by JWG
When Caylee was missing, many people – from law enforcement to internet sleuths – poured over her phone records in an attempt to see if it they could determine where Casey left Caylee’s body. The reason her phone records were important to this search was that the “pings’ her phone made off the cell towers could be used to roughly track her movements. This was because the records included GPS coordinates for the towers as well as a rough indication as to Casey’s location relative to the tower – information found by looking at the cell ID, or CID. For a brief explanation of how cell records can be used in this manner, please see my post here.
The time period of June 15 to June 24 got the lion’s share of attention because that was the broadest span of time it was believed Casey was in possession of Caylee’s body, so tracking her movements then was crucial. After Caylee’s remains were discovered on Suburban Drive, the work to decode her movements via phone records essentially dried up. Recently, however, some sleuths who spent time pouring over the details in 2008 brought an obscure observation made back then to our attention once again (AZlawyer, Bond, and other truly awesome folks). The “re-discovery” was accidental and due to an exploration of calls made by Cindy that she (Cindy) thought might be Zenaida’s number but turned out to be Casey giving her mother the run-around.
As we already know, Casey’s car was towed from Amscot on Monday morning, June 30. Around 1:30 that afternoon, Casey and Amy bought a gas can so that Casey could get some gas and get her car back. The cell pings show she left Ricardo’s around 4:45 PM and drove by the Amscot about 10 minutes later, but kept right on driving up towards Tony’s after seeing the car was no longer there. Using her pings we can see she looped back around to Ricardo’s after failing in her attempt to get the car. About the time Casey got back to Ricardo’s she received a couple calls from Cindy, who was on the first day of a week-long vacation. She let those roll to voicemail, but she did call Cindy back a couple minutes later. No doubt Casey wondered if her parents found and retrieved the car, but Cindy’s only concern was whether or not she would be able to spend some time with Caylee that week.
That evening Casey went to Fusian, and afterwards drove over to the Bithlo area where she spent the remainder of the evening with Andy France, who she’d been texting furiously with since dropping Tony off at the airport. Just before heading over to Bithlo, Casey received a flurry of phone calls from the Anthony home:
- 1:43:15 AM
- 1:51:18 AM
- 1:52:48 AM
- 2:02:34 AM
Those were likely from Cindy, who may have been told by Casey that she (Casey) would be working late, and that she could not be bothered at work.
The morning of July 1, Casey’s cell pings tell us she left Andy’s and drove straight to Tony’s where she stayed for approximately 10 minutes. From there she drove to Jesse’s to take a shower, telling Jesse she did not have a key to Tony’s and needed to clean up before work. Of course, that was a lie, because she placed the call before she arrived at Tony’s that morning. In fact, after leaving Jesse’s just before 1:00 PM she headed straight back to Tony’s and was there approximately 45 minutes!
When Reverend Grund first heard about Casey’s shower visit, he told Jesse that he felt her purpose was to frame Jesse for the crime. Casey’s first trip to Tony’s was probably one in which she picked up a change of clothes for her shower. Was her second, much longer trip after the shower one in which she “prepped” one or more items she took from Jesse’s in an effort to frame him?
After leaving Tony’s she went back to Ricardo’s, arriving around 2:40 PM. Somewhere between then and 5:00 PM, Casey made a purchase at JC Penney, which may have been her manicure, but we do not know for certain. At 5:00 PM, however, Casey was definitely on the move.
Referring to the following map, we see Casey headed west to the Waterford Lakes area, then turned south and back east. At 5:35 PM she was within the eastern range of the cell tower located near Chris Stutz’s house. During this drive Casey exchanged a total of 20 texts with Tony and her friend Iassen.
Casey’s cell phone went silent for an hour, but her next ping at 6:30 PM – an unanswered call to Chris Stutz – was in very close proximity to Chris’s house. The ping was also in the direction of Suburban Drive but not quite that far south (perhaps a mile or so north). It is impossible to tell where Casey was during the hour, but the implication is she wanted to see Chris.
Nearly forty minutes later she began pinging again, this time frequently, making it much easier to track her movements. And this is where it gets really interesting.
Following is a map of her travels. Her route from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM is in yellow and after 8:00 PM is shown in red. The driving routes are consistent with her movements as revealed by the cell tower pings, and they are also consistent with projected drive times, accounting for minor delays due to traffic and intersections. Just keep in mind the specific details may be (are probably) off a little.
At 7:09 PM Casey pinged from a general area consistent with the remains site, the elementary school, and the Anthony home. I speculate that, because she was in the broader area for up to an hour and a half, she was not driving much of that time but was instead stopped, perhaps more than once (you will see in a moment why that makes sense). There are not a lot of places for her to simply park the jeep without drawing a lot of attention – parking lots are her best option. And what better parking lot than the elementary school?
Her pings from 7:09 to 7:14 PM are consistent with her having been parked at the elementary school and then driving past her parent’s home to the intersection of Lee Vista and Narcoosee. She exchanged texts with Iassen and Chris during this short drive.
7:14 to 7:22 PM has her driving south on Narcoosee past the tow yard where – unbeknownst to her – the Pontiac is sitting. She then turned west on 528, then south on 417.
7:22 to 7:30 PM is consistent with her continuing on 417 until it meets up with Narcoosee. She then headed back north up Narcoosee towards 528, making a big loop. She was on the phone with Ryan P. during this time.
