three years earlier, when they were both nineteen. She’d been a seasonal worker at Universal Studios, where he was a security guard. They had dated for a while and he had strong feelings for her. Then Jesse had moved to Tampa for a time and they drifted apart. When he received a call from Casey that she was pregnant and that he was going to be a dad, they rekindled the relationship. They were engaged at the time Caylee was born. After she was born, a paternity test determined that Caylee was not his child, but by that time he was hooked on Caylee’s adorable smile and agreed to raise her as his own.
    However, Jesse noted a change in Casey after Caylee was born. The sweet young woman he’d fallen hard for had turned selfish and untrustworthy. He’d ended the relationship, but they maintained a friendship. Supporting Amy’s characterization, Jesse also said that Casey had been a frequent liar during the time he’d known her. When they were engaged, she had stolen $250 from him with every excuse in the book why she couldn’t pay him back. He told Melich about a phone call he’d received from Casey on June 25, when she’d called him in an attempt to cheer him up over a recent job loss. She said that if he wanted to get together, she was free that weekend because Caylee and her nanny had gone to the beach.
    A S M ELICH WAS COMING TO understand just how unreliable and suspect Casey was, a different part of the investigation was taking place at the Forensics Garage on Colonial Drive, part of the Orange County Sheriff’s Central Operations Building. The facility housed the department’s administrative offices, investigative units, and a state-of-the-art forensics section where the Pontiac that Casey had been driving when Caylee went missing was being examined.
    George had given the police permission to process the vehicle, so they didn’t need a search warrant to proceed. The car had been brought into the garage by Johnson’s Wrecker Service, the same tow company that had removed it from the Amscot check-cashing lot on June 30. Crime Scene Investigator Gerardo Bloise was there to receive the car, along with a black plastic bag containing items that Cindy had removed from the car when it was at the house.
    Bloise inventoried the contents: a doll, a backpack, a child’s toothbrush, a black leather bag, various papers, a dinner knife, a blue plastic crate, and plastic