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Testimony: Casey Anthony partied while her little girl was missing
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AP
Casey Anthony reacts during her trial in the courtroom at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center, Friday, May 13, 2011, on the fifth day of jury selection in her trial, in Clearwater, Fla. Anthony is charged with murder in connection with her daughter's death.
Photo
AP
George Anthony, father of Casey Anthony, listens to opening statements during the first day of his daughter's murder trail at the Orange County Courthouse on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, in Orlando, Fla. Anthony is charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter.
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla.
The Florida mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter partied, promoted nightclub events and entered a swimsuit contest around the time the toddler disappeared, according to testimony Wednesday, and the woman asked a neighbor to borrow a shovel two days after the little girl was last seen alive.
Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her daughter Caylee. Prosecutors said Caylee died from three pieces of duct tape being placed over her mouth and nose while Anthony’s attorney has claimed the toddler accidentally drowned in her grandparents’ pool.
Casey Anthony was born in Warren in 1986 to George and Cindy Anthony, who lived in Howland before moving the family to Florida in 1989.
Caylee was last seen June 16, 2008. One of the grandparents’ neighbors, Brian Burner, testified that Anthony asked him June 18 if she could borrow a shovel to “dig up a bamboo root.” She returned the shovel about an hour later, he said.
Burner also said he remembered seeing Anthony’s white car backed into the garage on the afternoon of June 16.
About a month before that, Anthony met Tony Lazaro during a party. They soon became romantically involved, and she moved into an apartment he was sharing with four other people.
Her ex-roommates testified that they met Anthony’s daughter several times, and then at some point in early June, they never saw her again.
When they asked about Caylee, her mother told them she was with her nanny at a theme park or going to the beach.
The four witnesses said Anthony’s demeanor never suggested anything was wrong. She would cook, clean and help out around the apartment, they said.
“She was a regular 22-year-old girl,” said Cameron Campana, a club promoter who was a college student at the time. “Peppy. She seemed normal.”
Another roommate, Nathan Lezniewicz, said Anthony liked going out and having a good time.
“She was not an introvert by any means,” he said.
Maria Kissh, a girlfriend of one of the roommates, said she saw Anthony in a “hard-body contest” during a nightclub promotion, and that Anthony once told her Caylee’s father was dead.
Kissh described riding in Anthony’s car along with her roommates, but under questioning by Anthony’s attorney, she said neither she nor any of the other passengers smelled any odor. Prosecutors have said they believe Caylee’s decaying body had been stored there, and the girl’s grandparents noticed a foul odor when they picked up the car from a towing lot.