Casey to police: Getting Caylee back is 'the only thing that matters'

 In a written statement provided to police just after her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was reported missing, Casey Anthony told authorities she had looked for the little girl every day for a month, and "after 31 days, I know that the only thing that matters is getting my daughter back," according to testimony in her murder trial Wednesday.

"I have lied and stolen from friends and family to do whatever I could, by any means, to find my daughter," Anthony said in a written statement to the Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. "I avoided calling the police or notifying my family out of fear. I have been, and still am, afraid of what has, or may happen to Caylee."

Caylee was last seen June 16, 2008, according to testimony. She was not reported missing until July 15, 2008.

Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

She has pleaded not guilty and denied harming her daughter or having anything to do with the little girl's disappearance or death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent.

Yuri Melich, who was the lead investigator assigned to the case from the sheriff's office, testified Wednesday that he reviewed the written statement and interviewed Anthony in the early morning hours of July 16. A recording of that interview was played for jurors Wednesday.

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RELATED TOPICS

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Anthony told him that Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, Caylee's nanny for the past year and a half to two years, had kidnapped the child. She told Melich she had met Gonzalez through a friend, Jeffrey Hopkins, and that Gonzalez had also watched Hopkins' son.

Asked who she had told about the kidnapping, Anthony said she had told no one besides Hopkins and a co-worker at Universal Studios, Juliette Lewis. Testimony in her trial has shown that Hopkins and Lewis apparently do not exist and that Anthony apparently did not return to her job at Universal Studios after giving birth to Caylee in 2005, although she led her family and friends to think she still worked there.

Asked for phone numbers of Hopkins and Lewis, Anthony told Melich she didn't have them at present but could find them.

Authorities were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who claimed she had never met Caylee or Casey Anthony and later sued for defamation.

Asked by Melich during the interview why she hadn't notified authorities for the 31 days Caylee had been missing, Anthony said, "I think part of me was naive enough to think that I could handle this myself, which obviously I couldn't. And I was scared that something would happen to her if I did notify the authorities or got the media involved, or my parents, which I know would have done the same thing. Just the fear of the unknown. Fear of the potential of Caylee getting hurt, of not seeing my daughter again."

She denied injuring Caylee or leaving her anywhere, and raised her right hand at the end of the interview to swear she was telling the truth.

"Every day I have gone to malls, parks, any place I could remember Zenaida taking Caylee," she said in the written statement. "I have gone out and tried to find out any information about Caylee, or Zenaida ... going to a popular bar, or restaurant."

Prosecutors allege Anthony was not looking for her daughter during the month she was missing. Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony.

Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor.

Anthony told police she had received a call from her daughter July 15 but does not say in her statement what conversation the two had. Earlier Wednesday, her brother, Lee Anthony, testified she had told him about the phone call when she admitted Caylee was missing and that she said she had told Caylee to put an adult on the phone.

Following the interview, Melich testified that Anthony directed him to several residences in Orlando where she said Gonzalez lived or had previously lived. He testified he learned later that one of the residences was across the street from where Anthony's former boyfriend, Ricardo Morales, lived, but she did not mention that at the time.

On cross-examination, Baez tried to get Melich to say that he considered Anthony a suspect and her story untrue from the outset, but Melich denied that.

After arguing the issue outside the presence of the jury, Baez agreed not to question Melich at this time on whether he was a blogger, "Dick Tracy Orlando," who had written about the Anthony case after Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. appeared disinclined to allow it.

Earlier Wednesday, the first police officer to arrive at the Anthony home on July 15 after Caylee was reported missing testified that Casey Anthony was initially reluctant to provide him with information regarding the little girl's whereabouts.

Orange County, Florida, sheriff's Cpl. Rendon Fletcher told jurors that he asked Anthony about her daughter, but "she really didn't say much. ... She wasn't very forthcoming with anything, any type of information, initially."

But, he said, eventually Anthony told him that "her daughter had been missing for a period of time," about a month, and that the last time she had seen Caylee was in the custody of the nanny, Gonzalez.

