Tuesday, August 30, 2016

JonBenet Ramsey: 20 Years Later



It has been a few years since I have posted here.  Only one case could bring me back.  I am not the first to claim that the JonBenet Ramsey case is the case that haunts them.  I go back to this case often to see if there is anything new, anything I may have missed, something that would bring some answers or at least some common understanding, or maybe even something to just bring me to a place where I can stop thinking of it.  To be clear, I don't think of this case everyday, I am not family or a close friend, or a fanatic (believe me there are fans) but from time to time when I am thinking of True Crime, or I see a little girl who looks like her, it all comes back, all the wacky details, the red herrings, the myths.  I can easily get pulled into online arguments about who did it and then I remember that this was a real child, an innocent little baby girl who died in her own house while her family was there and all the doors were locked on Christmas night.  

I get angry each time. 

If you are reading this and you are not aware of the documentary coming out on CBS this September and the interview that her big brother Burke is going to give Dr. Phil shortly before and during, then let me tell you, both of these things are HUGE.  

It has been 20 years since JonBenet was murdered in her home in the middle of the night and only three people were there during the murder, her parents and her then older brother, 9 year old Burke.  Burke Ramsey has never spoken about the case as an adult.  He gave a few interviews to police when he was 9 and again I believe a year later, both interviews have never been seen nor heard and now, apparently for the first time the public will see clips of these on the Dr. Phil show on September 12. 

Now here is where a person who has followed the case, like me, gets a bit suspicious of this timely reveal.  Burke has never openly discussed his sister's murder, not to the public, nor to friends, he has never lost his will power and ranted about it online, nothing at all.  Nothing has ever been leaked about his thoughts, he has been literally mute about this for 20 years and well protected by his father who is still alive (his mother Patsy Ramsey is dead).

There are three popular theories about who killed JonBenet, the first is the intruder, someone who came in from the outside and murdered her. The second is either one or both her parents caused her death, this theory comes with a lot of speculation, from an accident turning into a cover up, to a molestation turning into a cover up. The last theory and the most argued, is that Burke killed JonBenet Ramsey by mistake or in a rage and that the parents staged the entire intruder scene.   

If you watch the trailer for the CBS documentary it becomes clear that it is leaning toward the murder scene being staged. Here we are 20 years later and the media landscape has changed but the narrative and evidence has not.  The power of social media and social justice is something to fear. It can destroy your career, your family and even if you are found innocent by law and let free, if the social media beast decides you are guilty you could end up living your life in the shadows (see the Casey Anthony).

In my opinion, Papa Ramsey (who will also be on the DR. Phil show) is preparing for some damage control.  If he gets ahead of this and can coach his son to convince viewers that they are victims still, he can avoid the social media justice seekers that will surely consume their lives if they are not believed to be innocent.

The alternative of Burke continuing his 20 year silence could be seen as proof of his own guilt, or proof that he knows more than he says - or doesn't say.   There will be lots of people watching, including their new friends, their old friends, new business partners, potential employers, neighbors and a parade of strangers who will now know who they are.  It is a wise decision for them to do this, but it can also backfire if Burke and John Ramsey do not come off as sincere.  

I am prepared to hear Burke say he doesn't remember anything about that night and slept through it.  This is the story the Ramsey's kept to and I do not expect Burke to deviate.  I expect her will talk about life before her murder and how much he loved her and then about life after her and how hard it has been for him and his family to move on and out from beneath the umbrella of suspicion.

This is all we will get from them. 

For all of us that have followed this case and read transcripts, and evidence and listened to recordings and witness' statements.  For those of us who have read the books, who have walked the house, who have read the ransom note many times, we know how this will play out.  

Often, the Ramsey's have expressed their anger at "armchair detectives".   They want people to mind their own business, leave it alone, forget it all. How dare people pry, how dare people not accept their version and just be done with it.   

For me, the thing that bothered me the most about this case wasn't all the evidence making the intruder theory impossible, or even the evidence that gives it some thought, all of this is compelling, but what always brings me back, what makes me question them, is the fact that there was no crusade to find the real killer, no keeping her in the media, no trying to find the man capable of coming into YOUR house while you slept and killing your daughter. No anger and obsessing to find this person before he did it again.  It was just a lot of noise about leaving it be, letting them move on. 

20 years later and the public and the "armchair detectives" will NOT move on.  It can't be left alone, this was a horrific crime and JonBenet deserves justice even now after all this time.  Even while I write this and truly believe in this justice.  I can also see the ugly in all of this, the ratings the show is hoping to make, the money exchanging hands on the back of this murdered child.  I cringe at the thought of the media dragging every ugly bit into the new world of social media.  But as a parent of three, I have to hope that the risk of the ugly is worth a shot at finally finding out who did this and making them answer for it.  

No other crime like this has ever been committed in the Boulder area or around it, or anything similar anywhere.  So this mastermind murderer was just going for one perfect murder and was then satisfied, never again to speak of it, never showing off and blabbing about how he pulled it off, he never again slipped up?  He just let it go, moved on with his life, left it in the past, closed the door. 

No.  I can't accept that. 

The door is now going to be forced open, again.

P.S. I know all about the DNA, the man who killed himself and the Santa. I don't need a lesson on this case, but I would like to know your thoughts on the new documentary. 




Monday, June 30, 2014

Because I think of them every day...Who killed the McStays?



*Update: Joey's Business partner Chase Merritt has been charged with the murders of the McStays and is currently awaiting his trial to begin.  Now that I am back, I want to dedicate an entire post to the reveal of this monster, but didn't want to leave this blog sitting here without the answer the question.  The first person who came to mind when they went missing to me was Chase Merritt, the business partner to see him last and who last spoke to him. Along the way Chase Merritt took it upon himself deflect, make up stories and pretend to be a hero.  Until his mountain of lies fell apart.

