[Florida Files] Casey Anthony Revisited (Copy)

A Note from Mandy and Melissa:

This is the very first case we ever covered on Moms and Mysteries back in 2017. A lot has changed since then—we've recorded 491 episodes, improved our research and storytelling, and grown as podcasters. We've always joked about going back to re-do our early episodes, and while we can't revisit all of them, this one deserved a fresh look. Especially now that Casey Anthony has put herself back in the spotlight by emerging on TikTok as a self-proclaimed advocate and researcher.

The Case:

On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called 911 in Orlando, Florida, to report that her granddaughter, two-year-old Caylee Anthony, had been missing for 31 days. The call was frantic and desperate. Cindy had just discovered that her daughter Casey had been lying about Caylee's whereabouts for over a month, claiming the toddler was with a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez—a woman who didn't exist.

Casey Anthony, a 22-year-old single mother, had been living with her parents and young daughter in their Orlando home. But in the weeks after Caylee disappeared, Casey was out partying, getting a tattoo that read "Bella Vita" (beautiful life), and telling friends and family elaborate lies about where Caylee was. She claimed Caylee was with the nanny, or at the beach, or at Disney World. But Caylee was nowhere to be found.

When police began investigating, Casey's stories quickly fell apart. There was no nanny. There was no job at Universal Studios (where Casey claimed to work). There were only lies, inconsistencies, and a mother who showed no urgency to find her missing child.

On December 11, 2008, Caylee's remains were discovered in a wooded area near the Anthony family home. Her skull was found with duct tape across the mouth area, and her body had been placed in a laundry bag. She had been dead for months.

Casey was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that Casey had killed Caylee—either by suffocation or chloroform—because the toddler was an obstacle to her party lifestyle. The defense argued that Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family pool and that Casey's father, George Anthony, had helped cover it up. They also suggested that Casey's bizarre behavior was the result of childhood sexual abuse.

The trial became a media circus. It was broadcast live on television, and millions of people followed every detail. The evidence seemed overwhelming: Casey's lies, her behavior after Caylee's disappearance, the duct tape, the searches for "chloroform" on the family computer. But on July 5, 2011, the jury returned a shocking verdict: not guilty of murder.

Casey was convicted only of lying to police and was released from jail shortly after due to time served. The verdict sparked outrage across the country. Many believed Casey had gotten away with murder.

Where is Casey Now?

In recent years, Casey has attempted to re-enter public life. She's appeared on social media, given interviews, and positioned herself as an advocate for wrongly accused individuals. Her attempts at rebranding have been met with widespread criticism.

This renewed episode covers the full story—from Caylee's disappearance to the trial, the verdict, and Casey's life today. It's the case that started it all for Moms and Mysteries, and we're telling it the way it deserves to be told.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] On July 20th, 2017, the very first episode of the Moms and Mysteries podcast was released. In it, we discussed the infamous and wildly controversial story of a young Florida woman, Casey Anthony, and the devastating end to her 2-year-old daughter, Kaylee's life. Despite there being strong evidence that pointed to Casey's guilt in the death of her toddler daughter, she was acquitted of murder in 2011 and has mostly lived in the shadows for the last 14 years until just recently.

Join us today as we revisit the story of Casey Anthony with updated research and renewed perspectives. Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a true crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. I'm very excited this week.

Because we're doing something kind of familiar. It is familiar, but also I would like to distance myself from that time. Uh, a hundred percent yes. And I would like to think [00:01:00] our skillset, you know, has changed. I'd like to think we're new people. Mm-hmm. I, I agree. I agree. So this is also feels very appropriate.

But if you have been a listener for a while and by a while, I mean literally since day one, then you have almost certainly heard us say numerous times that we cringe when people tell us they just found the podcast and started listening from the very beginning, from episode one and are trying to catch up now to current day.

It's not that we're not excited to have new people finding us after all this time. Of course, we are, we are so grateful when anyone finds the show for the first time. It's just that we're sometimes painfully aware of how much we just didn't know back then and how far we have come since then, Melissa, hard to believe that our very first episode of this podcast came out in 2017 and now we're in 2025.

It is wild and if you are a time traveler or somehow you just missed everything between 2017 and today, I thought I could mention some of the fun things you may have missed in the last eight years since we did [00:02:00] this first episode. Mandy, have you heard of a little something called the Fyre Festival? I have, yes.

Well, that's also back in the news because this year they're trying to, or allegedly trying to do a Fyre Festival. Two, by the way, Fyre Festival one didn't even work, didn't even get off the ground. So that just goes to tell you that eight years later people can still be manipulated and who wants round two of of that.

So funny story, our friend Kimberly and Kim, when I had like a health thing a couple years ago, they got a cameo from Billy McFarland who does fire festival, and he invited me. Unreal and them to go unreal. I know. So I haven't cashed in on those yet because it's not real. Um, Mandy, other things you may have missed is the banana duct tape tool wall piece of art.

Do you remember that? Back in 2019? Vaguely. Vaguely, yes. Someone bought it for [00:03:00] $120,000 and then ate it. No, I know. It's, no, we think 2025 is weird. It's been weird all along. It has, it's always been weird. And a big one that I feel like we didn't really talk about enough in the world is the, when the Pentagon confirmed that UFOs were real, how that got brushed under the rug very quickly.

So quickly. I was like, guys, this is for real. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep going. Keep moving. Right? Keep moving. So I feel like we have come a far away ourselves with our storytelling abilities, our research with everything, as have we. Rest of the world. We are the world. Yes, it's the world. The world.

But it's always been weird. Yes, that's true. So yeah, so we always have kind of joked around with each other that it would be fun and interesting to go back and do over all those really early episodes when we were kind of still finding our way. And I truly don't think that we could actually handle going back and revisiting every one of them.

No. But we did wanna take another look at [00:04:00] this case in particular. This is the very first story that we ever covered on the podcast. It's the story of Casey and Kaylee Anthony. And a lot of you will know the story. A lot of you won't know the story as we. We'll get into towards the end. So much time. Ha and enough time has passed since this, uh, case happened that there are people who do not really know the story, right?

So we're going to revisit it today. Casey actually put herself back in the spotlight recently when she emerged on TikTok and tried to reintroduce herself as an advocate, a researcher, and generally a wonderful person. So back in the very beginning of the podcast, Melissa and I were literally doing everything ourselves.

That was everything that it took, oh gosh, to make the podcast. We were doing it from our kitchen table in Melissa's kitchen table. Really? That was back when I would come over and we would record together face to face with one microphone, and it was a lot different back then. Um, so this week we're taking it all the way back to that very first story, and this week we are very [00:05:00] proud and happy to say that we have new research that was done by our wonderful Haley Gray.

So it's hard to know really where to even begin with this story. So. We decided we'll just get right into it by introducing the villain first. Casey Anthony was born on March 19th, 1986 in Warren, Ohio. Her parents were Cindy and George. Uh, Cindy was actually a registered nurse, and George worked in law enforcement.

Casey was raised with her brother in a seemingly normal family, but, but for whatever reason, Casey was always sort of the problem child. Of course, we can't blame children for struggling with their behavior when we don't know the extent of their home life. But what we do know is that it's been reported that Casey's family life was chaotic and emotionally volatile.

Cindy and George were allegedly very controlling when it came to their daughter. Meanwhile, they were battling their own marital issues as well. Casey's relationship with her mom, Cindy, was particularly strained. Casey's brother Lee later said that his [00:06:00] parents often coddled and enabled Casey rather than holding her accountable for her bad behavior.

By the time Casey was in her late teens, she was a full on wild child who had mastered the art of bending the rules to have a good time. On August 9th, 2005, Casey, who was just 19 years old at the time, gave birth to a baby girl who she named Kaylee Marie Anthony. The identity of Kaylee's father has never been publicly revealed.

By 2008, Casey and her nearly 3-year-old daughter, were still living with George and Cindy off and on in Orlando, Florida. But beneath the surface, Casey was living a double life. She had taken to stealing from her family and friends and was constantly robbing them while maintaining the most elaborate of lies.

This is our personal favorite, if you're gonna have a favorite in this story, and this is when she told everyone that she had a job working as an event planner at Universal Studios. When she, when [00:07:00] you said, this is the favorite part, this truly is your favorite part. It is. I think about this all the time because my anxiety goes up when I just think of how of doing this.

