there's something wrong i found my daughter's anthony [Music] more than a decade after the o. j simpson murder trial captivated people around the world another murder case made its way onto our tv screens and another name became infamous in 2008 a missing toddler from a quiet orlando suburb became the focus of international news her mother's name was casey anthony and her trial for the little girl's death would grip the nation [Music] the anthony family was a really typical looking family it was a cop a nurse their two children and then the daughter had a baby none of that is out of the ordinary at the center of this case we had a beautiful little girl and she was missing and it was a mystery and we didn't know why but what we did know was that mom was out partying while the baby was missing [Music] it's not a month that does not go by in my life that i don't have someone stop me on the street and somewhere during that conversation they asked i wonder what really happened to kellie [Music] anytime a young mom is charged with killing her children it makes the headlines because that is such an aberration is such a deviation from what young mothers are casey you don't realize that a whole united states is looking for kaylee um can you look up a little bit more raise your eyes up a little bit there you go look straight up so i can look into your eyes darling thank you she did appear normal i think she's about as abnormal she can get but i think people wanted her to show some emotions she never did ladies and gentlemen of the jury he had been selected and sworn as the jury to try the case of the state of florida versus casey marie anthony does the state care to make an opening statement at this time you may proceed this is the case of the state of florida versus casey marie anthony however it is time to tell the story of a little girl named kaley george anthony specifically recalls that at 12 50 p. m on june 16th of 2008 george anthony kissed his granddaughter goodbye and his daughter casey left the residence on hope spring drive with kaylee marie anthony she told her mother that she was going to spend the night with a babysitter by the name of sam you will learn there is no the body of kaley marine anthony had been wrapped in a winnie the pooh blanket and thrown into a littered swamp like she was just another piece of trash haley's death allowed casey anthony to live the good life at least for those 31 days everybody had convicted casey anthony in the court of public opinion long before she ever walked in that courtroom and so jose baez and his group of attorneys had to undo that with these jurors who had all kind of heard about the case the media latched on to this case my job was to save casey anthony from the death penalty if the case went south then for whatever reason a jury came back that she was guilty of first-degree murder my job was to try to save her life i believe we could have mitigated the death penalty [Music] how in the world can a mother wait 30 days before ever reporting her child missing it's insane it's bizarre well the answer is actually relatively simple she never was missing kaylee anthony died on june 16 2008 when she drowned in her family's swimming pool as soon as casey came around this corner and went back she saw george anthony holding kaylee in his arms she immediately grabbed kaylee and began to cry her death was covered up this family must keep its secrets quiet and it all began when casey was eight years old and her father came into her room and began to touch her inappropriately casey has a brother when he was a teenager he attempted to also touch his sister casey was raised to lie that will help you understand why no one knew that her child was dead we were finding out all this dysfunction in this family all these lies all these secrets all this backbiting that was going on in this family before kaylee even went missing that casey was willing to at least accuse her father and her brother of molesting her so that she could get out of jail for killing the baby that's not a normal family that's dysfunction is your daughter there yeah can i speak with her hello hello yes hi can you tell me a little bit what's going on my daughter's been missing for the last 31 days who has her do you have a different name her name is she's been my nanny for about a year and a half almost two years you know why why are you calling now why didn't you call 31 days ago i've been looking for her and has gone through other resources to try to find her when you first met ms anthony can you tell the jury how she appeared she always seemed like she was having a good time did you ever see her distraught no sir depressed no sir scared no sir she was partying and having a good time did she tell you that her daughter was missing no did she ever tell you that her daughter had been kidnapped no that she was missing no no no no sir no sir did you ever ask the defendant where kaylee was yes sir i did what did she tell you when she was at disney world with the nanny she said she was with the nanny she told me that she was spending the weekend at the beach with the nanny did casey anthony ever tell you that her daughter was missing no sir that she was looking for her no that she needed any help nope no sir did she ever cry no did she ever act scared nope at any time during this night did she ever tell you that her child was missing no sir once the jury was there i think they hated casey anthony you could tell they would glare at her they didn't like her they would shake their heads when they'd see pictures of her dancing on tables and everything nobody knows where she is but all we know is that mom casey anthony was out partying when she should have been looking for her daughter how come everybody's saying that you're not upset that you're not crying that you show because i have to stay composed to talk to detectives you have to tell me if you know anything about kayleigh wait anything happens with haley casey out there [Music] and what happened [Music] as details of the anthony case unfolded each day public interest intensified along with protests and anger towards casey and