There are cases that I am passionate about and think of often and give my time to and then I do my best to put out of my head in order to live in the sun and keep the darkness at bay.

Then there is the McStay case. My heartbeat speeds up when I talk about them. When I think of the McStays, I become obsessed; I go through every scenario every possibility. I think of the call logs, the timeline, the people in their lives, the lies, the rumors, their videos etc. They come alive, they become people I know, then I relive their deaths, they are gone, someone killed them, and buried them in the desert. Who did this? Why? I take a deep breath.

The Internet is full of finger pointing. There is a short list of characters that many feel could be responsible for this crime with long explanations of why these people would do this; for money, out of envy, over a family dispute, but no one has asked the question, are those people capable?

Can a person who knew them, knew their voices, their children's sweet faces, be capable of killing these babies while a mother and father pleads for their lives?

Was Joseph's business such a financial treasure that if it was over money it was necessary they kill the kids? Was the anger or envy felt toward Joseph or Summer so great that it would drive a normal person to not only kill them, but their small children?

In the world we live in, we know people do evil things, parents kill their own kids, boyfriends kill their girlfriends and husbands kill their families. Cases like those make more sense to me, because the situation is personal and in most cases it is a selfish act, an act to punish the living a spouse or yourself. I try to apply that thinking to the McStay case and it always fails to make sense that a friend, family member, or business partner would have felt it necessary to kill the kids and even Summer.  Self preservation is a term always tossed around, that one if not both of the McStays were about to reveal something damaging about a family member, friend or business partner and they had to be silenced, that the kids were collateral damage.

I could buy that, but you could silence the parents and leave the children sleeping in their beds.  There would have been more reasoning, pleading with them to be silent, there would have been some type of residue left over of the the scandal, someone else would have known, exposed, an email trail, a phone call luring them out of the house. SOMETHING!

The public may know less than law enforcement, but up until those bodies were found law enforcement thought the family left of their own free will, that tells me there was no whisper of bad deals, secrets to be revealed etc.  Just a horrific crime committed in deafening silence.

I asked myself, what kind of criminal kills children? What kind of criminal tries to conceal their crimes when not readily pursued? What criminal doesn't leave a paper, electronic trail and jumps instead at an opportunity they create for themselves?  What type of criminal takes advantage of vulnerable people? The McStays were vulnerable, they kept to themselves, kids home schooled, in a new house, no friends nearby, no one dropping by as we know by the massive amount of time it took to even realize they were missing.

Who is this criminal by design?

A child sexual predator. Could this be?

It is often discussed that it looked like the family left in a hurry, because food was left out.

It is known that Joseph McStay was out of the home most of the day, leaving at 11am or so, we know that afternoon Summer talked with her sister, went online and did normal things that can be documented.

This was a new home in a new neighborhood, they were remodeling, they were painting etc.

They did not know anyone.

This is key in my mind.

We have a family who used Craig’s list often for deals. They were Internet users and had a YouTube channel.

We know that the last sighting of their vehicle could be seen leaving their home the evening of February 4th. It doesn't return.

A chilling thought is what if there was a neighbor in their area, someone who met them on the street, who watched them, knew they had kids, and knew Joseph left Summer alone. How easy for this predator to gain access to the home. A knock on the door? A helping hand?

What if Summer and Joey were not the intended targets? What if it was the children?

There would be no email trail, call log and Internet search left behind by a predator in your neighborhood knocking on your door and tying you up, then overpowering your husband when he arrived.

The Isuzu was found by the border four days after it was capture leaving the driveway, the McStays were found buried in the desert miles and miles from their home with their children.

I am guessing it took this predator four days to clean up his mess.

I think the detectives should be looking at neighbors who were off their schedule that week, or day laborers in that area who may have offered Summer a hand.

A child predator would have no issue killing children. A knock at the door doesn't leave a trail.

This is just another theory and we have to remember these were real people, a real family.  Like you and me.




Sunday, November 17, 2013

The McStay Family Found


It took me some time to get over the shock of the McStay family being found dead.  Finally decided to post about it.

On Wednesday my sister called to tell me that remains were found in the desert in California, she was aware of my worry for this family I have never met and the concern I had for them since they disappeared. First, I immediately believed it was them, four bodies, buried in the desert, my gut said, it is over.  There was little information and at first no one connected it.  Then I thought, no, can't be them, why would someone kill this normal family and then bury them in the desert? It has to be a mob or cartel related crime and bodies of victims of the cartel or drug trafficking. This end is simply NOT met by an innocent family.  I felt better and just brushed it off.

Then I read the authorities were speaking to the McStay family and my heart sank, it was them.  My heart goes out to the amazing McStay family, I am deeply sorry for your immense loss.  Then anger set in, who in the world would kill innocent children? Kill an entire family and then take the time to drive out to the desert dig graves and bury them? Allowing their families to believe they abandoned their lives and left with no concern of how this would affect them?

My original theories about what happened to the McStays were either they left to start a new life because they were free spirited and wanted to live on very little and by the beach, how I wish this were true. Or that they met up with the wrong person that night, someone they had met from craiglist, had worked on their house, a dangerous drifter, that Joseph was supposed to meet this person alone, but instead brought his family and that the killer or killers had no plan to kill the children, but it happened this way, because in my mind I just can't wrap my head around hurting those boys.