I can't even imagine. I just have, I know, like I have heart palpitations imagining doing this. I, I can't, let's get into it because it is just unbelievable. So her parents actually believed that she had this job at Universal for years, but in reality, Casey actually only worked for Universal briefly as a subcontractor.

But after she left that job, she simply. Never bothered to mention it to her parents. Hmm. Instead, she took the extreme step of pretending to have this job. She even went so far as to invent fake coworkers with like whole life stories. Like her imaginary coworker, Juliette Lewis, who by the way, is a famous actress, so I don't know why she even tried that one.

Cindy tried to meet Juliette once in regards to a fundraiser, [00:08:00] and Casey actually let her mom wait for 90 minutes before finally claiming, you know what? Juliette moved to New York. Of course she did, because she's an actress, of course. So Universal has no record of anyone by the name Juliette Lewis ever working there.

But no one actually connected the dots and figured out that Casey was even lying about having this job until later. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. On June 16th, 2008, Casey left her parents' house with her 2-year-old daughter, Kaylee. This was the last time George and Cindy would ever see their granddaughter in the beginning of one of the most mind-boggling cases in modern history, when Casey and Kaylee failed to return home, George and Cindy called Casey just to find out where she was.

Casey told her parents that she'd gone to Tampa for work, but that really was not the case. She was actually just staying with her boyfriend locally and partying it up. As the days passed, Casey's parents started to get more concerned because [00:09:00] now they haven't seen Casey or her 2-year-old daughter Kalee, and things were starting to get a little weird with Casey's explanations about where she and her daughter actually were.

Casey sometimes claimed that Kalee was with a babysitter, and this was a woman that Casey said was named Zaida Fernandez Gonzalez, but she called her Zanny the nanny. Other times though, Casey would tell her parents that Kalee was with a friend, but George and Cindy never could get solid proof that Kalee actually was okay.

They were just going, based on what Casey was saying. For the next month, Casey avoided her parents and lived life to the fullest. She was out clubbing, being a typical 22-year-old. She even got a tattoo during this time of the phrase, Bella Vita, which is Italian for good life. And friends of Casey say that she seemed totally normal during this month long period.

She was upbeat, she was happy. There was really no sign that anything at all was wrong in her world, but [00:10:00] something was very, very wrong. And that was the fact that her 2-year-old daughter was nowhere to be found and Casey refused to give her parents, George. And Cindy, a straight answer when they were asking questions about the little girl.

Soon their feelings of unease turned into straight up panic and alarm, because it all began to sink in that they really hadn't seen their granddaughter in over a month. And of course that is extremely unusual given their family dynamic and the fact that Casey and Kaylee are, you know, kind of living technic live with that George and Cindy.

Yeah. And so it's, it would be very weird if you suddenly did not see them for a month. So little did the Anthonys know their absolute worst nightmare was about to start unraveling in mid-July. George got a notice that Casey's car had been abandoned in an amscot parking lot and had been towed and impounded.

When George arrived to the lot to get the car, he noticed a very strong and very distinct odor inside of it. This was an odor he recognized from his time in law enforcement, and he believed it was the smell of decomposition. With his [00:11:00] granddaughter still missing and his daughter Casey, not talking, and now her car being found Under these conditions, George and Cindy were more determined than ever to get to the bottom of what was going on.

So later that same day, Casey finally shows up at the family home. Of course, she shows up without Kaylee, and of course without her car, her parents asked where both were, and Casey had no real answers. She didn't realize yet that her parents had actually found out about the car. They just weren't telling her that in the moment.

And instead they told Casey they were going to report the car missing. They hoped that this would force her to tell them something, literally anything about what was going on. And of course, where Kaylee was. And this tactic actually worked in part, at least Casey finally admitted that something was wrong.

She told her parents that 2-year-old Kaylee was missing, but that she knew that she was kidnapped by her babysitter. Zanny the nanny. Casey told her parents that she'd spent the last month looking for Kaylee on [00:12:00] her own, but she wasn't able to find her. So at this point, as you can imagine, Cindy is freaked out and she just found out that her granddaughter had been taken.

Mandy, I don't know about you, but I know most of this phone call by heart the whole last part of this phone call. I could. Safer memory. Yeah, so Cindy is on the call with the nine one one operator and she says, quote, she has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted that she's been missing.

There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the car end quote. And that just still gives me chills to this day because, you know, feel like you said you can hear it in your head because the tone of her voice genuinely was frantic. I mean, she absolutely, it's very clear that this is someone who is.

Putting two and two together and realizing the seriousness in real of this situation, right? And is now having to call for the first time and speak these words out loud that like, I don't know what's going on. My granddaughter is missing. You know, like I can't, and you can hear it [00:13:00] in her voice. It's very genuine.

The concern for her granddaughter. Absolutely. So police end up bringing Casey in for questioning the next day, and from there, things quickly started spiraling out of control as her story started to crumble rapidly. First, Casey told the police that she had talked to Kalee on the phone just the day before, and Kalee was very excited to talk to her, but there was no record of any such phone call and there wasn't any evidence to support this claim.

Casey insisted that the Nan Zenida Fernandez Gonzalez had been Kayleigh's babysitter for a long time. And she said that she first met this woman through a wealthy friend of hers named Jeffrey Michael Hopkins. Casey seems to have a long address book, or a long, um, you know, black book list of people that she knows.

How does Casey know a wealthy friend? Like she's literally like 22 maybe from her job at Universal. I know. Well, well, knowing that she didn't even really have a job, I'm like, who is this person? Right? Like, who is exactly, who's gonna believe this story? So she was saying that this [00:14:00] friend Jeffrey also had used Zenda as a nanny, and so he was giving the reference, Casey claimed that she worked with Jeff at Universal Studios, where we already know she did not work.

Yeah. But spoiler alert. None of this was true. Uh, Jeff Hopkins was actually a real person that Casey went to middle school with. This poor guy just randomly had his name thrown out to the police like that. Can you imagine someone just out of their hat pulling up your name and it turns into this whole story that's like the most terrifying thing.

So Jeff had actually barely even seen Casey since high school and didn't even have any kids of his own. So he definitely didn't have a nanny. He did work at Universal at one point, but it had been years since he left. Huh? Kind of like Casey. Yeah, of course. The police worked as quickly as possible to track down this Zenida person who supposedly was the last known person to see Kaylee.

They pressed Casey for details about the [00:15:00] nanny, and she went on to describe the nanny's apartment in detail, but when they asked for contact information, Casey hesitated and kind of was like, well, you know, she's changed her number a couple of times, and oh, also my friend Jeff, who gave me this reference has also changed his phone number.

I don't know about you. I've had this same phone number since I was 16 years old. Literally. Literally, both of us have area codes that are not even in this area because you just keep your number. I'm pretty sure the area code I have isn't even being given out anymore because they ran out of them. I think they changed the area code for the area.

You got a classic. I do. I know. So the police did actually find a woman by the name of Zenda Fernandez Gonzalez, living in the Orlando area. And if I'm not mistaken, I could be mistaken. I'm pretty sure she was the only person with this exact name living in this area that would even make sense to be Kaleigh's babysitter.

Right. So it's not like, oh, well there's like six people with this name. It could be any of them. No, it was literally this one lady that happens to have this hyphenated name, this very specific name. It's not that common of a name. Right. So they find one [00:16:00] person who has this name and of course. They go to talk to her, but to no one's surprise, this woman has no idea why the police are there or why she's being questioned.

She doesn't know Casey. She doesn't know Kaylee. She doesn't know Jeff Hopkins. So she's truly just a random person whose name matched the one that Casey threw out to the police for the rest of my life. I will want to know where she came up with that name. Where, because it is such a specific name that I remember early on people said maybe it was on like a list of people that looked at an apartment.

You know how you'd have like one of those lists, right? And it just stuck in her head. But it is so wild to me that so wild that poor woman had her name involved in this case all this time. So wild. Uh, so yeah, it was quickly and easily verified that. This woman did not have anything to do with it. She didn't kidnap Kaylee, and that was the end of that.

But the police decided to test Casey's claims in a way that she just couldn't really wiggle her way out of. And they, this is my favorite part. This is my favorite part. Yeah. So they, they said, Hey, Casey, let's go on a little [00:17:00] field trip for, for the plot, and let's go, let's go down to Universal Studios and see your office.

