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CNN Special Reports
Casey Anthony And The Summer Of Lies. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 30, 2018 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You need a president who is going to be fighting for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got a presidential election coming up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People were losing their jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are angry and upset, frustrated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people were in a bad way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So many extraordinarily important things were happening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People needed an escape.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news tonight, where is 2-year-old Caylee?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detectives say their mother has provided them with more lies than information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey, where is your daughter? Where did you put Caylee?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had lives at stake pap dead little girl and her mother accused of killing her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told you everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you all of a sudden lose a girl?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that just intrigued people, especially women and mothers across the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This does (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to slap her and the parents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up. Shut up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want the madness to end. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insanity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were people who would yell and scream at George and Cindy Anthony in front of their house like idiots. When does this ever happen? Not in this century.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey, did you kill Caylee?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It became a soap opera, just like the O.J. Simpson case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looked what you have done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God almighty will judge Casey Anthony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sad part about this whole was this was true. This wasn't a play.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jury the defendant not guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey Anthony is now free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The devil is dancing tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Anthony got away with something that she and she alone only knows.
RANDI KAYE, CNN HOST: This is where it all began. The Anthony family home here in Orlando, Florida where little Caylee lived her short life. Once the family sanctuary, it would soon become the focus for investigators and the epicenter of a media frenzy that would turn this tragic story into a national obsession.
July 15th, 2008. Cindy Anthony made her first of three calls to 911.
CINDY ANTHONY, VICTIM'S GRANDMOTHER: I have a 22-year-old person who has grand theft sitting in my auto with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this your son?
CINDY ANTHONY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Is this your son?
CINDY ANTHONY: Daughter.
KAYE: Earlier that say, Cindy and her husband, George Anthony learned that the car they allowed their daughter, Casey, to drive had been sitting at an impound lot for weeks. And Casey had not returned home with her daughter Caylee in over a month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They get the car. And they see a car seat in it and some other things like what's going on. And the car also smelled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to bring her in. I want to press charges. KAYE: Turns out the real reason Cindy wanted her daughter brought
into police was far worse than a stolen car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey is with you right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I got her. I finally found here after months. She has been missing for months.
KAYE: For 31 days, 22-year-old Casey had been lying to her family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Casey not telling you where her daughter is?
CINDY ANTHONY: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. We will have a deputy out to you once one is available. OK?
CINDY ANTHONY: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
KAYE: Moments later, Cindy calls back again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911 what is your emergency.
CINDY ANTHONY: I called a little bit ago. The deputy sheriff is not here. I found out my granddaughter has been taken. She was missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted it that she has been missing.
BETH KARAS, FORMER PROSECUTOR: On the third and final 911 call, Cindy is frantic. She is upset. She is everything you would expect in finding out that your granddaughter is missing and has been for a month.
CINDY ANTHONY: I told you my daughter was missing for a month. I just found her today but I can't find my granddaughter. And she just admitted to me that she has been trying to find her herself. There is something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there is a dead body in the damn car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is your daughter there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KARAS: The lies started there with the police.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your 3-year-old daughter is missing, Caylee Anthony.
CASEY ANTHONY, CAYLEE'S MOTHER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who has her? Do you have a name?
CASEY ANTHONY: Her name is Zeinada Fernandez Gonzalez.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who is that? Babysitter?
CASEY ANTHONY: She has been my nanny for about a year-and-a-half, almost two years.
KARAS: A nanny whose nickname was Zanny, no one ever met her. No one knew her phone numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you calling now? Why didn't you call 31 days ago?
[20:05:03] CASEY ANTHONY: I have been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which was stupid.
KAYE: Later that night, an on-call detective (INAUDIBLE) arrived at the Anthony's home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anything about this story that you are telling me that is untrue or is there anything that you want to change or divert from what you already told me?
CASEY ANTHONY: No, sir.
JOHN ALLEN, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, CASEY ANTHONY CASE: This is where Casey brought the detective (INAUDIBLE), the night her daughter was reported missing. And since she told detective (INAUDIBLE) that on the day Caylee went missing, she said she brought here her, dropped her off in the morning, and she went to work at universal studios, and then came back that afternoon to pick her daughter up and the apartment was empty and Zanny and Caylee were gone.
