-The national spotlight is now focused on Orlando.
-It's happening -- the most closely watched case
maybe ever, or certainly since O.J. Simpson.
-In the court of public opinion, Casey was already guilty.
[ Twitter notifications whistling ]
-As difficult as it may be for anyone to accept
that a mother would intentionally
kill her own child,
there is no other conclusion.
-This case was full of purported evidence against Casey.
-Evidence of duct tape found over the mouth
of the child's skull,
high levels of chloroform found
in the trunk of Casey's car.
-But when they did some testing on the remains,
no chloroform was found, no drugs.
There was no DNA at all on the duct tape.
-It appeared to be that she was behaving incorrectly.
-They say she went to clubs, got her nails done,
got a tattoo that said "Good life."
-During the 31 days, I genuinely believed
that Caylee was still alive.
My father kept telling me she was okay.
I just had to keep following his instructions.
It was like I was brainwashed.
And it wasn't until much later
that I started to really realize why.
I wasn't the only one home.
I'm not outright accusing him of murder,
but it wasn't an accident in the pool.
**
[ Indistinct conversations ]
**
-After 19 days of testimony, the prosecution rests
in their case against Casey Anthony.
-They announced this afternoon that there would be a verdict.
**
-My life was literally hanging by a thread
at that point.
My potential of any kind of future hinged on
the decision that those 12 people made.
**
I don't -- I'm rarely at a loss for words.
This is -- This is one of those moments.
I can't describe to you how it feels
except to say I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy.
I wouldn't wish this upon any of the people
who were trying to kill me or any of the people
who would be watching this and still thinking that I'm guilty.
I wouldn't wish this upon anyone, ever.
That's how bad it is.
This is what hell feels like, is what I was put through
for those three years.
**
-Let's return the jury.
Madam clerk, you may publish the verdicts.
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, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty.
**
-When that verdict was read,
we have this massive team embrace.
They saved my life.
After three years of dread and sadness,
finally, they proved my innocence.
-That was the beginning of Casey's
carefully constructed coping mechanisms
just cracking and slowly falling apart.
That hug that Dorothy Clay Sims gave her
of love and comfort and support,
she allowed that and needed it
and knew she needed it.
**
-I just lost control and just began sobbing.
It was such a relief. Such a relief.
Even though the jury came back with a not guilty verdict,
we were really afraid for her life.
We were all looking at each other saying,
"Oh, my God, now what do we do?"
-We know how the court of public opinion feels about this.
Lot of people feel very surprised by this verdict.
-Casey's a murderer!
-They will kill Casey if they had a chance.
-Casey Anthony's defense lawyers reported several death threats
against her, including an image that showed her
with a bullet through her head.
**
-We were all getting so many death threats.
They were talking about my children.
We knew we had to get the hell out of Dodge.
[ Crowd shouting ]
We needed to escape.
**
[ Helicopter blades whirring ]
**
I rented a house in the Panhandle,
and I collected Casey.
And we went into this rental house, and Pat was there.
-I've been doing this as a private investigator
38 years.
Done a lot of high-profile cases.
I was a bodyguard for Yoko Ono.
The media was burying this girl.
There were a lot of death threats to her.
It was just out of control, and so I sensed that
it would get worse if we didn't have a plan.
So now I'm, like, all-in, right?
I don't know, maybe it's the Marine in me.
I want to fight. We don't leave
the wounded behind after battle.
She had been convicted of lying to the police,
which is a felony, and I knew we had to
get her through a year of probation.
It hit me that there was really no good plan for her.
-We didn't know where she should go, where she should live.
I was, at the time, decided I was leaving the country
and moving to France, and I had considered
having her stay with us. It didn't occur to me
that she couldn't get a passport because of a felony conviction.
So she couldn't leave the country.
-Do you need another water or are you good?
You gonna grab one? -I'm gonna get one
out of the fridge. -Okay.
Here. For you. -Get one of these.
Thank you.
-Pat McKenna took in Casey
when everybody else stepped away.
-I got napkins in the cabinet.
-Coffee-stained napkins. -I don't care, I recycle.
-Frankly, our job was done as the lawyers.
You don't take care of someone after the trial is over,
but he did.
**
-Yeah, you sit in the shade. I'll sit in the sun.
**
-I'm using my fingers.
-[ Laughs ]
-With the approval of my family,
I brought her to my house.
Everybody agreed, and I said I'd, you know,
provide a year's worth of safety for this kid.
-You're still allergic to bees, right?
-Yeah, why?
-There are bees. -Oh, they don't bother me.
-[ Laughs ]
**
-Being a sole practitioner, I'm a one-man band.
I do my own filing. I'm surrounded by files.
My house is a mess.
And she's very organized, and so I saw that she could
really help me out.
I felt like she needed to do something.
-I wonder if that's the one that
they used after I made adjustments to mine,
because I red-lined a couple things initially.
-Oh, really? -But most of the appearance
releases are standard.
-I don't know.
-Casey lived with Pat.
I mean, she no longer does, but for a long time.
-So, this is an album I made you a couple years ago.
I have so many photos. -Mm-hmm.
-My favorite picture -- [ Laughs ]
I will never not laugh at this.
[ Laughing ] In all the photos, you're always...
Pat offered to let me stay at his house for nothing
until I figured out what my plan was going to be.
-I'm pretty sure that was your 67th. I could look.
He's the guy that would walk me down the aisle
if I was ever dumb enough to get married.
He's the closest thing to a real dad that I've ever had.
-So, we became very close quickly.