I, like most, would like to see this person receive cold hard justice. I want to know who the monster is, so that I may focus my hate. Don't tell me not to hate, don't tell the McStays not to hate, don't speak about GOD and how everything has a purpose. I know people are killed everyday and people go missing, but this crime is horrific and my connection to the family is that it is similar to my own and I can't stop going through how much they must have suffered, how as parents they probably fought to save their children, but in the end evil, a godless evil overtook them. 

Now is the time for people to come forward with what they know, to bring this monster to the front and expose him or her or them.

I have been asked who I think did this.  I can tell you this, in my opinion, only serial killers, vengeful ex husbands out of jealousy, or an evil person who is possessed by greed and money would take the time to kidnap a family and kill them and bury them. This isn't a movie, criminals make real mistakes. I hope that investigators can piece this together.  The border video in my opinion was not staged, just mere luck for the killer and the hope of authorities that they were still alive.  Joseph's business operated out of Mexico at times, so the language software could have been for his business so that he could speak the language, also the search for passport information could have been as simple as Joseph looking into traveling for business and bringing his family, nothing more. I know there are no coincidences in police work, but I think everyone, including the authorities could not believe they were murdered and wanted so much to make it that they fled, and so they focused on these details and made them larger than what they were.

I don't know if I blame them, because in real life unlike tv, detectives are real people with doubts, emotions, stressors and can get overwhelmed. A murderer or murderers have walked free for three years and it is time for them to face the world.

My only concern is that if this was committed by a random drifter serial killer that we may never know.

I hope justice arrives quickly.




Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Dangers of Divorce: Vashti Seacat




Some stories of true crime frighten me and I become obsessed with looking into the reasons why people do the things they do.  For example how a relationship can go from love and trust to over the years fear and murder.  Like me and my husband the Seacat’s bought a beautiful home and had two boys ages 2 and 4, their life seemed normal, married for 7 years and together for 19. Brett loved his house and had plans to work on it and improve it for his family, so how did his wife end up with two bullets in her and their house almost burned to the ground? 
 
What happens when your pretty young wife and mother of your two sons decides she doesn’t want to be married to you anymore, she doesn’t want to stay together for the kids, she wants you out of her life.  What if she decides it is not worth the hours in therapy to help save a marriage that has become a battle? 

At 34 years old Vashti Seacat made the legal choice to leave her husband and try to find happiness on her own.  Brett learned that she was getting close to a co-worker and was intimate with him and Vashti just didn’t want to be married to Brett anymore.  After Vashti filed for divorce the couple continued to live together under the same roof, Vashti expressed fear for her life to numerous people in her life, including that she was afraid after the divorce was final that Brett would burn the house down with their kids inside.  Their marriage couselor said Vashti was the happiest she had ever been because she was looking forward to the divorce and moving forward.  Vashti had already planned a vacation to Mexico with her sister and various décor projects for her home. 
On one particular night after their seperation, Brett wakes up Vashti to tell her about this terrible dream he had about killing her, was this a warning to her?  Vashti was afraid as Brett was losing control and making threats if she went through with the divorce, that he would take her kids away and expose an affair that would cause her to also lose her job. 

Let’s stop here and think for a moment, you are a 39 year old man, you have two sons you love and a pretty wife, you have an amazing home and you think quite a bit of yourself.  Suddenly, your wife is leaving you and maybe even for another man, she is taking your house and sons, who would now maybe be raised by a future step father and you will have them on the weekends.  How are you feeling about this?  Are you in a state of panic, how do you stop this?  Maybe you should have treated your wife better?  Maybe you should have done this and that?  She doesn’t want to try to fix things, she has made up her mind, you are not in her plans anymore, perhaps you deserve this. She will be going to Mexico as a free woman. 

For a normal man this is hard and he may not survive such a life event, he may change, become sheltered, he may never trust again, he may continue to try and work it out, even in vain.   To a phsycopath or a desperate man this will end badly. 

Brett claims that one night in April of 2011 at 3AM or so he was asleep on the sofa of his home and Vashti was upstairs in her bedroom when he received a call on his cellphone from her, he says in the days leading up to this incident Vashti was depressed a contradiction to what her therapist and sister have said, he claims she told him, “Come get the boys if you don’t want them to get hurt,” or something in those words.  He says, he heard some noise and two shots and ran up the stairs to find his wife dead on their bed and the room on fire, he says he tried to revive her but then went to find his boys.  He leads his boys outside to safety and runs back in to help his wife, but is pushed back by the flames.

She is dead, he says she killed herself and set fire to the house and even left a suicide note in her journal. How tragic. Now Brett, although sad, can rebuild his life and his house with his boys.  Vashti is gone but he will have to be strong. 

Brett Seacat is a Sherriff’s Deputy and knows the ins and outs of a crime scene. Problems with Brett’s story? 

Oh those effing neighbors! A neighbor says the shots were heard at 3:15AM and this neighbor is sure of it.  Brett makes his dead fish trying to act upset call to 911 at 3:59AM.  For 39 minutes between the shots and the call, Brett was doing what exactly? 

Although Brett claims he tried to revive his bleeding wife, there is no soot, blood or anything on his close, nothing except for gasoline residue, oops. 

Vashti was found under her covers and shot in the head and then in the neck, too bad for Brett that he shot her in a downward position, a position that someone who was lying in bed would not be able to accomplish only a persons standing over a sleeping person can get that angle right, oops. 

Medical examiner says there was no soot in Vashti’s lungs, but more importantly none in her airways this means she was not breathing while the fire was on and blazing, her mouth was closed and she was already dead.

Her suicide journal was clear in her last wishes.  However, her hand writing was stiff and shaky at the same time.  Brett in the days before her death borrowed an overhead projector he often used at work to pratice forgeries, too he borrowed it so openly.  

