From Orlando Sentinel
| Sentinel Staff Writers
The child's body found near Casey Anthony's house in east Orange County was "tentatively" identified as Anthony's missing daughter, Caylee Marie, a defense attorney said today. New York attorney Linda Kenney Baden, who is helping with Casey Anthony's defense, said during a hearing today that investigators told lead defense attorney, Jose Baez, that the body had light-colored hair and the size of the bones appeared to be similar to the 2-year-old. But when asked by Orange Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland if a tentative identification had been made on the body, an Orange County Sheriff's Office attorney replied that one had not. The development came before Strickland denied Baez's request to have defense experts present during the autopsy of the body, which was found Thursday about a quarter mile from the Anthony house.
"At this point, it would do nothing but interfere with the medical examiner's obligation," Strickland said. Casey Anthony, 22, is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail on first-degree murder and other charges. Strickland said he would address the issue later of whether the defense can review the body, X-rays and other material after the autopsy and a positive identification was made. Authorities couldn't tell him how long that would take. A county attorney who was representing the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said an FBI lab will be looking at the DNA. Meanwhile, the FBI today sifted soil along Suburban Drive, just feet from where the bag of bones was discovered by a utility worker Thursday morning. "The shrubbery and undergrowth is really thick," sheriff's spokesman Deputy Carlos Padilla said. "They are sifting through to see if there is anything that connects this case." 
Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, was charged in October with killing her daughter, but she and her grandparents have insisted for months that the toddler was alive, kidnapped by a baby sitter. Caylee's grandmother, Cindy Anthony, reported the girl missing July 15, a month after she supposedly disappeared. Casey Anthony told detectives the toddler vanished with her baby sitter, and she had mounted her own search to find her. Investigators are looking in the immediate area where the body was found and and will branch outward to look for "small articles," Padilla said. The remains of the unidentified young child are still in Florida at the Orange-Osceola County Medical Examiner's office, Padilla said. Once the autopsy is complete the remains will be taken to an FBI lab in Virginia. Overnight, several pieces of evidence were taken from the Anthony home. The sheriff's office is no longer securing the Anthony home and Cindy and George Anthony may return there if they wish, Padilla said. He would not discuss any of the evidence that was removed from the home. Padilla said an investigator spoke to the Anthonys yesterday after the discovery, but out of respect for the family deputies will not comment on their reaction or condition. There are no plans to question them today, but it may come up in the near future as the case moves forward, Padilla said.
Also today, attorney Mark NeJame, who once represented Cindy and George Anthony, gave interviews with the reporters in front of the Anthony's house on Hopespring Drive. Although the medical examiner has not determined the identity of the remains, NeJame thinks they belong to the missing toddler.
"It's more than a hunch," he said. "I have had an opinion for a long time. I absolutely believe that it is [Caylee]."
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