7:30 to 7:37 PM has her getting back on 528, but this time heading west and getting off at the first exit, which is South Goldenrod.
7:37 to 7:41 PM is consistent with her turning from South Goldenrod onto Lee Vista heading east in the direction of her parent’s home, making a second loop.
From 7:41 to 8:00 PM it appears that Casey stopped somewhere near the intersection of Lee Vista and Narcoosee. That specific area sits on the boundary of two cell IDs registered to the cell tower at Johnson’s. If she moved out of that area she would lock into one CID or the other, or onto a different tower altogether. Instead, her pings oscillate between the two CIDs, indicating she was sitting on the boundary, not moving. During this time Cindy attempted to call her, but she let it roll to voicemail.
From 8:00 to 8:12 PM she was on the move again, traveling north on Narcoosee, where it eventually turns into Hoffner and heads west. She turned south onto S. Semoran and drove back to Lee Vista, where she turned east, crossed Narcoosee (completing a third loop) and stopped somewhere in the area where Lee Vista meets S. Chickasaw. For the next half hour – until 8:45 – she was apparently parked, spending 6 minutes of that time speaking with Tony. A text from Jesse and another from Ricardo come in.
At 8:45 PM – 20 minutes after sunset for that date – she headed west toward Waterford Lakes, calling both Jesse and Ricardo along the way. Her pings from 9:00 to 11:45 PM are consistent with her being at the Ale House (per Dante’s interview). Her pings from 11:45 PM to 12:05 AM show her driving back to Ricardo’s.
Think we’re done yet? Not by any stretch of the imagination!
From 12:13 to 12:37 AM (we’re in the early hours of July 2 now), Cindy, desperate to see Caylee while on vacation during the week, but also trying not to disturb Casey while working an event, attempted to call Casey eight times. Casey let them run to voicemail, all the while texting away with Tony.
Casey continued to text with Tony until roughly 1:45 AM. Her phone was quiet for about an hour when, at 2:50 AM, Tony called her and the two spoke for just over an hour. Shortly after they are done, at 4:00 AM, Casey picked up the voice messages left by her mother 3 1/2 hours earlier.
Nearly 50 minutes later Casey placed a call to Ryan Pasley, who immediately called her back, and the two spoke for 14 minutes. What is interesting about this phone call is it pinged from a cell tower consistent with the Anthony home, but more importantly, with the remains location.
Think about this for a moment. She clearly had been hovering in the area, but did not seem to be interested at all in going to her parents home. She did not try calling them to see if the coast was clear during the previous day. All of the calls Cindy made to her were allowed to go to voicemail. Yet she circled the area like a vulture for nearly three hours, then went back after 4:00 AM under cover of darkness when most people would be asleep. Why else would she go there if she was not interested in going to the house? The only logical reason has to be she was interested in going to the remains location.
So, why would Casey want to visit the remains? Here are some possibilities:
- She was feeling sad for the loss of her daughter and wanted to visit her “grave”.
- She wanted to ensure Caylee’s body was well hidden and would not be found.
- She wanted to move the body to a better hiding place.
- She worried that a piece of evidence tying her to the crime was left at the scene and she wanted to retrieve it.
- She wanted to plant evidence implicating someone else.
I think #1 is out of the question. I may be completely off-base, but Casey has never appeared to be genuinely sad or upset about the loss of her daughter.
In my opinion the fact that her Pontiac disappeared gave Casey cause for great concern, and got her worrying about the remains and her being caught. Thus, I believe she returned due to a combination of reasons 2 through 5.
We have no idea if Casey removed anything from the scene. It is unknown if Casey planted the Gatorade bottle or some other item found at the scene, or specifically any item connected with Jesse. She clearly did not remove or move the remains.
But if she really did go to the location that morning, she did so when it was very quiet and the woods were very dark despite the nearby street lamp – a creepy, foreboding sensation had to fall over her. She probably entered the woods with a flashlight and was able to locate the bags. Whatever plans she had about moving the body or removing evidence had to evaporate as soon as she found her daughter’s nearly skeletonized head and a few disarticulated body parts scattered nearby. The remains probably still smelled. The horror-movie scene that confronted her was shocking, frightening, and repulsive. If she left an item, she did so quickly and got the hell out of dodge.
I’d love to hear Ryan Pasley’s account of the phone call he received from Casey that morning, because it came immediately after she got back into the car.
Such a visit now puts a few other things into better perspective. As AZlawyer pointed out, Casey walked in that morning at Ricardo’s and when she saw him she said she’d been doing laundry. Washing dirty clothes perhaps, or just an excuse for walking in at an odd time? July 2 is also the day she wrote the “Diary of Days” and scheduled her “Bella Vita” tattoo for the following day.
But more critically, Tony said that after he returned from NY on July 5, he noticed a couple of times Casey had had nightmares and was waking up with cold sweats. I can imagine what she saw left enough of an impression to do just that. It could also explain why he also saw her one day viewing the father’s day video and crying. Perhaps trying to erase the chilling vision and remember the way Caylee was before Casey killed her?
ETA: changed location after 9:00 PM July 1 to Ale House from Fusian per Maura.
Related posts:
- Understanding Cell Phone ‘Pings’
- Flurries of Phone Calls
- Timeglider Graphic Timeline added to Library Page
- Why Cindy is her own worst Enemy
- The Search: Jim Hoover’s 12/18/08 interview with OCSO
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