Caylee Anthony Update 24 November

Casey Anthony stole cash out of her mother's purse, hacked into her bank account and went shopping with her credit cards, her father said.

Even her 2-year-old daughter's piggy bank wasn't safe.

Anthony raided Caylee Marie's change bank and nearly emptied a savings account established for her, George Anthony told an FBI agent during a videotaped law-enforcement interview this summer.

And if the young mother wasn't stealing money, she was borrowing it, her father said.

On Friday, the State Attorney's Office released the July 31 interview with George Anthony and an Aug. 7 session with his wife, Cindy. Much of the information they told investigators, in separate interviews, has been mentioned in previously released case documents.

George Anthony told an FBI agent he had a feeling that his 22-year-old daughter, who has since been charged with killing Caylee, wasn't really employed as an event planner at Universal Studios. The job was one of many lies she is accused of telling her family and law enforcement officials.

Even though Casey and Caylee lived with George and Cindy, who provided for them, Casey was always borrowing or stealing money, George Anthony said. He said he shared his doubts with his wife and daughter, but Casey always had an excuse for needing money.

Anthony said Caylee's savings account was up to $300 or $400 at one point. At the time of the interview, the balance was probably $5, he said.

Casey paid her several-hundred-dollar phone bill with her mother's money, somehow accessing her account information, the father said. He also recalled a time when he found out Casey owed one of her friends $400 or $500.

The family already had a history of financial problems.

George Anthony told investigators he fell for an e-mail scam promising him money in a foreign account.

He was unemployed at the time because of a knee injury and thought it would be a quick fix to their financial woes. Anthony told the agent he maxed out their MasterCard at $10,000 and that the family was about $30,000 in the hole. He still receives calls for unpaid bills.

"I should have known better; it was stupid," he said.

But Anthony didn't tell his wife about the scam.

"I did lie to my wife about that," Anthony divulged. Anthony said he told Cindy he lost the money gambling.

During another part of the interview, Anthony told investigators his daughter never graduated from high school and had tried to conceal her pregnancy from them. Since Caylee's disappearance in June and Casey's arrest a month later, the Anthonys also have learned their daughter brought men to the house when they weren't home.

Earlier this year, Casey stopped hanging out with her longtime friends and spent time with new ones her parents did not know.

Anthony, a former law-enforcement officer, again detailed the day he picked up his daughter's Pontiac from the wrecking yard and noticed a pungent odor that came from inside.

"I've smelled that odor before. It smelled like a decomposed body . . . You don't forget that odor."

Sheriff's investigators say evidence from the trunk proves it once held a decomposing body.

Casey Anthony faces a list of charges, including first-degree murder. She also has been accused of lying to law enforcement and stealing checks from a friend and then going on a spending spree.

She told authorities that she left Caylee with a nanny who cannot be found.

George Anthony told the FBI that Caylee never mentioned any nanny and didn't recognize the name Casey gave for the woman. Nor did the child recognize names of other people she supposedly spent time with.

Anthony said his daughter's stories weren't adding up, especially when he found out she stole gas cans from their home in June.

FBI Special Agent Scott Bolin asked Anthony what held him back if his instincts were telling him something was awry.

"My wife telling me to calm down; you're not a detective anymore," Anthony replied.

Asked whether he thought Casey is hiding something, Anthony said yes.

"It boils down to this, my daughter knows what's going on and she's not saying a word. It boils down to all that," he said. "We keep on going round and round . . . and it's frustrating."

This explains a lot. George was suspicious of Casey and Cindy talked him out of it. Cindy made excuses for Casey's behavior and so the girl never had to face the consequences. She probably thought she could get away with murder, look at all the deviant behavior she had gotten away with in the past.

And am I the only one who thinks that Casey's behavior sounds a lot like that of a drug addict.

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