Breaking News: Casey Anthony Released from Jail!

Casey Anthony was released from the Orange County Jail in Orlando, Florida, where she has been incarcerated since being arrested in 2008 at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, July 13. Escorted by a heavily-armed sheriff's deputy, the acquitted accused murderess walked out of the county facility with her attorney, Jose Baez (shown here with Anthony), and the two drove off in a gray SUV to "an undisclosed location." An angry mob of protestors chased after the vehicle as it sped off.

Three journalists from different organizations were permitted to cover the release. Texas Confidential Online was not among those granted permission.

Where Anthony went after leaving the jail in Orlando is not yet clear but rumors have ciculated since Wednesday, July 6, that she was going to be relocating to Houston (see "Casey Anthony Moving to Texas!"). Varying reports state she was taken to the offices of Cheney Mason, one of her defense attorneys, and/or that she was taken to an executive airport and thereafter flown to Ohio or some other location. Decoy vehicles may have been used to help obscure her movements after leaving the jail.

Anthony was convicted on four counts of lying to the police and sentenced to one year in prison for each of them and, with time served and good behavior being taken into consideration, was found to have paid her debt to society. (Anthony is shown here after her arrest in 2008.)

CNN's Jane Velez Mitchell was among the talking heads who began discussing rumors that upon her release from jail Anthony would be travelling to the Lone Star State and moving in with an aunt. Motives for this include a desire not to move back in with her father, who she has accused of molesting her, avoiding the angry mobs that have gathered in Orlando and dismissed the validity of the jury's decision, and seeking anonymity in a large metropolitan area.

The ongoing Casey Anthony affair has another Texas connection in the form of Texas EquuSearch, a search organization headquartered in the Houston suburb of Dickinson, which played a big role in the search for missing infant Caylee Anthony. According to the group, it spent some $112,000 organizing searches for Caylee and now wants to be reimbursed by the Anthony family, as reported on by station KIAH in Houston: Texas Equusearch Founder To Sue Casey Anthony

* See also "Casey Anthony Trial — The Aftermath" on the Religion, Politics, and Sex site.

* See also "10 Years Ago Today: Andrea Yates Child Murders" to read about one of the more sensational cases of the same sort that occured in Texas. Yates is one of seven mothers profiled in "(Bad) Mothers of the Year," one of the Chapters in Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder and Mayhem in the Lone Star State.