KAYE: So what did your detective find when he came here to look at the apartment?
ALLEN: Well, the apartment was empty. The place has been -- it had been empty for months.
KAYE: So there is no way she could have dropped her here that morning?
ALLEN: Correct. See, at this point, it was pretty clear that, you know, there was no baby sitter.
KAYE: There was no nanny, and there was no job at universal, either.
ALLEN: I got a call from (INAUDIBLE) telling me that she doesn't work there. She is not an employee. In fact, she has never been an employee. And so at that point, I told (INAUDIBLE) just stay there. I'm going to go pick her up and I'm going to bring her to universal. So on to universal we went.
KAYE: That afternoon they arrived at universal studios where Casey led the detectives straight to the employee's security check.
ALLEN: Then the security guard looked on the computer and he looked back and then said sorry, ma'am. We don't have an employee named Casey Anthony. KAYE: Still, Casey insisted she worked there and even provided a
false name for her supervisor and her own phone extension.
ALLEN: Says lady, that's not a phone extension here. Now at this point, the security director told to let us in. We would walk into, she was like, she was waving at people and they were waving back but they're looking at the group of us as if what is going on. And it wasn't until we turned down a dead end hall and she looked at and she said "I don't really work here."
ALLEN: What did you think at that moment?
ALLEN: Of course, we knew that she wasn't work there. But we were trying to get her to tell the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be the point where you stop all rise and you stop all offense and you tell us exactly what is going on.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST, CRIME AND JUSTICE: The fact that she is just willing to literally string people along in her walk to universal studio, pointing out where the offices is when she doesn't work there, is pretty remarkable.
CASEY ANTHONY: I'm scared and I know I'm running out of options, it's been a month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you scared of?
CINDY ANTHONY: I'm scared of not seeing my daughter ever again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. If you're scared of not seeing your daughter again, OK, I want you to tell me how lying to us is going to solve that problem and help you find your daughter quickly.
CASEY ANTHONY: It isn't.
KAYE: What did you do that the point?
ALLEN: We went back to our office and (INAUDIBLE) charged her with child neglect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey, why do wait so long to report your daughter's disappearance?
KAYE: July 16th, 2008, Casey spent her first night in jail while investigators were getting their first piece of crucial evidence, Casey's Pontiac Sun fire.
ERIC EDWARDS, INVESTIGATOR, CASEY ANTHONY CASE: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember smelling the car long before I dissolve the car. It was that pungent.
KAYE: And what did it smell like?
EDWARDS: Clearly, smell like decomposition. It was everywhere. It is a pretty distinct odor.
KAYE: The smell of decomposition?
EDWARDS: Right.
KAYE: Any doubt in your mind what caused it?
EDWARDS: You don't have to be a rocket scientist. I mean, you got a missing child, the mom has lied about the child's whereabouts. You get close to her car, it smells like there has been a dead body and nobody else is missing. It seems pretty clear to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:12:35] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. This is a free call from --
CASEY ANTHONY: Casey.
KARAS: Casey got arrested for child neglect. And she got locked up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey.
CASEY ANTHONY: Well, I just saw your nice little came on TV. You don't know what my involvement is and stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey --
CASEY ANTHONY: Mom.
CINDY ANTHONY: What?
CASEY ANTHONY: No.
CINDY ANTHONY: I don't know what your involvement is, sweetheart. You are not telling me where she is at.
CASEY ANTHONY: Because I don't know where she is at, are you kidding me?
EDWARDS: I was actually sitting and my people on homicide. And John Allen came around and said, hey, listen to this.
CASEY ANTHONY: Because I want to talk to my mother, and it is a (bleep) waste.
EDWARDS: She came across, can I say bitch on TV. She came across a bit harsh to her family.
CINDY ANTHONY: Casey don't waste your call to scream and holler at me. CASEY ANTHONY: No. Waste may call sitting in the jail.
