Advertisement

JAIL CALLS REVEAL FAMILY TENSION

The mother of a missing girl describes the calls as "a huge waste."
Published Jul. 27, 2008|Updated Oct. 17, 2009

Casey Anthony was angry. Her voice was cold. All she wanted was her boyfriend's telephone number.

In her first jailhouse phone call - a 14-minute recording of it was released Friday - the 22-year-old at the center of a missing-child case expressed little concern for her daughter's whereabouts.

During the July 16 call, made a few hours after her arrest, she cursed at her mother and brother and said she didn't want anyone to go to her first appearance in court.

When a friend got on the line and sobbed and pleaded with her to give up any information she had about 2-year-old Caylee Marie's whereabouts, Casey Anthony was annoyed.

Friend: "If anything happened to Caylee, Casey, I'll die. Do you understand? I'll die."

Anthony: "Oh, my God, calling you guys - a waste. Huge waste."

The phone call reveals the tension between Anthony and her family members, who pleaded with her to tell them what happened to the child. Anthony has told Orange County investigators that a babysitter vanished with Caylee on June 9. Detectives think the sitter does not exist.

Anthony waited more than a month to report the child missing and did so then only at her mother's insistence.

Both authorities and Anthony's mother said that Anthony's abandoned car carried the scent of a corpse.

During one exchange in the recorded jailhouse conversation, Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, told her daughter she wouldn't be in jail "if you had told them the truth." Casey Anthony would not discuss it and asked again for her boyfriend's number.

Cindy Anthony: "Whose fault is (it) that you're sitting in the jail? You're blaming me that you're sitting in the jail? Blame yourself for telling lies. What do you mean it's not your fault? What do you mean it's not your fault, sweetheart? If you'd have told them the truth and not lied about everything they wouldn't ... ."

Casey Anthony: "Do me a favor and just tell me what Tony's number is. I don't want to talk to you right now. Forget it."

Anthony remains behind bars charged with child neglect, filing a false statement and obstructing a criminal investigation.