Hair from car has decomposition like Caylee's, FBI
tech testifies
June 04, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff
A single hair that shows evidence of decomposition was
similar to that of Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter, Caylee,
an FBI evidence analyst testified at the Orlando, Florida,
woman's trial Saturday.
Investigators found the hair in the trunk of Casey Anthony's
car. Prosecutors are trying to link the hair to Caylee as
evidence that her body was in the car.
But defense attorney Jose Baez attacked FBI trace evidence examiner Karen Lowe's findings as little more than
unreliable opinion in a morning of fitful testimony that produced frequent objections and huddles among the
attorneys out of earshot of the jury.
A crime scene investigator, the operator of a towing company and members of Anthony's family all have
testified they smelled a bad odor coming from Anthony's car after it was found abandoned in a parking lot on
June 27, 2008, then towed four days later.
Caylee was last reported seen by her family on June 16, 2008, but no one alerted police until July 15, 2008 -after the girl's grandmother tracked Anthony down and demanded answers. Caylee's skeletal remains were
found in December 2008.
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.
Prosecutors say she used chloroform on her daughter and then put duct tape on her nose and mouth to suffocate
her. She has pleaded not guilty and has denied having anything to do with the girl's disappearance or death.
The Orlando woman's attorneys argue Caylee drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008. They say Anthony
and her father panicked and covered up the death. George Anthony denied the claim during his testimony last
week.
Testimony about the hair marks a departure from the dramatic testimony and evidence of the last nine days, in
which friends and acquaintances contradicted Anthony's claims that she was frantically searching for her
daughter during the month she was missing.
Instead, according to evidence and testimony in the case, she was spending time with her boyfriend, shopping
and going to nightclubs.
In dry, scientific terms, FBI trace evidence analyst Karen Lowe testified Saturday how a 9-inch piece of hair
sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, appeared similar to a piece of hair recovered from a brush belonging
to the girl.
But she said hair analysis is not as precise as DNA analysis, so she could not say with absolute certainty that the
hair belonged to the girl.
Read the news article “Hair from car has decomposition like Caylee's, FBI tech testifies” and answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
(1) Why was a single hair introduced as evidence in court?
(2) Based on what you know about trace evidence, do you think that FBI trace evidence examiner Karen Lowe's findings
were “little more than unreliable opinion”? Why or why not?
(3) What was Casey Anthony charged with?
(4) What did the prosecutors say happened to Caylee Anthony?
(5) What did the defense say happened to Caylee Anthony?
(6) What did FBI trace evidence analyst Karen Lowe testify about the hair?
(7) Casey Anthony was acquitted by the jury. Why was the hair not enough to convict Casey Anthony?