She's been in my family for, what,
11 years going strong, so...
This is my little group, and we've had her for,
you know, all holidays, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving.
You know, and then just Sunday dinners.
You know, she's become part of our whole extended
group of people, family and friends.
**
When I took Casey in, one of the rules was no photos
so that it wouldn't get out to the media where Casey was.
But, you know, she's got more of a family here
than she ever had in Orlando, in Ohio, or wherever.
She became like a daughter.
**
-He taught her how to be a person and live her life.
She engaged in deep therapy, and the relationship
that you built with her,
you had to move slowly because there were obvious trust issues.
Not specific to anyone, but specific to everyone.
She didn't have anyone. She was on her own.
She felt hurt and betrayed.
She had everyone she considered a friend
sharing with the world every uncomfortable
and embarrassing moment
or conversation that she ever had.
-I always thought of myself as a pretty good
judge of character, and, you know,
she completely fooled all of us.
There is absolutely nothing that Casey could ever say to anybody
that is going to make me believe that she wasn't
in some way responsible or involved with Caylee's death.
-So, the lies make it hard
to not think that she did murder this child.
-When the story broke and the nanny's name got dropped,
Zanny the Nanny, I stood up and said,
"She was using Xanax to babysit her kid."
I fully believe that Caylee was overdosed with Xanax.
-Did you ever give Xanax to Caylee?
-No, I never gave Caylee anything
other than cold medicine when she had a cold.
That was some concocted bullshit story,
whether by the media or someone affiliated.
There trying to piece things together
that don't fit into anything because they don't exist.
None of that is real.
-I never saw Casey with Xanax.
I never saw her give Caylee any Xanax.
But just the fact that Zanny the Nanny was said,
just sent a lightbulb off in my head.
Two of the people that I feel the worst for
is Cindy and George.
George and I exchanged a couple e-mails.
I couldn't even begin to understand
what it would be like to not only lose your grandchild,
but to lose your child at the same time, too.
-If Casey's even watching this someday,
yeah, I blame my daughter for Caylee not being here today.
-And you blamed her then and you blame her today?
-Yes, sir, I do.
I do.
-And you all disagree about that?
-We do.
-What happened with my father was irreparable,
and that's how I felt about my mom also.
It's been the same pattern now for 11 years.
My parents, being in the public eye,
throw me under the bus for money.
-What do you think really happened?
-My gut feeling inside, I believe
Caylee was given something and she didn't wake up.
-Do you think she intentionally wanted to kill Caylee?
-I don't think she intentionally wanted to.
-Okay, then that -- -I don't think she
intentionally wanted to, but she should be in jail
because of Caylee not being here.
-I want to think he doesn't have the power to hurt me anymore,
but he still does.
And this was years ago,
this interview.
One of many that he and my mother did separately
and together for money.
For money.
Throw me under the bus for money.
Why?
Why exploit the situation any more than it has been?
I lost everything the day I lost her.
Everything.
And it doesn't matter what I've done in between
in the life I try to live,
and how good I try to be.
Every day, I live with a broken heart.
I want to know why.
I want to know why she was taken out of my arms.
Why didn't he call 911?
I wasn't the only one that was home.
Why?
And why, after all this time,
keep blaming me for something I didn't do?
Why?
**
-It's literally right here.
-Yes, and recently opened as a small kind of a goth bar.
-[ Laughs ]
-Casey's someone who's like family.
I've had the opportunity to see her, through therapy
and through long-term friendships and love
and support, become this warm, loving,
trusting, hilarious person that I know today.
-You're not gonna let me get this either, are you?
-No. -Ugh, fine.
-I've never asked her about
what occurred with Caylee.
I know what her experience has been, vaguely,
but in terms of digging into the details of it,
I've always given her space and I respect her boundaries.
She's been through so, so much that it's not my place
to do anything but love and support her
and give her space to tell her story
in the time that she feels comfortable doing that.
-I never spoke to Casey about her theory
of what happened to Caylee.
I never pushed.
I'm trying to provide a safe environment for this kid.
Hopefully, make sure she don't implode because she can --
I always thought, you know,
who knows what could happen to her?
-I know that hearing some of this
is going to make them hurt, too,
because they're going to feel my pain.
And that more than anything is the main reason
I haven't talked about it.
**
[ Sighs ]
I put my memories into boxes.
It protected me, but also was holding me back
from really dealing with things.
In this process of some of those boxes,
I had to forcibly pull down off of a shelf and unlock.
I have to rip my life back open.
And when I finally was able to start to explore each of them,
no matter how painful or how hurtful the gaps in my memory,
it allowed me to work through some of that.
But now it's all been knocked around on the floor.
And I have to feel that deepest sorrow,
and I'm grieving all over again.
There are just answers I don't have.
And that's been one of the hardest pieces of all of this,
is still not knowing.
**
My father promised me that I could come home from this place.
I'm remembering him coming and visiting me.
I remember him promising me that I would come home.
I'm remembering him promise me
that everything was going to be okay,
that Caylee was going to be okay.
I'm remembering every fucking day that I spent here.
**
I still need the same answers that I needed then.
I need to know why all of this happened in the first place
and why he pinned it all in me.
-I walked into your room last night
and just looked around and had a couple
extra little prayers and just said, you know,
"You're coming home soon, sweetheart."
Caylee's gonna be home soon, so you can be that family again.
-[ Sighs ]
[ Chuckles ]
[ Sighs ]
He's telling me that I was coming home soon.
It would all be over soon.
I just had to keep following his instructions.
