Tests Confirm Decomposing Body Stored In Trunk of Casey Anthony's Car

By Bob Kealing, WESH/NBC News Channel

ORLANDO, FL -- Much-anticipated results from the University of Tennessee Body Farm reveal that the smell in the trunk of Casey Anthony, mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee, is human decomposition, a law enforcement source said Wednesday. Air sample tests taken from Anthony's trunk were sent on August 10 by the Orange County Sheriff's Office to be analyzed at the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility, known as the "Body Farm."

According to two sources, including one with direct knowledge of the investigation, initial tests on that foul odor in Casey Anthony's car have come back positive for human decomposition. The finding is the first scientific signal that a dead body was in Casey Anthony's car. The Body Farm is a place where human corpses are left to the elements, and every manner of decay is fully explored.

The Sheriff's Office declined to comment.

"As has been our policy throughout this investigation we will not discuss the investigative details pertaining to the Caylee Anthony case to include the results of any evidence submitted for laboratory analysis," Capt. Angelo Nieves said Tuesday afternoon.

Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, said he knew nothing about this new information.

"I have not been given any information about the University of Tennessee or the Body Farm or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays," Baez said. "I don't even know if they have any evidence."

Baez said sheriff's investigators who visited his office today said nothing about the Body Farm.

The missing toddler's grandmother, Cindy Anthony, originally told investigators that her daughter's car smelled like a dead body, but later the Anthonys argued that it was a combination of rotting pizza and cleaning fluid left in the hot car for 15 days that was responsible for the smell.

Casey Anthony was arrested in mid-July and was held on charges of child neglect until a Sacramento-based bounty hunter posted her $500,000 bond on Aug. 21.

A source in law enforcement close to the investigation also said that time is running out on a deal offered by the state to give Casey Anthony limited immunity for statements she makes, if it would help investigators find Caylee.

The State Attorney's office confirms an offer was made on Wednesday afternoon.

Casey Anthony has been a focus in the investigation into her daughter's disappearance since her arrest. Investigators also searched the back yard of her parents' home.

George and Cindy Anthony have stood by their daughter from the beginning and have repeated the message that the priority should be finding Caylee, passing out fliers and wearing T-shirts featuring the missing toddler's face. A prosecutor said that these odor results are admissible in court as forensic evidence, but he cautioned that they are nearly as strong as DNA evidence.

DNA tests are not yet back on the hair and stain from Casey Anthony's car, although a source says the FBI has completed its review of the DNA evidence.