Right. So Casey's like, okay, I'll take you down there. No problem. So she. Goes down to Universal Studios with the officers confidently leads them through an office building at Universal Studios. This is a theme park. Okay? Like I feel, shh, like where are you parking? Are you parking in Jurassic or are you in the park?

Are you in the, are you parking? You can't be in the employee parking because where's your employee badge? I, I mean, exactly. Yeah. So, um, she starts walking them down this hallway. She's just chatting it up. She acts like she knows exactly where she's going, wandering the halls, pretending to even know the other employees as they pass by.

This is literally psychotic. So she's like laughing it up with the police, like, yeah, we're gonna go check out my office. All this is a big misunderstanding. Hey, hey Becky. Hey Cindy. Like, she's just like waving at everybody. Like everything's totally fine. But after a while, the police. Realized [00:18:00] that Casey didn't seem like she actually had a destination.

She was just stalling and just trying to kill time and I guess think up what she was going to do next, which is probably really hard to think clearly in that situation, in that moment. So Casey finally realized there was nothing that she could really do or say that would make any sense to anyone, and she simply just turned around and told the officers.

I don't work here. Unreal, unreal. So following this interview and this mishap with the police, Casey Anthony was arrested on charges of child neglect, giving false statements and obstruction. From that moment on, Casey insisted that Kaylee had been abducted when she spoke with police or with the public.

As news of Kaylee's disappearance began to spread. So did something else. Photographic evidence of what Casey had been up to in the weeks since Kalee was last seen, began coming out. And these photos show Casey laughing and drinking and [00:19:00] dancing at nightclubs on like the bar dancing. I remember a blue dress, it was a hot body contest in there at some point.

Oh yeah. Yeah. There was a hot body contest and all this is going on during the time that she alleges that her daughter's been kidnapped and in one photo, she's proudly displaying this new tattoo. She has that Mandy mentioned before that reads Bella Vida, which she actually got after her daughter was missing.

And the public. And Nancy Grace were rightfully horrified and the media went totally wild with this story. The headlines were shocking. Top mom. Top mom. Yeah. Top mom indeed. And everything was about this mom who parties while her toddlers missing. And it's an incredibly sensational story that quickly becomes national news and it will forever be a part of our local Orlando lore.

Truly, I can't pass certain places that she mentioned or they searched without my brain immediately going to this case. [00:20:00] Yes. I just can't, I know. It is truly wild. I know we've talked about it before a few times on the podcast just because we are local to Orlando and it's come up several times, but both of us have had like one weird connection or another to Right.

Different people in the story members of this family and it's just so, yeah, it, it really truly is bizarre. It's just the case that it will never be forgotten around here. That's for sure. No. So on July 17th, investigators searched Casey's abandoned car with the help of a cadaver dog who immediately picked up on the scent of human decomposition.

But that wasn't all. Further forensic testing revealed something even more sinister, traces of chloroform and human decomposition in the trunk of the car. There were also tiny flies known to be attracted to decaying remains that were found inside the trunk. Additionally, investigators found paper towels stained with fatty acids in a substance that forms during decomposition.

Five days later, on [00:21:00] July 22nd, Casey Anthony was officially named a person of interest in Kaylee's disappearance. As the investigation began to heat up, authorities looked into Casey's phone and her computer records, and what they found was really disturbing. Someone used a computer in the Anthony Holm and searched for the words chloroform and neck breaking on June 16th, 2008, the day that Kaylee was last seen alive, there was a Google search that was made for foolproof suffocation and.

Whoever was the one looking this up clicked on an article about murder by Poison and suffocation. By this time, Casey was already in jail and she had been there for weeks, but her behavior behind bars didn't match that of a desperate mother who was looking for a missing child while being wrongfully accused of her disappearance.

In fact, she was so indifferent about it all that it was quite unsettling. That's another thing. I remember these jailhouse calls because early on they released them and then we [00:22:00] didn't see anymore. Obviously, they were locking those down, but it was unreal. She's on one of these calls. Literally, you're there because we can't find your child.

You know, the police have gone through your car. Your parents know that your child has maybe been kidnapped, and all she wanted to know was her boyfriend's phone number. Wow. She didn't really care about anything else. She's like, can you just gimme the number? Can you just, I, I don't have his number. It's in my phone.

Just get me his number. And another example of these calls was when Casey's best friend at the time started crying over Kaylee and you know, Kaylee being missing and Casey's response was very dismissive and she sarcastically said, oh my God, to anyone watching this, it seemed like Casey just did not care at all.

It absolutely did seem that way. Yeah. Casey was indicted on first degree murder charges on October 14th, despite the fact that Kaleigh's body had not yet been found at this point. It had been four months since Kalee [00:23:00] was last seen, and prosecutors believed that Casey killed her daughter and disposed of her remains.

At some point during the month long period when nobody really knew where Kalee was or that she was even missing prosecutors theorized that Casey simply wanted to escape the responsibilities of motherhood so that she could just be a carefree 21-year-old who could live a life without the burden of a child.

Casey was also charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and providing false information to law enforcement. She remained in jail while she awaited trial. Meanwhile, the case was all over the media and prosecutors decided to make a bold move. They announced that they would be seeking the death penalty because they argued that Kaylee's death happened during an aggravated child abuse and that it was carried out in a cold and calculated premeditated manner.

But one big question still remained, and that was where was Kaylee. Volunteers and law enforcement searched for [00:24:00] months to find any trace of the missing little girl. But it wasn't until December 11th, 2008, nearly six months after Kaylee went missing, that she was finally found. That day. An Orange County meter reader named Roy Cronk was working in a wooded area less than a mile from the Anthony home when he noticed a strange bag lying on the ground.

When he approached the bag and lifted it slightly, a small human skull fell out. Roy immediately called 9 1 1, and officers swarmed the scene. Inside the bag, police found what they had feared the most. It was the remains of a small child, Kaylee Marie Anthony had finally been found. According to Roy Cronk, he actually saw something suspicious in that exact location months earlier, back in August.

And not only did he notice an object that he thought was a human skull, but he actually called the police and reported it. And a deputy even came out and met him at the scene. But Roy said that [00:25:00] that officer barely even looked around before dismissing the claim and kind of closing the call, you know, closing it out.

That part I don't remember. I remember him saying that he had called it. I don't remember hearing that. Somebody came out and looked. Yeah. And oh my gosh, this could have been not over, but they could have had some closure with her four months before. Right. And we have so much more to get into after a quick break, to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

And now back to the episode. So before the break, we have learned that Roy Cronk, who was a meter reader in the Orlando area, has actually found the skull and remains of Kaylee Anthony. And so when officers arrived at the wooded area after Roy called on December 11th, they found a small human skull with strands of hair still attached.

Duct tape covered the mouth and nose areas. It would take a few days for testing, but it was confirmed that the remains belonged to Kaylee. More of her remains were found throughout the area, which is not unusual after [00:26:00] having been exposed to the elements for several months. Forensic experts looked closely at the duct tape and they noticed something very eerie.

There was a faint outline of a heart-shaped sticker that looked similar to the residue that was left by a bandaid. This appeared to match a heart-shaped sticker found at the crime scene, and a roll of stickers that were found in Casey's bedroom. There were no fingerprints on this piece of duct tape, but forensic experts said that this was expected.

After months of exposure to the heat, rain, and humidity, any fingerprints would've been long gone by that point. The condition of Kaylee's remains, and the fact that her body had been mostly decomposed made it impossible to determine her exact cause of death. But considering the circumstances, the medical examiner had no doubt that Kaylee's death was a homicide.

So the charges against Casey would stand. The evidence against Casey continued to pile up, though most of it was [00:27:00] circumstantial. Casey had always maintained that Kaylee was not abducted from the family home, but rather that she had been dropped off at the nan's. But yet when Kayleigh's remains were found, they were wrapped in this canvas laundry bag that actually matched a set from the Anthony home.

In one detail that always breaks my heart is they found a Winnie the poop blanket that was identical to the ones in Kaylee's room and the location of Kaylee's remains was further damning. She was found less than a quarter of a mile from the Anthony home. That baffles me to this day because we're talking if, if you weren't following this case, then people were protesting in the Anthony's yards.