She agreed to show the deputies where Gonzalez's apartment was, rode with them to the Sawgrass Apartments and pointed out a second-floor apartment, Fletcher testified. When he approached the apartment, he said, he could see the blinds were open but saw no furniture inside, and "it appeared to be vacant." He knocked, he said, but got no answer.

Amanda Macklin, community manager for the Sawgrass Apartments, testified Wednesday afternoon that the apartment in question, number 210, was vacant at the time Anthony led deputies there. She said she researched the last occupant of the apartment, but that person was not named Zenaida Gonzalez -- and, in fact, a Zenaida Gonzalez had never lived in any apartment at the complex.

Caylee's skeletal remains were found in December 2008 in a wooded field not far from the home of Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony.

Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth.

Anthony's defense has claimed that the little girl drowned in her grandparents' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Casey Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony.

Casey Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain.

George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony. Neither side asked Casey Anthony's brother about sexual abuse allegations during his testimony on Wednesday.

Cross-examining the officers who were at the Anthony home the night of July 15, 2008, Casey Anthony's defense attorneys managed to establish that George Anthony appeared calm, compared to his upset wife.

Lee Anthony did testify Wednesday about a confrontation between his mother and sister on the night of July 15, just before Cindy Anthony called police. The two were arguing about Caylee's whereabouts, he said. At that point, according to Cindy Anthony's previous testimony, she had not seen her daughter or granddaughter for weeks.

Casey Anthony kept insisting the little girl was with her nanny, Lee Anthony said, and could be picked up the next day. She maintained Caylee was already asleep by that point and she didn't want to disturb her or disrupt her routine.

Lee Anthony told jurors he offered to go get Caylee or have his roommate do it. He said he was becoming frustrated with his sister, as "nothing was making sense to me. Why couldn't we or anybody just go get Caylee and bring her home? There's no reason to fight with Mom at this point."

He said his sister told him that their mother had told her she was an unfit mother, adding, "Maybe I am." When he asked her why she wasn't allowing her family to see Caylee, however, Casey Anthony said something to the effect of, "Because maybe I'm a spiteful bitch," he recalled.

But Lee Anthony said as he questioned her, a crying Casey Anthony eventually told him the little girl was missing and that the nanny had kidnapped her, he testified.

On Tuesday, a former friend of Casey Anthony's testified that Anthony was growing more frustrated with her parents around the time Caylee was last seen.

Amy Huizenga said Anthony complained frequently about her parents, particularly her mother. "I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother. She was extremely upset about that," she said.

Huizenga said Anthony had to cancel plans "fairly frequently" because she had no one to watch her daughter. It was happening more frequently during the spring of 2008, Huizenga said, and the "frustration was greater."

Lee Anthony and Huizenga also referenced a bad odor regarding Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire. The odor has been the subject of testimony by several witnesses. Prosecutors allege it could have stemmed from human decomposition.

During cross-examination, Fletcher, the deputy, told Baez the garage door was open when he arrived and he walked through the garage, but did not notice a foul odor coming from the car. Other officers said they did notice the odor.

Hopes fade for peaceful Arab transition to democracy

 The roar of the jubilant crowd assembled in Cairo's Tahrir Square said it all.

Nearly four months ago, longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak finally yielded to political reality and stepped down from power. Mubarak's fall -- coming on the heels of the ouster of neighboring Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- was seen by many as part of a domino effect.

The Arab world, it seemed, was finally on the brink of a peaceful democratic transition that had eluded the troubled region for generations.

Today, however, the promise of a peaceful Arab Spring appears to be yielding to the reality of a long, violent summer as dictators across the Middle East and North Africa draw a line in the sand and fight to maintain control of their countries.

Protesters, meanwhile, are showing no sign of backing down.

"We've seen the last (Middle East) dictator leave voluntarily," Michael Rubin, a regional expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, recently told CNN.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders will continue to push for peaceful change when possible, Rubin said. But dictators in the region have been spooked by the fate of Mubarak, who is now facing trial and a possible death sentence, and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, who is facing an onslaught from armed rebels and NATO air forces.

