ORLANDO, Fla. – An ex-wife of the former Orange County meter reader who discovered the remains of Caylee Anthony told the CBS "Early Show" that she thought her ex-husband was responsible for or involved in the girl's death.
In a taped video interview that was aired Friday on the "Early Show," Jill Kerley was asked about her former husband, Roy Kronk, who found Caylee's remains in December in a wooded lot near the Anthony family home in east Orange County.
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Kronk was deposed Thursday by the defense team of Casey Anthony, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.
"When you learned that Roy Kronk had found the remains of Caylee Anthony, what went through your mind?" a representative of Casey Anthony's defense team asked Kerley.
"That he had done it," she said.
"'Done it,' meaning?" the representative asked.
"He probably was the one that had murdered Caylee Anthony or had something to do with it," Kerley said.
Linda Kenney Baden, an attorney on Casey Anthony's defense team, said on the "Early Show" that Kerley's statements prove that authorities have not done their job in investigating Caylee's death.
"These people have no reason or motive to lie," said Kenney Baden, referring to Kerley, another ex-wife and a daughter of an ex-girlfriend of Kronk's.
"But it's an ex-wife, who may have an ax to grind," said Maggie Rodriguez of the CBS "Early Show."
"Listen, one ex-wife is dying of cancer. This is like a death-bed statement. It's incredible," Kenney Baden said. "The point about this is that no one investigated any of this."
Casey Anthony lead defense attorney Jose Baez filed a motion following Kronk's deposition "to introduce prior bad acts and other circumstantial evidence pertaining to Roy Kronk." The motion included DVDs of the interviews with Kronk's former family members.
The motion claims that Kronk has a history of abusing and restraining women with duct tape as well as holding them against their will. The motion also alleges that Kronk could have a history of inappropriate behavior with young girls.
"Sometimes he would, you know, walk in while I was putting clothes on," the daughter of Kronk's ex-girlfriend said.
She also claimed that Kronk would make comments about videotaping her having sex with animals. Kronk denies the allegations.
One of Kronk's ex-wives said Kronk kidnapped her and held her for two weeks against her will using duct tape to restrain her. Duct tape was also found on Caylee's remains, according to documents released in the case.
The defense also claimed Kronk knew the location of Caylee's remains and may have had possession of them in November 2008.
The defense said the prosecution only has circumstantial evidence against Casey Anthony in the first-degree murder case against her, and according to Florida law, for circumstantial evidence to prevail, all other options must be ruled out.
The motion asks the court "to allow Anthony to introduce at trial circumstantial evidence tending to indicate that a third party, and not Miss Anthony, is equally likely to be responsible for the death of the child Caylee Marie Anthony."
Kronk's attorney, David Evans, said his client has become a target of the Casey Anthony's defense team.
"Roy is the guy who has been selected, apparently, by the defense to be the guy to be dumped on, and they dumped on him big time today," Evans said.
Evan issued a news release Thursday evening stating his client is a witness, not a suspect.
"Shortly after adjourning the deposition, the Anthony defense team filed a motion, memorandum of law and accompanying materials suggesting that Roy Kronk, the individual who found Caylee Anthony's remains and repeatedly reported his find to law enforcement agencies, should be considered a suspect in the murder of Caylee Anthony," Evans said. "He voluntarily appeared today and truthfully responded to all questions asked by Anthony's attorney. He has cooperated fully with law enforcement from day one. He has nothing to hide, and has hidden nothing."
Evans said Kronk has always understood he may become a target of the defense.
"In their zeal to defend Casey Anthony, defense counsel has filed papers with the court that are filled with allegations that have no basis in fact and falsely accuse Mr. Kronk of various types of bad behavior," Evans said. "The state will respond to these papers in due course in the criminal proceedings. As for Mr. Kronk, he vehemently denies the allegations against him and is confident that he will be vindicated. In the meantime, as he stated early on in this case, no good deed goes unpunished."
Kronk first reported finding something suspicious in the woods near the Anthonys' home on Aug. 11, 2008, but after three phone calls, a deputy came out and said he found nothing. That deputy, Richard Cain, was later fired from the Sheriff's Office for lying to his superiors about his encounter with Kronk.
None of the new information will be heard by the jury in Casey Anthony's murder trial unless the judge rules for the defense on the latest motion and allows it into evidence.
The state has yet to respond to the new information, but Kronk is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution in the Casey Anthony case.
Casey Anthony, 23, has pleaded not guilty, originally claiming that a baby sitter had taken Caylee.
Hearings in Casey Anthony's check fraud and murder cases are scheduled for Dec. 11.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.