What to do to make yourself look even more guilty?  How about destroy all the computer harddrives in your home and a few cellphones. 

"I'm smart enough that if I wanted to kill my wife ... I could've come up with something better than this," Seacat told investigators about the shooting and the fire. "This is what a crazy person does."

What can drive a man to go crazy? I asked my husband of eight years what he thought, he told me he could not live without our boys and to even think that I would leave him and take our house and everything important to him and also maybe have a new man in my life, that this would make him crazy and that he would seriously question his mental stability.  I told my husband that women and men have a legal right to divorce, that if I awoke tomorrow and wanted out that I should be able to go without fearing for my life. 

Vashti for all accounts was not taking him children or his house that I know of, and even if she was she did not deserve what happened, nor did her family or her boys. 

The case has been handed to the jury after he testified that his wife suffered from depression and did this to herself.

Will the jury believe him? Is divorce dangerous?

If my husband left me tomorrow would he have the same rights as a dad to gain the children and keep the house? 


Friday, July 8, 2011

Casey Anthony will walk free.

Isn’t it Ironic?











*the above is an example of what grieving may look like.

To say that I am shocked at the verdict of the Casey Anthony case is an understatement. I am not only shocked but I am chilled to the bone. First I want to acknowledge that this entire episode, the last 3 years, the murder of her daughter, all can end up being the best thing that could have happened to Casey Marie Anthony.

Not only did she get away with murder and was found innocent, but she will now under the law be able to profit substantially from her daughter’s murder and her experience. She will in the end not ever have to get a real job as she has always liked it. She will not have to be bothered by the responsibility of taking care of her child and is now free to surround herself with the many strange fans out there that will become her lackeys. But most importantly she has gotten rid of her parents, to her pleasure her father in particular, no more having to deal with those two, let them rot and grow old in their little house at Hopespring drive surrounded by memories of Caylee.

I am chilled to bone that this sociopath, this pathological liar and emotionless woman has never had to pay for the consequences of her actions, not even after stealing money from her sick grandfather or stealing checks from grandma and her close friends, to then go splurge on her boyfriend and herself while knowing her daughter lay rotting in the woods near her parents. What lesson does this teach her? It solidifies her belief that she can do no wrong. I am convinced she will kill again.

According to her 3rd story of what happened, Caylee was never missing. This means that while hundreds of people volunteered their time, and lots of money was being donated to her family, she was standing by and letting it happen and continuously claiming the false kidnapping. While Eqquasearch and Tim Miller were pouring all of their resources into finding Caylee while having to turn down other families of missing kids that needed him, this entire time, Casey continued to lie to everyone and watched as people cried over her missing child and suffered in fear. Her lawyer back in 2008 was on television proclaiming the real kidnappers and Caylee will be found. The drowning story that snowed the jury had not yet been made up. While all this was happening, while she was on the news proclaiming there was a kidnapper, while the detectives asked her repeatedly to tell them where Caylee was, she kept it to herself. She pretended to cry and worry about a child she knew was dead. She told her parents they were in danger and being watched. Her mothered begged for her to tell her who was watching.

Tim Miller has stated that he is seeking to sue her for a return of the money Eqquasearch spent on the false searches. I agree.

When I heard the verdict I felt like my head was underwater. When I heard the jury was back after 11 hours and had not asked to review evidence or request read backs or even ask the judge a question on law, I knew it was not a good sign.

Many people began to ride the “the prosecution did not prove their case” train. While others hopped on the “Jose Baez is amazing” train. The only thing the defense was successful in doing was confusing the jury on what reasonable doubt is and describing the law in a way that made them believe that the cause of death was needed even for the lesser of the two charges, when in reality there are cases where there are no bodies, cause of death due to bones has not been determined and murderers still go to jail. In tricking the jury they were successful. However, I blame the jury for taking the word of the defense without consulting and looking at the evidence, ignoring opening statements as they were instructed to do as these were not to be considered as evidence. That included the story of the drowning and description of how it happened and the sex abuse. They were instructed that they were not to consider these two claims unless the defense backs it with evidence.

The only thing the defense had to support the drowning was that Caylee liked to swim and could maybe climb the pool ladder alone, an action that no one ever saw her do. The prosecution was successful in proving that Cindy Anthony removed the pool ladder on June 16th as she always said she did. They had the evidence proving the drowning could not have happened between the 9:00am and 2:00pm due to Casey’s computer entries and her IMs with friends. This evidence was objected on by the defense while the jury was out of the room, because the defense claimed they were not going to offer a time for the drowning. They were peddling a made up story and offered no time for the drowning, how could the jury have not seen that flaw? How could they overlook that they were never told at what time of day the drowning happened? But even so it was well established that George and Cindy were at work after Casey left for her fake job, Casey’s cell phone pinged for the next four hours from the Anthony neighborhood after George was seen crossing a toll on his way to work. She is then seen again that evening at blockbuster with her man and no Caylee. She is unaccounted for for four hours. This is conclusive evidence that whatever happened to Caylee did not happen while George or Cindy were in the home and only Casey had access to Caylee. Had they asked for a timeline in the deliberation room, this would have made it clear, but they didn't.

To my utter horror people around me who had not followed this case other than in the media, were now proclaiming to me that there was reasonable doubt, that the evidence did not link Casey, that the detectives right down to the FBI “botched this”.

