Caylee Marie Anthony
2-year-old from Orlando, Florida — found dead 2008, mother acquitted 2011
Who was Caylee Marie Anthony?
Caylee Marie Anthony was born on August 9, 2005, in the Orlando, Florida area. She was a toddler — not yet three years old — at the time she was reported missing in the summer of 2008. In what little time she had, she was known publicly simply as Caylee, a name that would later become recognized across the United States and far beyond the borders of her home state.
Caylee grew up in a multigenerational household. She lived with her mother, Casey Marie Anthony, and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, in Orlando. Family accounts describe her as a child who was close to her relatives. A remembrance reported by Baptist Press noted that she held a particular affection for her grandfather George Anthony, whom she called by the nickname "BaBa." That detail — small, domestic, and tender — is one of the few documented glimpses into who Caylee was as a person: a little girl with her own language for the people she loved.
Because Caylee was only two years old, the public record contains no information about schooling, formal interests, or activities beyond what a toddler's life naturally encompasses. What is documented is that she was a child embedded in family life in central Florida, known to those around her, and remembered with evident grief by the community that gathered after her death. A memorial service attended by approximately 1,000 people reflected the breadth of public feeling her case had generated, even if most of those present had known her only through news coverage.
Tidslinje
9. august 2005
Caylee Anthony is born
Caylee Marie Anthony is born in the Orlando, Florida area. She goes on to live with her mother Casey Anthony and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony.
9. juni 2008
Casey Anthony claims Caylee was kidnapped
According to case records, Casey Anthony later told police that Caylee had been taken by a nanny on June 9, 2008. This account was later found to be inconsistent with other statements she made.
15. juli 2008
Caylee reported missing
Grandmother Cindy Anthony places a 911 call reporting Caylee missing, stating she had not seen the child in 31 days. This call triggers a formal missing-persons investigation.
11. december 2008
Child remains discovered
Skeletal remains are found a quarter-mile from the Anthony family home in Orlando, Florida. Investigators begin the process of identifying the remains.
What happened?
The precise circumstances of Caylee Anthony's death have never been legally established. What the public record confirms is a sequence of events beginning in June 2008. According to case history documented by Wikipedia, Casey Anthony later told police that Caylee had been taken by a nanny on June 9, 2008. Casey Anthony gave investigators inconsistent explanations about the child's whereabouts in the weeks that followed.
It was not until July 15, 2008 — 31 days after Caylee was last reportedly seen — that Cindy Anthony, Caylee's grandmother, placed a 911 call reporting her granddaughter missing. In that call, Cindy Anthony stated she had not seen Caylee in approximately a month. The 911 call initiated a formal missing-persons investigation and brought the case into widespread public attention almost immediately.
On December 11, 2008, skeletal remains were discovered a quarter-mile from the Anthony family home. Eight days later, on December 19, 2008, the Orange County Sheriff's Office announced that the remains were confirmed to be those of Caylee Marie Anthony. The manner of death was determined to be homicide. The precise cause of death, however, was not conclusively established due to the condition of the remains.
Investigation
The investigation into Caylee Anthony's disappearance and death was conducted by the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida. The recovery of the child's remains on December 11, 2008, represented the most significant physical breakthrough in the case. The identification of those remains, announced on December 19, 2008, formally transformed the missing-persons case into a homicide investigation.
Casey Anthony had been a focus of law enforcement attention throughout the investigation. She was held in custody on no bond at the time of Caylee's memorial service,
