Search Expands for Girl, 2,
Missing Since June 9th
ORLANDO, Florida [NMT/WKMG] — Investigators have expanded their search for a missing 2-year-old girl to new locations as crews continued digging alongside cadaver dogs in the back yard of the child’s grandparents’ house, Orlando television station WKMG reported.
Above, Caylee Marie Anthony, 2 years old
(Photo courtesy National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)
The home of Cindy and George Anthony, located on Hopespring Drive in Orlando, remained the main focus for searchers Friday as they checked for clues into the disappearance of Caylee Marie Anthony, 2 years old, missing since June 9th, 2008.
The girl’s mother, Casey Anthony, 22, was taken into custody Wednesday after it was determined that Caylee had been missing for five weeks and was never reported lost.
“Just because we are here with cadaver dogs, we are not giving up that Caylee is not alive,” Orange County Sgt. John Allen said during a Friday news conference. “We are running this investigation in several different directions. Even though you are here and we are here, we actually have detectives in other places following up on other leads.”
Searching intensified around some of the child’s toys in the back yard Friday while detectives checked leads in different locations.
Allen said officers received a tip from a neighbor about Casey Anthony borrowing a shovel from them at about the same time the child went missing. The neighbor said Anthony borrowed the shovel for about an hour and then gave it back, WKMG reported.
A search continued for Caylee’s father, but detectives said they believed that he may be deceased.
Allen also said they are searching for a baby sitter Anthony said she left her child with in early June.