This was 24 7. It was insane. It was insane. There was obviously a lot of, what do you call the people who just wanna drive by and see looky-loos and stuff. Yeah, exactly. There was so much of that going on. I feel like I would've lost my mind. If I was the Anthonys living inside that house, like with all those people coming nonstop and [00:28:00] like, you don't really even know what's going on either.

Yeah. My, uh, friend that I used to work with, she worked at the hospital. She was their neighbor, and she would tell me all the time. She's like, people just park in front of our yard. Like it's, it was absolute chaos there all the time, but to know that all those people are there, but truly this poor little baby is just, you know, ha a quarter of a mile from there.

It's, that's unreal. It's so upsetting. Yeah. Meanwhile, in the midst of all of this, Casey faced some legal troubles on another front, and that was check fraud. In 2010, she was convicted of check fraud in a case totally unrelated to Kali's murder. She had actually stolen and forged checks from a friend and the court sentenced her to.

One year probation. Casey Anthony's murder trial began on May 24th, 2011 in Orlando, Florida, and for six weeks, the trial would absolutely grip the nation. Melissa. Both of us were like glued to our [00:29:00] TVs watching court tv, like every live coverage of the trial. That's all they were playing every day for six weeks.

That's all I did. When the trial was over, I was like, what do I, what did I used to do? I know like, what did I do for this? We had it on the radio at work. 'cause people that were in the waiting room would want to hear the trial going on. Like that's truly the hysterics that were surrounding it. Yes. Yeah.

The case was an absolute spectacle with at least 40 million people tuning in to watch at least some part of the testimony. Like I said, if you were like me, it was just on his background noise all day long. I didn't want to even miss anything, although some of it was a little boring. There was a lot of it that was not boring at all.

Yeah. Cameras captured every moment of the trial as both sides clashed over. What really happened to Kaylee? Prosecutors laid out their theory, which was absolutely horrifying and totally unimaginable. They allege that Casey had used chloroform and duct tape to suffocate her daughter in an attempt to free herself from the burdens of motherhood once and for all.

They further argued that Casey kept her daughter's [00:30:00] body in the trunk of her car for days before finally disposing of it. Unfortunately, since there was no way to confirm Kaley's cause of death, prosecutors had to rely on the circumstantial evidence they had, and they leaned into Casey's numerous lies.

Casey had falsely reported that her daughter was kidnapped. She went to elaborate links to convince everyone that she worked at Universal Studios, and there were incriminating internet searches on the Anthony family's computer, including a search for how to make chloroform. Prosecutors pointed out that there was no possible way Kaleigh's death was an accident because as they said, no one makes an accident look like murder.

Hmm. This kind of reminds me of the JonBenet story in some ways, like from that angle in that aspect, and how some people believe the theory that she was killed by accident and then the whole scene was staged to look the way that it did. Yeah. And like obviously that's not logical in this case. If Kali had died accidentally, then why would she have duct tape over her mouth?

And like the police are saying, if a [00:31:00] child is hurt and you think that they are like not alive anymore, like mm-hmm. The reaction of a person who's not guilty of anything would be to dial 9 1 1. Right. And, and try to get help not to try and cover it up, or to make it look like something that it's not. Yeah.

So Casey's defense team fought back with a completely different and extremely controversial story from the outset. Casey's defense rejected the entire notion that Kalee was murdered, and instead they claim that she accidentally drowned in the family's pool. On June 16th, 2008, the lead attorney Jose Baez, accused Casey's father, George Anthony, of helping cover up this incident Now.

There's a lot that we could say about Jose Baez, but yeah, we'll just let his, his actions speak for himself. He's actually a hot character in Florida right now in a case that we are closely following. Mm-hmm. Uh, we can, we'll talk about that maybe a little more at the end, but yeah. Jose Baez is unfortunately still practicing law.[00:32:00] 

He's still around. That's a nice way to say it. Mm-hmm. Yes, he's still around. So he pointed to the fact that Casey's DNA was not found on the duct tape that prosecutors claimed was used to suffocate Kalee, and he cast out on the forensic evidence that was gathered from Casey's car. Prosecutors had said that cadaver dogs alerted to the presence of human decomposition, and that traces of chloroform were detected.

Those clues along with the presence of flies associated with decomposition, all pointed to the gruesome fact that there had been a dead body in the car at some point, however, Jose Baez argued that those things could have come from something else, such as rotting food, trash, or organic material that was unrelated to Kaylee's remains.

But then he took an even lower road and he tried to excuse Casey's bizarre behavior following her daughter's disappearance by accusing her father of sexually abusing her as a child. And he suggested that years of trauma and dysfunction in the Anthony household were the root cause of Kaley's death.

Wow. Yeah. [00:33:00] That's a lot. That was so. Shocking. So shocking because her parents were showing up all this time. So at first when that, there's that hysterical call from Cindy, but after that they really kind of stood united and said, you know, Casey says she doesn't know where Kaleigh is, so we're, we're believing that she's still out there.

They were really in Casey's corner. And then for this to come out, you're like, how on earth could you throw your dad under the bus when it seems like it's just to save herself. Right. Um, you know, we don't know the insides and outsides of their home and stuff, but this from everyone else that's talked about it all, all evidence points that none of this ever happened.

So for her to have done this, it just, it was so shocking. So George, you know, when he hears these allegations from Casey's attorney, he's obviously devastated because I can't imagine being accused of that so publicly as well. Not just the fact that it's [00:34:00] already a harsh enough blow that your child would do this and would say something like this, but then for it to be like in this context where it's like a very public thing and like it's now the most, like literally, and like you definitely didn't not ask for it to be like involved in that type of way, you know, and have that type of role in the whole story.

So all throughout the trial, Casey sat there in silence and remained pretty stoic. She never really showed a lot of emotion except for a few moments during the trial when they were showing photos of Kaylee. They like and, and I think there was a couple times when they were describing like, you know. What her autopsy, you know, results were right that Casey looked like she was crying a little bit, but I don't know.

It was one of those things where it was like, did you just put the tissue up to your eye to make us think you were sad or like what was, you know, it wasn't really very convincing of convincing. Of course, all of us are analyzing it because that's all we have to go on anymore. Of course. Course can't believe her.

Yeah. So as the trial unfolded, the polarizing effect of this case became even more apparent. The public was very clearly divided into two sides. There [00:35:00] was. The side that believed Casey was guilty and those that questioned whether the state actually had enough proof to really convict her of this. But that's so interesting because it's not like, and then those people that were in her, it's not like the care trial.

There wasn't really, wasn't anyone in her corner? No. Nobody was like, she's innocent. They were just like, Hmm. Does the prosecution actually have enough? Well, and especially, and that's a fair question. Right. And especially with the death penalty on the table. Yes. That was like, the huge question was they don't have, uh, you know, they don't really have cause of death.

Yeah. They don't have a cause of death. They don't really have a lot. Especially because this, you know, by the time that they were able to find Kaylee's remains, unfortunately they weren't able to find out a lot about, you know, the, the autopsy was very limited in what they were even able to find out. On July 5th, 2011.

After less than 11 hours of deliberation, the jury delivered a verdict that would shock the nation. Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first degree murder, not guilty of aggravated manslaughter. And not guilty of aggravated [00:36:00] child abuse. The only charges that actually stuck were four counts of lying to the police.

When the verdict was read, many truly found it impossible to comprehend. There was honestly so much circumstantial evidence that pointed to Casey's guilt and the death of her toddler, but the jury was letting her walk Free. Jurors later explained that they did feel that Casey was guilty of something.

They just didn't feel that prosecutors had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she was guilty of murder specifically. And they're in a tough spot because you're being given instructions on what, on how you are supposed to conduct yourself as a juror and what the state has to provide and all of that.

And so even if you're have a gut feeling, you can't go off of a gut feeling if they're not proving. What they're supposed to then, you know, they have to, that's how they have to vote. The public though, reacted explosively. People all across the country were outraged and believed that it was clear that Casey killed her daughter [00:37:00] because she just didn't wanna be a mom anymore.

It was the OJ Simpson trial really, of the 2010 era. And in many ways it was even bigger than that because by this time, social media has grown and the public has been able to debate this, discuss this, and dissect every single aspect of Kaylee's disappearance. And of course, everything Casey's doing during this time, they've been able to look at it all like never before in 2011, time Magazine dubbed it the social media trial of the century.

