Here is some interesting reading on adipocere.
http://chestofbooks.com/reference/American-Cyclopaedia-V1/Adipocere.html
Note that the adipocere happens at the soft tissue region of the corpse and there must be fat. With Caylee being a little baby-fat person, she would have had plenty:
. First, the body at the time of its burial must be fat. Lean bodies, as a rule, do not undergo the change in question, but only those which arc abundantly supplied with adipose tissue.
It goes on to explain that the adipose tissue is not what turns into adipocere, but it is the transformation of the adipose tissue during decomposition under certain conditions that taints the surrounding soft tissue and causes the creation of adipocere.
Then note from here...
http://chestofbooks.com/reference/American-Cyclopaedia-V1/Adipose-Tissue.html
that adipose tissue typically is present in the following areas of the body:
The adipose tissue is situated principally beneath the skin and over the muscles, particularly those of the abdomen, about the cheeks, in the orbit of the eye, over the buttocks, on the outside of the heart about the origin of the great vessels, over the intestines, where it forms a special layer or distinct curtain called the omentum around the kidneys, and in various places about the inner side of the abdominal walls.
But at the same time, adipocere formation is another data point toward anaerobic decomposition...
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Adipocere
which means that the body had to have been decomposing sans oxygen
up to the point it was handled by KC and then the paper towels used. This would go contrary to the idea that Caylee was in the trunk for some period of time "unbagged". OR...it points to KC handling the body more than once after decomposition began (i.e. bagged once???? bagged twice??? etc.)
In this abstract of a research paper on how the method of burial affects the formation of adipocere
http://www.fsijournal.org/article/S0379-0738(04)00635-8/abstract
it states that...
...clothing enhances its formation
This book,
Death, decay and deconstruction
http://books.google.com/books?id=zA...GhxLAO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
explicitly states that the body does not need to be submerged in water, as earlier writings had suggested, in order for adipocere to form
Adipocere does not, however, require the large volumes of water for its formation that are suggested in many of the earlier writings...The body fats will extract water from the internal tissues...
There's some other interesting points in this last book
Adipocere formed more readily in Ringer's solution than distilled water.
Ringer's solution is defined as
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/504086/Ringers-solution
one of the first laboratory solutions of salts in water
shown to prolong greatly the survival time of excised tissue; it was introduced by the physiologist Sidney Ringer in 1882 for the frog heart. The solution contains sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate in the concentrations in which they occur in body fluids.
Which would infer that if body fluids are available, they will promote the formation of adipocere.
But also notable is the following observation
It was shown that in the laboratory there was only approximately 20% difference in the rate of adipocere formation in anaerobic conditions over its formation in an aerobic environment.
So while anaerobic conditions will promote adipocere formation, they don't appear to be necessary for its formation.
and finally, another point of stating "coverings" will promote adipocere formation:
The presence of body coverings and damp soil accelerate the process which in this series of cases occurred more readily in uncoffined but clothed bodies.
Now, here's the quandry...
http://books.google.com/books?id=xq...hxLAO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10
But the question arises:--What is the earliest period after death at which, under specially favorable conditions, adipocere may be formed?
Casper says that adipocere is not formed to any extent, according to his experience, under three to four months' submersion in water, and six months' burial in moist earth.
The book goes on to sight 6 weeks at the earliest for adipocere formation.
But more recent research has shown
http://www.astm.org/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS4630609.htm
Experimental observation of the chemistry of adipocere formation indicated that adipocere can be formed only a few hours after an incidence of death and this continues until the saturation of oleic acid degradation after several weeks. Different time courses were obtained for cadavers immersed in distilled, chlorinated, and saline water, respectively.
Now, in reviewing these writings it is found that the combination of fatty tissue (adipose tissue and soft, fatty tissue) in combination with fibrin promotes adipocere formation. Fibrin accessibility is increased at the point of a wound (i.e. fibrin is part of the hemoglobin, clotting aspects of blood). Since high concentrations of chloroform on the skin can produce open sores, the very exposure to chloroform that could have happened on Caylee's face if KC literally saturated something in order to chloroform Caylee could have led to the promotion of early adipocere formation at the cheek area.
But in addition! The formation of adipocere is dependent on the "hydrolysis [i.e. introducing water into the molecular structure] and hydrogenation [i.e. the introduction of hydrogen into the molecular structure] of lipid fats".
From here...
http://books.google.com/books?id=IN...TD0JUP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6
we find that using a solvent (i.e. chloroform) facilitates the hydrogenation of fatty acids
In 1914, Maryott already suggested dissolving fatty acids or oil in a solvent, [NOTE: chloroform "defats" skin, that's what causes anywhere from irritation to outright sores depending on the degree of exposure] such as an alcohol, acetone, ether, and petroleum ether, or in solvents that are nowadays regarded as being potentially unhealthy, such as benzene, chloroform...Harrod showed that the rate of hydrogenation can be vastly increased by dissolving the hydrogenation substrate in solvents...because then hydrogen is fully miscible with these solvents. Accordingly, the reaction is no longer limited by the hydrogen transport and, thus, very fast.
In conclusion, I think the formation of adipocere in such a very short time points to the use of chloroform in the area around Caylee's little fatty cheeks.