They say that the defense came up strong with reasonable doubt. But I know all of this is false, because I was watching the trial, I was glued to jury selection, I watched every motion argued, read every report, watched all the depositions, witnessed defense lawyers join the team then quit. I watched Cheney mason claim Casey was lying and was guilty right before he did an about face and joined the team. I was there on July 15th when this was just creeping up in the media and in my very first post about this case I put up a picture of Casey after she was first arrested, her smiling young face was to me at the time a contradiction of what an abusive murdering mother would look like. I was conflicted by the indifference and criminal act of a mother not reporting her daughter missing and the smiling face of a pretty young woman looking back at me. I thought to myself, “This can’t be right, there must be another explanation”. I sincerely believe this is how the jury felt when they looked at Casey, that this could not be true, that this mother could not have drugged her daughter, suffocated her with duct tape, tripled bagged her and then thrown her body in her car trunk to then go rent a movie with her boyfriend. There are people saying this motive of wanting to be free was ridiculous. Why would Casey kill her child in order to be with this new boyfriend? That is the most popular motive for mothers who kill their children and why men kill their entire families.

Susan Smith drove her kids into a lake and watched them drown just because her new boyfriend told her he was not into raising another man’s kids. Susan Smith was molested and raped for years by her stepfather, who admitted on the witness stand that he did indeed have sex with Susan while she was a child. Susan was evaluated and was diagnosed with several mental problems, her story about being carjacked was only proven false by a stop light that she claims was red, but would only be triggered red if another vehicle was coming through, she told investigators that there were no other cars in the intersection. That one lie got Susan Smith a life sentence, she confessed after 9 days even though there was no DNA, fingerprints, eyewitness, or video capture of the incident, but then again Susan Smith looks like this:












Darlie Routier another mother sentenced to death for the murder of her son. Darlie said an intruder came in and stabbed her and her two sons, she herself sustained stab wounds, and ultimately her lies got her sentenced to death. Some of the strongest evidence against Darlie was that when taken in the ambulance herself she never asked how the boys were (well we all know Casey admitted that on the day Caylee died she slept over Tony’s house and stayed in bed with him all day the following day, talk about indifference), but we are to believe everyone grieves differently. Her case was based on circumstantial evidence and blood splatter. She was still sentenced to death by lethal injection and you guessed it, she looks like this:














Diane Downs is accused of shooting herself and her three children, killing one, she claims she was carjacked. When she drives to the hospital she is immediately suspected because she was “just too calm for a mother whose children had just been shot”. Another child killer who claims she was molested by daddy and who is accused of trying to kill her children because she wanted to continue an affair. She got 25 years to life. She looks like this:












I can literally go on and on about mother’s who kill their children for men and wanting to be free, so for anyone to say that the prosecution’s motive for Casey killing her daughter was silly, you obviously do not know how many cases there are out there with the same ingredients. Parents kill their children for a lot less these days like the child crying while the parent is playing a video game, this was a case I just read about last week!

The difference between these mothers and Casey are that these mothers did not get rid of the bodies and lie about the child’s whereabouts for weeks. They didn’t stall until the body was turned to bones. They don’t have pretty little childlike faces to pout and rub during testimony.

Casey wanted to continue her relationship with a boyfriend who would often text her “Can’t you get someone to watch the offspring?” “Where is the offspring’s nanny?” And she did not want Caylee or her parents in her way.

The evidence against Casey that was ignored by the jury because in my opinion they just could not get over her appearance and her claim that daddy and her bother molested her and she was a victim of a scary family. Also the misconception that one needs DNA, an eyewitness or video tape of the murder in order to find someone guilty even of the lesser charge of manslaughter in this case, is based on silly TV shows that offer this evidence continuously every half hour. Combine this with Cheney Mason and Jose Baez talking for hours about how the law says they have to find her not guilty because they don’t know how Caylee died, even though the duct tape on the skull is evidence that the child was purposely suffocated, lead a weak and lazy jury to make of it what they wanted to believe even though there was no evidence to suggest it.

One alternate juror actually said he felt sorry for Casey and that her father seemed suspect, even though the evidence did not support any other possible reasonable theory, other than Casey being the killer. Another Juror said there was no confirmed cause of death therefore they felt there was no proof of murder even though this body was mere bones and cause of death was impossible to confirm, although the duct tape fixed over the mouth holding the jaw bone together was proof enough that this was no accident. There are people who are convicted with less evidence and no bodies. No cause of death for Laci Peterson and one hair with a death band found in Scott Peterson’s boat and he sits on death row.

Evidence:

Her lies and continuous story shifts. For 31 days Casey lied to her family and friends about Caylee’s location. She was her normal bubbly self, attending parties, drinking dancing, hanging out with her new friends. She was texting, updating facebook and getting tattoos. She showed no emotional loss of anything. She was shedding no tears. She was doing and acting no different. Her lies would have continued had her mother not discovered her abandoned car in a tow yard. The absence of guilt worry and emotion lends to the evidence that there was no concern. If you apply the drowning theory, this means that just minutes after seeing her baby dead in the arms of her father, she was able to adjust to life just fine, not ever concerned or worried or interested in what was going to happen to her baby’s body. That she desired no resting place to visit. Common sense screams out to you that this is not how a loving mother reacts.

She parked and left her smelly car near a dumpster and filled the trunk with garbage bags from her boyfriend’s house. Since it was a parking spot I imagine she didn’t think it would be towed. The garbage and the dumpster would mask the smell of death from her car. This is unchallengeable evidence because her boyfriend picked her up from this location, meaning that it is factual that Casey dumped her car, not her daddy. The garbage was from here man's house, confirmed to be his. How would George get Tony's garbage if he didn't even know he existed?

