ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary on Thursday said human remains discovered in wooded area near the home of George and Cindy Anthony are "a very strong lead in solving the case" involving Caylee Anthony, who was last seen in mid-June.

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VIDEO: Caylee Remains?
VIDEO: Sheriff Interview
VIDEO: Discovery Details
VIDEO: Anthonys Notified
VIDEO: Baez Questioned
VIDEO: Sheriff's Spokesman
VIDEO: Computer Password Code
PHOTOS: Child's Remains Found
PHOTOS: More Pics From Sighting
PHOTOS: Possible Caylee Sighting
PHOTOS: Casey Baby Photos

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Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, remains jailed on first-degree murder charges in her daughter's disappearance.

An Orange County water meter reader found the skeletal remains of a child around 9:30 a.m. Thursday in a wooded area while taking a bathroom break near South Chickasaw Trail and Suburban Drive, less than half a mile from the Hopespring Drive home of George and Cindy Anthony, Local 6 News reported.

Beary confirmed that the skull of a child had been recovered. Deputies said it's too early to tell if the remains, which were later taken away in a medical examiner's van, are that of Caylee.

"We've got to wait about a week to two weeks before the DNA results come back," Beary said. "We've had thousands of people who've got tremendous hearts who have come out and search for little Caylee, and this is a very tough situation for everybody that's been involved in this case, but this is probably a lead toward that closure."

Local 6 News reporter Jessica D'Onofrio confirmed that the remains are likely that of a girl. D'Onofrio said the worker saw the garbage bag, opened it, saw the remains of a child and called 911. The skull was found nearby, and there was duct tape in and around the garbage bag, D'Onofrio reported.

"Deputies did respond to that area, and once we were on the scene, we determined that we do have the remains of a young child. Obviously, our concern is that it's in close proximity to some recent activity in that part of the county, and it's incumbent upon us to determine what we have," said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons, referring to the Casey Anthony case.

The age and gender of the remains are not known.

The area of the discovery has been blocked off, and FBI agents, along with sheriff's detectives, continue to investigate the wooded area.

"We're going to cross out t's and dot our i's," Beary said.

Authorities said they are seeking a search warrant for the home belonging to the grandparents of Caylee, who lived at the home with her mother, although the two often stayed elsewhere. The Anthonys will not be allowed in their home until investigators have searched the house, Local 6 News reported.

Tim Miller, the leader of EquuSearch, a Texas-based group that has performed numerous searches for Caylee's body, said he talked with FBI agents, who told him that they believe the remains belong to Caylee.

"It would be inappropriate to speculate," Orange County sheriff's Capt. Angelo Nieves said. "Our investigators are on scene, evaluating and processing the situation. It's very early."

Nieves said that George and Cindy Anthony have been notified about the discovery. They returned from California Thursday afternoon after appearing on "Larry King Live" on CNN Wednesday night.

Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, filed an emergency motion on Thursday to participate in forensic testing on the remains, if they are determined to be that of Caylee.

The hearing will be held Friday at 11:30 a.m. at the Orange County courthouse. Casey Anthony will not attend the hearing.

Leonard Padilla, a bounty hunter who initially bailed Casey Anthony out of jail and has searched for Caylee, said, "It's a bittersweet day."

"We drove by (the wooded area where the remains were found) dozens of times. We heard that there were searches going on in that area," Padilla said.

An elementary school is located nearby, forcing officials to devise a plan for getting students home without interfering with the crime scene.

Local 6 News showed buses transporting students from Hidden Oaks Elementary at about 3 p.m. Thursday through the area, which is lined with crime tape.

Cindy Anthony first called authorities in July to say she hadn't seen Caylee for a month and her daughter's car smelled like death.

Police immediately interviewed Casey Anthony and said that everything she told them about her Caylee's whereabouts was false.

Casey Anthony said she left Caylee with a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez at an Orange County apartment complex, and the two were missing when she returned to pick up Caylee. Detectives said the baby sitter was nonexistent and the apartment where Anthony said she had last seen Caylee had been empty for months. Anthony also lied about where she worked, detectives said.

As the case unfolded, troubling details emerged. Photos of Anthony partying after her daughter went missing surfaced. Friends said she was a habitual liar, but they also said that she was a good mother.

Earlier this month, the Orange County state attorney turned over almost 800 pages of documents, which showed someone at the Anthony home had done Internet searches for terms like "neck breaking" and "household weapons."

