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The Child Protection eNewsletter

"Search of the century" for Caylee Anthony...

Texas Equusearch is gearing up for the biggest search in their history this weekend in Orlando, Florida as they look to find missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony–dead or alive. My Fox Orlando story here

"This is the largest search we have ever conducted, it is very exciting," Gary Peterson said who is second in command of the Equusearch Group of Texas. He says they are ready to find information that has led to the disappearance of the missing toddler.

"Everything is going extremely well," Equusearch President Tim Miller said. With 250 Team Leaders in place and more than 3, 000 volunteers from 30 different states, Equusearch officials are confident they will have made major accomplishments.

Among the volunteers is California bounty hunter, Leonard Padilla. "I believe we will find Caylee by Monday," Padilla said. He arrived at the Orlando International Airport Thursday evening. He too will receive special training for this search.

On Friday, Peterson says Equusearch officials will be meeting all day with team leaders and officials from the Orange County Sheriff's Office to get a game plan in place and map out the exact locations of the 130 areas they want to target. "We get very involved in these cases, and this one is dear to my heart, for all of us and we want closure for everyone involved," Peterson said. For more on this search see MSNBC News video link. For more on the history of this case, see vol6_iss49, vol6_iss52, vol6_iss55, and vol6_iss65.

The State Attorney's Office has released hundreds of additional documents related to the case. My Fox Orlando story here The discovery includes taped transcripts of interviews with Casey's former best friend, Amy Huzienga and her father, George Anthony.

In a sit down interview with the two men leading the investigation into Caylee's disappearance, George Anthony told detectives his daughter's trunk smelled like there had been a dead body in there. He went on to ask them if they found something to let him know because he'd want to be the one to break the news to his wife Cindy and son Lee. Taped transcript of George Anthony on July 24, 2008 and Taped transcript of George Anthony on August 4, 2008

"Deep in my heart and my gut and my brain I know it...I don't want to think about that but I had bad vibes the very first day that I got that. I can be straight with you guys and that I hope it stays in the confines of us three. I don't want to believe that I have raised someone and brought someone in this world that could do something to another person."

Meanwhile, a Miami lawyer hired by Casey Anthony's defense team has given prosecutors a report that outlined why the single mother accused of killing her child should not get the death penalty. Orlando Sentinel story here

The 30-page packet highlights problems with some of the evidence, defines how details in Anthony's case does not fit the state criteria needed for the death penalty–a penalty reserved for the worst of the worst homicides.

Prosecutors have not decided yet whether the state will pursue the death penalty. If they do seek death, the trial will be divided into two sections: the guilt/innocent phase and the sentence phase.

Lenamon's report addresses the sentence phase when the jury hears both why she should and should not get the death penalty.

Also, the judge in the case agreed to delay Casey Anthony's check fraud case until after her first-degree murder trial. Fox News story here

In other news...

An 8-year-old Indiana boy has been left at an Omaha hospital, bringing to 28 the number of children left under Nebraska's unique safe-haven law. AP News story here Children and family services division director Todd Landry says the boy was left Thursday morning at Bergan Mercy Hospital. The department was still gathering information on the case and offered no other details. At least three other children from outside the state have been left at Nebraska hospitals and have since been returned to their home states. Nebraska's law says anyone can leave a child at a hospital without fear of prosecution for the abandonment. The law uses the word "child" and doesn't include any age limit. A special session has been called to deal with Nebraska's safe-haven law and most legislators have already agreed to add the age limit of 3 days. See also vol6_iss54, vol6_iss59, vol6_iss66, and vol6_iss69.

