Meeting Persephone

At last DNA evidence has determined that the remains found less than a half mile from George and Cindy Anthony's home are those of their granddaugther, Caylee Anthony. Two year old Caylee had been missing since June though authorities were not notified of her disappearance until "31 days" later according to Casey Anthony, mother of the victim.

I've personally paid a lot of attention to this case. It's something I have such a difficult time wrapping my brain around as a mother. I knew from the moment it was announced that Caylee was no longer living. What a sad statement on our times that when a small child turns up missing we don't assume that they wandered off on their own but that some sort of tragedy has befallen them. At least that is the case for me. I knew that she was gone and I also know that her mother is the responsible party. I'm not an officer, attorney, investigator, nor medical examiner - just someone who felt the truth rush over me as soon as the story broke. That's not something that holds up in court but it torments the mind. The evidence against Casey Anthony really is overwhelming, but that isn't what leads me to believe that she is responsible for the death of her own daughter.

A few years ago we had a case in Kansas City that was played out nearly in the opposite order of the Caylee Anthony case. The decapitated head and body of a small child, later revealed to have been a 3 year old little girl named Erica Green, was found and the city was gripped by mourning and stunned disbelief. Naming our poor unidentified baby "Precious Doe" due to the immediate value we placed on her life in stark contrast with the lack of value that someone else had placed on her, the city began its work on investigating the case. This would prove to be a difficult case because of the child's very young age and if the family hadn't reported her missing it was unfortunately easy to assume who the guilty parties were. Locating them was to be the most difficult part of all.

This case too went national. America's Most Wanted - hosted by John Walsh whose own son had been abducted and decapitated (and just this past week the murderer identified) - covered the story and created busts of the adorable little girl in the hopes that we would learn who "Precious Doe" was and bring her murderers to justice. It worked, a family member called in to identify her as Erica Green as well as giving the necessary information that later resulted in the convictions of her step-father and mother in her murder and later mutilation as an attempt to cover up the crime.

In the years preceeding this information coming forth (it took a total of 4 years), citizens of Kansas City essentially adopted this little girl as their own, paying for her funeral costs, headstone, and standing vigil at her graveside. By the time the news hit that her murderers had been found it was nearly as devastating to us as when she'd first been found. It re-opened those wounds for me and I choked, gagged, and cried at the utter horror of the story all over again. And a friend, by this time quite obsessed with the Bush administration's deception and corruption, was incredulous that I was so upset over the life of one child and even angrier that the news would waste time with something "so irrelevant". I have to admit I turned on her very hard - like a lioness protecting her cub that wasn't really hers. But we now could see the faces of those responsible for this heinous act and the mother's public displays of contrived remorse. The monsters who took their own child's life and continued to live theirs for another 4 years with no repercussions were now in front of us vulgarly breathing and living and seemingly normal despite the despicable crime they'd committed. There was a primal reaction in me that made me want to protect this child from them as much now as I wish someone could have done while she was still living.

During the trial process it was revealed that Erica's step-father, a drug addict, had kicked her very hard rendering her unable to breathe and causing her to have seizures. The family then took her to a room in the house where they claim all of them sat with her for several days until she finally died. Presumably panic set in at some point and so the plan to dispose of her body was created. This involved separating her head from her body and dumping her. Is it any wonder that, while justice was craved for her death, a desire to reclaim her as our own fought with that need for justice? The city that had adopted her, loved her, and tried to do right by her was in a sense forced to relinquish our adopted daughter to her "real" mother after she'd been a part to this beautiful girl's murder.

But the same feelings took me over when news of the missing Caylee Anthony was reported as when "Precious Doe's" story first broke. That deep in the core knowledge that it was her parents that were the guilty party. When a child is so young that nobody but the family would report them missing and the family doesn't do just that, it's easy to figure out who is responsible.

And now we have another case of a parent taking the life of their child. How does this happen? People like to excuse this behavior with "well she was a young mother" but so was I. I wasn't even able to drink legally when I gave birth to my daughter. But I can guarantee that I would take my own life long before ever pondering the idea of ending the life of that perfect beautiful little girl I gave life to in the first place.