even her family on many days tension outside the courthouse was matched by the friction inside the courtroom we're talking about cold hard evidence and he could get up here and lie all he wants and dance around the truth but the truth is the truth and he and depending on who's asking the questions whether it's this laughing guy right here or whether it's myself objection the bench this case was the craziest case i've ever been involved in it was like the hatfields and the mccoys and they were using profanity at each other just in the regular course of business how was the good faith basis relevance of that that is not the question council asked and he darn well knows it anything else votes the prosecution and the defense of the casey anthony case couldn't stand each other sometimes nobody could see it but those of us in the gallery watching them back bite each other watching them snip at each other watching them roll their eyes while somebody on their own team was up there you know cross-examining a witness sidebar and cut the comments out the level of tension in this one here was probably it was a ten my major concern was one courtroom control what is that symbol that you are projecting with your fingers um using my middle finger and i am sorry okay and and what does that mean sir the f word to someone at this time i will judge you to be guilty i will sentence you to six days in orange county jail or he will be remanded [Music] i made it loud and clear that i was not going to tolerate anyone breaking any rules be it the prosecution the defense or the public i've never seen so many people so invested in the outcome of a criminal case everybody had adopted kaylee anthony as their own and they wanted to avenge her death in some way [Music] it says that the person that you dropped kaylee with doesn't even exist because oh look they can't find her in the florida database she's not just from florida they need to look up her information in the new york database in a north carolina database other places that she's lived outside of florida on monday june 9th 2008 between 9 00 a.
m and 1 p. m i casey anthony took my daughter kaylee marie-anthony to her nanny's apartment zaneida fernandez hyphen gonzalez has watched her for the past year and a half to two years however after reaching the apartment i realized that neither zanida kaylee or either of her two roommates were home did you determine whether or not an individual by the name of zaneta gonzalez had been the last occupant of that apartment i researched the prior occupants of that apartment and it was not zoned gonzalez who occupied it i think it's really simple i think that she wanted a party i think that she had looked at different ways to knock the child out and maybe she'd done it before successfully that's andy the nanny reference you know like xanax for the baby that's really the keeper of the child [Music] everything is coming out of your mouth [Music] [Applause] [Music] it would have been very hard for casey anthony to take the stand because casey anthony had lied so many times so what would she do under cross-examination the defense team knew that casey couldn't take the stand casey mom hey sweetie oh i just saw your nice little cameo on tv you don't know what my involvement is and stuff so you can you're not telling me where she's at because i don't know where she's at are you kidding me i don't want to talk to you right now forget it the woman on the tape was someone who was completely in charge she would be demanding she would speak up she would challenge them to talk to my mother and they had to do something to counter all the video that we were seeing in court of her yelling at her parents and swearing at her parents at the beginning of the trial she was a little bit more defiant she was outraged that she was on trial for this and at some point we started seeing casey anthony wearing blouses that came up to her neck so that you know with a big bow on it to look as innocent as possible they even lowered her seat so she looked smaller than everybody else on the defense table because what they were trying to do was show this is a girl who could never kill anybody [Applause] orange county and i had the route today that included the anthony's home i noticed something that looked white and there was a like a grey bag down in there [Music] as the search efforts for kaylee anthony stretched into five months the news spread like wildfire that human remains had been discovered not far from the anthony home i'm a meter leader with orange county and i had the route today that included the anthony's home and there's a lot of swamp back in there well back behind one of the trees down there was a great bag and then a little bit further up than that i saw something white [Music] and it would be on the right hand side that i saw what i saw there have been significant skeletal remains located late this afternoon the skeletal remains are still consistency of a small child the discovery comes a week after a child's skull was found in a nearby wooded area blocks away from where the two-year-old lived with her mother and grandparents we have secured the anthony house we've also exhumed the remains and that has been transported to the medical examiner's office [Music] did you receive results from the fbi as to the identification of the remains yes and did that laboratory identify the remains as that as kaylee marie anthony yes they did they found um duct tape they actually did a graphic of the four parts of their skull and put it back together for the jury so that they can see the duct tape around the child's face do you have an opinion as to the manner of death in this case it is a red flag that when a child is not reported immediately to authorities that's something we look for for foul play besides the delay besides the being found in a field decomposed would be the duct tape somewhere located on the lower half of this face there is no child that should have duct tape on its face when it dies based on the skeletal condition of the remains can you render a medical conclusion on the cause of death what i put was homicide of