In mid-March, someone used the Anthonys' home laptop to search Google and Wikipedia for peroxide, shovels, acetone, alcohol and chloroform. Traces of chloroform, which is used to induce unconsciousness and also a component of human decomposition, were found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car during forensic testing, the documents said.

Orange County jail officials also released several hours of videotapes of visits between Casey Anthony and her family from July and August, when she was arrested on neglect and other counts but before she was charged with first-degree murder.

During the taped visits, Anthony's parents tell her they're trying hard to find the little girl. Anthony does not appear to add information to aid that search beyond her account that a baby sitter took the girl.

Last week, prosecutors announced they would not pursue the death penalty for Anthony, although that move could be reversed.

The Orange County State Attorney's Office said in a news release last week that "it is not in the best interest of the people of the state of Florida" to pursue the death penalty against Anthony.

Pretrial Hearing

Meanwhile, Local 6 has confirmed that a motion for a change of venue has been prepared by Baez, but the motion has not yet been filed.

A pretrial hearing was held Thursday morning in the first-degree murder case, and Baez waived his client's right to a speedy trial, and the case was moved to the court's March docket. A status hearing was scheduled with a tentative date of Jan. 15. Anthony's trial had been scheduled to begin Jan. 5.

Anthony did not appear at the hearing.

Computer Password Code

Local 6 News continues its investigation into the case as reporter Tony Pipitone deciphers the words and figures Anthony used to communicate with her family from jail.

In a jailhouse visit in July, Lee Anthony, Casey Anthony's brother, seemingly played the role of family detective, but she did not offer much information until he mentioned computer passwords.

"Any meaning behind the passwords that would be clues to any of this?" Lee Anthony asked.

"Yes," Casey Anthony replied.

"Does that include the MySpace sign-in passwords as well as the computer passwords?" Lee Anthony said.

"The computer passwords, no. MySpace and Facebook, yes," Casey Anthony said.

"All right, so there is meaning behind those?" Lee Anthony said.

"Yes," Casey Anthony said.

"Password for that is?" Lee Anthony asked.

"Cays234," Casey Anthony said.

But less than an hour later, Casey Anthony gave her mother, Cindy Anthony, a different answer.

"I don't know your MySpace password," Cindy Anthony said.

"Facebook account (is) timer55 (and the) password is the same as my MySpace," Casey Anthony said.

"I'll let you elaborate if you want to. If not, it's OK," Lee Anthony said.

"Move on to something else. We'll cover that by other means," Casey Anthony said.

The siblings met again in a jailhouse visit three days later, and Casey Anthony communicated with her brother via Baez.

"Do you got anything for me outside of what I've already heard?" Lee Anthony said.

"Did you guys get my messages from Jose?" Casey Anthony asked.

"Yes," Lee Anthony said.

"That's where I'm leaving it , so," Casey Anthony said.

Two days later, on July 30, Cindy Anthony told the FBI that she had figured out her daughter's password code for timer55.

"She told Lee the other day timer55 means that she has 55 days," Cindy Anthony said.

"Fifty-five days from when, as Casey now claimed, mystery baby sitter Zenaida Gonzalez and her sister threw her down in Blanchard Park and took Caylee to teach her a lesson," Pipitone said.

"Fifty-five days to Caylee's birthday, and she said Caylee would be returned on her birthday," Cindy Anthony said.

Caylee's birthday is Aug. 9, which is 55 days after June 16, the day Casey Anthony was last seen with Caylee.

"And that, at least according to Cindy, was the code in Casey's password," Pipitone said.

Mall Video Sought

Baez is seeking a court order for surveillance video of a reported sighting of Caylee.

Baez said that a photograph taken by an unidentified shopper with a cell phone camera, showing a girl who resembles Caylee Anthony playing at a Florida mall five months after she was last seen, led to the request.

The photo was submitted to a tip line in the ongoing search for Caylee.

Baez wants the Florida Mall in Orlando to turn over all of its surveillance tapes from 2 p.m to 5 p.m. on Nov. 16. In a motion filed Monday, he asked a court to subpoena them. No decision has been made yet.

Caylee hasn't been seen since mid-June, but Casey Anthony did not report her daughter missing until mid-July. The child's body hasn't been found.

Baez wants access to the tapes because "in spite of the first-degree murder charges faced by Ms. Anthony, this is still a missing persons case."

"The inability to act could hinder the prompt and safe recovery of Caylee Marie Anthony," Baez wrote.

A call to Florida Mall's director of security was directed to the mall manager, who was not immediately available for comment.

The state's attorney's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Prosecutors have routinely declined comment on developments in the case.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.