He told me what he thought I wanted to hear,
that he was supporting me, that I was coming home,
that everything would be okay.
And on national television, acting like he was
supporting me, coming to the jail prior to that,
prior to me ever being indicted.
-I don't believe my daughter could hurt anyone.
-Why do you think she was arrested and charged, George?
-Because like Cindy said, they had their mind made up.
It was just too easy for them to just close the book on this
and say, "Well, we're gonna charge you
with your daughter's disappearance"
and just be done with it.
-In this interview, my father is telling the truth
of my innocence, that law enforcement went after me.
But yet he testified in front of the grand jury
almost two months before this.
-Florida grand jury indicted Casey Anthony on charges
of first-degree murder.
Among those called to testify before the 19-member grand jury
Tuesday was George Anthony, Casey's father.
-I found out that my father had testified against me
at the grand jury on October 14th,
the same day that the grand jury was convened.
Besides law enforcement, the only
non-law enforcement-affiliated individual to be called
to testify was my father, and he was their first witness.
-This is going to be very hard for me to do.
My focus is always on my granddaughter.
It always will be.
-I thought it was very interesting
they chose to put George before the grand jury.
We don't know what he said.
We'll never get to know what he said.
That's confidential, so we have no idea
what they talked to him about.
But we know they wound up
with an indictment to charge her with first-degree murder.
-At that point, did you have any idea
that your father was going to testify against you in that way?
-No.
There were moments and instances that I knew something was off
and I knew something was wrong, and the promises
that he was making, he wasn't keeping.
But after the indictment,
I was able to listen to his interviews with law enforcement.
Just before I was initially arrested,
my father talked to investigators.
-He talked to me at the car as I was
at the end of the driveway.
I noted in my report what he'd said.
-He said I withheld information.
-I interviewed George and I remember him
just going on and on about what a liar Casey was.
Don't believe anything she tells you.
It took me a while. I said, "George,
do you understand my role here?
I'm trying to help your daughter.
She's looking at death."
"Well, you can't believe anything she says."
He's playing on his ex-cop persona.
"Guys, we are all in this together.
We're in this together." Meaning "we,"
"I'm an ex-cop. We're all in this together."
"It's a puzzle.
There are just some pieces missing.
We got to get these pieces."
George is kind of leading this interview,
and it's like, "You're the fucking
missing piece, George.
**
-I was 22. I was a scared kid.
I'm not scared anymore. Now I'm angry.
I've reverted from that scared place to now,
over the years, my anger just builds.
The same man who would immediately go and report
to law enforcement after he met with me.
But yet on national television,
acting like he was supporting me.
-Do 100% believe your daughter?
-Yes, I do. -George, what about you?
100%? -100%.
-Manipulation after manipulation after manipulation.
But somehow he got cleared by law enforcement from day one.
-Was there ever any other suspect?
Not just looking at Casey, right?
-I mean, the first thing you have to do
when you're investigating a missing child
is go to the people that have custody care,
custody and control over the child.
As far as any other suspects, the family.
You're always looking at the family.
Cindy would always talk to you.
Lee was much more reserved, as I recall.
But George always tried to help.
I mean, they all gave us timelines.
Casey obviously was the last person with the victim.
Well, that's what George had reported to us.
-Did it trouble you that it was only George?
You had no other witness for when Casey left with Caylee?
-Would that, in my mind, make him --
immediately make him a suspect
because he's one of the last people
that that sees the two together?
You'd be remiss not to realize that as a possibility,
but there was just nothing that led us down that road
that George was responsible in any way
for the death of the child.
-There was an honesty in George.
The same questions we were asking
are questions that he was asking,
and now we're asking him, and he's frustrated in the fact
that he can't give us the answers.
It's obvious that he wants to be
the doting father or grandfather.
Just the things he would say. It wasn't thought out
before he would say it.
He was certainly much more honest and open
in the interview about Casey
in terms of describing his own daughter.
I don't want to say you take advantage of those things,
but you use them to your advantage
in trying to get information. -Yeah.
-Everything that we found about George was that
he was a loving grandfather, and I think he was a man
that was dealing with a lot of things.
**
-I talked to John Allen.
You know, when I asked him about George,
why wasn't George a suspect,
it's the same answer as Eric Edwards,
same answer as Scott Bolin.
"He was a good guy. Such a good guy.
He's a good granddad. He loved his grandchild."
-Yeah. What proof did you have of that?
When there's a murder,
everybody's a suspect till you eliminate people.
You don't eliminate a guy 'cause he's a good guy, okay?
They believed everything out of his mouth, that she's a liar.
They found out she's a liar, so I think they viewed George
as rather than just be a witness,
he's, like, in on that with them, you know?
Be the mentality is,
"We got our girl. We're not looking
in any other place because it doesn't fit our story."
-She became a pariah,
one of the nation's most despised women.
-I cannot believe that Casey Anthony still has friends.
-I've avoided so much of what is in the media,
but Pat's had a Google alert on me
since just after I moved in. And I forget,
it was some blog years ago, maybe 2013, 2014,
and this woman, of her own volition,
went back and started looking at stuff.
And that was one of those things that that blog --
her...
her reasonably unbiased view of the case
helped me piece some of it together.
-My name is Kristen Patton. I'm a citizen journalist.
I love studying court cases. I love acquittals especially.
You have this idea that it's one way,
and then you find out that the jury
saw it completely different, and the Casey Anthony case
was just so unbelievable.
I just kind of fell down that rabbit hole
of I have to solve this case.