undetermined means well someone just said that kayla was dead this morning that she drowned in the pool that's the newest story out there surprise surprise [Music] there's the proof that she could easily get outside there's the proof that she was big enough and strong enough to open the door you can't get anything better than that and look at how soft cindy is holding her or touching her she's on her own and look at what kaylee's doing kaylee's diving into that water [Music] when the defense gave their opening statement and said kaylee anthony was found face down in the pool what the prosecution should have done at that point was to say when you find your baby face down in the pool you call the police you call an ambulance because you don't know if she's dead or not and if you decide then to put duct tape around her and wrap her body in a trash bag and throw it in the woods that is aggravated child abuse that's a 15-year charge they wanted a first-degree charge so much that they didn't bother to explain child abuse george began to yell at her look what you've done your mother will never forgive you and you will go to jail for child neglect for the rest of your freaking life why did george do this why didn't he call in you started off with pointing the finger uh at george the father you start questioning his credibility his believability so you would discount his particular testimony and what they did was they created a ball of confusion were you present in your home when kaylee anthony died no and when i heard that today it hurt really bad because if i would have known something would happen then kaylee we wouldn't be here today did you dispose of the body of your granddaughter no i did not mr bias what would you see to determine whether someone drowned well if a body's not found in a pool to answer the court's question the court's questionably was what record evidence is there that the victim drowned the answer is none casey is staying with her boyfriend tony and sadly kaylee is in all likelihood in the trunk it was an odor consistency of what i smelt in the past when it comes to decomposition and that's not a smell that you forget [Music] only 39. 95 forensic science took center stage at the anthony trial over several weeks 37 expert witnesses took the stand but would any one of them sway the jury i am a forensic chemist examiner canine handler hair and fiber examiner professor of anthropology geologist forensic examiner forensic toxicologist computer examiner human identification laboratory in the latent print operations unit my specialty is analytical chemistry insect evidence [Music] did you find any hairs that showed evidence of apparent decomposition um one of the items showed uh had a hair that exhibited characteristics of decomposition i think you had a death scene where kaylie probably perished it was the trunk of that car and that's why been in the car and that's why she lied so much that's why she waited so long and the fact that she waited so long and saying anything meant that child was so decomposed they didn't know the cause of death have you ever had the opportunity in your 30 years in the towing business to come across the vehicle in which there had been a dead body yes ma'am were you able at that juncture to make any connection it was an odor consistency of what i smelt in the past when it comes to decomposition it's not a smell that you forget based on my 23 years experience my opinion is that it was the smell of human decomposition [Music] [Applause] [Music] that trunk smelled like a dead body the trunk of my daughter's car smelled like human decomposition he was a cop he knows what a dead body smells like [Music] there's something wrong i found my daughter's car today casey's mother was a nurse she knows what a dead body smells like when someone dies the gases that are produced from the bacterial metabolism have really no place to escape and we began monitoring which chemicals are being produced there was one um expert who supposedly had a detector a sniff test detector it was the most ridiculous thing i had ever seen do you have an opinion as to whether there was a decomposing human body in the trunk of that car at some point i do have an opinion and what is that opinion i can find no other plausible explanation other than that you know that your findings are not generally accepted in the scientific community do you not objection sustain to strike grab it he was arguing that he could somehow sniff the air in a person's car and determine that it was the result of a decomposing human body they put this this what i would call a junk scientist on the stand to testify in the significance of the evidence uh such as the smell of death what that really meant the fact that you had the canned hair in the trunk of the car i know the defense wanted to cause some of it voodoo science i called it cutting cutting-edge science that basically had support in the literature and uh scientific background what chemical compounds did that initial evaluation show but the large peak was identified as chloroform because the chloroform was shockingly high unusually high the thought was that perhaps casey had used chloroform just to put her to sleep and so she'd go out i heard and don't know it's true or not that that was done from time to time and maybe in earlier years when people didn't understand how dangerous it was and that she accidentally killed her any clues or anything that i should focus on at the house mom's house your house um outside of maybe stuff on the computer nothing i can think of on the computer they late in the trial got into some of the internet searches that were done and and then they tried to attribute them to casey anthony she had research chloroform were you asked to perform a keyword search for chloroform yes i was in this case with the chloroform keyword search hit we were able to recover a complete uh internet history from mozilla firefox all right so the user at the time typed in how to make chloroform yes the prosecution said that casey anthony used chloroform to kill her child but i sat there in trial the entire time paying attention to