Two days after the trial concluded Casey was sentenced to four years in jail for lying to law enforcement, but with credit for time already served. She was set to be released much sooner in just 10 days. I feel like if it had even been a month, it would've been easier, but something about the 10 days really set people off.

Well, it just felt like, I don't know. It was just a lot at once. Right. It was a lot to hear that she was acquitted completely. Mm-hmm. Of all the charges [00:38:00] related to her daughter's death. Like that was already shocking enough. But then to be like, oh, and by the way, she's getting outta jail next week. Like, yeah.

It was a lot to process at one time. It really was on July 17th, 2011, just after midnight, Casey walked out of jail, a free woman. Even though she was released in the middle of the night, there were still about a thousand furious protesters gathered outside screaming at her as she was quickly ushered into an SUV and escorted away by law enforcement.

I remember watching that footage of her coming, being escorted out, like, yep. I just remember seeing that all over. Every single news outlet, everywhere, outlet every for forever, like the next couple mornings in a row, it was just nothing but like footage of Casey walking outta the jail. Yeah, and the people around holding signs and yelling things at her.

Yeah, many of the protestors, as you said, were holding signs, and they were shouting things like baby killer. People were very upset and very angry that they [00:39:00] felt like there had been no justice for Kaylee. On August 11th, Florida's Department of Children and Families released a report that stated, quote, the actions or the lack of actions by the alleged perpetrator ultimately resulted or contributed in the death of the child.

In other words, it's their opinion that Casey was responsible for the death of her young daughter, but legally that made no difference. Casey was a free woman. For a while after the trial, Casey kept a pretty low profile and she stayed silent. But her parents, George and Cindy, continued to make public appearances, including a 2011 interview with Dr.

Phil, and this was an appearance that they allegedly were paid $600,000 for. Here's the thing, I don't know how they could have gotten much work after any of, no one in this story really could No. I, I don't know, like, so hearing that, it doesn't surprise me why they would've gone on to do this at all. But after several months, Casey slowly tried to [00:40:00] reemerge into society.

She actually uploaded a video diary on YouTube, and in the short video, which she had recorded several months earlier, she had changed her look to include blonde hair, dark rimmed glasses, and she spoke about adopting a dog, which also made people mad, but she made no mention of her daughter Kaylee. Then in June of 2012, she gave a 10 minute phone interview to Pierce Morgan on CNN.

In this interview, Casey denied her party girl image and said, obviously, I didn't kill my daughter. If anything, there's nothing in this world I've ever been more proud of, and there's no one I loved more than my daughter. She's my greatest accomplishment. Casey went on to say that the public has created a caricature of her, and that the image that they wanna portray is not the truth.

In January of 2013, an appeals court threw out two of the four convictions for lying to law enforcement due to double jeopardy. That same day, Casey filed for [00:41:00] bankruptcy and said that she had $800,000 in liabilities and only had a thousand dollars in assets. In 2014. Casey's legal troubles continued when she was sued by the real Zenida Fernandez Gonzalez for defamation.

During a deposition for this lawsuit, Casey continued to insist that Zanny the nanny, was actually a real person who she had met at Universal Studios in 2006. But at that time, she was saying that she hadn't really been Kaylee's babysitter for that long. She'd only actually babysit her one time. In a major contradiction to what Casey had been saying all along.

She did finally admit that she made up the whole story about dropping Kalee off with this nanny on the day of her disappearance. At some point it was theorized that Zani the nanny may have actually been a code reference to the medication Xanax, which theoretically could have been used to sedate Kaylee.

And when this possibility was mentioned, when it was mentioned that you know Xanax may have been used, Casey became visibly upset and denied that any such thing [00:42:00] was taking place. She said that she had never accused this Zda, Fernando, oh Gonzalez of the crime. And she even got a little snippy with the attorneys and she said, quote, that's never been the case, and that will never be the truth.

So let's get that straight right here. And now you can ask a hundred more ridiculous questions. I'm not gonna answer them. I'm done here. Just the audacity of this woman. I can't with her. I know. Mm-hmm. The whole thing was really bizarre considering Casey had literally given the police Z's full name and claimed that she kidnapped Kaleigh and that was the story right up until the moment that, yeah, she's now saying that it was all just a big misunderstanding and this wasn't the right Zda.

Casey's Life post-trial continued to be a mix of seclusion, failed attempts to reinvent herself, and tons of media speculation. In 2016, Casey started a photo business called Case Photography. During this time she was actually still living in Florida. I think she's lived in Florida almost this entire time, [00:43:00] and she was being financially supported by members of her legal team.

She was somehow back in the dating scene, but she allegedly only went out with men that she met through her very small legal circle. Her life was described as being pretty uneventful. She would wake up, hang out, check the internet, take some photos, just normal stuff. She couldn't exactly hold a real job, and understandably she wasn't making a ton of friends.

If by chance she would meet somebody that didn't know about her history, of course, as soon as they figured it out, they would bail, which duh. Yeah, so some people even accuse Casey of staging paparazzi style photo ops of herself when she would be low on cash so she could sell them to media outlets. An insider said quote, she's got enough money to live, but not enough to really do anything.

She sort of lives like an old person on a fixed income without much going on in her life. She's bored and she complains about boredom all the time. [00:44:00] By this time, Casey had just about cut off all contact with her parents, George and Cindy. She had spoken to her mom a few times since the trial, but had not spoken to her father at all.

But I imagine it would be hard to face your dad after your legal team accused him of sexually abusing you and covering up your daughter's death. Yeah, that would be a tough, uh, tough thing to get through as a family. Yeah, that's a, that's gonna take longer than, Hey, how are you? Yeah, it's gonna get a little more complicated than that.

Meanwhile, though, the Anthonys were struggling financially, despite getting that $600,000 for their appearance on Dr. Phil five years earlier. Sources say they were broke by 2016 and had barely avoided having their home foreclosed on. Neither Cindy nor George was employed at this point. In March of 2017, judge Belvin Perry Jr, who presided over Casey's trial, spoke publicly for the first time about his own theory on what happened to Kaylee.

He said that he respected the jury's [00:45:00] decision, but he believed that the evidence of chloroform being used was significant. He said that he thought it was possible that Casey used chloroform to keep kalee quiet and that she accidentally used too much, which led to Kaleigh's death. He suggested that if the juries had believed that theory, that Casey could have been convicted of second degree murder or manslaughter instead of being acquitted.

Judge Perry emphasized that the only person who actually knew the truth was Casey. In March of 2017, Casey broke her silence and agreed to a series of interviews with the Associated Press. These interviews happened over the course of a week in five separate sessions, many of which were taped with Casey's consent.

Her responses to the questions were sometimes revealing and sometimes bizarre. She often contradicted herself and ultimately the interviews left more questions than answers about what actually happened to Kaleigh, which I guess is not really that surprising because I don't know if people actually are expecting her to one day be like, here's the [00:46:00] real truth.

This is exactly what happened and what I did, but like right. I don't think she's ever gonna do that just because of the type of person that Casey Anthony is. She's such a liar. Right. She even, she even says she's a liar, which I guess we shouldn't believe, but we've, we, we have to think of universal people, right?

Yeah. You have to. Let's saying that she's a liar is like the one lie she has not told. So. Exactly. You know? Um, so after these interviews with the Associated Press we're already done, Casey ended up contacting the reporter and asking them not to run the story because she said she has this ongoing bankruptcy case and she claimed that the rights to her story had actually been sold to a third party for $25,000 to protect her interests.

Mm-hmm. So she really technically shouldn't have even given these interviews. Allegedly seemed like that's her problem. Yeah. She said that without written authorization from the controlling members of the company, she was prohibited from speaking publicly about her case at any time. Like you said, it sounds like a personal problem that maybe you shouldn't have done that, but Casey further claimed that she, [00:47:00] you know, it was actually serious.

She violated a confidentiality agreement with her employer and that she was still under a subpoena and she was subject to be deposed for her bankruptcy case. So maybe she legally should not have done the interviews. Right. But, um, you probably should have looked into that before you sat down five times with the association as you work in the legal field and live with your legal team.