There were 3 versions of her story, the last was the drowning story that incriminated her father and accused both her dad and her brother of sexual abuse which her defense presented at trial during opening statements but never offered up evidence of. The defense claimed this was the reason for her lies, not that she was hiding something just that molested children lie. For three years she stood accused of murder and never once uttered the words “accident”. She sat in jail, bounced in and out on bond and never uttered the words “accident” to anyone. When the accident theory was offered by many people, she rejected it with scorn and sarcasm and laughter. The jury was instructed that the opening statement of the defense about the drowning and the abuse should not be accepted as evidence unless the defense showed evidence of this during trial. We know they didn’t and so the jury did not follow this instruction.

Her indifference to her child’s death. Her lawyers claim she came upon her little girl’s dead body while in the arms of her father and that Casey cried and cried. By the evening she was walking through blockbuster in her boyfriend’s arms. When did this so called drowning happen? There is no evidence that the drowning was even a possibility. George Anthony left for work by 2:00 pm. After Casey is seen leaving her home with Caylee at around noon and George’s easy pass crosses a toll, Casey’s cell phone pings are still near her house for the next 4 hours she is alone with Caylee, until she reappears at blockbuster with no Caylee. Caylee is never seen or heard from again.

George Anthony denies having an affair with a volunteer. The volunteer who denied the affair to authorities, but not to the national enquirer, claims George told her it was mistake that snowballed out of control. However, the prosecution proved that she could not determine if he meant “he thought it could have been accident” or if he said he knew it was an accident. The judge instructs the jury that the volunteer’s statement could not be used as evidence to the guilt or innocence of Casey Anthony and should only be considered to impeach George Anthony regarding the affair. Again as we hear from jurors saying one of the reasons they found her not guilty was because of this witness' testimony. We learn again that the jury did not follow the instructions from the judge.

After Casey left the home on June 16th, her car was exclusively in her position as evidence showed Casey was telling her parents she was in Tampa, Jacksonville, and various other places. The evidence also shows from June 16 – June 23th Casey is with Tony and is not seen by her parents.

On June 18th while her parents are at work she backs her car into her parent’s garage and then borrows a shovel from a neighbor.

On June 23rd Casey and Tony break into her parent’s shed to steal gas cans and gas for her car.

On June 24th she is back at the Anthony home but is surprised when she finds her dad at home, he was supposed to be at work. Her dad tries to get something out of her car but she refuses to let him near her car trunk. She fights with him, returns the gas cans and leaves in a huff.

On or about June 16th she changes her facebook and other passwords to Timer55. She later explains to Lee Anthony that this password is connected with Caylee’s disappearance. It would have been 55 days since June 16th until Caylee’s 3rd birthday when no one was going to accept that Caylee was with the nanny anymore, this was her reminder to get a new lie started or flee. She also erases hundreds of photos of Caylee from her photobucket account.

Her lies continue until July 15th when her mother finds her not in Jacksonville where she claimed to be, but at Tony’s house a boyfriend her parents didn’t even know she had. She at first pretends everything is fine, but when her mother calls police, she then tells her first story about the leaving Caylee with the nanny and the nanny taking her.

Casey’s lies about where she worked, various people who she claims knew about the kidnapping all turn out to be false, including her nanny. Detective John Allen and Yuri Mellich confront her about her lies they ask her if Caylee’s death was an accident, she denies it several times. Continues to insist there is a nanny. She even goes so far as to say she spoke to Caylee that very day.

She later changes her story to cover up her negligence and claims the baby was taken by force at a park, by the nanny and the nanny’s sister.

Casey’s car is taken into evidence. A hair in the trunk of Casey’s car belongs to Caylee and has the characteristics of a death band, this is the same science used to convict Scott Peterson of 1st degree murder with no cause of death. Prosecutors go to great lengths to show how reliable the science is. It was only one hair, but since the body was triple bagged this is a miracle hair. Jose Baez proceeds to lie to the jury during his closing about this type of science never being used in a capital murder case and this being the first time in Florida. This is false as we all know this convicted Scott Peterson. But the lack of understanding made this jury toss this as they trusted his word on that.

Coffin wax, coffin flies, maggots and adipose all found in the trunk of the car, all products of decomposition. Caylee was bagged 3 times which makes this evidence also an amazing find. The smell of death verified by science and numerous sources, including her mother and father. The garbage in the trunk was proven by evidence that it could NOT have produced any of the above scientific evidence, confirmed by both the defense and prosecution evidence. The garbage contained no food. This means the flies, the wax; the adipose could not have been from anything other than a decomposing body, confirmed by the smell and death band hair. Why the jury could not accept this evidence is beyond me and they at least should have looked it over one time during deliberations. Jose Baez even admits in his closing that the car may have been used to transport the body. The jury should have gone over the evidence that confirmed Casey only had access to this car.

Extremely high levels of chloroform are found in the trunk of the car. Chloroform in a product of decomposition, we all produce this when we decompose, this alone is again proof that a body decomposed in that car, but to add that the levels where shockingly high connects the computer evidence. Jose claimed since the trunk was not visually dirty then there was no body. If Caylee is bagged three times and we still find her hair, flies, maggots, coffin wax, chloroform and adipose in that car it means this car was not clean. A juror claimed the chloroform could have been from cleaning products, what kind of cleaning product leaves the likes of the above all over the car trunk? common sense again ignored.

Computer analysts find searches for “how to make chloroform”, “neck breaking”, “house hold weapons”, and “head injuries” etc. on the home computer under Casey’s login conducted at a time Casey was the only one home to make these searches. Her mother tried to claim the searches were hers but was impeached by her work records. George Anthony was not living at home at the time, nor was Lee.

The body is found 15 houses away from the Anthony home.

Caylee was found in shorts and a T-shirt and a non chlorine filled pull-up– not in PJ’s that she would have to be wearing if she crawled in the pool in the early morning hours while Casey slept. It is said she was found without shoes and this was somehow proof she was in the pool. But we have statements from Casey that the police never even found “all of her clothes”. If you kill a child in your home you do not have to put shoes on them before bagging them.

