Casey Anthony: Victim or Criminal? All you need to know about the case ahead of bombshell documentary
Documentary name: Casey Anthony's Parents Speak: The Lie Detector Test
Platform: A&E/Lifetime
Country of origin: USA
Date of Release: January 4, 2024
Genre: True Crime
Who is Casey Anthony?
Casey Anthony is the mother of two-year-old Caylee Anthony. Caylee was reported missing by her maternal grandparents George and Cindy Anthony on July 15, 2008. They claimed they had not seen their granddaughter in a month. Casey later told police that her daughter had been kidnapped by the nanny, whose name was Zenaida 'Zanny' Fernandez-Gonzalez, according to Casey. When Caylee's remains were found on December 11, 2008, inside a laundry bag near the Anthony family's house, Casey was arrested and charged with 'first-degree murder'.
Did the nanny Zenaida 'Zanny' Fernandez-Gonzalez really exist?
When police investigated Casey's claims that Caylee had been abducted by the nanny after she dropped the toddler off at the nanny's home, they found that the address where Casey alleged the nanny stayed had not been lived in for the last 140 days. After the trial one Zenaida Gonzalez from Kissimmee, Florida launched a civil lawsuit against Casey Anthony for defamation. Gonzalez denied knowing Casey or Caylee and also denied having worked for Casey as a babysitter. The judge dismissed the suit claiming Casey's statements were neither willful nor malicious.
Was Casey Anthony found guilty of the murder of daughter Caylee?
In 2011, after a long and much-publicized trial, a jury found Casey Anthony not guilty on the counts of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse. They did, however, find her guilty on four counts of providing false information to law enforcement. The judge sentenced her to one year in prison and $1,000 fine for each count of lying to law enforcement. But since Casey had been incarcerated from 2008, she received time-served credit and was released on July 17, 2011: 10 days after she was sentenced.
Who was Krystal Holloway?
Holloway claimed that she had an affair with Casey's father George and during that time she alleged that George told her that Caylee's death was "an accident that snowballed out of control". Casey's defense attorney Jose Baez asked Holloway whether George had spoken of Casey's death to her in private, while she was still considered missing, Holloway answered in the affirmative.
What were the accusations against George Anthony?
Baez claimed that Casey accidentally died in the family swimming pool and that George -- with Casey's knowledge -- had covered up the death to prevent Casey from being charged with child neglect. Baez also claimed that Casey's apparent indifference to the whole case was a result of her being abused by her father and brother.
Why did the jury find Casey not guilty of Caylee's murder?
Members of the jury who were interviewed in the media after the trial claimed that suspicion about George's role in the incident and the failure to provide a cause of death for Caylee lent heavily on the jury's decision. They also claimed they found the prosecution's suggested motive (that Casey killed Caylee because she wanted to go out and party) weak.
What is 'Caylee's Law'?
After the trial calls grew for a new law called 'Caylee's Law' to be introduced that would impose certain requirements on parents to notify law enforcement of the death or disappearance of a child. Many states now have some version of 'Caylee's Law' with violators being sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Where is Casey Anthony now?
According to an earlier report in MEAWW, Casey lives with Patrick McKenna, the lead investigator on her defense team. She tried and failed to open her own photography business called Case Photography LLC in 2016, which she claimed failed due to public backlash. In 2020, Casey filed paperwork to open a private investigation company in Florida called Case Research & Consulting Services LLC. It is currently considered active. In June 2019, she revealed that she was working on a film titled 'As I Was Told,' which was about her life after Caylee's death. She claimed the film was titled 'As I Was Told' because she did what she was told and played a false role during the 31 days the trial lasted.
Is ' Casey Anthony's Parents Speak: The Lie Detector Test' worth watching?
The Casey Anthony case is as divisive as it gets. A large number of people believe she's guilty but there are also a fair few who believe she's not, so the story has always garnered a lot of attention and no small amount of vitriol. The new A&E/Lifetime show is just another brick in the wall of infamy surrounding the case. But it will be interesting to see how George and Cindy Anthony address -- under the watchful eye of a polygraph -- the allegations that George sexually abused Casey and that he knew of Caylee's death and helped cover it up.
MEAWW Watch ranking
4 out of 5