Caylee was last seen alive on June 16, 2008, and Casey’s mother Cindy reported Caylee missing on July 15, 2008, after Casey told Cindy that she hadn’t seen Caylee in a month. That December, Caylee’s remains were found in the woods near the Anthony family home. Casey repeatedly lied to police and was eventually arrested and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement. She was acquitted of all charges except lying to police. Casey said the reason she waited so long to speak out was that she wanted to properly “honor” her daughter. Find out the biggest bombshells from the Casey Anthony documentary series.
Casey Anthony said her father George Anthony staged her daughter’s drowning.
Casey alleged that her father, George Anthony, staged Caylee’s drowning to cover up his allegedly abusing both Casey and Caylee. George has steadfastly denied this and has never been charged with a crime regarding either allegation. When asked what went on when Caylee was last seen on June 16, 2008, Casey said in part of the interview, “I wasn’t feeling that great, and I wanted to lay down. I had her lay in bed with me. I was awoken by [my father] shaking me and asking me where Caylee was. That didn’t make sense. She would never even leave my room without telling me. I immediately started looking around the house. I go outside and I’m looking to see where she could be.” “He was standing there with her. She was soaking wet. He handed her to me, said it was my fault,” she continued. “That I caused it. But he didn’t rush to call 911 and he wasn’t trying to resuscitate her. I collapsed with her in my arms … She was heavy. She was cold.” Casey said she was holding Caylee and was terrified and didn’t know what to do. “He takes her from me and he immediately softens his tone and says, ‘It’s going to be OK,’” a tearful Casey recalled. “I wanted to believe him because I wanted her to be OK … He took her from me and he went away.” She said she doesn’t know where George went with Caylee after that, but that she remembered feeling numb, broken and confused, but “hopeful” because she thought Caylee may still be OK.
Casey Anthony said she lied to protect her father.
Though she acknowledges there was no excuse for her not to call the police or try to help save Caylee at the time, she said she lied to the authorities regarding her search in an effort to protect George. “It’s like I was brainwashed and it wasn’t until much later that I started to realize why,” she said.
Casey Anthony grew more social after Caylee Anthony’s disappearance.
Detective Eric Edwards said that after interviewing friends and family members, he believes Casey was frustrated that “Caylee’s existence” prevented Casey from socializing with young adults her own age. “Looking at her desktop calendars, Casey was much busier and much more socially active after the 16th.” Edwards also noted that Casey’s Photobucket account was used more frequently to post photos of Casey partying after the date Caylee was last seen.
Casey Anthony stole money from a friend after Caylee Anthony went missing.
Casey stole a checkbook from a friend and used the funds, but not to buy anything for a child.
Casey Anthony’s friends said she was a great mom—until she wasn’t.
Casey’s friends said in interviews that Casey always had Caylee with her whenever they saw her, with one noting that Casey always had flashcards for Caylee and another noting that “she was always focused on Caylee—she was a part of her.” However, when asked about Casey’s behavior following Caylee’s disappearance, most of her friends were appalled that Casey appeared not to try to search for Caylee or help find her.
Casey Anthony lied to her friends often.
One of Casey’s former best friends, Annie Downing Goderwis, believes that Casey is innocent and did not purposely kill Caylee, but admitted that Casey lied frequently. “There’s no way she killed that baby … with Caylee’s disappearance, I think an accident probably happened and I think that [Casey] did what she always did: She lied. When I was friends with Casey, she lied about everything.”
Casey Anthony says that her lies always had a “kernel of truth.”
Goderwis said that when Caylee went missing and Casey said she dropped Caylee off at an apartment complex, it was the complex where Goderwis lived—and that while Casey had been there with Caylee before, she never dropped Caylee off there and left. Casey said she worked at Universal Studios for a long time, but didn’t at the time of Caylee’s disappearance; Casey said that a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez—who she accused of kidnapping Caylee—did exist but was not her nanny.
Casey Anthony said she thought Caylee Anthony was alive during the 31 days that the toddler was missing.
