Caylee Anthony: The Forensics Will Speak

courtesy OCSO: Caylee Anthony crime scene photo

We now know it's Caylee. It's the beginning of the grieving and healing But the work is far from over. Now it's time to prepare for the trial, processing all the clues from the dirt in the woods.

Casey's murder trial will hold fascinating forensic details; the minutiae that's being sifted through. They only have pure skeletal remains. Just bones. And about those bones, that's where the mystery lies. Hair and bone marrow will tell you what drugs Caylee may have been exposed to before death. If Caylee had been around people who were smoking pot, meth, or crack cocaine, that may show up in the hair as well. Chloroform may not show up in the hair, however.

VIDEO: What role will forensics play?

Orange County medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia could not give a cause of death. So we don't know if it was suffocation. We don't know if it was an overdose of something such as chloroform. We have no idea, because there's no tissue left. But what might be left is a report from the entomologist, the bug expert. The entomologist is good for the prosecution because it can prove how long the body was there. There are still bugs in the bag probably. It can be telling by collecting the maggots how old they are. A day old. Weeks or months, that can tell us how long the bag was there. And where that bag's been.Maybe the plant expert will submit some clues.

The botanist is going to reveal if there was any vegetation on the bag, or in the bag that could have come from a different area. Or if the body was once placed, there are different kinds of soil in different areas. So perhaps the soil in the Anthony's backyard is different than in the woods 15 houses away. The entomology report will be good for the prosecution.The maggots will determine how long the bag of bones was sitting in the woods. To show that it was there prior to when Casey was imprisoned.

If it can't be shown anything happened prior to December 11th, or prior to when Casey was imprisoned, Baez will just be able to say ‘My client was in jail’. She could not have possibly put that bag there or killed her child. So the maggots and their age are going to be very important to this case.

But to prove Casey herself put the bag out there? Forensics' best bet right now is to try to find fingerprints that match Casey on either the bag or the duct tape that was supposedly found. On the sticky side of the tape, she had to stretch that and there could possibly be skin cells that are still on the sticky side of the tape, which could lead back to Casey.



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