Like you had people you could ask, you should have asked someone. Yeah. So in the interviews that Casey attempted to recant, she spoke about Kaylee and what she might be like at 12 years old, which is how old she would've been at the time of the interview. She was imagining that Kaylee would be playing sports, listening to classic rock and putting up with no nonsense.

Casey also talked about the dread that she faced when she did simple things like going to the grocery store, checkout line, and potentially seeing Kaylee's face on tabloid covers. Casey's bedroom walls were decorated with photos of Kaylee and she showed off some of Kaylee's finger paintings. Casey acknowledged in these interviews that she was aware that most of the world believed she [00:48:00] murdered her child even though she was acquitted.

And she said she understands why people had the opinions that they have. This part killed me. So she equated herself to a modern day Alice in Wonderland with the general public acting as the red queen. And then she quoted a famous line from Alice in Wonderland, which is sentenced first verdict afterward, basically implying that society had judged her and found her guilty long before her trial ever began.

But Casey also said that she doesn't really care about the public's opinion. Of course she doesn't. And people's hatred towards her doesn't bother her. I mean, I'm speechless at this lady. I know it's un, it's ridiculous. She said that she is okay with herself, and in case you were wondering, she sleeps pretty good at night.

Which even if that is the truth, like girl, read the room. You don't need to say that. You really don't need to say that. You know that's gonna agree. You know, that's gonna go over like a lead balloon. Like the people are not gonna be like, oh yeah, you go girl. Like, no one's gonna be happy to hear you say that [00:49:00] ever, like for the rest of your life.

Like, seriously. So Casey was asked whether or not she planned on having any more kids, and she said that if she were blessed enough to have another child, it would be dumb because of the potential that some, a-hole or their little snot-nosed kid would say something mean to her child. And Casey said she just couldn't live with that.

I like that we're blaming other people's children for I just no, make her stop again, I hope this is the truth and not one of her lies because agree, she should not be having more children. No, in my opinion, despite her defense claiming that Kaleigh had drowned in the family pool, Casey did not stick to that story.

During her interview, she said, quote, everyone has their theories. I don't know. As I stand here today, I can't tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter, I believed she was alive and was going to be okay, and that's what was told to me in quote. Casey of course, doesn't clarify who had [00:50:00] told her that or why she was telling so many conflicting stories.

Later. Casey admitted to lying about certain things, but insisted that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. She blamed law enforcement and said that she firmly believed that police officers tend to victimize the victims. She said, quote, cops lie to people every day. I just wanted the unfortunate idiots who had admitted they lied in quote, which.

What are you trying to say here, girl? Yeah. She then said, quote, my dad was a cop. You can read into that what you want to, are you trying to give us hints because you might as well just say his name because that's all you're trying to do here. Yeah. At the time of the interview with the AP Casey was living in South Florida with a PI named Patrick McKenna, who had served as the lead investigator on her defense team.

He was also the lead investigator for OJ Simpson's defense team when he was acquitted of murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. You know what I think is wild that I [00:51:00] just now, I mean, I guess I didn't just now realize it, but I feel like this case, it just really kind of brings to your attention how small of a world, like the legal, like how, yeah, how small the legal world is when it comes to like high profile murder cases.

I feel like it's always the same attorneys that work on all of them. Oh yeah. Like somebody is related to somebody or serving on something and it can be decades apart like this one, but they still are. Yeah. Connected somehow. So Casey had become fascinated with O J's case and said she saw a lot of parallels between his case and hers, which is not also read the room.

That's also not a stance people were taking. She literally said that she could empathize with o J's situation. If you could see my face right now. I can, and my face is melting in the same direction. It's just unreal. So obviously this comment did not go over very well with the public, considering that OJ is also widely [00:52:00] suspected of being guilty despite his acquittal.

RIP. Just kidding. While living with McKenna, though Casey did work for him, helping with online social media searches and other investigative tasks, which Casey said she loved doing. She even expressed interest in one day becoming a licensed private investigator and working for defense teams. How would you like to have Casey Anthony doing work for you?

For your defense? Well, if I was guilty, I'd be like, absolutely, girl, do some of your magic on me too. But Casey said she was very happy despite everything she's been through and that she was back to doing more normal things, like going out with friends, but sometimes she would be spotted and recognized and would have to leave.

What a bummer. Yeah, exactly. Although we can assume that Casey wanted the interview to improve her public opinion, she remained one of the most hated and controversial figures in the country. Her words did nothing to lessen the speculation or the outrage. And we still have more to get [00:53:00] into after one last break to hear word from this week's sponsors.

And now back to the episode. Before the break, we were talking about the story of Casey Anthony, and we have gotten into it pretty far. We've covered a lot. Casey up at this point has been acquitted and has now been trying to reintegrate into society and find something to do with her life. October of 2018, George Anthony sat down for an emotional interview with Dr.

Oz, where he opened up about the estranged relationship that he had with Casey and the lasting impact of his granddaughter Kaleigh's death. He shared memories of holding Kaleigh for the first time and talked about how elated he was to become a grandfather. He said that his relationship with his daughter Casey, was irreparably broken after the trial, and that they were not connected anymore at all, and he even went so far as to say he wouldn't feel comfortable around her and couldn't trust her.

George said that even if Casey were to have another child, he would not be a part of their [00:54:00] lives. He also said, knowing now that she could potentially be a mom again, I hope she does better this time around than what she did last time. The following month, George was involved in a near fatal car accident.

I actually forgot about this, but I do remember hearing about it. It did pop up in the news when it happened. His injuries were very severe, but he ultimately did recover. But after this accident, he softened his stance towards Casey, and we'll get into that a little bit more later. In 2019, Casey did an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, where she announced plans to create a movie about her life.

And this is kind of maybe another ode to her hero, oj. The film was going to be called, as I was told, and it was scheduled to be completed in 2020. So everybody remembers when OJ wrote a book. And basically confessed to what he did. But it was like an, if I did this thing, this is, if I did, is how I [00:55:00] would've done it.

Uh, yeah. And of course everyone was like, well, there's the written confession we've all been waiting for. That's kind of what this film, uh, the plans for this film we're kind of giving that same vibe. Casey said that her reasons for wanting to create this movie revolved around just wanting her truth to be out there, so that she was able to close that chapter of her life, which honestly, again, I feel like this woman could not say one sensitive remark to save her life because, no, how can you even say, I wanna close like again.

You don't close the chapter of losing your child like your toddler. No. Like that. Like that's such a weird thing to say, like, I just wanna close this chapter of my life. Like, yeah. It's crazy to me. Or just like, I wanna grieve my daughter privately. Right. Or something. There's other ways to say it instead of like, you guys are bothering me and I just really wanna peace out.

Right. Exactly. The plan was for the movie to begin with Casey finding out that she was pregnant with Kalee and then flashbacks would show Casey's past, including sex scenes with different men partying and drinking, leading up to her pregnancy and some never before. [00:56:00] Her details about her wild lifestyle before she became a mom.

Casey shared a memory from that time in her life. She described this one night where she was extremely intoxicated and one of her friends had actually dropped her off at home, but Casey wasn't. Able to even make it inside the house. So she ended up sleeping on the front yard that night and woke up the next morning when she heard the neighbor's lawnmower going.

So she gets up, goes around to the water hose, washes off her face, and then she goes inside where her mom, Cindy, is in there and just says to her, good morning, you look like you've had a rough night. And so Casey said she said nothing to her mom and just went to the shower where she sat and cried. So she was just giving this as an example of kind of like what she says that she was doing.

Allegedly. Allegedly, you know, this is the level of her, you know, issues that she was having. Right? So Casey was saying that this movie, by the end of it, after you watched it, you would be convinced. It would be proof that she had no role in case in Kaylee's death. [00:57:00] So in the Daily Mail interview, Casey maintained that she didn't know what happened to her daughter.

She suggested that Kalee may have accidentally drowned, but claimed she had no role in the child's death or in the disposal of her remains. Casey alleged that she was told to keep quiet about Kaleigh's death for a month. She said I had seen Kaleigh's lifeless body wet as if she drowned, but the movie will show a man saying, live your life as normal.

I will take care of it. She claimed that she couldn't name the man for legal reasons. Uh. I, again, we know who you're trying to say here, ma'am. Right, and just to say it just, just the idea, if it is the person that we're all thinking she's meaning to, for him to say a former police officer to say, live your life as normal, I'll take care of it over an accident that makes Right.

