In July 2008, Orange County, Florida police received a 911 call that resulted in one of the US’ most high-profile cases. Two-year-old Caylee Anthony was missing, and her mother was suspected of being involved in her disappearance.
Eventually Caylee was found dead in the woods, and Casey Anthony was tried for murder.
Casey Anthony made headlines during her murder trial in 2011. She was acquitted by a jury for the murder, child abuse and manslaughter charges against her after the death of two-year-old Caylee. She was convicted of lying to the police.
More than ten years after her acquittal, Casey Anthony is telling her story in a three-part docuseries entitled “Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies.” It is shown on media platform Peacock. The first episode was shown on November 29.
In the first interview, Casey Anthony, now 36, made shocking accusations against her father.
Why was Caylee, who was last seen alive on June 16, 2008, not reported missing until July 15, 2008? Why was Caylee reported missing by Casey’s mother?
Six months later, police found Caylee’s skeletal remains in a wooded area near her home.
The police and police dogs inspected Anthony’s car and found evidence of human remains. Forensic experts said at the trial that there was evidence of a decaying body in her car.
Casey Anthony was charged with murder, but her lawyers’ defense was that her daughter died in the family pool. Anthony was acquitted of murder by a jury on July 5, 2011, but she was convicted for lying to the police. She had told police that she had last seen her daughter with a babysitter, named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, who had also disappeared.
Why did she lie? Can viewers believe her now?
Anthony was sentenced to four years in jail but received credit for time served. She was released from jail on July 17, 2011.
A judge ordered her to pay $217,000 for the cost of investigating Caylee’s disappearance. Eventually, Anthony sued for bankruptcy, saying she was broke.
In the Peacock interview, Anthony says her father, George Anthony, was sexually abusing her for several years starting when she was eight years old. She also said she believes her father lied to the police to cover up her daughter’s death.
Anthony entertains the notion that her father staged Caylee’s drowning to cover up his own abuse of the girl. She said that on the day of the alleged drowning, June 16, 2008, she made her daughter breakfast and the two took a nap.
She said her father woke her up and said that Caylee was missing. Anthony claims that she searched the house and yard, and when she returned to the house she found her father holding Caylee’s wet body. The child appeared to have drowned in the pool.
Anthony alleges that her father handed the child’s dead body to her, and told her it was her fault. She says she collapsed from shock, with her daughter’s body in her arms. She says her father then told her that everything would be okay and took Caylee’s lifeless body away. Allegedly, he did not call the police or try to resuscitate Caylee, nor did Anthony.
Anthony said she did not report Caylee missing because her father was telling her the child was fine. This raises a lot of questions that viewers are seeking answers to. Where did she think the child was after her father took her away? Why was she not concerned that the child wasn’t with her? What emotional state was she in that she let her child be missing from her life? She had held the child’s dead body in her arms. Why was the child not reported missing by Casey’s mother until a month later?
Anthony explained that she went along with what her father told her to do but looking back now, she does not believe her daughter died from drowning. She believes her father drowned Caylee in the pool to cover his tracks after sexually abusing her.
Anthony admitted that she lied to the police. She was convicted for giving the police false information, having told them that the child was taken by the babysitter. Why did she lie? When asked why she believed her father even after having her dead child’s body in her arms, she said that she was under his influence due to the abusive hold he had over her.
George Anthony has not been arrested in connection to Caylee’s death. He denied the accusations against him.
Some social media viewers are expressing anger about Anthony’s story and are not buying it. Twitter is filled with complaints about the series and Peacock’s airing of it.
Viewers are still wondering where the truth lies.