A former Disney amusement park worker in the US who persuaded an Australian man to tape the sexual abuse of his six-year-old daughter and six-month-old granddaughter and distribute it on the internet has been jailed for more than 10 years. Yahoo.com news story here Tony Guerra's arrest in Florida came after Australian authorities tipped off the FBI. Last year an Australian detective posing as a pedophile on an internet chat site communicated with Guerra, a former food services employee at Orlando's Disney-MGM studios. Guerra sent 63 still images and four videos of pornography involving babies to the undercover Australian officer. A raid on 21-year-old Guerra's Florida home unearthed what FBI special agent Nick Savage told the US District Court was the largest collection of pornography involving "infants and babies I've ever seen". More than 5,000 images and videos of child pornography were discovered on a computer and investigators estimated the oldest child on the images was no more than six years old. He liked to hear children scream and recommended pedophiles go to Disney to look for girls.

New York City police are searching for two twin girls who were allegedly abducted by their mother during a court-supervised visit in Brooklyn Heights. MSNBC News story here The mother slipped out of a Catholic charities office with the girls when the counselor who was supposed to be supervising the visit left the room for just a few minutes to use the bathroom. The 9-year-old twin girls are named Marisol and Marisola Thomas. They were last seen in their school uniforms. Police said their mom Giovana Thomas, 34, was held at the Catholic charities office for a reason. Thomas has a history of mental illness, according to sources. The girls were living in foster care after the administration for children's services removed the kids from their troubled home. Under a court order Thomas was allowed to visit her daughters only three times a week for two hours at a time.

A survey of 1,000 moms of teenagers commissioned by McAfee and conducted by Harris Interactive reached the surprising conclusion that "about two-thirds of mothers of teens in the United States are just as, or more, concerned about their teenagers' online safety, such as from threatening emails or solicitation by online sexual predators, as they are about drunk driving (62 per cent) and experimenting with drugs (65 per cent)." CBS News story here That might be how moms feel, but it's not reflective of the real world. While moms have good reason to be concerned about how their teens use the Internet, online dangers pale compared to the risks of drunk driving. In 2007, 6,552 people were killed in auto accidents involving young drivers (16-20), according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. In 2006, nearly a fifth of the 7,643 15- to 20-year-old drivers involved in fatal traffic crashes had a blood had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. The study is available online at McAfee study here. For more information about teens and online safety visit eGuide/vol1_iss24. For more information about teens and drugs and alcohol abuse visit eGuide/vol1_iss38.

The younger sister of a girl who suffered a severe brain injury will testify that she saw her stepfather push the older girl down a flight of stairs, prosecutors said. AP News story here "She will tell you that this was the time Haleigh did not wake up," Assistant District Attorney Laurel Brandt said during opening statements of Jason Strickland's assault trial. Defense lawyer Richard Rubin said in his opening statement that Strickland would testify that his wife took Haleigh to doctors weekly and told him the girl was causing her own cuts, bruises and other injuries. "He believed what he was told, and that was that Haleigh was a self-abuser, a child that did things to herself that caused injury," Rubin said. Strickland, 34, faces six assault and battery charges for the injuries Haleigh suffered in September 2005 and from earlier beatings from a bat, his foot, a plastic stick and his open hand. After the brain injury she suffered at age 11, Haleigh was comatose. Her case led to a right-to-die battle, and she was nearly removed from life support before she suddenly began breathing on her own. She remains in a rehabilitation center.

A teenage boy who ran away from home last month after his Xbox was confiscated has been found dead in Canada. Fox News story here Brandon Crisp, 15, disappeared on October 14 after his father forbade him from playing his video game console after becoming concerned about the teenager's obsession with the online game Call of Duty 4. Steve Crisp said he removed the Xbox 360 after his son's behavior began to change. He said Brandon's grades were slipping, he had started skipping school and stealing money. Brandon fled his home on his bicycle and was last seen in a popular hiking and cycling path near Barrie, Ontario, north of Toronto. A local newspaper and Xbox creators Microsoft offered a $50,000 reward and 1,600 volunteers searched the local area, but all they found was his abandoned bicycle with a flat tire. Brandon's body was found by hunters in a cornfield on Wednesday. In an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail, Crisp said he had not known how important the gaming system was to his son or how he would react when it was taken away. He warned other parents to be wary of how obsessive children can get with video games. Experts commented that gamers may form bonds with fellow online players, and Brandon's parents said they were concerned he may have been lured away.

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