The Use of the Shovel

[housemouse]

I just had an off-the-wall idea about why Casey wanted the shovel. No idea whether there is anything to it or not, but it might fit.

Perhaps she wanted to pry up a few pavers to weight down a little body before dumping it in a body of water. She is probably bright enough to know that bodies will float to the surface after decomp gasses build up.

So, did LE think look at the pavers in the back yard to see if any were missing, or had been very recently replaced? And, if replaced, how many?

 

[pixarfreak]

KC borrowed a shovel from the neighbor to
1. dig to bury something

or

2. to dig up something buried

let's assume she was digging to bury
when did she return to to remove what she had buried?

let's assume the borrowed shovel was to dig up something buried
when did she dig to bury something?


what was the date of the borrowed shovel?

my thought is this--2 shovels
one to bury (borrowed shovel)
one to unearth (tba)
has LE taken a 2nd shovel for testing?

 

[Theonly1]

KC borrowed a shovel from the neighbor to
1. dig to bury something

or

2. to dig up something buried

let's assume she was digging to bury
when did she return to to remove what she had buried?

let's assume the borrowed shovel was to dig up something buried
when did she dig to bury something?


what was the date of the borrowed shovel?

my thought is this--2 shovels
one to bury (borrowed shovel)
one to unearth (tba)
has LE taken a 2nd shovel for testing?

Maybe I'm dense but I assumed she may have used the shovel for leverage to get into the shed. Once in the shed there were other shovels (Cindy mentions the word shovel like 3 times on the Greta interview) to choose from. IF she took one of the Anthony's shovels for any further diggin's then we would rely on them to report a shovel missing.

 

[MD MOMMY]

I thought she was digging up bamboo...LOL totally kidding of course.

I think she was burying something since she obviously borrowed the shovel only once from this particular neighbor. IF she had access to another shovel to bury something in the first place then she wouldn't need to borrow one to dig it back up..hope that makes sense.

I don't think she ever dug anything back up JMO.

Personally I think she either buried her cell phone and other evidence in her parents yard. JMO.

 

[halleyscomet]

To the best of my knowledge, she only had the shovel for an hour. Also, wouldn't they be able to test the dirt on the shovel to determine if it came from the A's yard? I think the shovel was borrowed on the 18th, but the neighbor wasn't 100% certain of the date.

 

[pixarfreak]

leverage into shed -- in Greta interview shed did not appear to be tampered with.
which is why digging was guessed.

also if KC had been digging bamboo, the ground would have looked disturbed.

 

[HRCODEPINK]

To the best of my knowledge, she only had the shovel for an hour. Also, wouldn't they be able to test the dirt on the shovel to determine if it came from the A's yard? I think the shovel was borrowed on the 18th, but the neighbor wasn't 100% certain of the date.

I would imagine that it would be difficult to determine if dirt on the shovel was from the As yard or the neighbors since they are so close, but if there were decomp in the soil she was digging in that might be a different story. However, I think I remember reading that neither she, nor the shovel were dirty. She watched a lot of CSI. Think she may have washed it off? Dipped it in the pool?

 

[pixarfreak]

I would think whatever she buried would have been found by LE

 

[HRCODEPINK]

I would think whatever she buried would have been found by LE

I think so too! I can"t imagine with the dogs hitting on the yard that they didn't take soil samples from the areas of the yard that the dogs hit. No need for dirt on the shovel for them to test in that case. Would be nice, but there would most likely be decomp in the soil.

 

[MD MOMMY]

I would think whatever she buried would have been found by LE

But they couldn't have dug up every inch of the yard.

 

[pixarfreak]

they would look for disturbed areas and investigate those places in the yard

 

[MD MOMMY]

they would look for disturbed areas and investigate those places in the yard

Have you seen the A's yard? It's not like a perfectly groomed lawn..it's like dirt with patches of grass and it would be extrememly difficult to determine what is disturbed and what is not. They were not in the yard awfully long either.

 

[newuser]

You have to remember that GA himself said when the dogs hit in the back "she is deceased". THat's in the 400 pages. I don't think he even knew about the whole borrowed shovel thing at that time. He would have assumed one of his shovels was used. Actually, borrowing the shovel may have been the one stupid mistake of trying to hide this KC made. It makes no sense to me that she borrowed a shovel to bury or dig up a deceased child. Either way, she had to dig at another time. I can't put in my mind the idea of leaving my child in a shallow grave and going to my boyfriend's house, only to come back later and remove her. That's probably the most disturbing picture I get out of the whole story. I can understand an accidentally death and panicking. I can even understand or grasp the concept of losing control and in a moment of rage causing the death. But I can't grasp, after the heat of the moment passes, just leaving a child in a shallow grave. What must someone think to do something like that? You can't really think you are going to get away with that?

