Would you like squirrel on that pizza?

“The roots growing into the vertebrae and bags indicate that the body was placed there months prior to being found. There is nothing inconsistent with the body being placed there soon after the day of last being seen alive.”

Well, it’s official… The autopsy and other forensic reports released yesterday indicate no drugs were found in Caylee’s body at the time of her death and what those documents tell me is that Casey did not drug her over a period of time, which means no extended exposure to Xanax or chloroform or any other heavy duty medications meant to daze her into a deep sleep. This means that Zani (or Zanny the Nanny, depending on which one you prefer) was not Xanax, AKA Caylee’s elusive babysitter as some have theorized. Throw that one out with the dirty dish water. What it does not deny, though, is the theory that she was drugged on her final day alive, and that chemical compounds did not have a chance to seep their way into her system. Casey did not drug her daily and tote her around in the trunk of her car. No accidental overdose occurred and there is no such thing as an accidental homicide. Duct tape in her hair shows an intent to kill and/or cause great bodily harm. No one places tape over a toddler’s mouth, nose and into the hair to merely silence that child, especially multiple layers. Whether she suffocated or not we will never know, but suffice it to say her mother was the last family member to see her alive and the duct tape found in the house conclusively matches the tape found on the skull, mandible and hair. Did Zani sneak in there to steal a roll of tape when it would have been much simpler to buy a new roll?

Soon after George and Cindy Anthony told authorities that the car reeked of death, like there was a “damn dead body” in there somewhere, they did an about face and said it was from a pizza box. Now, I’ve always eaten a pizza before it had a chance to rot and I never thought about leaving it in the trunk to keep it piping hot in the Florida heat, but on a practical note, it makes all the sense in the world if we are to promote an earth friendly, green environment and take advantage of solar heat instead of a coal burning electric oven, with coal being the source of electricity.

It’s interesting to note that Casey and her parents, for any of the conspiracy theorists out there, do not completely agree on what caused the car to have that nasty stench of death. George and Cindy adhere to the pizza box theory while their not so loving daughter claims it was from dead squirrels that were plastered to the frame of her car, although no putrid flesh was found. Quite simply put, that’s what you call CYA, or cover your ass, in plain language. Casey knew that someone would recognize the smell and she had to have an explanation for it. The friends she text messaged might have believed her but it didn’t wash with the fuzz.

To prove how smart, cagey and thorough these law enforcement types were on this case, they sent a decomposed pizza and a non-breathing – meaning dead – squirrel to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee where scientists did some analyzing. Trust me, no squirrels were run over in an attempt to duplicate the conditions, so PETA, stay out of it. It was roadkill. Remember, trained K-9 dogs can differentiate between human and animal decomposition and they barked that the trunk odor was definitely from human residue.

The Oak Ridge report emphasized that previous statements about a decomposing pizza found in the trunk were not true, but to allay future issues, they went ahead and ordered a mushroom and pepperoni pie. Hmm… was that a thin crust? They analyzed it, still in its original box – after a lunch break, I’m sure – and after several days of decomposition. “It’s interesting to note that no maggots were found on the pizza,” and it still tasted fresh. No, I added that part.

Like I said, the poor tamiasciurus hudsonicus was the victim of a hit-and-run and was supplied by a zooarcheologist at the University of Tennessee. Researchers allowed poor Rocky J. Squirrel to decompose outdoors for about 10 days in a garbage can with fly access. In other words, no lid. After that time period, the researchers said that maggot activity and odor were “significantly less than expected.”

They also noted, “Results of this analysis showed very little similarity to the Florida carpet sample,” and that no sulfur compounds or chloroform were detected. In my opinion, this could be interpreted as a completely different result because in the Caylee case, the trunk was sealed, it was relatively airtight, and the heat in the Florida climate made it unbearably hot. The defense may try to suppress this evidence, but I believe it would be a losing cause since chloroform was present and there must be a reason for it being so high. I predict it will be one of the key pivotal points at the trial.

Of the 51 found and identified chemicals on the carpet sample from the trunk of Casey’s car, 80% were consistent with decompositional events. “Nearly all the compounds present in early human decomposition were detected in the trunk samples if their concentrations were high enough to detect,” the report said. This would directly lead to the assumption that a human body was in the trunk and nowhere else on or in the vehicle. Circumstantial, yes, but Casey said squirrels were stuck to the frame, not in the trunk where the concentrations were found.

Here are some other findings:

Crime scene technicians spent over a week minutely scouring the woods off Suburban Drive trying to find every little piece of the remains and anything else tied to the case. The autopsy report states that they collected “an almost complete skeleton of a young child with only multiple small bones missing. The missing bones include small bones from the wrists and hands, as well as fingers and ankle, hyoid and patella.” The hyoid is the only bone in the human skeleton not articulated to any other bone. It is held in place by thyroid ligaments. What this means is that as the flesh decomposes, it separates from the remaining skeletal remains and in this case, it drifted away.

I’ve already mentioned that the report shows several overlapping pieces of duct tape on the skull. “Although there is no trauma evident on the skeleton, there is duct tape over the lower facial region still attached to head hair,” it said. “This duct tape was clearly placed prior to decomposition keeping the mandible in place.”

Parts of the skeleton were intermixed with the two plastic garbage bags and a canvas laundry bag. “The bags have a woodsy, outdoor odor with no smell of decomposition.” The report also noted that vertebrae were found clustered away from the skull. This means that water and/or other natural weather conditions and animals were responsible.

Medical examiners made note of multiple roots extending through parts of the plastic bag and bones. At least one root was 10 centimeters in length and “completely extends through the bag.”

“The roots growing into the vertebrae and bags indicate that the body was placed there months prior to being found. There is nothing inconsistent with the body being placed there soon after the day of last being seen alive.” Roots had also grown through a Winnie the Pooh blanket found at the scene with the plastic bags.

♦

Since the release of these reports, I’ve noticed plenty of commenters mention that justice was served when the results were published. I find this to be rather perplexing and it highlights some of the things wrong with this case and how people unfamiliar with law interpret the issues and many of the factors involved. Clearly, Caylee’s body was in those woods longer than the theorists claim, yet many of them will not back down when facts are staring them straight in the face. The most viable conclusion is that she was in those woods since the end of June, minimally. Please cut Kronk some slack. Baez, Dominic Casey, George & Cindy and Brad Conway do not sit around kissing each other’s rear ends, so you should discount any theories about them absolutely knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that the body was in there and Kronk had something to do with it. If anyone really knew it was there, it would have been disposed of or found much earlier.

But the biggest and most offensive obstacle is justice itself. Yesterday’s hearing was about allowing the autopsy and forensic reports to be released because of Florida’s open laws. Some of you call them Sunshine Laws. This was not at all about justice. It was strictly about our right to know since all autopsy reports are a matter of public record. It is the legal right for an attorney to fight the release as much as it is my right as a Floridian to read it. Just because you can read it too does not make it justice. The Anthonys had every right to beg and if you went through the same type of misery, you would do the same thing, no matter how biased and filled with hate you are for them. I was almost completely convinced that the judge would be compelled to rule the way he did. He didn’t like it, but the law is the law and in the end, he did the right and only thing. What we get to see from those open laws has absolutely nothing to do with justice. All of these documents will be presented at trial, whether they are released to us or not. Then, and only then, is when justice will be served. Justice is all about Caylee and it has nothing to do with me, you or anyone else. Because of the subject matter in this case, I understand how emotions run high, but we all need to find the line that separates facts from emotions and keep them apart.