The sorry, sordid mess that has become the Caylee Anthony murder investigation almost claimed another life.  George Anthony, grandfather of Caylee and father of murder suspect Casey, was found in a Daytona Beach hotel after texting suicidal messages to his family:

Law-enforcement’s rapid response and search for a despondent George Anthony early this morning saved his life, his lawyer just told the Orlando Sentinel.

Anthony, who reportedly sent several text messages to relatives suggesting that he wanted to end his life, was found alive in a Daytona Beach motel with what appeared to be a suicide note after his family reported him missing late Thursday.

“Had it not been for (law-enforcement), this might have been a different outcome,” lawyer Brad Conway said. “They deserve a huge thank you.”

It seems that George was reported missing after he didn’t show up for a scheduled meeting with his wife and lawyer, and everyone immediately became concerned:

Daytona Beach police took Anthony into custody under the Baker Act after finding him in a motel on South Ridgewood Avenue. The Baker Act allows authorities to hold someone at a mental-health facility for up to 72 hours while they are evaluated by physicians.

Anthony, 57, was taken to the Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he is being evaluated. A hospital spokeswoman said this morning Anthony was in stable condition and would be receiving a physical evaluation before being admitted to the hospital.

Anthony left his home on Hopespring Drive in east Orange County Thursday morning and failed to show up for a 4 p.m. meeting with his wife, Cindy, and Conway.

Beginning at about 11:30 p.m., Anthony began to send his family text messages. Conway wouldn’t disclose exactly what the messages stated, but said they “caused us great concern.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was notified last night and the felony squad immediately began its search for George Anthony. Allen drove to the Anthony home to meet with Cindy Anthony. He left after George Anthony was located.

Orange County detectives were able to use pings from George Anthony’s cell phone to track him to Daytona Beach near Bethune Point, according to Daytona Beach police. Officers began searching for George Anthony’s black vehicle and spotted it at the Hawaii Motel in the 1300 block of South Ridgewood Avenue.

Chitwood, Daytona Beach’s police chief, spoke with George Anthony and convinced him to seek medical attention.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel this morning, Chitwood said he and several officers had to knock on the motel room door several times before Anthony answered.

Anthony was well dressed, laid back and low-key. Chitwood introduced himself, shook Anthony’s hand and explained why he was there.

“(Anthony) basically said to us, you know, I just need to get away. I need to think things through. That’s why he was there,” Chitwood said.

Anthony was not agitated, but he did want the chief and other officers to leave.

“He just wanted to be alone,” Chitwood said.

But the chief explained to Anthony that because of the situation, they could not leave. Chitwood offered to drive Anthony in his unmarked car to the hospital. Anthony agreed.

On the way to the hospital, Chitwood said, Anthony commented to him, “You don’t understand, do you? You just don’t understand what this is like.”

In that sense, I agree with George.  It must be horrific to know that not only has your beloved granddaughter has been murdered, but that your own daughter, whom you have loved as any parent would, is accused of the crime.

One thing that has stuck out to me was the comment made by George to police when they found Casey’s car, which had been abandoned…George, as a former police officer, recognized the distinct smell of death which fouled the air around the car and that you could apparently smell from quite a distance away:

“I had bad vibes the very first day when I got that car,” the little girl’s grandfather George Anthony told investigators on July 24, adding: “I don’t want to believe that I have, have raised someone, and brought someone in this world that could do something to another person. I don’t want to believe that.”

The former cop told police that he was concerned about a familiar odor wafting from the trunk of his daughter’s Pontiac Sunfire. As a former investigator, he said, he recognized the smell of death.

George Anthony’s wife Cindy, who told the media the smell was that of decomposing pizza, noticed the odor in their daughter’s car too, he said in interviews with detectives.

“After we pulled inside the garage … her exact words were, ‘Jesus Christ what died?’” George Anthony told police. “That’s exactly what she said. But then she said it in a way, she says, ‘George, it was the pizza right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it was the pizza.’

“And that’s what I left it go at that, but, I’m sitting here as the grandfather, as the father, as George Anthony and as a guy who smelled the smell before years ago, and you just never forget it. I even stuck my nose down on it and I’m, I’m concerned.”