They "see there is no possibility of a peaceful retirement," Rubin said. And many of them also "believe that their country is their personal fight."

While it is possible to identify trends that pertain to the entire region, a number of analysts stress that each country has unique circumstances and challenges that throw the notion of an all-encompassing Arab Spring into question.

In Libya, opposition to Gadhafi has been hampered by the fact that the country's sense of national identity is "very weak," according to Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Tribal loyalty in the sparsely populated North African country comes first, a fact that has made it extremely tough for Gadhafi's opponents to present a unified front.

Gadhafi's violent reaction to protesters -- and threats of a massacre in the rebel-held city of Benghazi -- led to the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military steps to protect civilians. NATO leaders, who believe the safety of Libyan civilians can't be secured without Gadhafi's ouster, have since embarked on a two-month bombing campaign targeting government forces.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Wednesday that the alliance has decided to extend its mission in the country by 90 days.

Gadhafi still refuses to step aside, but has been discussing a possible African Union-brokered cease-fire with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Libya's war has the potential to become a "protracted and costly stalemate," Max Boot, another senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, recently told reporters.

There's a "real danger of chaos" and protracted tribal warfare if Gadhafi falls, Boot said. Al Qaeda may be able to exploit such a situation, he warned.

Close to 900,000 people have fled Libya since that country's conflict began in February, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, in nearby Egypt reformers are upset with the pace of change since Mubarak's fall.

"We've waited ... and nothing has happened," Mehdi Ibrahim, 43, said Friday at a demonstration in Tahrir Square. "Mubarak and his men have not (yet) been punished for their crimes. We need accountability."

Some protesters on Friday urged the creation of a civil presidential council to replace the military regime now running the country until democratic elections are held in September. Others called for the expeditious return of stolen assets, as well as a generally more open society.

Tension continues to exist between some of the more secular, liberal-minded activists and the more conservative Muslim Brotherhood, Mubarak's primary opposition for years.

"We need rules and regulations to guide us and to protect individual freedoms and the rights of minorities" before the elections, said law student Mohamed Badawi.

But Saffa Mohamed, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the September election will be good for the country, even if it benefits more established groups like his or remnants of the once-ruling National Democratic Party at the expense of newer political parties.

"Why won't Egyptians just accept the results of the recent referendum?" he asked. "The date ... has already been set."

To the northeast, Syria's government stands accused of committing atrocities against its own people.

The international watchdog group Human Rights Watch released a report Wednesday alleging that President Bashar al-Assad's regime has carried out a "systematic" series of abuses against protesters that could "qualify as crimes against humanity."

The group's 57-page document contains details from dozens of victims and witnesses to abuses in Daraa province, the southwestern Syrian powder keg where the unrest engulfing the country began in mid-March before spreading across the country.

At present, the report said, there have been around 887 deaths across Syria, including at least 418 people in Daraa.

The crackdown in Daraa last month became so intense that eyewitnesses spoke of bodies bloating in the streets and injured people being treated at makeshift secret clinics to avoid detection by government security forces

Human Rights Watch is urging the United Nations to hold al-Assad's regime accountable. Western leaders have imposed new sanctions against al-Assad and several of his most prominent supporters.

For its part, the Syrian protest movement shows no sign of waning. A two and a half minute YouTube video clip showing multiple wounds on the body of a 13-year-old boy from Daraa -- Hamza Ali al-Khateeb -- has prompted international outrage. A Facebook page calling itself "We are all the martyr, the child Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb" had 60,000 followers by Tuesday.

The push for democratic reform is also encountering fierce resistance on the strategically critical Arabian Peninsula. The leaders of two key U.S. allies, Bahrain and Yemen, are struggling to maintain control despite slowly mounting international pressure.

On Wednesday, Bahrain lifted state of emergency laws in place since March that had allowed the silencing of opposition leaders and journalists. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has appealed for dialogue, saying that talks with opposition groups will begin in July.