CINDY ANTHONY: Whose fault is that as you are sitting in the jail? Are you blaming me that you are sitting in jail, putting yourself for telling lies?
CASEY ANTHONY: Do me a favor. Just tell me what Tony's number. I don't want to talk to you right now. Forget it.
BANFIELD: The child had been missing for 31 days and there didn't seem to be a level of desperation.
CASEY ANTHONY: They just want Caylee back. That's all they are worried about right now.
CLINT HOUSE, CASEY ANTHONY'S FRIEND: She had been lying to us the entire time.
KAYE: Clint House got to know Casey in the spring of 2008 when she started dating his roommate, Tony Lazaro.
HOUSE: I was like, man, she is pretty girl. And he said, well, you know, she has a kid. And I said that's no big deal.
KAYE: After a few weeks of dating, Casey introduced her daughter to her new boyfriend and his roommates.
HOUSE: First time I ever met Caylee, she came walking into our apartment. She had big sun glasses on her face and she just walk and she goes what's up, dudes. She was a very, very cute and special little girl.
KAYE: So when Casey suddenly started coming by without little Caylee, Clint took notice.
HOUSE: I asked Casey, you know, where is Caylee? Casey just kind of laughed and shrugged it off and said she is with my mom or she is with the nanny.
KARAS: There was no Zanny, the nanny. She never existed.
KAYE: The more lies you looked at, the more you realized she was probably hiding something, she knew what happened here.
KAYE: It took investigators less than 24 hours to discover that none of Casey's story was adding up. Including why for 31 days she failed to raise any alarm that her daughter was missing.
The 31 days that Caylee was missing, what was Casey doing?
[20:15:17] ALLEN: She was spending time with her boyfriend. And we have video of her shopping and the two of them going to the video store. She was hanging out at friends, partying and having a good time.
HOUSE: We had absolutely no idea what was going on. BANFIELD: Anyone who is missing a child is in despair. And Casey
Anthony was having a gay old time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fourth of July, she got a tattoo.
BANFIELD: Bella Vita, beautiful life. Why on earth would someone get that tattoo at that moment?
ALLEN: It was almost as if she were free, you know. She has been fleeing from a burden.
KAYE: How do you explain that?
CHENEY MASON, CASEY ANTHONY'S FORMER ATTORNEY: I believe that Casey's primary focus of intelligence shut down, disbelief that her child was missing or gone. She went on her normal life that 20-year-olds do.
KAYE: But her daughter was missing.
MASON: I understand if she was aware of that. There is the real question, the if.
ALLEN: Maybe she thought now that she didn't have a daughter, she would live the life she wanted to live.
KAYE: A life without responsibility. And according to investigators, a life that she desperately wanted with her new boyfriend who appeared to be slipping away.
ALLEN: He wanted to dial back the relationship but not hurt her, and so he commented he would never marry a woman with a daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think of the people that say she is lying, up to no good, and may have harmed your rand daughter.
CINDY ANTHONY: Well, those people don't know my daughter.
KAYE: Throughout the summer of 2008, while questions continued to swirl around Casey, investigators and thousands of volunteers kept their focus on finding little Caylee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's spread out so we can do the whole line from the water to the water.
CINDY ANTHONY: Casey, the whole United States is looking for Caylee. Everybody is looking for her.
CASEY ANTHONY: Good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, we are obsessed with finding this little girl.
KAYE: By October, four months after she vanished, still no sign of Caylee. But her mom was about to make headlines again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A grand jury has indicted the mother of missing toddler, Caylee Anthony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First degree murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aggravated child abuse.
BANFIELD: If anybody was ex-tailing (ph) it at the time, it seem to be only really the beginning.
CINDY ANTHONY: Continue to look for Caylee. She is not dead.
CINDY ANTHONY: What is your gut telling you right now?
CASEY ANTHONY: She is not far. I know in my heart she is not far, I can feel it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we -- this is utility, the emergency dispatch. We found a human skull.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
KAYE: Six months after her disappearance, a gruesome discovery, a human skull here just about half a mile from the Anthon's family home. Could Caylee had been this close all along?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know for sure if this is Caylee, but there are a lot of signs that it could be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just right around the corner literally from the Anthony's home, also a black crash bag as we know there was a black trash bag in Casey's trunk.
DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: That was a bad day for me.
KAYE: Dr. Jan Garavaglia was chief medical examiner at the time of the discovery.
GARAVAGLIA: These are my actual notes when I gave the press conference and basically what I said. With regret I'm here to inform you that the skeletal remains found on December 11th are those of the missing toddler Caylee Anthony. The manner of death in this case is homicide. The cause of death will be lifted as homicide by undetermined means.
We have a child not reported missing. The body is clearly, clearly, been hidden. It has been put into two plastic bags, then put in a canvas bag, and then thrown behind a rotten log a couple blocks from the house. And then we have duct tape. Three overlapping pieces of duct tape over the lower aspect of the face. The duct tape was just the smoking gun that something terrible happened to this child.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:23:39] KAYE: Nearly three years had passed since little Caylee's death. And now her mother, Casey Anthony was fighting for her own life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are counting down to the start of Casey Anthony's murder trial now, just 26 days away.
GARAVAGLIA: You have to know about this case because it was constantly on the media.
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Tot mom lie.
KARAS: Nancy Grace clung on to this story and nicknamed Casey Anthony tot mom and really fuelled the story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She should sit in jail the rest of her life. I don't that death penalty is fair enough.
BANFIELD: I honestly wondered how this young woman was going to go get a fair trial.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She killed her daughter.
KAYE: So I guess the question is, why did you want to take a case like this on?
MASON: Well, I did have biding brief that she was needing help legally and had not been treated fairly by the media at all.
GRACE: Everything she tells police is a big fat lie.
MASON: They were intent on convicting her long before she ever see the courthouse.
BANFIELD: I thought it was a slam dunk.
BELVIN PERRY, PRESIDING JUDGE, CASE ANTHONY CASE: Those are the cases that sneak up on you and bite you.
KAYE: By now, Casey Marie Anthony was the most heated woman in America. Her murder trial had not even begun yet many around the world had already convicted her. But her defense lawyers were about to drop a bombshell no one saw coming. It would become the hallmark of the trial. Expect the unexpected.
[20:25:17] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Orange County.
BANFIELD: The prosecution was very (INAUDIBLE), methodical, dispassionate.
LINDA DRANE-BURDICK, PROSECUTOR, CASEY ANTHONY CASE: Day one, Monday, June 16th, 2018.
KARAS: Linda Drane-Burdick would say day by day, where is Caylee? Where is Caylee? (INAUDIBLE) Casey doing? Where is Caylee?
DRANE-BURDICK: Day 21, Casey Anthony is (INAUDIBLE) around Orlando. Where is Caylee Anthony?
PERRY: Prosecution made a powerful circumstantial evidence case. Their consistent lies for odor of decomposition in that car, her unusual behavior.
KARAS: The main witness for the prosecution is that they really don't know exactly when and how she died.
MASON: I was convinced that they just didn't have a case. What they had was public outcry. Prejudice and pre-disposition of people to convict.
JOSE BAEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CASEY ANTHONY: Everyone wants to know what happened.
KAYE: The defense knew where they were going with their theory.
BAEZ: How in a world can a mother wait 30 days before ever reporting her child missing? That's insane. Well, the answer is actually relatively simple. She never was missing.
PERRY: It was like a bolt of lightning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caylee Anthony died on June 16th, 2008 when she drowned in her family's swimming pool.
BANFIELD: I needed a spatula to get my jaw off of the floor.
BAEZ: Caylee loved to swim. And Caylee could get out of the house very easily and did so on that day.
GARAVAGLIA: There is absolutely no proof this is an accidental death.
BAEZ: She saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms. George began to yell at here, "Look what you have done."
BANFIELD: He threw Casey's father under a bus.
BAEZ: Her death was covered up, why did George do this? Why didn't he call in? He knows exactly what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George, is there anything you feel like saying?