Truly no sense. It makes me so mad to even read that because it's such a lie and. I'll calm down, but [00:58:00] when the general public heard about this idea to make a movie, the reaction was just like yours, overwhelmingly negative. Yeah. People were also red in the face, and most people thought it was just another bold attempt into cashing in on Kaylee's death.

Some doubted that the movie would ever be made and questioned where Casey would even get the money or whether she had industry connections to pull it off, which, yeah, good point. And like we don't, we're not trying to make a film, we're just trying to make a podcast and it's not free, you know, it's like things cost money to produce something like that.

It costs money. Yeah. And I mean, who's gonna come up and be like, I'm producing Right. Casey Anthony's film. Right. You know, so others saw it though as a bizarre attempt to rewrite her story and to reinvent herself. And so as Casey continued to speak with the Daily Male, she opened up about her behavior during that infamous 31 day period between Kaleigh's disappearance.

And when she was finally reported missing, Casey admitted that she was out drinking and [00:59:00] carrying on as though nothing happened, but said that the whole point of the movie being called, as I was told slash. If I did it is because she had just done what she was told to do. So Mandy, she had to put on a fake persona for 31 days.

Right. 'cause she was told to do that. Absolutely. And she seems like someone who always does what she's told every single time, like goes to work. She said that the photos of her out partying that circulated in the media weren't even from the time about after Kaylee's appearance. They were showing photos of her life before Kalee was born and while Kalee was still alive.

But she further said that the tattoo she got with the words Bella Vita had nothing to do with Kaylee's death. She said she had always wanted that tattoo since long before Kaylee was born. But you would take that time, right, to say that life is beautiful when you're, you know, something has happened to your child.

Right? And you're having to just act as if like this is going overboard if you're thinking that [01:00:00] I have to do what I'm told for. Sure. Nobody's supposed to do that. Sure. Right. And then also, you know, uh. I don't know. I just, the whole excuse that, you know, they were showing pictures that were old. They were from before Kalee was born and while she was still alive.

Well, Kalee was only two years old. She wasn't that old. So you mean to tell me that sometime between. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, I'm like, there's a disconnect there. I'm like, you, I don't believe that you cleaned up your entire life and weren't doing any of those things. You know what I mean? It just doesn't.

It's like, no, Casey, you're not like 10 years removed from these photos. Like you're talking about photos that were taken of you in the last two years, you know? And this is like MySpace. People were posting them, right. It's not like, you know, now where, you know, you could have had these photos from a long time ago.

People are like, oh, cool. Or a Facebook album called My Night Out At whatever. Right? Like it's dated We, this is another lie. Casey claimed that she was grieving in her own way, but that she didn't show emotion the way others expected her to. And she said she had learned to mask her pain. And of course this film would not showcase her courtroom scenes, but [01:01:00] it would include the verdict being read and would emphasize the public backlash that she experienced after the trial.

And she complained of humiliation and ridicule on social media and beyond. Casey said she always knew she was going to be acquitted and never thought she'd go to prison because she had faith in her attorneys and in the justice system. She did think her life would go back to normal after the trial though, so LOL there.

She said she was planning for her future and thought she'd be able to do whatever she wanted. Of course she did, of course. I mean, she was doing that before. She never considered that people would reject the jury's verdict and continue to crucify her after her acquittal. I think that was very naive of her to think that.

Incredibly naive, but I will say more than probably anyone I can think of in the media in some time, she absolutely is like number one villain in a lot of people's heads still to this day. Yes, yes. Anytime [01:02:00] people hear her name, there are people who still get, you know, like I'm. I'm one of them. As soon as I hear her name, you get cheated.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, immediately, no, I don't even wanna hear it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's nothing she could do to redeem herself in my eyes, ever. No. Honestly, truly. But just like every other time that Casey spoke publicly, these interviews, of course, only sparked further outrage as well as confusion and disbelief.

The film, as I was told, never materialized, not surprisingly, sources close to the production. Told People magazine that several factors, including the pandemic, derailed the process. Aw. And that's gonna be the first time I ever said I'm thankful for 2020. No kidding. In October of 2019, George Anthony returned to Dr.

Eyes and revealed that his perspective on his daughter had changed a little bit. After the years of distance and hostile accusations, George said that he was finally ready to forgive Casey despite everything that she had put him through. He said he just wanted the opportunity to see and [01:03:00] talk to his daughter, even if it was just for five minutes, and said that the hugs he used to get from Casey and his wife Cindy, would mean the most to him.

George said that he wrote Casey a letter in hopes of reconciling after years of being estranged. In the letter he wrote, quote, no matter what, I'm still your dad and I love you. However, he did not recant his suspicions or offer any theories as to what happened to Kaylee. He simply said that he wanted to find peace and find a way to heal.

In December of 2020, nearly a decade after her acquittal, Casey was in the headlines again this time trying to rebrand herself as a private investigator, although I think she kind of put that out there earlier, a few years earlier by saying that she was interested in these things and now she's like, oh yeah, remember when I said I was doing this?

Surprise? I actually am. So she wants to become a private investigator. She files official paperwork to launch her own investigation firm, which she was going to [01:04:00] call Case Research and Consulting Services, LLC, and it was based in West Palm Beach, Florida. At this time, she was still living with the member of her legal team, Patrick McKenna, and his address was listed as the business's address.

However, Casey did not have a Florida private investigator license, and as a convicted felon, she wasn't eligible to be one. Remember, she was still found guilty of multiple counts of lying to the police, which is a felony. So therefore. I guess she can't be a private investigator. Why is she doing all this thinking that people are gonna wanna take her advice where time after time she screws up.

Like, how do you say you're gonna own this whole company? I don't get it. And yeah, it doesn't make any sense. And you're not even legally eligible to practice. You legally can't do it, right? Like you can't even do it. So a source told people that, I don't know. Casey must not have looked into these things before she decided to become a private investigator.

She had big plans for her company. She really wanted to help others that were wrongfully accused. I say others, that's in her opinion. 'cause I don't think she [01:05:00] was wrongfully accused. Right? But she wants to help people who were wrongfully accused get justice. Of course, this only sparked a fresh wave of outrage online, even though 10 years had passed.

Many thought it was ironic and delusional for Casey Anthony to be offering up investigative help to others. But believe it or not, Casey still was not done there. Here's a big one that I think. Really shocked everyone. So in 2022, Casey appeared in her first ever on-camera interview for a three-part docuseries on Peacock called Casey Anthony, where the truth lies widely anticipated.

Emphasis on lies. Emphasis on lies. The title of course suggests that Casey's finally gonna give us answers, like it would be double jeopardy. Right, right. So at this point, point, she couldn't even be charged with anything with her daughter, um, in a criminal case as far as murder or anything like that. It would be double jeopardy, but she's never gonna tell us the truth.

Never. But she talked about those 31 days [01:06:00] before Kaleigh was reported missing, and she acknowledged that the photos out of her out partying and getting this tattoo made her look bad, but it wasn't really representative of her lifestyle. She said that she later had the Bella Vita tattoo covered up with flowers as a symbol of growth and rebirth.

She made some bombshell admissions and admitted to lying about zanny the nanny, and said the only person who had ever watched Kaleigh besides herself was her mom. Cindy Casey said that she is a habitual liar, and that there was no lie that was off limits to her, but she blamed that tendency to lie on trauma and pain, and she maintained that.

She lied because what? That's what she was told to do. Casey also admitted that she didn't know who Kaleigh's father was, despite once lying to a former boyfriend and telling him that he was the father. Casey claimed that her pregnancy with Kalee was the result of a rape that happened at a party, but that she had been too ashamed to admit [01:07:00] it.

Casey still maintained her innocence when it came to having any part in Kaylee's death. She admitted to lying, hiding things and covering things up, but not to hurting her little girl. Even though she had claimed four years that she didn't know what happened to Kalee, Casey once again changed her story for the Peacock series.

This time, she directly pointed the finger at her father, George. She told a completely new story that nobody had ever heard before, claiming that on June 16th, 2008, the last day that Kaylee was verified to be seen alive, Casey wasn't feeling well, so she laid down in bed with Kaylee and she fell asleep.

