Remains Found Belong to Missing Georgia Woman

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, tests conducted on bones recently found in Georgia are those of  Kristi Cornwell, who went missing nearly a year and a half ago.

From CNN:

Cornwell, 38, was last seen in northern Georgia in August 2009, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said Sunday.

Passersby found the human remains Saturday in a wooded area about 9 miles from where Cornwell was last seen.

The site where the bones were discovered is in Union County, in far northern Georgia.

“What you do first is compare people missing from Union County,” Bankhead told CNN Atlanta affiliate WSB. “Right now, the only person missing from Union County is Kristi Cornwell, so we’ll be looking to see if there might be (a) connection to these remains.”

Bankhead said that Cornwell’s family has been notified of the discovery.

More Bones Found During Caylee Anthony Search

Orange County Sheriff’s Captain Angelo Nieves announced today that authorities found further “significant” skeletal remains in the same area where a child’s remains were found last week.

From the Associated Press:

Investigators probing the disappearance of a Florida toddler say they’ve found more bones that appear to be a child’s near where a skull was found last week.

Authorities have said they believe the skull belongs to Caylee Anthony because of its size and location. It turned up a few blocks from where the toddler lived with her mother and grandparents.

None of the remains have been identified – the skull and earlier finds have been undergoing DNA and other testing.

Casey Anthony’s Family Makes First Statement Since Discovery of Remains

Thanks Tonill for the heads up!

Brad Conway, the attorney for the Anthony family, has released a statement (read statement here) from George and Cindy Anthony. The statement is regarding the discovery of the remains believed to be Caylee Anthony, which were found last week.

From WFTV:

It’s the first of any kind of reaction since the remains of a child were found near their home last week. Meanwhile, the Anthonys have been informed by the Medical Examiner’s Office that, once it’s finished with the autopsy, the body will be released to the Anthonys, assuming the remains turn out to be Caylee’s.

Attorney Brad Conway read a statement from George and Cindy asking the public to respect their privacy, adding that they are worn down and tired. The Anthonys were out of their home for a few days after the discovery was made last week, but are now back at their Hopespring Drive residence.

“Cindy and I want to take this opportunity to ask the public to respect our privacy,” attorney Brad Conway read from their statement. “Based on recent developments we are realistic but continue to hope and pray that these remains are not those of our precious granddaughter Caylee Marie.”

George and Cindy said they are realistic the remains could be Caylee, but are hopeful it’s not and they continue to stand behind Casey.”Our hearts and prayers go out to every family who has lost a child under any circumstances,” Conway read. “In the event that this is not Caylee we will immediately continue the search for our beloved granddaughter.”

The Anthonys’ attorney said they will not be making any public statements until they make a positive identification on the remains found. Attorney Brad Conway also said he is representing the Anthonys for free.

From CNN:

George and Cindy Anthony were “devastated” upon learning a toddler’s corpse had been found near their Orlando, Florida, home, attorney Brad Conway said, but the couple is waiting for authorities to confirm the body’s identity.

“They’re not grieving yet, because they don’t know whose body this is, but if it is identified as Caylee they’re going to go through that grieving process privately, and when they’re ready to speak, they will,” Conway told reporters.

A utility worker discovered the remains in a plastic bag Thursday and alerted authorities. CNN affiliate WFTV-TV in Orlando reported that the utility worker, a meter reader, picked up a bag at the site and a skull fell out.

The FBI is working to make a positive identification of the remains, based on DNA analysis, and is likely to have results “within the next week,” Conway said. Watch Conway describe the grandparents’ devastation »

Casey Anthony’s Parents Return Home…and Wait

George and Cindy Anthony are back home following last week’s cross country search, and media tour, and the discovery of a child’s remains in a nearby wooded area.

From ABC Action News:

The couple spent part of Sunday with their attorney, who later said he wants to make sure that prosecutors and public know that his clients have done nothing wrong. In an update, more bones were found over the weekend and investigators are currently looking into this discovery.

Brad Conway said his clients are trying to come to terms with evidence that the remains are likely those of their granddaughter, Caylee Anthony. “They’re trying to deal with this the best way they can, they would like privacy, they would like the public to understand what they’re going through, and to be left alone,” Conway said.

Last Friday morning, and again on Sunday, investigators were at the Anthony home looking for evidence that may be connected to the remains.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary later said the medical examiner found “some clues that came out of the remains” that “linked it to the house.”

Investigators and FBI agents returned to the wooded area Monday morning looking for more evidence.  Orlando station WFTV was working to confirm that a trail of bones had been discovered not far from where a utility worker found the child’s skull with duct tape attached.  The FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia is expected to have DNA results in the near future that could confirm the child’s identity.

Caylee Anthony: More Bones Found in Weekend Search

Crime scene investigators have returned to the location this morning where remains were discovered last week to follow what has been described as “a small trail of bones” uncovered over the weekend.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A source at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office this morning confirmed that more bones where discovered over the weekend in the area where a child’s skull and other remains were found near the home that missing toddler, Caylee Marie Anthony, shared with her mother and grandparents.