BANFIELD: The story that George Anthony was the person to dispose of Caylee Anthony in this manner, the guys was an ex-cop. It is ridiculous.
ALLEN: George had said he loved that little girl. I don't believe George had anything to do with Caylee's death.
BAEZ: This is a sad, tragic accident that snowballed out of control.
GARAVAGLIA: Why would you not say that at the time? Why did you not call 911? Why would you take an accidental death and then try to make it into a homicide?
KAYE: And if Casey had known her daughter was dead. --.
CASEY ANTHONY: I know that she is alive.
KAYE: Why had she been lying to investigators all of this time?
BAEZ: Casey was raised to lie. She could be 13 years old, have her father's penis in her mouth, and then go to school and play with other kids as if nothing ever happened. Nothing is wrong. That will help you understand why no one knew that her child was dead.
KAYE: Casey Anthony's attorney said she lied because she was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father.
BANFIELD: I could not help looking at Casey thinking you're OK with this? You are OK with this? George Anthony would later testify and deny the accusation.
KARAS: There was no evidence of it. Casey never testified to it.
KAYE: What was the reaction in the court?
PERRY: Surprise. Shock. Bewilderment. The impression that I had was game on, this is going to be interesting. What's the rest of the story?
KAYE: Coming up, the case against Casey.
BAEZ: Reasonable doubt is not sprinkle too in this case. Reasonable doubt lives here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:14] DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, CAYLEE ANTHONY CASE: When you look back at something you get better perspective. I'm looking back 10 years. I realized that what I was most appalled with the case was --
JOSE BAEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL: You can't trust this evidence.
GARAVAGLIA: Just the lack of the truth.
BAEZ: You are the ultimate deciders of what the facts are.
GARAVAGLIA: In a way, Jose Baez before Trump came along was Trumpian.
BAEZ: This is not a murder case.
GARAVAGLIA: If he say it loud enough and offer enough.
BAEZ: There's no evidence of any murder in this case.
GARAVAGLIA: People started believing it.
BAEZ: This is not a murder case. This was an accident that snowballed out of control.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I personally think it was an accident.
BETH KARAS, FORMER PROSECUTOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: I didn't buy it for a second. But there was room for that argument because with her remains and the condition they were, you couldn't exactly tell how she died.
When Caylee's remains were located in December 2008 in the sordid area, she was skeletonized. We're talking dry bones with no soft tissue, whatsoever. The recovery took almost a week. We're dealing with little tiny bones. Her body was scattered all over the place.
GARAVAGLIA: That's important because in some of their opening statement is nonsense. They try to say that Roy Kronk, the fellow who found these bones that he would have picked up the skeleton and then somehow tossed them bones out.
BAEZ: Were you not saying Mr. Kronk had anything to do with Caylee's death? But Mr. Kronk is a morally bankrupt individual who actually took Caylee's body and hid her.
KARAS: We know that that's not true, because he couldn't have dispersed the bones that way.
GARAVAGLIA: The science shows that as this body was decomposing, the animals dragged her body. Those bones were spread out in anatomic units.
[20:35:12] KAYE: But even if the jury didn't buy that Kronk put Caylee there, the defense also argued there was still no possible way it could have been Casey who did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They searched this entire perimeter area, for sixth months, no one could find her.
CHENEY MASON, CASEY ANTHONY'S FORMER ATTORNEY: Somebody placed the body there after it had been searched repeatedly. But it could not have been Casey Anthony, because Casey was in jail.
GARAVAGLIA: The fact that they say that the bones were just in placed there is hogwash. If you look at the science of it. It had to be there for at least four to five months based on what we know about the vegetation growing into the bones, based on the vegetation growing through the holes in the bag. That wouldn't have happened in somebody's trunk.
KAYE: Isn't it possible though that even with the ATVs and all those searchers that it was there and they missed it?
MASON: It is possible? Yes, possible. I'm going to fly the initial rocket to the moon, too.
JOHN ALLEN CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, CASEY ANTHONY CASE: There's only about 12 feet off the road.
