In response, Casey's lawyer, Jose Baez, says his client's actions will become clearer at trial: "I sincerely believe when we have finally spoken, everyone, and I mean everyone, will sit back and say, now I understand, that explains it. October 24, Forensic reports from an examination of Casey's car are released.
The reports note that a hair strand discovered in the trunk is "microscopically similar" to those found on Caylee's brush and showed "characteristics of apparent decomposition. The bones are found in a bag in a wooded area less than a half-mile from the Anthonys' home by utility worker Ray Kronk. It is later revealed that Kronk had sought to convince police to search the area back in the summer.
The Orange County chief medical examiner reports that the bones showed no evidence of trauma and that Caylee's death is being ruled a "homicide of undetermined means. George is reported to be "despondent and possibly under the influence of medication and alcohol" when he is located at a hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, along with a five-page suicide note.
April 13, Prosecutors announce their intention to pursue the death penalty. Although earlier court papers indicated that the death penalty would not be in play, the new notice of intent cites "sufficient aggravating circumstances" to justify its imposition.
The trial begins with the prosecution's opening salvo of Casey being a party girl with no use for a young daughter, as evidenced by the month spent shopping and drinking during Caylee's absence. Those remarks are soon eclipsed by Baez's stunning opening statement which asserts that Caylee drowned in the family swimming pool and that George sought to cover up the accidental death.
The lead defense lawyer also alleges that George had molested Casey, thereby igniting her habit of lying to cover up the pain and that Kronk, the utility worker, had found Caylee's body and planted it in the woods. Taking the stand as the first witness, George denies that he ever molested his daughter or knew anything about Caylee's drowning.
July Others, such as Tim Allen, right, and David Antolic, held signs of a different tone in front of a jail in Orlando on July 16, , the day before Anthony was released. July 17, Casey was sentenced to four years in jail with credit for time served. Aftermath: Seven years after being acquitted of the death of her daughter, Casey Anthony, pictured here with her attorney Cheney Mason in , resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In , Anthony told the Associated Press she's still not "certain Ultimately, the jury acquitted the young mother of the most serious charges against her.
Now 32 years old, Anthony is living not-quite-out-of-sight in her home state of Florida; just last year, she gave a widely covered interview with the Associated Press. But the Casey Anthony case involved many other players. Ten years later, we spoke to some of those who were involved, to get their thoughts on how it played out and their perspective on why it struck such a chord with the public. Here's what they had to say:. These statements have been edited for length and clarity.
The Judge: 'What really happened? I thought the state had proved its case. I thought, while they may have had some flaws in their case, that there was a high probability that Casey would be found guilty of some form of homicide, and that did not occur. A number of jurors said the reason that they came back with "not guilty" was because the state could not prove how Caylee died. The defense threw out a lot of theories. They threw out that she drowned.
They tried to build on the inference that the gate was open, and that the ladder was down and that she was known to go out of the door and go up to the pool because she liked water. I mean, there was no evidence that that happened. Those were inferences. But they were logical inferences that they were permitted based upon those slim factors to argue Justice is always served in a case where the facts are litigated before a jury, the jury looks at the law through their lens and they render a decision.
People may not agree with that decision, but when a case goes through the process that we have all agreed to live by, then justice is served. Here we are, 10 years away from her death, and people still think about it. And there's one question that is on everyone's mind: What really happened?
Until that question is answered, there will always be someone searching and someone wondering what that answer is. The Medical Examiner: 'Science took a backseat on the truth'. Jan Garavaglia, retired chief medical officer for Orange and Osceola counties.
Looking back 10 years, what I was most appalled with was this lack of the truth and the lack of substantiated information. You could just say lies and not back it up by any kind of evidence and it was allowed. That was a turning point for me. This has been happening more and more in the past 10 years, but for me that was the first time that I had to deal with it in society, that sometimes the truth doesn't matter and if you say it loud enough and often enough, people get confused and start believing you.
As a medical examiner, we're expected to do a few things: identify the body We don't look at just what the autopsy or just what the body shows we look at the scene, we look at the circumstances, we look at what's going on preceding the death. And in this case, we have a child that is not reported missing.
When the child is reported missing by the grandmother, there is no explanation that's credible of what happened to that child. The body has clearly, clearly been hidden. It has been put in two plastic bags, then put in a canvas bag and then thrown behind a rotting log a couple of blocks from her house.
And then we have the duct tape that's still present on the face. Those three things together clearly made this a homicide. It's not changed in my mind. It's not changed in the police's mind. It's not changed in the prosecutor's mind. There is absolutely no proof this is an accidental death. That propelled Mason to want to meet Anthony. He remembers going to the Orange County jail to introduce himself. I stood looking at a child herself.
I said this can't be," he said. I sat down with Mason exclusively to talk with him about his new book, "Justice in America. After that meeting, with Anthony's approval, Mason decided to join the team pro bono. He said the unpaid time he spent on the case "was well over a million dollars" and cost him tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket. Mason said in the years before trial, he normally met with Anthony in a lunch room at the jail.
The jail would clear everyone out before Anthony came in. A stationary video camera in the room was positioned on their conversations, so he and Anthony would cover their mouths and speak in low tones to each other, Mason said.
Shortly before jury selection was to begin, Mason got word that Anthony's handwritten letters describing sexual abuse at the hands of her father were going to be made public under Florida's open records law.
A look back at the Casey Anthony story Caylee Anthony was last seen alive in June He believed it was only right that Anthony's parents, George and Cindy, were warned. He called them to his office late on a Friday afternoon. I felt man to man I would tell you in advance.
Mason said George Anthony's reaction was "basically none. I turned sideways a little bit, he clapped his hands down on his thighs -- let out a big sigh but didn't say anything," Mason said. Next it was Cindy Anthony's turn. Once a jury was selected it was time for the evidentiary portion of the trial. Baez gave the opening statements. In the midst of telling the jury what the evidence would show, he delivered a bombshell that turned the case on its head by telling the jury that his client was a victim of sexual abuse by her father.
The country was stunned and so was Mason, who was sitting next to Anthony in the courtroom. We had talked about all aspects of it, and I did not know. I don't know if anybody knew that he was going to say that other than himself," Mason recalled. I asked Mason if he was concerned the defense would not be able to establish this with evidence as promised during the opening statement.
Mason said he was. The prosecution responded by making George Anthony its first witness. The first question Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton asked him was whether he had sexually abused his daughter.
George Anthony responded with a definitive no. The trial went on for weeks. Witness after witness took the stand for the prosecution in the largely circumstantial case. They finally rested their case on June 15, Then it was the defense's turn.
As of , Anthony was living in South Florida with Patrick McKenna , a private detective who worked as the lead investigator on her case in the trial in the death of her daughter. McKenna is also known for his work on the O. Simpson case, the former NFL star who was charged and later acquitted in the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.
For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews — Subscribe on YouTube! Casey posed with a photo of her late daughter, Caylee, during an interview in her home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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