Six years after being acquitted of her 2-year-old daughter’s murder, Casey Anthony is making headlines again. On June 16, 2008, Casey Anthony rose to national and even international notoriety when the media reported on the disappearance of her little girl, Caylee, who had been gone for at least 31 days before her mother reported her missing.
Indeed, Casey Anthony never reported her daughter missing to law enforcement. Rather, her mother (and Caylee’s grandmother), Cindy Anthony, called police after finding out that her granddaughter hadn’t been seen for a month. Almost immediately, Casey’s rendition of events struck the wrong chord with investigators, and she was quickly arrested after telling several different stories about what happened to her daughter.
Ultimately, Casey Anthony would be charged with murder in connection with her daughter’s disappearance, even before Caylee’s body was found. The South Florida mom, now widely recognized as “the most hated mom in America,” was in prison awaiting trial when Caylee’s skeletal corpse was found not far from her parent’s home in December of 2008, six months after she disappeared. Newly released footage shows Casey’s inexplicable jailhouse reaction to the discovery of her daughter’s body (described at the time on television simply as remains — it would take days for the skeleton to be positively identified as Caylee Anthony by the medical examiner).
According to the prosecution in the Casey Anthony murder trial, Casey deliberately killed her “inconvenient” child with chloroform. The district attorney would present photos of Casey living it up at the bars, even participating in a “hot body” contest after Caylee disappeared but prior to that disappearance being reported. Additionally, the prosecution provided evidence that the Anthony family home computer was used to make chloroform-related searches prior to Caylee’s disappearance and ultimate death.
In the immediate aftermath of Caylee Anthony being reported missing, Casey alleged that the little girl had been kidnapped by the babysitter, Zenaida Gonzalez (aka “Zanny the Nanny”). During her trial, however, Casey claimed that Caylee had accidentally drowned in her parent’s swimming pool. She further alleged that her father, George Anthony (who Casey also accused of sexually abusing her during her murder trial) knew of the drowning and helped her cover it up.
Prosecutors were never able to prove the cause of Caylee Anthony’s death; her remains were too badly decomposed when they were discovery. However, traces of chloroform were reportedly found in Casey’s car trunk. The same vehicle that Cindy Anthony described as smelling “like a dead body” after learning that her granddaughter was gone.
Ultimately, Casey Anthony would go on to be found not-guilty of her daughter’s murder in mid-2011, much to the shock, horror, and disbelief of the millions of captivated Americans who had been watching the proceedings. Soon after her acquittal, Casey was released from custody in Florida and went into hiding amid threats on her life.
Now, nearly six years after many believe that she “got away with murder,” Casey Anthony has re-emerged. She has been seen bowling in South Florida (where she was roundly heckled until she and her party took off), protesting against Donald Trump and, most recently, giving an unprecedented interview to the Associated Press in which she spoke of the details of her daughter’s disappearance publicly for the first time.
During her interview, Casey Anthony made some disturbing and perplexing statements about her life since the loss of her daughter. Among the most concerning was a statement that she made regarding what really happened to Caylee back in June of 2008. Despite the testimony of her defense team at her trial, Casey is not sticking by her story that Caylee drowned accidentally. Rather, she is now saying that she doesn’t know/remember what happened to 2-year-old Caylee all those years ago.
“Everyone has their theories; I don’t know. As I stand here today I can’t tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter I believed she was alive and was going to be OK, and that’s what was told to me.”
Despite now claiming not to know what happened to Caylee, Casey Anthony assured the world during her interview that she’s suffering few lingering effects from her daughter’s untimely demise. Indeed, Casey says that in spite of it all, she’s sleeping well at night these days. Oh, and she doesn’t care what you think about it.
“I don’t give a s**t about what anyone thinks about me, I never will. I’m OK with myself; I sleep pretty good at night.”
After her Associated Press interview, new reports regarding Casey Anthony’s post-Caylee life have begun to circulate. Namely, that the infamous tot mom is now pregnant again, hoping for a little girl, and engaged to her new, unnamed “baby daddy.” According to a source close to Casey, she’s been seeing her new man for around five months and is in her first trimester. Also, she’s reportedly well aware that the world won’t be happy to hear that she’s expecting a new bundle of joy. And, once again, she doesn’t care what you think.
“Casey knows there will be an onslaught of attention and pubic outcry once people find out that’s pregnant. But she doesn’t care.”
While Casey Anthony has repeatedly claimed to not care what others think of her life choices, there are some folks close to her that care very much. And at least one of them is speaking out about Casey’s “accidental drowning” defense at trial; her own father, George Anthony.
As USA Today reports, George Anthony participated in a recent Investigation Discovery docuseries regarding Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony: American An Murder Mystery. The final episode aired Tuesday night, and in it, George called Casey’s assertions that Caylee had drowned “a bunch of crap.”
“I don’t believe (the drowning). That’s a bunch of bull to me. That’s too easy of a story to bring up ’cause if that would’ve happened, I think my daughter would’ve at least had the common decency or common sense inside to call 911 and say something…That’s a bunch of crap.”
George Anthony went on to describe what he thought could have been little Caylee’s final fate. Casey’s dad believes that his daughter may have accidentally dosed Caylee with some kind of drug to make her sleep and that the drug may have killed the 2-year-old.
In fact, according to George, Casey Anthony’s original explanation of “Zanny the Nanny” taking Caylee may have been code. “Zanny” is often used as slang for the drug Xanax, and according to George, Casey and her friends had access to the controlled substance at the time that Caylee died.
“I believe that Casey gave (Caylee) something. Caylee didn’t wake up.”
George Anthony’s theory of his granddaughter’s death is quite similar to the theory recently put forth by the now-retired judge in her murder trial. Retired Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr. recently spoke out about Casey Anthony, and he believes that the now-30-year-old accidentally killed Caylee with chloroform, a banned anesthetic.
“I think upon the evidence, the most logical thing that happened was that she tried to knock her daughter out by use of chloroform. There was a possibility that she may have utilized that to keep the baby quiet… and just used too much of it, and the baby died.”
While George Anthony has yet to speak publicly about the news that his daughter may be expecting again, he did (as Crime Online reports) have something to say about what he feels an appropriate punishment for Casey would be. According to George, Casey should be “behind bars and [should] suffer like… Caylee suffered.”
According to the recent ID interview, George Anthony hasn’t had contact with his daughter since her murder trial, while her mother Cindy occasionally speaks to her.
As of this publication, Casey Anthony has yet to comment on her father’s theory.
[Featured Image by Joshua Replogle/AP Images]