every word i still don't know how do you make chloroform i have no idea what are the ingredients did casey ever buy those ingredients do you have any proof that she did we never saw that so that's a big piece of the puzzle missing in our case there has been no evidence presented that casey marie anthony used duct tape for any purpose that she used chloroform ever for any purpose and in any way in any capacity whatsoever she contributed to the cause and death of this child it is forcing guessing and speculation jurors don't know anything you're painting a picture on a canvas everything that you want them to see you got to paint it in that picture the defense not only did that but they did something that uh most people really didn't notice they were doing they were throwing out reasonable doubt in every corner that they could you know of course that sex with a child under the age of 12 years old is life in prison don't you sir relevance warming sustained court tv at week number four in the casey anthony trial tempers flared as the defense doubled down on the strategy they had floated in opening statements destroy the credibility of george anthony mr burdick you may proceed casey's car was in orlando yes ma'am once the car is in the garage do you access it in some fashion yes um casey's purse was on the front seat and that um kaylee's baby doll her favorite doll her favorite doll was in the um car seat like it was sitting where kayla would have sat i think cindy anthony was a compelling witness there were times where she burst into tears on the stand she was doubled over in agony as she's listening to the 911 calls and i think that the jury their heart went out to her when you look at the dynamics of the testimony of george and cindy anthony you really look at the ebb and flow of of that particular trial can i have a break sir a drink okay let's take a uh five minute recess here you have these loving grandparents who would move heaven and earth for their granddaughter but also you have them in the an indian role of being the parents of the person who's accused of murdering this child you got cindy faced with this proposition her testimony not only could lead to her daughter being found guilty of murder in the first degree but it could also lead to the imposition of the ultimate sanction of death in january late january of 2009 you attempted to commit suicide the defense didn't try to throw george anthony under the bus did you sir yes sir i did the defense threw him under the bus backed up the bus ran over him again backed it up again and ran over him again so you were drinking beer and blood pressure medication they crucified him in court you have to be specific with me sir give me give me a date well and i'll answer i'm giving you a date but mike no so you're you're you're you are dreaming you're trying to get me upset sirs i'm just asking you treat me with a little bit of respect you'll get respect pat that's all i'm asking mr anthony would you like to answer my question now objection to council commentary and i don't think that the jury necessarily believed what they were saying but george started to show this this defiant side of him mr anthony do you know a woman by the name of crystal holloway i know her by that name and also another name okay did you have a romantic relationship with her no sir no to me that's that's uh that's very funny very funny yes sir george anthony is now a cop with a chip on his shoulder testifying and he looked like yeah he probably could have done something wrong which i think came directly from him being accused of something that he says he didn't do defense calls crystal holloway did you develop a relationship with mr anthony yes sir i did was this an intimate relationship yes did there ever come an occasion where you had a heart-to-heart conversation with george anthony as to what happened to his granddaughter he was sitting on my couch and he had told me he had said it was an accident that snowballed out of control cross examination how much money did you get from the national enquirer for selling your story the 4 four thousand dollars you may be seated all right gentlemen you know of course that sex with a child under the age of 12 years old is life in prison don't you sir relevance sustain you're aware of the possible penalties of child molesting don't you sir objection relevance sustain of course would never admit to molesting your child would you sir objection argumentative there was an insinuation here i think that perhaps george had somehow been responsible in some way for the death of kaylee and that casey's reluctance to turn on her father had something to do with the fact that he had been abusing her sir i would never do anything to harm my daughter in that way only in that way objection you don't talk about a fact if you know that there is not a way to prove it and generally the only way to prove something is through testimony of an individual i don't believe that jose or j intended on calling casey as a witness so it was unclear to me how they were going to prove up those accusations i do think that the defense did a really good job of confusing the issues maybe it was george anthony maybe it was somebody else we don't know maybe it was the meter reader were you aware of there being a reward offered for a finding of kaylee and by the time we were done with seven weeks worth of trial everybody looked guilty the prosecutor set for themselves a very tough bar in seeking death every piece of evidence is is weighed under a microscope by the jurors if there's any flaw or any missing link no matter how apparently insignificant it may be it's not insignificant to a death penalty jury i think that you'll see that despite the outcry the notoriety the emotions and so forth case is not here state recognized president of the jury we do your honor good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the jury have you reached a verdict then each count was being read what went through my mind was holy this is never going to go away we are going to be talking about this in five years 10 years 20 years [Music] after five weeks of testimony