I have to figure out what really happened to Caylee Anthony.
As I was researching this case, I was trying to get just
some idea of how George felt about things.
And the thing that I noticed first is that every time
that I would get one opinion about --
that George had said, I would find some other
statement that contradicted that.
He's telling the media that the car smells like a pizza.
But then he's going to the police and telling them
that Casey's guilty and he's telling them
that there's human decomposition in the trunk.
And this is something that nobody ever noticed.
Why didn't the media notice the differences?
Even during the trial, George claimed that he wanted
to help his daughter.
But when the prosecution put him on the stand,
George was very clearly trying to build the prosecution's case.
-Prosecutors painted Casey as a monster
who murdered her daughter, lied at every turn,
and in the end, callously tossed away her remains.
George Anthony was the first witness on the stand.
-George testified a handful of times.
-There is George Anthony. He is back on the witness stand.
-The prosecution wanted to say that there was a body
in the trunk of her car, and George was the one
who was establishing that she didn't want anyone near her car.
-I said, "Casey," I said, "I need to
get something out of your car."
Casey just brushes past me very quickly, says,
"Dad, I'll get it.
I'll get it out of the car."
-He was the one who told the jurors
that Casey had human decomposition in her car.
-George and Cindy, although witnesses in the case,
could remain in the courtroom as survivors of the victim.
So George is in the back of the room,
he listened to the testimony as it came in,
then he got back up, went back to the stand,
filled in blanks for the state.
-It struck me as odd. He wasn't just a witness.
He was the prosecution's key witness.
-Thank you, Mr. Anthony. You may resume your seat.
**
-Did it surprise you that George
took the stand against Casey so many times?
-No, It doesn't surprise me that George took the stand
as many times as he did.
-You may proceed.
-Would you ever testify against your child in any situation?
-Yes, I would testify against my own child
if I thought my child did something wrong.
And the only reason why I believe that he did testify
was because of the allegations that were made against him.
-Have you ever sexually molested your daughter,
Casey Anthony?
-No, sir.
-It was hard for me to believe the abuse allegation
because of every other lie that she told us.
-If there is no abuse, there's no explanation.
But when we talk to the psychologists
who deal with people who've been sexually abused
from a small age by a parent,
they describe a kind of a mind control
that the parent has over that child.
And they also describe a child that results
who has the ability to go into these compartmentalize worlds,
make them lock up the knowledge of one world, one reality,
and move into another.
And they often do that.
They compartmentalize to the point
where they seem like a compulsive liar.
-Compulsive liar.
**
[ Sighs ]
**
I have to admit,
that makes sense.
That makes a lot of sense.
-During the case,
Lee, the brother, comes in one day,
says, "Hey, I got some information,
but I don't know if this is helpful."
-Right before the end of the trial,
Jose had talked to Lee and told him,
"Lee, she could go to prison for the rest of her life."
-Lee Anthony.
-And then Lee called him and said,
"I need to tell you about how our pets were buried."
-Lee says, "When our family pets would die,
Dad, George, would wrap the puppy in a blanket,
put it in a trash bag, and duct tape the trash bag,
and we would bury the thing."
Now we are going nuts on the defense going,
"Of course George does that, and of course,
this is how Caylee's found, in a trash bag with duct tape
and wrapped in a blanket," the little Winnie the Pooh
or whatever that came from the house.
So we're, like, going,
"George has something to do with something."
Another part of George's interesting behavior,
he conducts an affair with a woman during this whole fiasco.
He has an affair with this woman, Krystal Holloway.
-A woman who said she had an affair
with Casey Anthony's father
took the stand for the defense.
-Do you know George Anthony?
-Yes.
-How do you know him?
-I met him at a tent when his granddaughter was missing.
-Did you develop a relationship with Mr. Anthony?
-Yes, sir, I did.
-She said to me, "I never asked George
about what he's going through.
I just felt bad for him." She felt bad for George,
and he just started to unburden himself.
-And I was sitting on the floor,
and he had told me -- he had said
it was an accident that snowballed out of control.
-And I think the jurors probably believed that.
I think they found her to be a credible witness.
I think her testimony definitely brought up questions
about George and the way that he was acting.
-Were you present in your home
when Caylee Anthony died?
-No, and when I heard that today, it's really bad,
because if I would have known something would've happened
to Caylee, we wouldn't be here today.
-Based on the jury's statements,
they definitely questioned George's involvement.
The day of Caylee's disappearance,
they felt like his story for that day
was a little bit too perfect.
You know, he was able to remember the exact
color socks everyone was wearing.
-I remember Caylee coming out from Casey's room
dressed in a nice little pink top,
she had her blue jeans,
little shorts on, her white sandals,
pink socks, white sunglasses, her hair pulled back.
-You go back and you look at his other testimony.
He couldn't remember things that he should have a memory of.
-What did Cindy wear that day?
-I have no idea.
I couldn't tell you.
-From the jurors' perspective,
there are two suspects in this case.
They were both not telling the truth
about what happened that day.
I didn't really understand why George was trying so hard
to put his daughter on death row.
-What was your impression of George?
-You know, he's a former cop, and you could see that in him.
You know, he was sort of not as emotional
as you would expect someone to be in a situation like that,
at least in my dealings with him,
perhaps because he'd been around.
You know, that was interesting to me.
And then, of course, he had his secrets, too.
-But I know it was 10 minutes to 1:00 because I was watching
this Food Channel thing that I watch.
-And it's your testimony that both.
Casey and Caylee left the house at 12:50?
