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Final Test Of "Rotten Pizza Theory" Has No Decomposition Smell

Monday, August 25, 2008 – updated: 6:25 pm EDT August 25, 2008

One of the biggest controversies in the Casey Anthony case has been about some leftover pizza. The Anthony family claimed pizza left in a hot car caused the smell of decomposition.


VIDEO REPORT: Eyewitness News Completes Second "Rotten Pizza Theory" Experiment

Eyewitness News tested the theory, but didn't find anything. Later, the family said the pizza had been sitting longer and was in a bag with laundry detergent. So, Eyewitness News did another test.

When Eyewitness News first set out to test the pizza theory, it ended with rock hard slices that had no smell at all. But George Anthony said the experiment was done wrong, because it didn't include the laundry detergent. So it was repeated and left in the car closed in the hot sun.

The car was left for 20 days and it did smell like a musty old trunk, but not like decomposition. One by one the bags were opened that nearly three weeks earlier were filled with pizza combined with Arm and Hammer laundry detergent, both powered and liquid, in the container and out.

In the first bag, the pizza was a little more rotten than it was last time. Pizza bag two was moldy, but definitely did not smell like a dead body. Pizza bag three had hard pizza, a little moldy, but with little or no smell. Pizza bag four had no maggots and smelled mostly of detergent.

So, five pizzas later and it still doesn't smell like human decomposition and Monday a spokesperson for the Anthony family discounted the results, saying the Anthony's are awaiting evidence from forensic experts.

The Eyewitness News pizza experiments were not scientific. It was an attempt to lend credibility to a theory that was explained in detail by George Anthony.

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