A Florida mother described by friends as a "habitual liar" was arrested in connection with the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter, who has been missing since June 9.
Casey Marie Anthony showed no emotion Thursday as she was ordered held without bond at the Orange County Jail, MyFOXOrlando.com reported. She was charged with child neglect and providing false information to law enforcement.
Anthony claimed she dropped off her daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, at a friend's house but has since lost contact with the friend.
The judge scolded the mother, saying she had "no regret or concern for her actions," The Orlando-Sentinel reported.
"You left your 2-year-old child with a person who does not exist at an apartment you cannot identify and you lied to your parents about your child's whereabouts," said Judge John Jordan. "You cared so little about your child."
He ordered a mental health evaluation be done on Anthony, according to the newspaper.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department told FOXNews.com that they have no reason to belive the toddler is dead.
"[We are] still operating under the hope she is going to turn up alive," said Deputy Sheriff Carlos Padilla. "[But] we are no closer today than we were yesterday."
Padilla said Anthony claims the child's father is not alive — something authorities are still looking into.
It was not clear why Anthony never reported the child missing. The girl's grandparents decided to file the report on Tuesday after learning that Anthony's car had been towed from a location that was nowhere near where she claimed to be staying.
"I’ve had the feeling the past couple of weeks that Casey's been holding back," the grandmother, Cindy Anthony, told MyFOXOrlando.com. "I’ve been asking to speak with my granddaughter and she’s been making excuses that I can't talk to her because she’s with someone else or she’s swimming or napping."
Anthony told her mother she was being sent to Tampa for work and would be back in a few days, but later changed her story and said she was going on a "mini-vacation," according to The Orlando-Sentinel.
"I had no reason to believe they weren't where they were supposed to be," the newspaper quoted Cindy Anthony as saying. "I don't know why she fabricated this."
Casey Anthony told police her daughter wasn't at the baby sitter's house when she went to pick the child up, so she started to do her own investigation.
She went to clubs that the baby sitter frequented and identified her as Zenaida Gonzalez, police said. But when police went to the apartment Anthony said belonged to the alleged baby sitter, they learned it had been vacant for almost five months, the newspaper reported.
When detectives caught up with Gonzalez and showed her pictures of both Anthony and her daughter, she said she did not recognize them.
In what seemed to be the latest in a string of lies, Anthony also told authorities that she worked at Universal Studios, and gave names of people who could vouch for her, according to The Orlando-Sentinel. But officials later learned she never worked at the theme park — and neither did the people she mentioned.
Anthony's father, George M. Anthony, said that his daughter is a good mother and would never hurt his grandchild.
"My daughter is a fantastic mother," he told FOX News. "We never had any reason to believe she would not be a good mother. Our granddaughter's in capable hands. She was nurturing, she always did the right thing. That was never, ever a question in our minds. I never once saw my daughter raise her voice."
The Orange County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone who has seen Caylee to call the crime line at 1-800-423-TIPS.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,384963,00.html