-12:50 or shortly thereafter. Yes, sir.
-Through the Public Records Act, we got the cellphone records.
We were able to pinpoint where Casey's cellphone was
pretty much all the time.
On that day when George said she left with Caylee
to go to work and visit the nanny,
we could see that was not true.
Our records show she was at or near that house
that entire day until 4:11 in the afternoon
when she left and headed toward Tony's apartment.
We have the cell locations of where she was.
But to fill in the gaps, we have the computer records.
At 2:51 that afternoon,
someone searches for the term "foolproof suffocation."
That computer was started up at 2:49 that afternoon.
We authenticated the stuff as much as possible,
and we are certain that our times are right.
-Do you remember the Internet searches?
"At 2:49, whilst Casey's cellphone
is pinging a tower nearest the home,
the Anthonys' family desktop computer's activated
by someone using Casey's password-protected account.
At 2:51, someone does a search for 'foolproof suffocation,'
clicking on several pro-suicide websites."
-Right. Wasn't me.
I can tell you that. Everyone had each other's
passwords because it was the family computer.
But I didn't make those searches.
-Do you think it's possible your dad did that
2:51 p.m. search if he was at work at 3:00?
-Where he worked and where our house was located
was less than 10 minutes.
There was enough time for him to have been home,
still made those searches, and then left for work.
-At 3:02, we have George using his cell
to call the house landline. -Okay.
But where was his phone pinging at that point?
Was it pinging at work or was it pinging closer to the house?
-We don't know 'cause we don't have George's cellphone records.
-That's also part of the problem.
We don't have George's cellphone records.
-And I was like, "Why did we not get George's phone records?"
And I don't know if they subpoenaed them,
but I sure would have loved to have had them.
When did he leave the house, you know?
Did he go around the corner where the body was dumped?
What time? When did he get to work?
I mean, I don't know...
I don't know why they either didn't have them
or didn't turn them over to us,
because I don't know.
I just don't know.
-Did you subpoena George's phone?
-I don't remember. I mean, I know at the time,
I mean, this has been years.
I believe we subpoenaed a number of phones,
but I don't recall whose and what we subpoenaed.
I just don't remember.
-I was able to verify. Yes, we did have
George Anthony's cellphone records.
-Do those include cell tower locations?
-No, they do not have cell tower information.
-Would that information have been useful to you
being able to determine Mr. George Anthony's movement?
-Yes, if I had a reason to even believe
that that would play a part in this case,
which at the time I did not.
**
-Yeah, I mean, look, I say it again,
I don't think George had anything to do with it.
-Did George ever lie to you?
-Well, yeah, at different points in time.
I mean, everybody -- just about everybody in the family
told us one thing or another that wasn't true.
So yeah, we were lied to throughout the investigation.
Being a liar doesn't make somebody a murderer.
**
-At the time, my nightmares start to increase
based off of what happened in court.
-Within somewhere probably close to about a three-foot area
of the passenger side of the car,
I did smell a pretty -- pretty strong odor.
-Was that the odor of a human corpse?
-Yes.
-During that 31 days,
I ran out of gas in front of that cash checking place.
And my dad was supposed to go pick up the car.
He said, "Don't worry about it. Just leave it there.
Park it somewhere where I can find it."
So I had two guys off the road help me push it in.
And there was no smell when I even left my car that day.
I don't know what a dead body smells like.
But I know what rotten garbage smells like.
I left garbage in the car.
There were three bags and a pizza box.
I only threw away two of the bags.
I forgot that I had even taken the garbage
because I got so distracted by a phone call
when I was throwing the garbage out.
So I just closed the trunk instinctually and left.
After the 31 days, I know when I got home
and that car was there, and there was a smell,
and it's something I have, to this day, have still never
smelled and don't ever want to smell again.
I've never smelled that in my life even prior to.
-You're smelling her car that smells like a dead body,
and you don't call the police?
-No, sir, I did not.
-And you don't call your daughter to see if she's okay?
-I didn't call my daughter at that time.
-And you don't call your daughter
to see if Caylee's okay?
-I didn't call my daughter to inquire about her or Caylee
at that time. I did not.
And as a detective, you know
that if you smell a dead body in a car
that that's a potential crime scene?
-At the time, sir, I wasn't a detective.
I am just a father and a grandfather.
-Jose's bringing that up because my father would know
protocol and procedure,
how to work a scene.
Again, he didn't inquire
to where I was that day because he knew.
He didn't inquire to where Caylee was
because he was the only one who knew where she was.
I'm sitting there staring daggers at this man...
...because I'm one of the only people who knows the truth
about who and what he is.
It took so long for me to get to that point.
So long.
And I get that's not something
that people really get or understand,
but it's like you have Stockholm syndrome.
He was the state of Florida's first witness against me,
and he was a knowing and willing participant.
He knew that his actions, his behavior, his words
could potentially kill me.
-And I can't imagine being used as a tool of the state
to try to kill one of my children.
He seemed fairly enthusiastic in that role.
When George Anthony became the star witness for the state,
when the goal of the state was to kill his daughter,
he lost me.
He lost me right then.
-George was the star witness.
And he also was the star witness in front of the grand jury
to make the indictment what it was.
So the real question is, if you were telling people
behind the scenes it was an accident,
would you testify as a star witness in a trial
that would get your child death for that accident?
-I have to admit, what you just told me,
and hearing that he was the grand jury's star witness
to try to get the death penalty for his own kid,
I have never heard that before.
And that's...
[ Sighs ] ...that's shocking.