KAYE: What investigators knew for certain was that whoever left Caylee's remains there, also left a trail of clues which all pointed in one disturbing direction.
ALLEN: We found items with the body that came from the house. There was a laundry bag that she had been put in that was part of a matching set from the house.
GARAVAGLIA: The plastic bags, those are the types they used.
ALLEN: There was also Winnie the Pooh bedding that matched Caylee's bed and also the duct tape.
GARAVAGLIA: It was a special kind of duct tape. Some kind of an electrical duct tape. I've never seen it before, but they had a roll at the house.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, AMERICAN CANADIAN JOURNALIST: But Casey wasn't the only one living in that home.
GARAVAGLIA: The only way that you couldn't tie it to her was they had to tie it to some other member of the family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Anthony, G-E-O-R-G-E.
BELVIN PERRY, PRESIDING JUDGE, CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL: The pivotal moment to me was George Anthony's testimony.
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S FATHER: When I opened up that car door, yes, it smelled like decomposition, human decomposition.
KAYE: On the stand, the defense pressed George on his story.
BAEZ: And that is why you called 911 right then and there, right?
ANTHONY: No, sir, I did not call 911.
BAEZ: That's why you drove that car home.
ANTHONY: Sir --
KAYE: And Baez confronted George on the allegations of abuse.
ANTHONY: Sir, I never would do anything like that to my daughter.
BAEZ: You would never admit to it, would you sir?
RUSSELL HUEKLER, ALTENATE JUROR, CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL: I didn't think that George was credible witness at all. He was so combative.
ANTHONY: You are arguing with me, sir. I'm trying to stay calm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rephrase your question.
PERRY: It just all goes back to them was each and every witness, given the jury a reason to doubt. You look at Dr. Voss.
DR. ARPAD VASS, RESEARCHER: Chloroform was shockingly high.
KAYE: Using his own cutting-edge research, never before entered I court, Dr. Arpad Vass provided his analysis of the odor in Casey's trunk.
VASS: I consider it consistent with human decomposition.
BAEZ: This is the kind of nonsense, the kind of stretching of the imagination that Arpad Vass engages in. It's a fantasy of forensics is what it is.
GARAVAGLIA: The science of the odor, it was almost a destruction. Get back to the basics, what happened to this trial?
BAEZ: And then we come back to Dr. Jan Garavaglia. She sent out all of the toxicological exams that she could to try and make this case fit. They all came back negative. Negative, negative, negative, negative.
GARAVAGLIA: We had absolutely no expectation that we would find toxicology. I couldn't get DNA even from a swab in her bones.
BAEZ: No DNA in the trunk. No DNA on the duct tape. Why isn't there DNA?
GARAVAGLIA: I want you think about this. And you're expecting DNA to be on duct tape which has been exposed to the heat, humidity, and bacteria for six months? We had to actually saw into a bone and pulverize it to get the DNA.
BAEZ: We solve cold cases every day 20, 30 years later with DNA evidence. We can't find DNA on some duct tape?
GARAVAGLIA: What is the point of him saying that? They clearly don't like it that I ruled it a homicide.
The fact that here is duct tape anywhere attached to that child's face is to me an indication of a homicide.
KAYE: How it could have been an accident if there was duct tape around her head in some capacity, jaw, hair?
MASON: But there wasn't. That's the problem.
KAYE: So if I'm understanding correctly you're saying you don't believe duct tape was ever placed on Caylee's mouth?
[20:40:03] MASON: I don't. I can't say that there wasn't, and there's no evidence that there was.
KAYE: But once again, Dr. Garavaglia says the science tells a different story. Indication of a homicide.
GARAVAGLIA: There's nothing that holds your mandible to your skull. And we have -- in this case, the jaw still in place with the hair mask. That told us that something was protecting that mandible and that something was the duct tape.
JEFF ASHTON, PROSECUTOR, CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL: Why would you put a duct tape over the face of a child? There's just no reason to put duct tape over the face of a child, living or dead, and that ladies and gentlemen, is proof beyond reasonable doubt on how Caylee died.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened to Caylee Marie Anthony?