The body was disposed of with a baby blanket taken from the Anthony home, a laundry bag from the Anthony home and then placed in two garbage bags.

The body is heavily decomposed to bones and is partially scattered among the debris. Duct tape is found over the mouth and nose of the skull keeping the jaw in place. There is expert testimony from BOTH sides that each said the tape had to be over the mouth in order to have kept the jaw in place, before decomposition. It is impossible for a jaw to stay in place while a body decomposes unless something is keeping it together. THIS IS ALSO IGNORED.

The defense’s outrages claim that Roy Kronk the meter reader who found the body actually took the body home and was the one to place the duct tape over the mouth and nose after it was already reduced to bones is not only ridiculous and meaningless and against all logic, but it was disputed by the plant growth at the body dump. The plant roots were growing through the skull, bag and baby blanket, indicating this body was not staged or moved and placed there by the killer.

The duct tape was a rare brand from the Anthony home.

Dog handlers hit both on Casey’s car and near the playhouse in the Anthony back yard. This was conclusive with the claim that Casey tried to bury her in the backyard of the home on the day the shovel was borrowed while both her parents were at work.

There was only one possible killer and no reasonable doubt leading to anyone else:

Casey was the only one who had motive:

Her lies were falling apart. One of her lies served to set up the foundation for a need to leave the state (her fake relationship with the imaginary rich Jeff Hopkins). Her new boyfriend was not into kids. Her new life was being threatened because her mother had insisted she take care of her child. Her stealing was discovered, her fake job was on the cusp of being found out and Caylee was talking and was not going to keep up with the lies Casey was telling. For 31 one days she lived the best life she had lived since Caylee was born.

Casey was the only one with the opportunity:

She had complete access and control of Caylee’s whereabouts. Cindy was at work on June 16th and George was at work by 2pm. Casey was seen without Caylee by late that evening. Casey was seen leaving her home with Caylee at noon by George. Her computer shows she was on IM, Facebook from the early morning of June 16th until about the time George says they left.

Casey had the means:

She had access to Caylee. She had complete control of Caylee. She was the last to be seen with Caylee. She was the only one with access to car after June 16th. She had access to the duct tape. She had access to the baby blanket, laundry bag and garbage bags.

Although my enormous post can’t change the fact that she will walk free next week, it helped me release some of the anger and confusion I felt about the jury’s verdict. I think they were confused by doubt vs. reasonable doubt and what is not reasonable to me may have been to them. But I just wish the 6 jurors who wanted to convict of the lesser charge of manslaughter would have stuck it out, asked for evidence and read backs to help make their case to the other 6 not guilty jurors. I don’t think they gave this case enough time. I think they were bamboozled by the defense’s explanation of why they couldn’t convict not realizing that the evidence was all that mattered, not claims by the defense that the state just wants to win. I think this was a huge mistake and that we will not hear the last from Casey as a person like this, especially after getting away with the biggest of all sins, will continue to use and abuse and hurt in this world. Common sense was ignored.

Rest in Peace Caylee Marie Anthony
















Thursday, June 23, 2011

Closing arguments in the Jason Young trial

I did not want to get too busy by following the Casey Anthony trial to not bring back the story of beautiful Michelle Young. Today the closing arguments against her husband Jason Young have been completed and I believe at 2:30 pm the case will go to the jury.

The defense's closing was very technical and a shake off of the evidence.

But the prosecution came back strong with the full story and the DNA on the rock that Jason used to prop open the exit door of the motel he was staying at so that he would not be seen returning in the early morning hours after driving home to murder his pregnant wife.

Below was my latest blog post on this case.



It has been 3 years since the brutal murder of Michelle Young and her unborn son Rylan on the night of November 3, 2006.

Jason Young's life since that night has been filled with bad luck and has not been what I imagine he planned it would be after killing his wife and unborn baby. I bet he thought he would be free to frequent gay bars and continue to sleep with Michelle's college friends while at the very same time spend the insurance money he had placed on Michelle and was waiting to collect.

Instead he has spent the last few years almost in hiding. He lost custody of his now 5 year old daughter to his in laws and was found responsible for Michelle's death in civil case where he was ordered to pay Michelle's family millions of dollars.

It is so gratifying to read that Jason has finally been arrested and charge with the murder of Michelle Young.

On Monday, December 14th it took one of two investigators just 20 minutes to convince a grand jury to charge Jason Young with the premeditated murder of his wife. This tells me that investigators spent three years building a solid case against this monster and it will finally be worth the wait.

No bond has yet been set which confirms that he will spend Christmas behind bars where he belongs.

Three years ago Michelle was found bludgeoned to death on her bedroom floor by her sister who was urged by Jason Young to go over to the home. It was always clear to me he did so in order to have Michelle's body discovered and to get his then 2 year old daughter rescued from an empty house and bloody crime scene.

The unbelievable notion that this man killed his pregnant wife so violently while his little daughter was at home is simply cruel and warrants the death penalty. He then left his baby girl in the house with his beaten lifeless wife on the floor.

Jason claimed he was traveling on a business trip and left his home while Michelle had company, instead he drove to a hotel a few hours away and checked in, changed his clothes and drove back to his home, where he entered, possibly surprising Michelle and then beating her. At some point his daughter entered the bloody room leaving her footprints in several areas.

It is suspected Jason cleaned his daughter's feet off, changed her clothes and gave her a heavy dose of Tylenol hoping she would sleep through the night (she was found the very next day with clean clothes and feet). He then fled the home and began his drive to his parent's house.

