Cindy George Anthony
Divided Neighborhood Cindy and George Anthony are bombarded daily with threats or entreaties for Caylee's safe return. News footage shows squabbling community residents airing their views about the 3-year-old's disappearance. “This is a joke. It’s ridiculous what you’re doing — letting your daughter stay here with all this evidence!” one man tells Cindy heatedly. “Not only can this family [the Anthonys] not get peace, but the neighbors can’t get peace,” says a young tattooed woman. “Cops are showing up on a daily basis. You can see the mentality of this crowd.” “This is a frigging’ baby-killer!” a young woman says, choking back tears. “People need to give the family some support, respect and privacy,” says a young man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the missing child’s image. A toddler holds up a sign, which reads, “How could you kill a baby like me?” That is just so wrong,” Dr. Phil says when the videotape ends. “There is absolutely not one shred of evidence that they grandparents have done one single thing wrong, and for these people to be screaming on their front yard is just wrong.” Cindy and George Anthony were unable to appear on the show, so their lawyer, Mark Nejame, joins Dr. Phil instead. “That’s terrible,” Dr. Phil sympathizes. “It’s beyond terrible. It’s endless, it’s constant, and it just doesn’t occur on their front lawn. The hate mails they get, the hate e-mails, they have spent hours speaking to law enforcement,” Mark says. “Because their daughter is being accused of something, and because they have chosen to keep hope alive that Caylee, their beloved granddaughter, is still with us, they’re being criticized endlessly and mercilessly.” “What is the message of the protesters?” Dr. Phil asks. “What is it they’re asking these people to do that they’re not doing?” “We continue to be baffled by it. Some of these people have said some of the most obscene things, done some of the most obscene things, bringing 3-year-old children out on the front lawn with death posters,” the lawyer says. "If these people think they are helping, they are sadly mistaken. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution." “As their attorney, if there was anything they could do that they’re not doing, if there was any information they had that they were not sharing, you would encourage them, and counsel them, to cooperate and help in every way possible, right?” Dr. Phil asks. "They've been doing that, Dr. Phil. Who on the earth wants that child back more than they? If anything could be done by them, within the realm of human capacity, I promise you, they’ve attempted to do it,” Mark replies, adding that the grandparents were very involved in raising Caylee. “The child has a room in that house.” “The child looks healthy and happy, and they were obviously doing some right things with this child,” Dr. Phil notes. “They were amazing, wonderful grandparents, and for them to be criticized by the allegations against their daughter is just entirely misdirected,” Mark says. “They’ve submitted themselves to search after search. They’ve had their entire backyard dug up, because a cadaver dog alerted [authorities] to one spot in the yard. They’ve submitted everything, I think, that the police have asked of them, and the grandmother, Cindy, is the one who first called 911. Let’s not forget that,” Lisa adds. Jessica D’Onofrio, a reporter for WKMG-TV in Orlando, broke exclusive reports about Caylee’s case and landed the first interview with Cindy Anthony. Dr. Phil cameras follow the newswoman as she points out what she believes are several key locations in the case. At nightfall, she and her crew are stationed across the street from the Anthonys' house. “We have camped out in front of this house for days, and it just doesn’t seem that there’s going to be an end in sight,” she says. The next day, Jessica stands in front of a mirrored building. “We’re at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office operation center. This is where they questioned Casey Anthony; they arrested her," she reports. Finally, she gestures to a roped-off building. "This was once Club Fusion, here in downtown Orlando. This is where Casey Anthony was seen partying just five days after her little girl went missing," Jessica says. Dr. Phil turns to Jessica. “You’ve been very busy with this, right? he asks. “Very busy with this case from day one, talking to Cindy Anthony the night that her daughter was arrested," she replies. "She was very accommodating that night, invited us into her home. All she wanted to do was get her granddaughter’s picture on television." The reporter gives insight into the exclusive stories she broke. “Investigators had come out and dug up [Cindy and George's] backyard, as Lisa was talking about, and two separate cadaver dogs had indicated that there was a decomposing body," she says. "Then we later find all these test results coming out on DNA, on hair samples found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car.” “It is your sense that these grandparents are sincerely concerned about the whereabouts of this child?” Dr. Phil asks. “Absolutely. I have been watching this case progress. I’ve been watching Cindy and George get more desperate and desperate. [Cindy] lost 25 pounds since all of this started. I just saw her a couple of days ago, and I said to her, ‘You look so skinny.’ She said, ‘I eat one meal a day. That’s about it,’” she replies. “She seems to be acting more like the mother, and how people would expect the mother to react to their missing child, than the actual mother is reacting.”
Return to the Caylee Case From Cindy George Anthony
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