KAYE: July 2011, after six weeks and over 100 witnesses, it was time for final arguments.
[20:45:01] ASHTON: She chose to sacrifice her child.
PERRY: I thought the state had proved this case.
ASHTON: She took her child, she took her life, and she disposed of her body in a swamp.
LINDA DRANE BURDICK, PROSECUTOR, CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL: At the end of this case, all you really have to do is ask yourself a simple question, whose life was better without Caylee?
BAEZ: This is a child who loved the swimming pool.
ALLEN: I think Jose Baez's job, his job is not to find the truth. His job is to create reasonable doubt.
BAEZ: Fantasy searches, fantasy forensics, no DNA, no fingerprints, nothing. But she is a liar and a slut.
KAYE: It had been the defense strategy all along. Plant seeds of doubt at every turn.
BAEZ: We keep getting back, so that's one central question and that is, how did she die? There's no evidence of any murder in this case. And that has been our positions from the very beginning.
PERRY: Members of the jury, you may retire now to begin your deliberations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've got to say, the tension is rising, the anticipation is building, because we are on verdict watch.
KAYE: What do you remember about the day of the verdict?
MASON: Oh, gosh.
CROWD: Justice for Caylee, justice for Caylee, justice for Caylee.
MASON: There was a lynch mob covering the entire courtyard of the courthouse.
KAYE: It took less than 11 hours for the jury to reach its decision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have words that the jury has a verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial.
PERRY: It has always been my policy to keep some sort of a poker face. I wanted to be sure that I had not misread the verdict. So I read it again.
ALLEN: I looked it up. The people sitting in the rollup and said "We lost."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As to the charge of first-degree murder, we the jury, find the defendant not guilty. As to the charge of aggravated child abuse, we find the defendant not guilty.
KARAS: It knocks the breath out of me.
ERIC EDWARDS, INVESTIGATOR CASEY ANTHONY CASE: The not guilty after not guilty. It was tough. Tough to watch.
GARAVAGLIA: We were in disbelief.
PERRY: I was shocked.
SANFIELD: We could hear inside the courtroom, the explosion of voices outside.
KAYE: What did Casey say to you after the verdict?
MASON: Thank you, and cried, and that was all.
KAYE: The defense team had done what many believed impossible. They've gotten Casey Anthony off the hook for murder.
BAEZ: The best feeling that I have today is that I know I can go home and my daughter will ask me, what did you do today, and I can say I saved a life.
KAYE: After three years in jail, Casey would serve just 10 more days for her only conviction. Four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement.
GARAVAGLIA: I think the prosecution failed to get a conviction because they needed to really set the stage of how this girl could have killed this child.
KAYE: How could a 22-year-old mother with no criminal history do something so unthinkable?
KARAS: The state believed that Casey used chloroform to knock out her daughter.
SANFIELD: And put duct tape over her nose and mouth dumped her in the woods. That was hard to believe.
PERRY: Unfortunately for the prosecution, their case got infected with reasonable doubt.
BAEZ: That morning when both Casey and George were home, something happened.
MASON: We had pictures, stacked all these photographs, of Caylee able to open the screen door and go out and get in the pool by herself.
KARAS: The remains don't support a drowning death, but don't forget, the defense doesn't have to prove anything.
BAEZ: Did they present one single piece of evidence as to where Caylee was when she passed away? Zero. They want to give you the who, without the where, the how, or the why.
KAYE: Despite the defense's focus on the undetermined cause of death, the jury was not actually required to know how Caylee died in order to convict Casey.
KAYE: Was the jury ever specifically told this is not about figuring out how Caylee Anthony died?
PERRY: No, that is not a standard jury instruction. I had done the research. I had drafted a proposed instruction, but they never requested it.
SANFIELD: I think if the prosecution had asked for the special instruction on cause of death, that would have relieved this jury to the point where they may have very well have convicted her.
[20:50:08] HUEKLER: If knowing or not knowing how she died wasn't a factor, that could very positively changed the outcome.
