Not going to give a ton of background as you have either followed the case and find it interesting or you don't.
In 2008 Casey Anthony claimed her child had been stolen by her nanny, Zanny. This was July 2008. In December 2008, Caylee, her daughter, was found dead in a area near her family's home. Over time, it came out Casey who claimed to have a job, did not, Zanny did not exist and Casey had told numerous other lies big and small. Casey was eventually charged with premeditated murder.
Fast forward to now, Casey's trial in Florida is nearing an end as the defense presents its case, their will then be some rebuttal witnesses and the case will be handed over to the jury in about two weeks.
What the prosecution says, Casey brutally murdered her daughter by chloroforming her unconscious, then wrapping duct tape over her nose and mouth suffocating her to death and then dumping her body. They alledge premeditation based on computer searches for chloroform.
The defense says Caylee died in a tragic swimming pool accident and Casey's father told Casey her mother would never forgive her and helped dump the body. The defense also alledges Casey was abused by her dad and that may explain her odd actions.
Some housekeeping, Caylee disappeared on approximatly June 16, 2008 and was not reported mssing until 31 days later when Cindy, Casey's mom, called 911. Again, everyone intially believed Caylee was kidnapped.
Caylee's father is still unknown and Casey has claimed he died in a car accident so he has never been in the picture or a part of this case.
George, Casey's father was at some point in his life a police officer, keep this in mind as you read.
Casey has a brother who she alleges molested her as well.
So as we start, do I believe the prosecution theory, no. Do I believe the defense theory, no.
Do I believe that Casey was molested? Honestly I am up in the air on this one, abuse survivors because of that history can act odd but she lived with her parents until shortly before Caylee disappered so part of me has a hard time believing if you were molested you would put your own daughter at risk. Again though abuse surivors because of that trauma do not think "normally" always. I personally don't find the abuse alledged a key to the case regardless.
I do believe the Anthony's are odd people. George likely had affairs. Casey and her mom had a tumultous relationship at best. Cindy comes across as biting and critical at times. The Anthony's refused to acknowlege for months Casey was even pregnant. George and Cindy saw Caylee almost daily until June 2008, yet waited a month to call authorities although Casey was giving every excuse in the book why they could not see or speak to Caylee. Again, George was a cop. Casey was lying about going to work for almost two years, yet the Anthony's according to them never doubted she was working. This to me all screams of a highly dysfunctional family.
What we know about Casey, she was lazy, we know this for sure. She liked to party and even partied the month her daughter was supposedly kidnapped. There is no evidence though that Casey has a temper, was subject to outbursts or abused Caylee. Prosectution never brought one person forward that could claim these things and skeletal analysis seems to confirm she was not abused.
It should also be pointed out Casey apparently never tried to run while her daughter was missing or she was out of jail.
Even now jail personal says she has never been in trouble and is a model inmate. Which to me goes along with Casey just being lazy and not a cold blooded killer. Casey is happy to just get a shower and be fed for the most part and not have to worry about anything but herself.
I should put out on Fathers Day 2008 Casey is alleged to have had a fight, not physical, with her mom. This is unconfirmed and HAS NOT been introduced in court.
Casey was at some point offered a plea deal of 8 years and turned it down. She has been in jail for most of the past three years.
Now my opinion, I believe Casey was extremely lazy, she got knocked up(too lazy to even use birth control), rarely had a job apparently and lived at home apparently not paying any rent. I believe this behavior was put up with, condoned by the parents who consistently buried their head in the sand. As parents, and as a parent you know you will die likely before your children, how understanding your daughter is immature do you not teach her life lessons? How did George and Cindy not sit down constantly and make sure Casey had appropriate insurance and go over bank statements and check stubs and make sure she was saving and saving for a house, etc.? This blows my mind. If they had they would have, they would have known Casey did not have a job. Although they deny it, they say they trusted Casey 100%, how could you, she had gotten knocked up basically as a teenager. I don't believe this almost pathological lying began overnight. Why would you allow Casey to have sleepovers with boyfriends? These are not the actions of a normal family.
I believe at some point, Casey to go out began drugging her daughter I believe with benadryl or something similar. I believe this was intially effective and allowed Casey to go out without having a sitter for Caylee at times, I believe she would just leave her in the car. I believe at some point this became ineffective, you develop a tolerance for anything. Casey then began looking for other things and came across chloroform. Obviosuly, chloroform is much more dangerous than benedryl.
I don't believe Casey meant to kill Caylee but overdosed her and found her daughter dead and panicked and because of family tensions never felt she could go to them. The evidence seems to line up with this as chloroform was detected in high concentrations in Casey's car.
Onto the ducttape, the ducttape was apparently found on or near Caylee's face, it is unclear. It has no skin cells or dna on it. Some will argue water and bugs washed anything away. I find that hard to believe if it was tightly wrapped around Caylee as the prosection alledges. What I believe, Casey did put a piece of tape over Caylee's mouth, Caylee was deceased, the tape was a metaphor to "keep the secret" and keep the "family secrets", a small heart sticker was alleged to be on the tape, the evidence is somewhat unclear on this. I believe the sticker may have existed and showed a part of Casey loved Caylee.
How do I think this ends? I doubt the "truth" will ever come out. There are atleast four jurors I can see causing a hung jury. One, 4, seems anti prosecution, taking notes only when defense talks. Three jurors sit in the back together and are Casey's age, I suspect one or all of them could be sympathetic to Casey. I believe the jury will hang. I think one, some, many will have an issue with a person with no violent past, suddenly lost it and plotted to kill Caylee, and many will have issues with the ducttape. I just do not see all these people being on the same page given the evidence.
I have doubts Casey will be retried given the costs, finding a new jury, no new evidence, etc. I think the prosection had one shot. I think ego got involved on a murder one charge. Case I believe would have been a slam dunk, largely leaving out the ducttape, focusing on a lazy Casey, a factor of an accident, and the chloroform evidence which to me is their best physical evidence by far. A murder 2/manslaughter would have been much easier to prove and for a jury to get together on and come to a conviction.
I also believe someone early on had a theory similar to me in the prosecuters office hence the deal for 8 years.
If Casey is convicted which I put at less than 25%, I see no way she gets the death penalty. Her parents while no longer speaking to Casey, they try, Casey refuses ,will beg for her life. Juries also are now a days very reluctant to put anyone to death.
I reserve the right to alter my opinion if Casey takes the stand, I find that unlikely or the defense has a bombshell.
Again, this is just my opinion, if you have questions, please post in the comments, please do not comment on the nuances of the case as I don't want comments to become a fight. If you have a different theory please feel free to comment. Please no vulgarity. If comments seem to come off the rails I will delete them or end comments all together. Thanks.
This case speaks to many things, young people having sex that shouldn't be, adoption, kids just not getting it, work ethics, parents that want to be friends with their kids and not parents, the list goes on and on. Above all, its sad.
It also speaks to our prison system, are we really going to lock someone up in their twenties in a case like this where the most valuable thing is yes, a consequence but more importantly therapy for Casey. Are we going to spend 50k a year for likely 40, 50, 60, 70 years to keep her in prison. This to me is a case where we should try and get this person on the right track and achieve redemption.
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