Why, if you did think it was an accident,
would you want the death penalty?
That doesn't make any sense.
That...
Oh, my God.
**
-Like, that is, like --
how would you -- why would you put yourself in the situation?
Or even, like -- even flirt with the idea that it will end up
with your daughter being, like,
you know, going to the death penalty?
-Right, so that's the situation we have with George.
Why did he want his daughter to die for an accident?
**
-I have no idea.
Covering up his own tracks or something, I guess.
Like, that's the only thing that --
that's the only logical reason I could think.
This is blowing my mind right now.
Holy shit.
**
Do you mind if I take, like, a five-minute break?
[ Laughs ]
I need to, like,
recollect my thoughts here.
Holy shit.
[ Sighs ]
**
-We are back with my exclusive interview with George Anthony,
who's recovering from a car crash that nearly took his life.
You look better than I expected.
-Thank you. -How you doing?
-I'm doing good.
-A few years ago, he'd been in a severe car accident.
-Has your daughter called you?
Has Casey reached out?
-She did reach out to ask how I was.
-Would you like to see her? -No, I didn't.
I'll be honest. -I mean, honestly, I would.
I would like to just tell her I'm sorry.
You know, that I-I forgive her.
I forgive her, I -- and that's hard for me to say.
But you know what?
I need to be forgiven by her and my son
and other family members or friends
that I care so much about.
Forgive me for what I've done to all of our lives.
-It was an accident. -What would you forgive her for?
-I'm sorry, what?
-For what she has put --
-Uh, yeah, she asked the question.
I want to know the answer to that.
What does he need to be forgiven for?
I'm sorry. Can you play that back?
-I need to be forgiven by her and my son
and other family members or friends
that I care so much about.
Forgive me for what I've done to all of our lives.
-What do you want her to forgive you for?
-I don't know, I guess that's something
I'll have to wait to hear from her.
-Okay.
What does he need to be forgiven for?
What did he do?
**
I could still report him for what he did to me.
There's no statute of limitations
in the state of Florida for what he did to me, to us.
**
I remember my father said something
during the course of my case.
I don't remember if it was in an interview or who he said it to.
I'm pretty sure it was actually public.
But he said he used to love
the sweet smell of Caylee's sweat.
-Casey, he said that at Caylee's funeral.
-[ Chuckles ]
Was it really?
Of course he did.
What better way to memorialize your granddaughter
than to tell the world that you were abusing her, too?
[ Voice breaking ] I'm gonna need a break.
I need a minute, I'm sorry.
**
[ Sniffles ]
[ Sobbing ]
**
[ Sighs ]
**
Sorry, is the mic good still?
Okay? -Yeah.
-Okay.
Sorry.
**
[ Sighs ]
-So...
-You're going to ask that question --
not today.
-What do you think my question was going to be?
-What happened?
It was written all over your face.
And I'm telling you, I'm not ready to answer.
-We talked about showing you the footage
of the memorial that you had never seen.
-Right. -Are you ready to watch that?
-I don't want to do this, but I know I need to.
-God, we're here to remember and honor
and thank you for a beautiful gift
named Caylee Marie Anthony.
And so, Lord, we want to celebrate
a life, though it was short,
while the impact that she will have for generations to come.
Lord, we pray for George and Cindy.
-I wasn't allowed to be at her funeral.
I was sitting in jail under indictment.
-[ Indistinct singing ]
**
-This wasn't something personal.
I begged my mom to have a private, quiet funeral.
-I stand here today, proud..
...to be the grandfather of Caylee Marie Anthony,
who not only meant the world to me,
but meant the world to my family,
and so many of you that never got a chance
to actually hug her,
smell her hair,
smell the sweet sweat when she came in from outside.
-Are you fucking kidding me? -To hear her call me JoJo.
I missed that kiss on the cheek,
that special hug that -- I tell everyone
it's so great to get a hug from someone.
But to get a hug from a small child,
that gives me energy like you couldn't imagine.
**
-That's not normal.
Nothing about that is fucking normal.
You're outright telling the world that you're a pedophile.
Jesus Christ.
-I'm not going to say how much I'm going to miss things
that I won't be able to do with her, because someday
I'll be able to hold her hand again in God's heaven.
I'll be able to take her in wagon rides.
I'll be able to kiss her. I'll be able to smell her again.
-[ Exhales deeply ]
-What are you thinking?
**
-A lot more things make sense.
That's not necessarily a good thing.
-What things make sense?
-I know what he did to me.
And that was my fear.
I have one job to keep her safe.
As a parent, that's your most important job,
is to keep your kid safe.
As a kid who was abused...
...you don't ever want to see that happen to another kid,
especially not your own.
-If you're honest with yourself, Casey, did you do everything
in your power to protect your daughter?
-I thought I did.
I tried.
I didn't leave when I should've. I should have
the moment I found out I was pregnant.
I should have just left.
**
After Caylee was born,
my father was around initially.
He was never left alone with my dad.
Not even when she was an infant.
Because I know what I lived through.
As a kid who was abused, that was my fear.
-That she wouldn't be safe?
-That she wouldn't be safe.
And then my parents' marriage imploded in November of 2005.
He got caught cheating.
This time she kicked him out of the house.
**
Caylee was little. She was just
a couple of months old.
It was just us, it was just the three girls in the house.
Her and I and the baby.
For the first time
since I was 8 years old, 11 years,
I finally felt safe because he wasn't there.
-What do you remember when you watch this?
-Just being happy. Being -- feeling safe, content.
He was gone.
I wasn't worried in these moments that I was with her.
