I gotta tell ya, I kinda enjoyed the FBI thing.
We already know she threatened LE with negative media attention. I can just imagine the threats she made to OSCO about the FBI. I'm sure she thought she was flexing her muscles and scaring them with a threat to call in FBI because they were not doing a good enough job. No doubt she thought she was going over OCSO's head by calling them in. Big bad Cindy..
LOL Sure blew up in her face when the FBI came to the same conclusion OCSO did, ya know? KARMA!
Not to mention the fact that once the FBI was involved, there was at least one agency who could use unparalleled equipment, techniques and resources to add to the evidence. Most importantly, one that the defense couldn't subvert or circumvent the way they've tried to manipulate and discredit local LE and the SA using the Sunshine Laws that are completely beyond the state's control. The defense has also managed to exploit the lack of gag order (which they fought because they figured they could use the media to their advantage, but publicly bemoan as if they are instead the victims of a conspiracy).
I think the Anthonys thought that involving the FBI would give legitimacy to calling the crime a "kidnapping" (which it was clear that local LE was understandably reluctant to continue to do) as well as to set up an artificial adversarial situation (evidenced by several comments GA made in his FBI interviews that were meant to flatter FBI and subtly criticize LE). If they had realized that perhaps OCSO and FBI could work together professionally and collaboratively and that, once the FBI was involved, certain evidence would be protected beyond the Sunshine Laws, they might have thought twice about that being a smart strategy.
The Anthonys seem to be painfully unaware of the fact that they have not been able to manage public perception and appear to have divided their loyalties to a daughter accused of murder (among other crimes) and a completely innocent granddaughter who may very well have met her end at their daughter's hands.
While we all sympathize with the heartbreaking choice they had to make, the fact is the public has perceived them spending their time propagandizing the innocence, or trying to protect every possible legal accommodation or technical right of a clearly wayward daughter, while simultaneously, in essence, basically reducing their granddaughter to a caricature brand name to raise money (both before and after the truth was known about her actual demise).
What they seem to have forgotten is that the state is there to bring the protective aegis of legal justice to their granddaughter regardless of how it personally impacts them as a family. If a family cannot stand up and demand justice for the death of a child - if they cannot because it is personally painful or inconvenient - then that is precisely where the state must intervene as a sort of posthumous guardian ad litem. While I can feel sympathy for the family of the defendant and can insist that every consideration be shown to them in constructing their defense, the victim must been seen to receive equal consideration.
If say, in another situation, an elderly person met with death and it was likely at the hands of a family member, whether accidental or not, and the death of the person created a situation in which one or all of the remaining family members could benefit in some way, I don't think that the same allowances would be demanded or expected for the defendant and his or her family - the emphasis would be on the plight of the victim, regardless of whether the elderly person was ill or had lived a long and happy life. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't mind concern being shown for fairness for the defendant as long as the same concern is shown by the victim's family for the victim herself even though, but most especially because she cannot speak for herself, and I just do not see that happening. Sorry. Rant over.