The minority Sunni government, however, continued its crackdown on the country's major Shiite political opposition movement.

Among other things, security forces fired tear gas to disperse pro-reform demonstrators in several Shiite residential areas, according to one human rights activist.

A source for the opposition told CNN that "sporadic sounds of bombs and bird-shot clusters were also heard."

The government also filed charges Wednesday against four top opposition leaders in a move that could weaken the country's Al Wefaq party, according to two opposition sources.

Bahrain is set to hold parliamentary elections in September, filling seats vacated by members of Al Wefaq, which left parliament in protest over the crackdown.

The question of how hard Western powers -- the United States in particular -- should push for change in Bahrain is complicated by the fact that the tiny Persian Gulf country is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. Neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United States are both worried that a successful Shiite uprising would transform Bahrain into an Iranian client state.

"Bahrain is Iran's Kuwait," Rubin said, referencing former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's insistence that Kuwait was rightfully an Iraqi province.

If Bahrain's government falls, "there is no question -- no ifs, ands or buts -- Bahrain would become an Iranian satellite, and the Fifth Fleet would be sent packing," he predicted.

Bahrain is "pretty much the one country where (Washington) can't afford regime change," he said.

Finally, nearby Yemen continues to be rocked by escalating clashes between rebels and forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Four missiles struck a compound Wednesday where generals who defected from the Yemeni regime were meeting, according to a spokesman for the generals.

Fierce clashes also erupted between government security forces and Hashed tribesmen Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Local Administration in Sanna, eyewitnesses and residents said.

The Hashed tribe has opposed government forces in intermittent fighting for more than a month.

Fifteen tribesmen have died and 31 have been injured from clashes in the past two days, said Abdul Qawi Qaisi, spokesman for the head of Hashed tribe.

Witnesses also reported seeing at least three houses on fire near where the clashes were taking place Wednesday.

Saleh, who has ruled his poor, arid country since 1978, "does not want peace," said the spokesman for the head of the Hashed tribe. "Saleh thrives with blood being spilt. They attacked us and we had to defend."

Government spokesman Tarek Shami said mediation efforts meant to stem the rash of recent violence between the country's tribal groups and Saleh's government ended Saturday without a peace accord because Hashed tribesmen would not negotiate.

At least 100 people have also been arrested in the city of Taiz, while hundreds more have been injured across the country in recent fighting, according to a U.N. statement released Tuesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa has condemned what it called the "unprovoked and unjustified attack" on demonstrators in Taiz. It praised the protesters and called on Saleh "to move immediately" on the president's previous promise to transfer power.

Saleh, however, has been a leading U.S. ally against al Qaeda, which has a Yemen-based branch that has claimed responsibility for two attempted attacks on the United States.

America's main concern regarding Yemen is that the country could become an al Qaeda stronghold if Saleh falls, Rubin said. But U.S. policymakers also "have to recognize that al Qaeda rose under Saleh," he said. "Keeping him in doesn't keep al Qaeda out."

Cosby Show Actress Clarice Taylor Dies

Clarice Taylor, who played Bill Cosby's mother on The Cosby Show, died on Monday at age 93, her rep tells PEOPLE. 

She succumbed to heart failure and was surrounded by family when she passed. 

Taylor earned an Emmy nomination in 1986 for her recurring role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable's mother, Anna Huxtable, on the long-running sitcom. 

A performer on stage, radio, TV and film for over five decades, the actress was a member of the New York stage group, the Negro Ensemble Company, and helped to pave the way for African-American actors in the early 1960s. 

Her own big break came that decade when she landed the role of Harriet, David's grandmother, on Sesame Street. She also starred alongside Liza Minelli in 1970's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon and played Grady's Cousin Emma on Sanford and Son. 

Taylor is survived by her two sons, William and James, and her five grandchildren. 

Clarice Taylor (right) in a 1987 episode of The Cosby Show

AP

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