FBI Lab Notes Among Latest Batch of Casey Anthony Evidence

Orlando Sentinel- More evidence logs and laboratory notes from the FBI were included in the latest batch of records released Friday by prosecutors in their first-degree murder case against Casey Anthony.

The State Attorney's Office released 289 pages of discovery, which adds to the more than 13,000 pages already released.

Casey Anthony, 24, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie in the summer of 2008. Caylee's remains were found in December 2008, several months after the toddler's family reported her missing.

According to a report, FBI analysts looked for human hairs that had signs of decomposition in evidence they collected, including from a steam cleaner and vacuum. The report said none was found.

The FBI also analyzed hair samples belonging to Orange County Sheriff's Office crime-scene investigators. That evaluation was done to determine who a strand of hair — found with evidence — came from.

Evidence logs from the Sheriff's Office again detailed items taken from the woods where Caylee's remains were ultimately found, including dirt, soda cans, bugs and electrical tape.

Also released Friday was a transcribed interview with Cecilia Benhaida, sister of the woman who sparked a close relationship with Casey Anthony's father George Anthony.

Benhaida told sheriff's investigators she met Casey Anthony while both women were jailed in Orange County.

She said she had no idea that her sister, Krystal Holloway, knew the Anthonys.

Benhaida told investigators she had befriended Casey Anthony because she was "trying to be nice to her."

"I kind of felt bad that all the inmates there were in that building … would be screaming murderer," Benhaida told sheriff's Cpl. Yuri Melich.

She also told detectives she had passed letters from other inmates to Anthony.

Earlier this month, prosecutors released dozens of letters Anthony wrote to former inmate Robyn Adams.

Benhaida did not tell investigators the contents of the letters she had passed to Anthony.

She did tell detectives that when she was released from jail she became friendly with the Anthonys.

One day, she said, Cindy Anthony told her that Caylee's death was an accident.

"She did tell me that [George Anthony] told her that um, it was something about an accident," Benhaida said. When asked about what kind of accident, Benhaida responded: "The child being killed by accident."

The next hearing in the Casey Anthony case is scheduled for Friday.

Letters Between Casey Anthony, Inmate Friend Released

Correspondence sent between Casey Anthony and another inmate at a Florida jail was released today by the state attorney's office.

The 258 pages of letters do not contain a confession, but Anthony frequently complained about her family in the letters she wrote to a female drug dealer she befriended at the Orange County Jail. Anthony also wrote of her profound dislike of her former boyfriend, Jesse Grund, indicating that she was relieved when he informed her that DNA tests proved he wasn't her daughter's father.

"I despise that loser and I pity him," she wrote.

[Click here to read the letters on MyFoxOrlando.com. ]

Anthony, 24, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee Anthony, who was 2 years old when she was reported missing in July 2008. The girl's remains were found five months later near the home Anthony shared with her grandparents.

Anthony remains behind bars at the Orange County Jail under a protective-custody status, prohibiting her from directly communicating with other inmates.

"While there is no way to prevent inmates in adjacent cells from having fleeting communications, the passing of notes is something that would not be permitted," jail spokesman Allen Moore told the Orlando Sentinel.

The inmate who received Anthony's notes, Robyn Adams, told investigators she did not want to "get anyone in trouble," but said a county corrections officer may have helped the women stay in touch, according to prosecution records cited by the newspaper.

Orange Circuit Judge Stan Strickland had earlier ordered the letters not be released to the public so Anthony's defense team had time to review the documents and decide whether to challenge their release.

Anthony's lead defense attorney, Jose Baez, said he was not concerned with the letters on Monday.

"We have nothing to hide with those letters," Baez told reporters.