Detectives did not give details about the bones, but they are continuing to sift through dirt and leaves in the wooded area close to Hopespring and Suburban drives this morning. The missing girl’s grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, live less than a 1/4 mile from the site where the bones were found.

On Dec. 11, an Orange County water-meter reader found a skull and other remains in a black plastic bag — marking the first major break in the case in months. Duct tape had been wrapped around the skull, investigators said.

From Fox News:

Officials found more bones over the weekend in the area less than a half-mile from the home the young child shared with her mother and grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. A lawyer for the couple said the family was preparing for the worst.

“They’re devastated,” Brad Conway told MyFOXOrlando.com. “They’re trying to deal with this the best they can. They’re realistic about the probability that it’s Caylee, but they pray it’s not.”

The Orlando Sentinel reported Monday that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed more bones were discovered at the site.

Conway told the station that investigators searching the Anthonys’ home in the wake of the skull discovery “tore it apart.”

The Anthonys attended a church service Sunday and met privately with their pastor at the Eastside Baptist Church, MyFOXOrlando.com reported.

“I just prayed with the Anthonys this morning and encouraged them and let them know we’re here and we’re not leaving,” their pastor, Dr. Shane Stutzman, told the station.

Caylee has been missing since June, and no trace of her was found until last week’s discovery. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies, agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI experts have converged on the vacant property to comb it for clues.

Sheriff’s spokesman Carlos Padilla said Sunday that the thick undergrowth has made for slow searching.

“They’re being very tedious and very methodical,” he said.

Padilla would not say what, if any, other pieces of evidence were found during the search.

Caylee’s mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, waited a month to report her daughter missing. She initially told police that she left the child with a baby sitter, but detectives said her story was untrue. Anthony was charged in her daughter’s murder on Oct. 14.

The discovery of the skull is the first major break in the case in months.

Although DNA results on the remains probably won’t be released for several days, authorities and even Anthony’s own attorneys are treating the find as if it is Caylee.

“We’re going to have our experts all reviewing everything from top to bottom,” her attorney Jose Baez told MyFOXOrlando.com. “Unfortunately, due to the time that’s elapsed and our inability to be able to observe what’s being done, there’s no telling what the scene is going to look like when we get it or what it was like beforehand.”

Caylee Anthony’s Body Found?

UPDATE: This post first appeared on November 13. Please follow this link for new developments on December 11.

Please consider this JUST A RUMOR until more information is available and confirmed.

According to bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, the dive team searching the Little Econ River around Blanchard Park say they have located a plastic bag with fingers and toes weighted down by bricks. A second bag with stuffed animals was also said to have been found.

We all hope that closure will eventually come in this case and bring peace to little Caylee Marie Anthony. I won’t hold my breath that these rumors are true but we will wait and see what happens throughout the day as more news comes out. I’ve heard too many rumors over the past week to believe anything at this point until confirmed. It’s always possible that Padilla is running around crying wolf to the media. Only time will tell.

From MSNBC:

Authorities are trying to determine if there’s a link between items found by divers in an Orlando park’s lake and the case of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony believed to have been killed.

Divers searching the area of Little Eonlockhatchee River found a plastic bag containing toys and small bones on Thursday, a bounty hunter told NBC News affiliate, WESH.com.

It was not clear if those were human remains or if they had any relation to Caylee.

Inside the bag, weighted down by bricks, were two toys and bones the size of fingers and toes, Padilla said. There also was a shamrock, which bounty hunter Leonard Padilla said was a favorite symbol of Casey Anthony, WESH reported on its Web site.

Anthony, 22, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the case of her daughter.

Caylee has not been seen since June, but wasn’t reported missing until a month later. The child’s grandmother first called authorities in July to say she hadn’t seen Caylee for a month and her daughter’s car smelled like death.

From Fox News:

The divers, hired by bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, were combing the Little Econ River around Blanchard Park when they said they came upon a plastic bag filled with fingers and toes and weighted down with bricks. The second with the toys in it was also found and the area was roped off, according to MyFOXOrlando.com.

Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Carlos Padilla (no relation to the bounty hunter) told FOXNews.com that Leonard Padilla had informed police of his crew’s discovery and investigators were being dispatched to the scene to learn more, but he couldn’t confirm whether the bags contained what the dive team said they did.

A diving course director involved in the search, David Badali, told FOX News Channel’s Miami bureau that the bags found had bones, bricks, a green shamrock toy and another toy inside.

He said they were discovered in 10 feet of water at about 1:30 p.m., the area has been declared a crime scene and the FBI was retrieving the items.

Leonard Padilla told MyFOXOrlando.com that the 30 to 40 divers conducting the search (which involves only five in the water at a time) are from a company called Black Water Divers and specialize in scouring extremely dark areas. He characterized it as a recovery mission to find 3-year-old Caylee’s remains.

The bounty hunter called off his search earlier this week, but had a change of heart Wednesday night and said he’d continue looking for the toddler, who is presumed dead. He said he has evidence that she was dumped in the river, but declined to elaborate.