I wasn't afraid.
**
But then she let him back.
I feel like so much of her facade
was being strong, being independent,
being able to take care of everything herself.
I could see through the cracks in the facade,
and there was a level of codependency,
and fear, I'm sure, of being alone.
I knew from that point forward
I had to get out as soon as possible.
I could not live there with those people anymore.
-Do you remember this? -Of course I do.
That was my kid. That was my best friend.
-What do you remember?
-Not wanting to be home
because both of my parents were there.
-Hey, look!
-He had just moved back in a little bit before this.
**
I was trying to work as much as I could
and not tell very many people where I was working,
what I was doing, how I was making money,
because I wanted an exit plan for Caylee
and I to get out of that house, to get away from those people,
and to start over.
**
-Where are we, Casey?
-We're in the back lot at Universal.
I worked at Universal Studios between 2004 and 2006
as a third-party contractor with Eastman Kodak,
and I left when our contract expired
and another company was coming in.
At that point, I transitioned into
working in the nightlife, bartending,
and I was making a lot of side cash.
I had been telling my mom that I was still working at Universal
since I left Universal
because I didn't want her asking questions
about where I was getting extra money from
and why I had it and why it was all in cash.
I didn't want her to know my plan to leave
until I was ready to tell her that I was moving away.
If I told her anything, she would have done everything
in her power to stop me, guilted me into staying,
because I know there was part of her
that was living vicariously, even through my existence.
Because she wasn't happy with her own.
You have no idea the guilt trip she would lay on me the moment
I would make a decision for myself,
let alone a decision for my daughter.
No idea how hard that was.
**
During that time,
it's not just that I was lying to my mom.
I also wasn't being honest
with a lot of the people who were in my life
because I didn't want things getting back to my mom.
So I told them that I was still working events
at universal, or that I was even, at that point,
working other separate events.
This is Sawgrass Apartments.
This was the place that
Zenaida Gonzalez, or Zanny the Nanny,
as she was referred to, was allegedly living.
Caylee was either with me at night or with my mom.
There was no third party. There was no other person.
I didn't trust anyone else to watch her overnight.
The whole nanny thing started because there were times
where I wanted to have a night with my friends,
but I also wanted to have my daughter there with me
because I knew my father was going to be home.
So I told my mom, "I'm going to drop her off
with my friend Zanny."
You know, that was kind of how that started
when Caylee was actually with me.
They weren't necessarily innocent lies.
They were lies and I was an adult
and it's the stupidest thing, but it's --
again, it was like all of a sudden in my 20s,
I'm rebelling as a parent to have freedom.
And it wasn't the right thing.
-Let's go to the day where you tell law enforcement
about Zanny the Nanny.
Your dad told you say that?
-Told me to tell the cops what I told my mom.
Wanted me to be the biggest and best liar that I could be.
That's not what he said, but that's how I see it now,
because my father knew that if they looked at me
and that I was lying to them, they weren't going to believe
anything that I said,
even if, at that point, I said my father did all of this.
He knew.
-You felt that your dad had basically kidnapped her.
-And was keeping her from me, yes.
That whole time.
-Even though you felt that body in your arms
and you knew that something was terribly wrong.
-He told me she was going to be okay.
It's what I chose to accept.
There was that little girl inside of me
that wanted to believe he wouldn't hurt her
the way he hurt me.
-And you didn't think that there was any way
she could have drowned and he found her in the pool?
-No. -Even initially?
-No, she had no way of getting the pool.
There was nothing for her to have shimmied up.
To me, there's no way of explaining that...
...unless he put her in the...
[ Sighs ]
Unless put her in the pool to cover up what he did.
**
So if he decided to call the police
or if I decided to call the police...
...that they would have looked at it as a drowning
and not actually examined her body.
**
I'm sure there were times where I was incapacitated as a child,
where my body was limp and lifeless.
That's what I think about. I wish every day
I would have said something to somebody at some point.
Maybe things would be different.
Probably not.
**
But there's always going to be
that little part of me that wonders.
-That wonders?
**
-Because if she was still alive,
then where was she and what happened from there?
**
Was there something that I could have done
to have changed things?
During all this time if she was alive,
if I didn't do what he said he wanted me to do,
or if I talked to my mom too much
or I said the wrong thing,
would it have triggered something?
All of my fear
just keeps becoming bigger and bigger...
...as I knew what I lived through.
It's bad enough I had to imagine that it happened once,
but then to imagine that it could have kept happening.
-Did he take her away to abuse her?
That's the darkest question, isn't it?
**
-That's why all of this is so hard.
I live with that guilt of feeling like I failed her
and didn't keep her safe and protect her.
I've always wanted the truth because I've lived
so long without it.
But I don't know if I could handle all of it.
I don't know if it would be better to know
or just keep not knowing,
because I don't know what the truth is.
All I know is that she's dead.
That something happened.
**
-I think about this case all the time
all these years afterwards.
But, you know, so much added up to George
hiding this body.
All I know about incest is oftentimes,
if he's a pedophile abusing his own daughter,
as she gets older, as Casey did,
now we got a little one. He's more into the children.
And if he's a pedophile, I surmise that maybe
he had abused the little one, Caylee.
Maybe he thinks he holds her down long enough
where she passes out, and he can have his way with her.
Maybe that started this cover-up of what actually happened.
I'd like to go into a lot of detail with Casey
because she was there that day.
I'd want to go more into that with her.
What is George's role?
I think I already have coffee.
-Do you have coffee? Well, you have
fancy schmancy new mugs if you want them.
