Grandfather of murdered 3-year-old remains hospitalized

Friday, January 23, 2009

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George Anthony, here shown in a previously-taken photo, remains hospitalized after disappearing Thursday.

The grandfather of murdered Orlando girl Caylee Anthony remains in the hospital after being found in a Daytona Beach motel.

George Anthony, whose daughter Casey is accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter, turned up in the motel early Friday morning. He had been missing from his Orlando home since Thursday.

Deputies located Anthony using the GPS on his phone.

Anthony had failed to show up at a meeting at his home Thursday afternoon with his lawyer, Brad Conway.

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"He seemed melancholy," chief Mike Chitwood of the Daytona Beach Police Department said of Anthony. "He was very compliant with us and after interviewing him and based on the fact and circumstances, we decided the best bet was to take him here to Halifax."

Anthony will be held under the state's Baker Act, which allows for a person to be held at a mental health facility while they are evaluated. That stay could last up to 72 hours.

A Halifax Medical Center spokesperson says the mental concerns were not the only concerns of the doctors in the emergency room. They also had some medical issues to deal with, although the spokesperson could not release details of those issues.

Chitwood said he spoke with Anthony before he was taken to the hospital.

"Just basically that he was under a lot of stress and that he needed to think," Chitwood said. "He needed to get away."

The Anthony family's attorney said that according to his sources George Anthony took some prescription medication and had been drinking. Investigators say Anthony sent text messages to family members that indicated he wanted to end his life.

Information from reporter Jason Wheeler at our Orlando affiliate, Central Florida News 13, was used in this report.