BAEZ: Don't speculate, don't guess. If you don't know what happened, it wasn't proven. We traditionally look at cases as just two verdicts. Guilty or not guilty. But there is a third verdict. I don't know. And you check that spot that says not guilty when you say I don't know.
KAYE: Next, it seemed like the public wanted to exact some sort of punishment on Casey. The public wanted her to suffer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: As to the charge of first-degree murder, we the jury, find the defendant not guilty. As to the charge of aggravated child abuse, not guilty. As to the charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, not guilty.
KAYE: Not guilty. Casey Anthony was now a free woman. But life on the outside would soon feel like prison, as Anthony was trying to escape those who remained convinced that she got away with murdering her own daughter.
[20:55:12] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey Anthony is now free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. You got away with murder. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think God will let her rest in peace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The public wanted her to suffer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We continue to wait with bated breath to see what Casey Anthony will do next.
KARAS: They were on the hunt for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bombshell tonight, damning evidence --
KAYE: Just one year after her acquittal, Casey Anthony was right back in the headlines.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey's computer record shows a search was done for foolproof suffocation.
KAYE: In his newly published book, Jose Baez revealed information about a computer search never brought up at the trial.
BAEZ: We were waiting for the state to bring it up and when they didn't, we were kind of shocked.
KARAS: The Orange County computer forensic specialist who analyzed Casey's computer only looked at the internet explorer search engine. What they missed was looking at another search engine, Firefox. Jose Baez knew that there was a search on Mozilla Firefox for foolproof suffocation.
KAYE: A search made on June 16th, 2008. The very same day Caylee Anthony vanished.
KAYE: How do you think that evidence might have changed things at trial?
PERRY: It would have been a very powerful piece of evidence for the state.
HUEKLER: If that would have come out in the trial, you might have had completely different outcome.
ALLEN: I'm not really sure that one more piece of evidence, short of a confession or a video what we're doing would have done it.
PERRY: The only thing we do know for sure is a number of those jurors felt that since they could not show how she died, that they could not find her guilty of a homicide.
KAYE: More than 10 years after her daughter's tragic death, Casey Anthony has taken residence in West Palm Beach, Florida where she reportedly lives with Patrick McKenna, a private investigator who consulted for Anthony's defense team.
MASON: She does clerical work for him and housekeeping and computer research. She gets up way early in the morning, goes out and runs. SANFIELD: Her new normal is not pleasant. It's nothing like what it was before. She's ostracized from her family. George will never stay true again. I think Cindy would like to have a relationship, it's not there.
KAYE: Casey Anthony has still never spoken publicly about her daughter's death with the exception of one rare interview she gave the Associated Press in 2017.
CASEY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CAYLEE ANTHONY: I don't give a (BLEEP) what anybody thinks about me. I don't care about that. I never will. I'm OK with myself. I sleep pretty good at night.
KAYE: She sleeps pretty well at night, does that surprise you?
MASON: She didn't kill that child, so she's been through hell for 10 years for something that she didn't do. At some point, it's got to subside.
EDWARDS: She lived a perfect life and didn't lose any sleep for the 31 days. Why would she lose any sleep now that she's free?
KAYE: Free in the eyes of the law, but Casey in all likelihood, Casey Anthony will never be able to fully escape the dark cloud of suspicion that continues to follow her.
You still think she did it?
ALLEN: Absolutely.
GARAVAGLIA: I know for a fact that what they tried to propose didn't occur.
KAYE: What do you believed happened to Caylee Anthony?
MASON: I don't what happened. I do not believe she's been guilty of killing that child. She can come up and say Cheney, it's time for me to confess, and I was going to put her up to it.
KAYE: Did Casey Anthony get away with murder?
PERRY: Casey Anthony got away with something that she and she alone only knows.
CLINT HOUSE, FORMER FRIEND OF CASEY ANTHONY: This isn't about Casey, this is about Caylee.
PERRY: That young girl with the million dollar smile, that young girl that captivated this nation.
HOUSE: We still have absolutely no idea what happened to her, how she died, why she died.
PERRY: Until that question is answered, there will always be someone searching and someone wondering what that answer is.
