Case File: Casey Anthony

The youngest of two children, Casey Anthony was born and raised in Orlando, Fla. Her father, George, was a police officer turned security guard, and her mother, Cindy, was a nurse. The family was close-knit, but the parents frequently clashed with Casey in her teenage years, and Casey failed to graduate high school. 

In 2004, at 19, Casey gave birth to a daughter, Caylee. She refused to identify the father to family and friends, but the Anthony family felt overjoyed at Caylee’s arrival. They doted on the little girl and were deeply involved in her upbringing. Casey appeared to be a loving mother, but tensions continued to flare with her loved ones, especially over money and what they considered Casey’s disregard of her responsibilities. Casey was known to lie about her job, claiming to work at nearby Universal Studios, and friends noted her strong desire for independence. 

In early June 2008, Casey left the family home with Caylee, telling her parents she was staying with friends, including a new boyfriend, Tony Lazaaro. Lazarro and his roommates would later testify that, while Casey had frequently brought Caylee to their apartment when the two began dating, by June, Caylee had ceased visiting the home. Casey would tell Lazarro that her daughter was with babysitters or her parents. During this period, Casey was seen frequently attending parties and even obtained a tattoo, reading “Bella Vita,” Italian for “beautiful life.”

On July 15, Cindy received a call from a local company that had towed a family car, usually driven by Casey, after it had been abandoned at a parking lot. When Cindy and George retrieved the car, they noticed a strong odor, which George assumed to be the smell of decomposing flesh. She asked Casey to come to the Anthony home and confronted her about the car and Caylee’s whereabouts. She then called 911 to report her granddaughter missing. Cindy informed police that she hadn’t seen Caylee in over a month. When police interviewed Casey that night, she claimed a babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez had kidnapped Caylee on June 9. The disappearance of nearly 3-year-old Caylee shocked the nation, and law enforcement and volunteers launched an immediate search.

Investigators soon became suspicious of Casey’s stories. The apartment where Zenaida supposedly lived was vacant and nobody by that name had ever lived there. Authorities learned that Casey had lied about her employment and given inconsistent information on the case. Just one day after Cindy’s 911 calls, Casey was arrested on charges of child neglect, obstruction and giving false statements. 

In the trunk of Casey’s car, a forensic team found traces of chloroform, human decomposition and a single strand of hair consistent with Caylee’s DNA. Computer experts uncovered disturbing internet searches on the family computer, including terms like “foolproof suffocation” and “how to make chloroform.” Some of these searches were later attributed to other family members, but it increased suspicions that Casey had plotted ways to potentially kill her daughter. After police interviewed a woman named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, who denied ever meeting Casey or Caylee, Casey admitted that her story of a kidnapper babysitter was a lie, but she still insisted she didn’t know what happened to Caylee.

In October 2008, police arrested Casey again, this time charging her with first-degree murder. In December, a utility worker on duty less than half a mile from the Anthony home discovered a bag containing skeletal remains, identified as Caylee’s through DNA testing. Alongside the body were a blanket, duct tape and items consistent with those from the Anthony household. 

Prosecutors announced their intention to seek the death penalty in the case, which had received massive media coverage and public scrutiny. In May 2011, nearly three years after Caylee’s disappearance, the trial began. The prosecution portrayed Casey as a young mother desperate to break free from the responsibility of parenthood. They claimed she’d carefully planned the murder, using chloroform to sedate her daughter and duct tape to kill her, later dumping the bag with her body in the nearby woods.

In his opening statements, Casey’s defense attorney, Jose Baez, dropped two bombshells: He claimed that Caylee’s death was not murder, rather a tragic accident, and that the young girl had fallen into the family pool and drowned. He also alleged that Casey’s father helped her dispose of Caylee’s body to hide the accident. Baez claimed that Casey’s erratic behavior and continual lies were the result of unresolved guilt over childhood sexual abuse by her father. George adamantly denied the charges, and Baez failed to bring them up later in the trial. But he attacked the prosecution’s evidence, stating there was no physical proof tying Casey to the murder.

On July 5, 2011, the jury acquitted Casey of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter charges. She was convicted only on four counts of lying to police and released days later for time served.

The Anthony case marks one of the most highly publicized trials in American history, dominating news stations with wall-to-wall coverage and commentators who declared Casey guilty long before the trial began. The verdict sparked outrage and disbelief among many who followed the case, with some comparing it to the O.J. Simpson trial in terms of its public reaction. The case led to legal reforms, with several states, including Florida, introducing a version of Caylee’s Law, which makes it a felony for a parent or guardian to fail to report a missing child in a timely manner.

The lack of conclusive evidence left room for interpretation, and to this day, opinions on Casey’s guilt or innocence remain sharply divided. Casey’s supporters believe that Caylee really was the victim of an accident, either drowning in the pool or another mishap. Some have cast suspicion on George, but he has denied any role in his granddaughter’s death. 

After the trial, Casey remained mostly out of the public eye for several years and started working as a legal advocate in 2011. In 2022, Casey appeared in a controversial documentary titled Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies, in which she repeated her claims that Caylee drowned and that her father was involved in concealing the death. While the legal system rendered a verdict of not guilty, public opinion continues to question what really happened to the 2-year-old who vanished in 2008.