The next thing she remembered was being woken up by George, who was asking where Kaylee was. Casey claimed they looked for her, and then at some point Casey saw that her dad was standing there holding Kaylee, who was soaking wet and unconscious. Casey claimed that her dad told her that this was all her fault, but he didn't rush to dial 9 1 1 or to [01:08:00] try and resuscitate her.

Keep in mind, literally this man's whole background and training would be to do this like it would be. Second nature for him to immediately call authorities. She alleges that George actually took Kaylee's body and told Casey to act normal and it would all be okay, and then he left with Kaylee's body.

Casey also implied that her father may have been abusing Kaylee and might have staged this drowning. Just to cover it up, she said that the last person seen with her daughter alive was George. And as you probably expected, the airing of this docuseries did absolutely nothing to help Casey's image and only serve to remind everyone that at the end of the day, a 2-year-old was dead and there was no one but her mother to blame for it, and no one had ever been held responsible.

The show has a 3.7 out of 10 rating on IMDB, which is higher than the current Snow White movie. Oh gosh. But I think people just got their [01:09:00] buttons confused that day for sure. When George saw this docuseries, he was once again appalled and outrage that Casey would go on the record and say these things about him.

One source said that he was just trying to keep a tough exterior, but that this was really tearing him apart. He loved his daughter and his granddaughter. So it was beyond difficult for Casey to be making these absolutely horrible claims against him. Being publicly blamed for Kaleigh's murder and accused of abuse seemed to end any chance of healing between Casey and George.

And honestly, that that is just so, it, it's makes me sad for George, right? Like we don't know fully what the family life was like for Casey as a child. We don't know exactly what type of parents George and Cindy were. I know that from what I saw of them. I mean, you could have opinions. You don't have to like think that everyone's like your favorite person in the world, but I didn't personally see anything.

And they were obviously in the media a lot, but I don't think I saw anything that I necessarily was like, they definitely, you know, did something wrong [01:10:00] here and messed up, you know, messed up with Casey. Yeah. Like I didn't get that impression. Like, you know, sometimes you do get that impression where you're like, well, the way they were raised probably had something to do with this, but.

I didn't really necessarily feel that way in this case. Yeah. And so I did feel bad because from a parent's perspective, like this is the worst possible thing that you could go through with your child doing this to their own child or so yeah, something like this, allegedly. And then to have your daughter like you, he, I mean, they lost everything.

Their whole family was torn apart with this. Well, and the fact that he was like willing to reconcile with her, right. She doesn't have any family. Had she just not done that. She could have had some connection to her dad. It would be a complicated right and weird relationship. But she had that option and he wanted to blow it up like that.

Like he really said, he was just so tormented. He just wanted to have peace and just wanted to like get to a place where like he felt like things were gonna be okay. And it's hard to even find any place where things are gonna be okay when these are the circumstances, but like, it's. I just [01:11:00] am sad that he didn't at least get the opportunity to like try, like you said, not saying it would've been the closest relationship, but I'm sad that he didn't get a chance to like try and mend things with his daughter just in whatever way that would've, whatever that would've looked like for them, you know?

Yeah. After that, in January of 2024, George and Cindy Anthony both appeared on a new a and e show called Casey Anthony's parents the lie detector test, and in this documentary, they each underwent polygraphs while they were recounting their version of events surrounding kaleigh's disappearance and death, as well as the allegations of abuse.

In one clip, Cindy said she believes that Casey a hundred percent knows what happened to Kalee and that she has kept hoping that Casey would confess. She said Kalee was always the priority, and her focus has always been on finding out the truth. At one point in the interview, Cindy started to actually have a panic attack and she had to excuse herself to go take her medication, but both George and Cindy passed the polygraphs that they were given for this show.

On [01:12:00] March 1st, 2025. That was just a month ago or so, not to uhhuh Not much longer than a month ago. Uh, Casey popped up once again. It seems like she tries every five years and when it doesn't work out. Yeah, she's like, I'll go back in my hole and try again in five years. So we probably won't. And she hear from her again for a while.

I know. It's like, what's the new platform? TikTok. Okay, I'll try that one. Yeah. Um, but she still is kind of on the same angle. So she popped up on TikTok this time, March 1st, and released a video that went on for over three minutes, which very unusual for TikTok. Girl, you need to learn how to TikTok no one.

You can't hook someone for three minutes. That's too long. Uh, but in the video, Casey looks directly into the camera and she says quote, for those of you who don't know, my name is Casey Anthony. My daughter is Kaylee Anthony. My parents are George and Cindy Anthony. This is not about them. This is not in response to anything they've said or done.

This is for me to begin to reintroduce myself. I'm doing [01:13:00] this both personally for me and in a professional capacity. She then went on to explain that there would be more videos to come and described herself as a legal advocate and a researcher who's been in the legal field since 2011. Like this is her resume.

She's been in the legal field since 2011. And is that because you were accused of a crime in 2011? Is that that count your time in the court system? Like I, oh my gosh. So she said, I've been a doctor at the hospital since 1983 because I was born there. No kidding. Right? So she said, if I'm gonna continue to operate appropriately as a legal advocate, I need to start to advocate for myself and also for my daughter, Mandy, I wanna punch a wall.

Same. She also just said that she wanted to use her platform to help others and find, uh, help people find tools and resources that they can utilize themselves. And she announced that she had a sub stack that people could subscribe to. Yeah, count me out. I don't even know [01:14:00] what that is. I guess that's the latest and greatest that I have.

Not yet. It's like a blog thing you can subscribe to. I'll say more about that at the end. Okay, so her summary on this Substack page, I guess her bio, if you will, says it has been more than 16 years since my name became a household one, which she's flattering herself. Way too hard here. Uhhuh, everyone seems to have an opinion about me, about my life.

I'm an advocate, a researcher. These are my words, this is my real life. Every time she says she's an advocate, I wanna be like, go talk to Hailey Gray. Right? That's somebody who's gone through advocacy stuff. Yes. This is different, ma'am. Yes. How offensive to the Hailey Grays of the world. Yes. So of course, as soon as people found out about Casey's TikTok, the internet once again went wild and not in the good, not in the viral.

You're gonna get rich way. They really were in. The angry, according to Casey, in five years, she's gonna say she starred in a [01:15:00] viral TikTok video that would what it's, she will. Um, but the video that she posted, the three minute long one had dozens of snarky comments and insults. But at the same time, there were also people on there saying they had no idea who she was.

And asking questions about like, what did she do? Who is she? Why is everybody so mad? Why does this video have 5 million views? Like, you know, like people could not figure out who she was. And that part blew my mind and honestly, truly was really the reason I said to Melissa, can we please cover the Casey Anthony story again?

We needed another chance. I asked my daughter and she's like, I think I've heard of her. And my daughter really knows like, I was pregnant. This is a pop culture. My son. Yes, I know. That's the crazy thing. But I'm like, guys, it wasn't that long ago. I know, but it was, it really was. They're driving up, but, um, oh gosh, don't even say that.

What I wanted to say about the substack is I went on and, uh, like looked at it, but I wasn't subscribed to it, but you can [01:16:00] subscribe to it. So right now she has 5,200 subscribers. Okay. You can subscribe for $10 a month. Oh. Or a thousand dollars a No, no, no. It must be a hundred dollars a year. Yeah, a hundred dollars a year.

I was like, whoa. Was the math is not mapping? No. It looks like she's got a few posts. Don't do it. Whatever you do, don't do it. None of it'll be worth it. If somebody is subscribed, they'll post it online. Go to Reddit. If you have to read something by her, do not pay that woman a freaking penny of your hard-earned money.

No. But anyway, it just is absolutely like everyone was like, no, she wasn't trying to be on TikTok. She was trying to promote her substack that she's gonna get paid for, and that's exactly what ended up happening. Oh my gosh. That's ridiculous. I know. I'm fully in a rage now. It makes me really angry. Yeah.

Anyway, I, I feel like I'm angrier in 2025 than I was even in 2017. Same, right. We've, we've lived a lot more life since and I'm way angry about this. Now we [01:17:00] have. Alright guys, that was the story for this week. That was a very, very long episode. So long in fact, that my laptop is getting ready to die. So let's go Melissa.

Let's get outta here. We'll be back next week. Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.