in the anthony trial the seven women and five men on the jury prepared for closing arguments but millions of people around the world were preparing too they remained fixated on the case and hopeful that justice for kaylee was just around the corner ladies and gentlemen of the jury their attorneys now will present their final arguments the state may proceed thank you sir when you have a child that child becomes your life this case is about the clash between that responsibility and the life that casey anthony wanted to have she took her life and she put in the trunk and forgot about her and she disposed of her body in a swamp it is a trip down the rabbit hole into a bizarre world where men who love their granddaughters find them drowned and do nothing this is the world that the defense invites you to occupy casey anthony is guilty of murder in the first degree i have to tell you that i probably think you have more questions than you have answers it is extremely reasonable that she could have drowned in the pool and that's where the state fails they must rebut each and every reasonable hypothesis of innocence they cannot rebut this they're hoping they throw enough against the wall and see what sticks right down to their cause of death one week it was chloroform today it's duct tape i'm not proud of the way casey behaved i don't think anybody here can justify her actions but they do not constitute murder the defendant is not required to present evidence or prove anything never forget no matter what the issue is they have all of the burden and there is none over here members of the jury i would like to thank you for your attention during the trial please pay attention to the instructions i'm about to give you the judge's job is to give the standards your instruction it's the prosecution or the defense to request a special instruction one would a special jury instruction indicating that proving how she died was not an element of the crime to be proven i think that may have made a tremendous difference i had already prepared that instruction but when i got no requests for that i didn't figure it would come from the defense i figured it would come from the state but they never asked they needed an instruction on how they can convict on a lesser charge because casey was looking at murder one but she was also looking at basically negligent treatment of a child super easy to prove but they didn't give that members of the jury you may retire now to begin your deliberations [Music] cheney do you think she's gonna walk today i'm just asking for a prediction sir keep moving please keep moving keep moving here [Music] it has been brought to my attention that the jury has reached the verdict state the state's ready to proceed john defense defense is writing let's return the jury it was totally quiet in the courtroom and the jurors started coming in good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the jury have you reached a verdict would you hand the verdict form to the court deputy police there was this tension in the room it was so quiet in that courtroom that you could hear a pin drop except we could hear the helicopters from the local news stations circling around overhead i actually read the jury verdict twice to make sure that my eyes were not playing tricks on me will the defendant rise along with council madam clerk you may publish the verdicts as to the charge of first degree murder verdict as to count one way the jury find the defendant not guilty so when they said not guilty i could hear 25 floors below the crowd outside i could hear them gasp i mean they just [Music] for kaylee justice for kelly just said for kelly as to the charge of aggravated child abuse verdict does to count two be the jury find the defendant not guilty as to the charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child verdict is to count three with the jury find the defendant not guilty then each count was being read and she was being found not guilty and not guilty what went through my mind was holy this is never going to go away we are going to be talking about this in 5 years 10 years 20 years as to count four will the jury find the defendant guilty of providing false information to a law enforcement officer as charged in the indictment i'm watching casey she's standing there she's sort of breathing heavily and as each verdict is being read i can see her shoulders are getting a little less tense i can see that jose's shoulders are getting a little less tense and i can see the prosecution getting more and more tense and more and more angry and the cops who investigated the case were sitting two rows behind me and one of them walked out and said to the other that was some right there because they were furious one of the jurors indicated that the reason she found the defendant not guilty was because the state could not prove how the child died i thought it was a travesty i felt like the prosecution hadn't adequately explained circumstantial evidence because there's a circumstantial evidence case i wasn't surprised i was surprised at the total acquittal i think as prosecutors should have put everyone on alert be very careful before you recommend uh prosecution on the death penalty had they charged casey anthony with manslaughter or second-degree murder ultimately the case may have resolved in another manner [Music] [Applause] i think she beat the system casey anthony beat the system she sat there trying to look like you know a choir girl the whole time and raising her hands and everything else she lied to everybody people hated her people still hate her there's not but uh two people that know what happened one is dead that's kelly and the other person is casey maybe one day and for the sake of that child she will answer that question what really happened if i could ask casey anthony a question i wouldn't ask her what happened to kaylee i'm not going to get the truth from her i would ask her how do you sleep how do you sleep each night what haunts you casey what did you do the public outrage over casey anthony's verdict prompted the florida legislature to pass kaylie's law in 2012.