I realize that I’ve been as hard as anyone on the parents of Casey Anthony, and with good reason.  But I believe that of the two, George is the one who has not only harbored doubts about the authenticity of his daughter’s story, but who has publicly stated those doubts…unlike Cindy, who went from thinking the car smelled like a dead body to convincing herself it was just a rotted pizza, and then attempting to convince the rest of us as well.

I understand, as a parent, that you don’t ever want to believe that a child you raised could ever be accused of such a vicious crime, much less be guilty of it.  But while Cindy continued to delude herself, George seemed to waver between wanting to believe his daughter and admitting to himself the truth he had apparently figured out on his own.  He’s stated on various occasions that Casey is innocent, then he has shared with police his private fear that perhaps everything is not as it seems.

He’s had to deal with the conflicting feelings within himself, the enormous stress that has come with the global coverage of this case, the knuckle-dragging monosyllabic troglodytes which have showed up in the middle of the night to “protest”, the continual reminders of Caylee in his own home, the emotional machinations of Casey and her twisted tales, and undoubtedly many other things which we have no idea of.  It all seems to have come together and created a situation which George apparently found unbearable.  He’s lost his daughter, granddaughter, and any semblance of normality in his life…can you blame the guy for feeling as he has?

And in the middle of this whole manipulative spiderweb is Casey herself…

The Aug. 14 jailhouse visit between Anthony and her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, goes quickly from a pleasant exchange to tension once the subject of Caylee Anthony is raised.

• Cindy:We need to have something to go on.
• Casey:Mom, I don’t have anything. I’m sorry. I’ve been here a month. I’ve been here a month today. Do you understand how I feel? I mean do you really understand how I feel in this? I’m completely, completely out of the loop with everything.

Casey Anthony said she needs to get out to be able to help.

• Casey:There is nothing more that I can say or do until I’m home, and even then, I don’t know what I can do from that point, but I can at least do something other than sit on my butt all day and read or look up stuff for my case because that has to be my focus right now. That has to be my focus because it’s the only thing I can focus on.

Cindy Anthony then asked a more pointed question.

• Cindy:I was in Lake County two days ago.
• Casey:OK.
• Cindy:Is there anything there?
• Casey:Mom. Geez! I’m sorry. I love you guys. I miss you.
• Cindy:Alright sweetheart. Here’s dad. Hold on.
• Casey:No. I’m going to hang up, and just walk away right now because …
• Cindy:Please don’t.
• Casey:I’m frustrated. I’m angry, and I don’t want to be angry. This is the first time I’ve truly been angry this entire time, but I’m so beyond frustrated with all of this. I can’t even swallow right now. It hurts.
• Cindy:Just understand we’re all going in so many directions. We just want to go in the right one.
• Casey:W ell, I can’t point you in that direction when I’m literally at a standstill.

At one point in the conversation, Casey Anthony did express a desire to have Caylee back.

The conversation came on the very same week that meter reader Roy Kronk reported three times his suspicions about a bag along Suburban Drive near the Anthony home to law enforcement.

…who wants to be seen as a victim in her little manipulative play:

George Anthony tried to tell his daughter that she is in control and that her defense attorney works for her.

“I’m not in control over any of this,” Casey Anthony said. She complained about not knowing what’s going on.

“My entire life has been taken from me. Everything has been taken from me. You don’t understand.”

Anthony complained about not getting to talk to anyone except her attorney.

“I have no one to comfort me but myself,” she said.

Anthony told her mother that she wanted investigators’ help, but that the detectives needed to help her, too.

“I need to be looked at as a victim because . . . I’m just as much of a victim as the rest of you. And it hasn’t been portrayed that way.”

No, Casey.  You are not the victim.  Your innocent little daughter Caylee, however, was.  And your father almost was as well.  But hey, anything to get your manipulative little kicks, huh?  Wonder which man you’re going to pick from to “comfort” you this time?

We are a blog, not hard-hitting news. These are our opinions. GlossLip has continuing coverage of the disappearance of Caylee Anthony here.

Source: k