**
[ Sighs ]
I don't think we've ever sat down in --
I know we haven't sat down and ever talked about any of this,
like, talked this through. No, we've never done that.
-I didn't think we needed to until you decided
to do what we're doing now, you know,
which I thought was pretty admirable,
but, you know, we did our job. It was over.
And frankly, everybody I've ever talked to about the case
always says to me the same thing.
"What happened in those 30 days?"
And I said, "I don't know."
What happened those 31 days? Have you remembered?
-I was meeting up with George when he was asking me
to meet him at the house.
He had me hook, line, and sinker waiting for him
to tell me where to meet him.
He kept saying if I did what he wanted me to do,
tell Cindy what he wanted me to tell her,
because if I did what he wanted me to do,
he had me the whole time thinking Caylee was alive
and she was okay. -Oh, okay.
-The entire time.
-But why would he do that?
-I've been living with this since,
living with the same questions, and it's my life.
-Yeah. -And that's a hard thing
for me to reconcile.
I've spent the last 14 years, almost,
especially during this process, having those epiphany moments
where something clicks.
Watching for the first time
George's clips from the funeral
where he's talking about missing the smell of her sweet sweat.
-No, I know.
I've always had my eyeball on George and the pool.
It didn't make sense to me,
no 911 call. -Yeah.
-You know, if that's what would have happened,
there would have been a 911 call.
That's just my thoughts.
-The ladder wasn't on the pool,
so she couldn't have gotten in.
-So, none of that really --
it didn't -- -None of it makes sense.
-Didn't make total sense, you know.
-Well, my thought was that he was using that
as a way to cover up, even then, what he had done.
-What he had done. Whatever this accident was
that he had done to Caylee.
And I got to tell you this for the first time.
**
I think there was an...
[ Clears throat ]
...there was an accident.
**
George was involved, and I don't think
the accident was in the pool.
**
You know, after the case and everything,
I said George abused Caylee.
This is my opinion.
We never discussed this, but when he abused you,
was there anything that he did
that would make you think he did that to Caylee
to cause the accident? -Absolutely.
Absolutely.
If I didn't want to or if I said no...
...he'd put a pillow over my face
and he'd smother me to knock me out.
-Really? -That happened several times.
-He'd take a pillow into your face?
That could be the accident.
-Possible.
-He abused her.
To stop noises, he'd grab a pillow,
and that would be the accident.
Wow.
-[ Sighs ]
**
-I actually don't know what happened on Suburban Drive.
I think we don't like uncertainty.
And I think that's kind of a hard thing for us to deal with,
is we don't like cases where we don't know what happened.
We want them to be open and shut.
And that's not really ever how it works.
**
The police never looked at George as a suspect.
That's not something they should have let go.
I think he definitely covered up a lot of things.
Whether he knew it was because Caylee was,
you know, dead or not, I don't know.
**
-I would have done any and everything
that he told me to do.
But I did protect my abuser.
I protected her abuser.
And that crushes me.
I can't let that go.
-Why was your reflex to protect him?
-The same reason that so many victims protect their abusers.
'Cause you still love them
and you don't want to believe that they were doing
what they were doing because they were trying to hurt you.
**
I am never going to have full closure.
And the irony for me is I think that's part of the reason
why people are still so hooked on this,
is because they feel they need closure.
It's like watching these reality shows or watching a movie
and you feel like you need to have this ending,
but if it's not the ending that you want,
are you ever going to have that sense of closure?
I didn't get the ending that I wanted
because I didn't get my kid back.
That's the only ending I wanted.
And that's the one thing I will never get out of all of this.
It's been hard to cope.
Not easier -- harder.
It's waking up every day and...
wishing that some days I would wake up and look over
and she'd be right there.
Sweet little kid.
That all of this is just the shittiest bad dream.
We all talk about all the things that we have in a lifetime,
and I had the shortest life with her.
**
It's hard to deal with.
**
-The quality of your voice as you speak to me now
is completely different than the beginning.
-I also just feel like I'm in a state of
trying to patch up the bleeding,
just like I was completely spliced open
and everything just came out,
everything that
I had been holding onto, even inadvertently.
I spent my entire life protecting our perfect,
beautiful little family.
But I failed at my one job, which was protecting my kid,
so I'm angry...
...that I'm a victim,
and that I wasn't there to fight for my kid
in the way that I should have been able to.
**
It's a hard thing to deal with.
It's a hard thing to live with every day.
Because nothing's going to bring her back.
Nothing.
Even if I someday get the answers that...
...I need,
it's never going to be enough.
**
-No.
No. -It's never gonna be enough.
**
This was my childhood home.
I hate this house so much.
I feel like part of me will always, always be trapped here.
But it's a part of me that I try so hard
to continue to just let go.
That scared little girl.
But this is also where I brought my little girl home.
So...
as much as I want to hate this house,
part of me will always love it, too,
because it was her home.
The only good thing that's left at that house
are just the memories that I had with her.
There's a box of ashes inside.
That has this etched picture of Caylee on it.
And an inscription.
And I have asked several times now for them.
And my mom won't give them back to me.
I would like to...
take them and scatter them and take her to all the places
that she should have been able to go and see herself.
I wanted her to travel,
to do all the things I never got a chance to do.
To not have her trapped in a box on a shelf.
**
All of the rest -- not worth holding onto.
It's just easier to let it all go.
**
[ Sighs ]
I'm definitely done here.
**
Can't leave this place without crying.
Not even now.
**
[ Sighs ]