When asked about photos of her appearing to party and have a good time while Caylee Anthony was missing, Casey said she believed Caylee was alive. She said she was trying to act as normal as possible, because that was what George allegedly instructed her to do. She didn’t specify what she thought George was doing with Caylee, noting that she’d been staying with then-boyfriend Tony Lazzaro at the time for three weeks of the 31 days Caylee was gone. She insisted, “I was convinced that she was OK. Until December 2008.” That was when Caylee’s skeletal remains were found and identified.
Casey Anthony claims that George Anthony and her brother Lee sexually abused her.
Casey claims in the documentary that George raped her from age 8 to age 12. After that, she said her brother Lee would sexually abuse her from the age of 12 to 15, though she says her brother did not specifically rape her, but was “close enough.” Casey later said that she realized that she was sexually abused when she began having flashbacks in jail. She went into great detail about the sexual abuse she suffered, adding that if she resisted, George would put a pillow over her face. “There was so much anger and grief and sadness and shame,” Casey said of processing her sexual trauma with her legal team’s mitigation expert. She said that was part of the reason she didn’t reveal it sooner, but that as she began to understand it while incarcerated, she told her legal team about it. Her mitigation expert said that everything they unpacked regarding Casey’s trauma added up. Casey’s brother Lee said on the stand that Casey had told him before Caylee’s disappearance that George abused her. When asked about this, Casey said she told her brother because she had already forgiven her brother for his own sexual abuse of her. George and Lee have each previously denied ever sexually abusing Casey and did not provide any new commentary in the documentary.
Casey Anthony thinks George Anthony may have abused Caylee Anthony, leading to Caylee’s death.
When speaking about her father’s alleged involvement with Caylee’s death, Casey speculated that George may have sexually abused Caylee, then killed the toddler. She blamed herself somewhat, saying if she’d reported her own history of sexual abuse, she may have been able to save her daughter. “He’d put a pillow over my face and smother me to knock me out,” she reiterated in an interview. “That happened several times. I’m sure there were times where I was incapacitated as a child where my body was limp and lifeless … That’s what I think about. I wish every day I had said something to someone about something. Maybe then things would be different.”
Casey Anthony said her lying was a learned behavior from her father George Anthony.
Casey said that her father George lied about financially supporting their family and cheating on his wife Cindy. Cindy previously called George out for lying to her in an ABC News interview, saying that Casey “learned by [his] example.” “I watched him lie, manipulate, take money from people,” she said, adding that it was a means of protecting herself from the outside world. She later said that she lied to the police because she “was doing as [she] was told” by George. George has denied all the claims of infidelity and theft, as well as of lying about his actions.
Casey Anthony said her “bella vita” tattoo was ironic.
Casey has since covered up her “Bella Vita” tattoo, but says the ink was a “f–k you” to her family. “That was a subconscious way for me to speak out against all of it, against my family, my flawed and f–ked up family and my flawed and f–ked up life. It was the antithesis of what my life really was.” Another tattoo Casey has now reads, “I hear your voice in every sound in the world.” She explains, “That is my Caylee tribute tattoo.”
Casey Anthony says Caylee Anthony was the product of rape.
Casey claims that when she was 18 years old, she got drunk at a party and was drugged and raped. She said that there is no way that George or her brother are Caylee’s father. She said she never reported the rape because she didn’t think anyone would believe her and that she thought her parents, specifically her mother, would blame her for the assault.
Casey Anthony lied to her boyfriend about being Caylee Anthony’s father.
Casey claimed that she began dating a man named Jesse Grund shortly before realizing she was pregnant. She says that she made a “selfish decision” to let Grund believe he was Caylee’s father throughout her pregnancy, even though she knew at the time that she was too far along for Grund to have the biological paternity of the child. “I should have told him what happened, but I didn’t. At that point, I hadn’t told anyone I was raped,” she said. “He got a paternity test and even after that, I never told Jesse how I got pregnant in the first place. I lied and said it was this old friend from way back when.” As for why she lied so much about Caylee’s father a crying Casey said she didn’t want Caylee to think that she was unwanted. Next, find out what your true crime obsession means—and when it’s time to take a break from the genre.