The very next morning Jason Young called his sister in law and left her several messages to go over to his home to retrieve a fax detailing a gift for Michelle that he wanted to keep a surprise. Michelle's sister did not understand his urgency and took her time getting there, and when she did she found her sister murdered and her niece alone.

Jason Young refused to cooperate with police from the very beginning.

I look forward to seeing the other evidence against Jason and seeing him finally pay the piper.

Read Previous Blog Post on this story:








Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Caylee Marie Anthony




Three years ago tomorrow, June 16th, Caylee Marie Anthony died. Her mother Casey Anthony is currently on trial for the first degree murder of Caylee. Today the prosecution rested it's case against the defendant.

It is disturbing that the defense will present their case on the very day both the prosecution and defense agree Caylee died.

After the prosecution rested I was disappointed about the amount of detail their case left out. I know more than I'd like to admit about this case, some may say I became obsessed with it after seeing the first pictures of Caylee in the news. It doesn't feel like it has been three years. The details that were left out in retrospect seemed important, but after some thought I realized the reasons for omitting them were clear.

It is the claim/theory of the defense that on June 16th 2008 both Casey and George Anthony were home alone with Caylee. At some point George asked Casey,"Where is Caylee?" After searching the home, both father and daughter found themselves in the backyard where to their horror they found Caylee floating it the pool. The defense claims in their opening statement that Casey took Caylee into her arms and "cried and cried and cried" while George screamed "Look what you did! Your mother will never forgive you! You will go to jail for child neglect"

The defense doesn't claim either one of them tried CPR on the child, none of them attempted to call 911 or call anyone for help. Actually the defense ends their tale there, no explanation of what came next. They alluded to the theory that George Anthony took the body and "handled it" by placing duct tape on it to stage something of a kidnapping, then they jump to Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Caylee's body and claim he at some point gained possession of Caylee's body and hid it until a reward was announced for Caylee's recovery. It is fair to write here as fact that there was NO reward for the recovery of Caylee's remains, there was ONLY a reward for recovering a LIVE Caylee. To make this fact seem insignificant the defense suggest Roy Kronk didn't read the "fine print" about Caylee having to be alive.

I think if a man goes through the trouble of stealing the dead corpse of a child with amazing intel on where that child was secretly placed, that he would read and reread the reward specifics.

To explain Casey's many many lies (she lied 90 times during detective questioning at universal- yes I counted) they came up with sexual abuse by her father. That he was abusing her from the age of 8 and because of this Casey was "taught" to lie.

Jurors are not supposed to take opening statements as evidence and opening statements cannot be referred to as fact during the trial, lawyers have to introduce evidence in order to bring in the information.

I now understand why the state left out some of the witnesses and details I so wanted to see, such as:

Witness Roy Kronk - I thought why not bring Kronk up to address the defense claim that he stole the body, hid it and then placed it in the woods, called 911 in order to claim the reward? The state was brilliant here. Since the defense's opening statement is not fact, had the prosecution referred to it, then it would have opened the door for the defense to openly address the Kronk connection during their cross examination and further their claim. Instead the defense will be forced to call Kronk as their own witness and when they do they can't refer to their opening statement and will not be able to asked those key questions.

Witness Jesse Grund - I thought Jesse would have been a great witness he was Casey's fiancé who she lied to and named the father of Caylee. Jesse Grund wanted a paternity test and found out he wasn't the father. Casey lied to him many times. However, Casey did tell Jesse that she was abused by her brother Lee. She also told Jesse that she found a nanny named Zanny who would take care of Caylee after the Grund's could no longer babysit, which was when Caylee was a year old. The state was wise to avoid Grund as they would have again introduced the abuse mentioned in the opening statement.

Another item not mentioned:
Casey's diary of days - from her Myspace
“On the worst of worst days, remember the words spoken
Trust no one, only yourself.
With great power, comes great consequence.
What is given can be taken away.
Everyone Lies.
Everyone Dies.”
- I think this could not be introduced as Casey would have to explain what it meant.

The syringe found at the body site: this syringe was in a Gatorade bottle and had chloroform in it, it also had testosterone. I wonder why this was not introduced as evidence, this to me was huge. I guess explaining the testosterone would have been difficult.

The prosecution's evidence is overwhelming even without these tidbits and I look forward to their rebuttal of the defense's case. Today we learned the motive was the Casey vs. Cindy Anthony relationship. I daughter who did not want her own mother to have the satisfaction of taking custody of her child but also did not want her child to be a burden on her lifestyle. So she did what she had to do to avoid both.

Below are my thoughts on some evidence that folks are saying the prosecution lacked or were weak on.

No fingerprint on the duct tape?: - well since the tape was on the face of the decomposing child the "sticky" part was completely gone as was testified in court. No sticky part to preserve the fingerprint. The lack of the print isn't surprising and it doesn't mean it wasn't there at one time.

Only one Caylee hair in the entire trunk?: Considering little Caylee was bagged three times I am surprised and impressed that they found that one hair. That one hair was identified as having the death band from a decomposing Caylee.

No cause of death or proof of chloroform poisoning: the body was in the woods for 6 months, during which a storm came through Florida, the body was reduced to bones, there was no tissue to test for poisoning, no lungs to test for drowning, no neck to show strangulation and no internal organs. As Dr. G stated gathering information on poisoning from dry bones is rare and difficult. However extremely "shockingly" high levels of chloroform were found in the defendant's trunk along with coffin wax, paper towels drenched with adipose and coffin flies. Not to mention her over 30 visits to the chloroform page from her search for how to make chloroform in google.

I believe the defense will call Casey Anthony to the stand. I hope they do.