 

[MD MOMMY]

You have to remember that GA himself said when the dogs hit in the back "she is deceased". THat's in the 400 pages. I don't think he even knew about the whole borrowed shovel thing at that time. He would have assumed one of his shovels was used. Actually, borrowing the shovel may have been the one stupid mistake of trying to hide this KC made. It makes no sense to me that she borrowed a shovel to bury or dig up a deceased child. Either way, she had to dig at another time. I can't put in my mind the idea of leaving my child in a shallow grave and going to my boyfriend's house, only to come back later and remove her. That's probably the most disturbing picture I get out of the whole story. I can understand an accidentally death and panicking. I can even understand or grasp the concept of losing control and in a moment of rage causing the death. But I can't grasp, after the heat of the moment passes, just leaving a child in a shallow grave. What must someone think to do something like that? You can't really think you are going to get away with that?

I don't believe that is in the 400 page document...if it is please point it out TIA. I remember hearing a rumor that GA said that to one of the detectives but I'm 99% sure it's not in writing.

 

[Baznme]

You have to remember that GA himself said when the dogs hit in the back "she is deceased". THat's in the 400 pages. I don't think he even knew about the whole borrowed shovel thing at that time. He would have assumed one of his shovels was used. Actually, borrowing the shovel may have been the one stupid mistake of trying to hide this KC made. It makes no sense to me that she borrowed a shovel to bury or dig up a deceased child. Either way, she had to dig at another time. I can't put in my mind the idea of leaving my child in a shallow grave and going to my boyfriend's house, only to come back later and remove her. That's probably the most disturbing picture I get out of the whole story. I can understand an accidentally death and panicking. I can even understand or grasp the concept of losing control and in a moment of rage causing the death. But I can't grasp, after the heat of the moment passes, just leaving a child in a shallow grave. What must someone think to do something like that? You can't really think you are going to get away with that?

It's possible she couldn't get into the shed so she borrowed the neighbor's shovel. She could have used it to break into the shed to get her father's shovel, either way I believe she may have attempted to dig in more than one spot but realized it was reasonable to put her in the back yard. She decided against that knowing she would surely be found. The areas the dogs hit on may have been in spots where she laid the body but did not succeed at putting it into the ground. So after no more than 45 minutes, she abandoned that idea and placed her back in the trunk to take elsewhere. She may have put her father's shovel in the trunk at the same time to take with her. The question is, "where".

 

[Balthazar]

We don't have the exact date that she borrowed the shovel. The neighbor thought it was around the second week in June. The odd thing about it is he claims it was just after he came back from a business trip - so I was thinking - didn't he have receipts or a credit card bill where he could determine the date a bit more accurately? The shovel was almost certainly used to break into the garden shed at the Anthony's as Casey only had it around 45 minutes.

The Anthony's claimed that they recently started locking the shed to protect Caylee from getting into it. I theorize that Cindy told Casey to move out around June 9, so I wonder if locks were changed to the house and they locked the shed to prevent Casey from stealing gas - which she had done in the past.

I theorize that the reason George called the police about the stolen gas cans was that based on what the counselor had discussed with Cindy, they had decided not to cut Casey anymore slack and they were building a case to allow them to get custody of Caylee. I theorize that he really knew at the time that Casey had the gas cans. It's hard for a parent to turn their child into the police, so he just reported them as stolen and left it at that, probably to hold over Casey's head later.

 

[pixarfreak]

Have you seen the A's yard? It's not like a perfectly groomed lawn..it's like dirt with patches of grass and it would be extrememly difficult to determine what is disturbed and what is not. They were not in the yard awfully long either.

perfectly groomed yard, I know...so what was the shovel for?
I wouldn't think she would need it to lift the body, do you?

 

[LookingForThe Truth]

There is a duplicate shovel thread, just saying...

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70514&highlight=Shovel

 

[doogiesgirl]

Personally I think she either buried her cell phone and other evidence in her parents yard. JMO.

This shovel thing has had me baffled. I mean why would she borrow a shovel and esp only have it for 45 to 70 minutes.. I never thought of burying a phone or some other small item.. That is a good theory. I would think that if she got into the house, which she did, then keys to the sheds would be available to her. Even if G & C changed the locks on the sheds (not sure I buy this) KC is the type to get ahold of them and get them copied. I can just see her thinking "oh you think putting new locks on is going to keep me out of there---I'll show you, and then sneakily get the keys and get them copied. But MD MOMMY's suggestion that she may have buried her cell phone is a good one. Could have been any other small incriminating object also, but again, why borrow from the neighbor?

 

[mom2chloe]

Hello everyone this is my first post. I have always believed the shovel was used to bury and/or retrieve evidence, maybe the "other cell phone", the sim card, or her extra set of car and house keys, possibly even the missing clothes to Caylee's baby doll mama.
In recent days however, it has also occurred to me that she could have used that shovel to dig up sand from the sandbox as a method of weighting down the body or whatever she placed the body in. Sand is heavy enough to hold down the body of a 3 year old.