Original subtitles

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Welcome to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

For six months in 2008,

the entire country wanted to know --

where was Caylee Anthony?

Her grandparents, George and Cindy,

were giving dozens of interviews,

begging for information on the missing girl.

Caylee's mother, Casey, was the prime suspect

in her disappearance.

Casey was charged with first-degree murder.

But after Caylee's body was found in December,

everything changed.

Now prosecutors wanted the death penalty.

Casey Anthony would be facing execution.

But did the state have enough evidence to prove

she deserved it?

Some believe that choice by prosecutors

was the first misstep in a bizarre trial,

fitting for this bizarre case.

Here's how it really happened.

Casey: I still have that feeling,

that presence, I know that she's alive.

Whether you have a bucket load of evidence downstairs

that contradicts that and says otherwise

or if all you have is speculation,

or -- or nothing at all, I mean, whatever it is,

if there's still that chance.

We have more than speculation. We have a lot.

Cindy: There's something wrong.

I found my daughter's car today...

Fanning: Casey Anthony claimed

that her little 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony,

had been abducted by the nanny Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez.

During that entire period, Cindy actually never sees Caylee.

Cindy: There was no Caylee.

So I started to feel like, "What's going on?"

Fanning: Casey Anthony had been lying

to her parents for 31 days.

She was sending them on this wild chase of lies.

I have known or I've had a feeling

for the last 2 years my daughter has not worked.

During the time that Caylee was missing,

Casey Anthony was pretty much living life as normal.

We had pictures of her dancing on top of bars with other women.

That became almost the poster for who is Casey Anthony.

Casey was telling different people different things

about where the child was.

Casey: Mom, I don't have anything.

I'm sorry, I've been here a month.

I've been here a month today.

Do you understand how I feel?

Lee: We want to focus on what we do know.

And we know that there is a little girl out there

right now that is missing.

Get off your [bleep] and look for my granddaughter.

I have never seen anything like this.

A Florida grand jury has indicted the mother

of missing toddler Caylee Anthony

on a first-degree murder charge.

Yes, we've, uh...

The skeletal remains found on December 11th

are those of the missing toddler Caylee Anthony.

The remains were found in a very low, kind of wooded area.

About 15 houses away from the Anthony home.

It is so close, it's shocking.

Garavaglia: The skull was on a hair mat,

and had clearly duct tape still attached to it.

The duct tape appeared to be in the front of the skull.

There were four things found along with the skull,

and these items had a link to the Anthony home.

I always wanted to know what's happened to my granddaughter,

and I still stick with that.

I-I want to know what happened.

I miss you, sweetie.

I know that. I miss you too.

I wish I could have been a better dad and better grandpa,

you know?

You've been a great dad,

and you've been the best grandfather.

Don't for a second think otherwise.

Kobilinsky: You had a very young, very pretty woman

who was being accused of capital murder.

Baldwin: She is the Florida mother

who is charged with murdering

her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

It became their daily soap opera.

And everybody was betting on Casey's conviction.

The tot mom pleads "not guilty" to murder one.

Jordan: If O.J. was the trial of the last century,

then Casey Anthony was the trial of the new century.

My client wants her day in court.

Savage: We had reason to believe any seated jury

would come to the logical conclusion

that only one person was responsible

for the murder of Caylee Marie Anthony,

and that was Casey Anthony.

Velez-Mitchell: Tonight, an earth-shattering first day

of jury selection in the Casey Anthony trial.

Who will be ringside at the trial of the century?

The prosecution's team was a very elite team.

All three of them

were highly experienced homicide prosecutors.

Karas: Linda Drane-Burdick, Jeff Ashton, and Frank George.

The defense consisted of Jose Baez,

who was yet unproven, and Cheney Mason,

a veteran defense attorney.

When Casey was thrown in jail, it occurred to her

she needed a lawyer.

I heard a couple of people talking about attorneys,

and his name came up

and I was like, "Well, if he's good,

can you do me a favor and pass my name along?"

She hears from a fellow inmate about this lawyer,

Jose Baez, and voilà, that's her lawyer.

And this is someone who was not super experienced

in homicide cases, criminal cases.

He had actually had an online business

selling bikinis at one point.

Golenbock: Jose Baez was treated as an incompetent.

They all sort of laughed at the notion

that Casey was going to get good representation.

I will make a statement at a later time, gentlemen.

Velez-Mitchell: People underestimated Jose Baez big time.

There's a danger to underestimating your opponent.

She's not just my little girl,

she's my baby, she'll always be my baby,

but she will always be your baby and dad's baby

and Lee's baby. She's our little girl.

Mason: When I first met Casey,

it was in the Orange County jail.

And she was very polite, she was not acting entitled,

and I came away from that interview

with a very strong belief

that this girl didn't kill her baby.

And so there it is, "Oh, boy."

We're gonna do everything possible to save her life.

♪♪

Banfield: Typically a courtroom has a defense table,

and then on the other side, a prosecutor's table,

and they both face forward, they face the judge.

Prior to starting the trial,

I had met with the court administrator and the judge

and said I want the jury to be able to see Casey,

and I want her to be able to see them,

rather than being at an angle, sideways and peering around.

Karas: They moved their table,

which was really actually brilliant

because jurors were facing Casey the whole time.

Perry: Casey Anthony, while the jury

was in the courtroom, portrayed herself

as very innocent, somewhat naive.

I think they seated her in a lower chair

because she looked really diminutive.

And she was dressed in clothes she never would wear.

She was wearing really dowdy blouses

and her hair was pulled back.

Jordan: But the one thing we never saw

is that she was nervous or scared.

I don't think I ever saw her

look like she was in fear for a conviction.

The trial of Casey Anthony started today.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman

The defense dropped a bombshell in opening.

George: Casey deserves prayer.

She deserves understanding. She deserves love.

If I could switch places with you this second, I'd do it.

I would do it.

I know that.

Kaye: After nearly 3 years of legal twists,

turns, and delays, the trial of Casey Anthony started today.

♪♪

Velez-Mitchell: Opening statements begin.

It was so dramatic.

It was just like a tinderbox of tension in that courtroom.

This isn't just a case about Casey Marie Anthony,

it's a story about Caylee Anthony as well.

Linda Drane-Burdick gave the opening for the prosecution,

and she basically took them through the 31-day timeline

of what Casey was doing from the time

Caylee was last seen.

And at the end of summarizing each day,

and Casey's lies about that day, she would say...

Where is Caylee Anthony?

Perry: The prosecution's story was simply that Casey Anthony

had grown sort of uneasy with her daughter.

Jordan: The idea came that

maybe she wanted to get rid of her daughter

so that she could just be completely free

to live the life she wanted.

Google searches were done on that computer for the words

"chloroform," "alcohol," "acetone," and "peroxide."

Google searches were conducted for quote,

"how to make chloroform."

So chloroform is a key issue in this case

because super high levels of chloroform

were found in the trunk of the car.

And chloroform searches

were conducted on the Anthony computer.

Kobilinsky: The prosecutors decided that

because there was chloroform found in the trunk

and because there was duct tape in the front of the skull

that this was an intentional homicide.

Their thinking was that Casey had used chloroform

to quiet the child

and then covered her nose and mouth with duct tape.

Burdick: Three pieces of overlapping duct tape

covered the nose and mouth of Caylee Anthony.

So that she couldn't breathe and she would never be able

to awake from her chloroform sleep.

Karas: The state said Casey had driven around for a while

with the body in the back of her car

until finally disposing of Caylee

in an area 1/4 mile from her home.

Well, when it came time for Jose Baez,

he just yanks the rug right out from under them.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman.

I think it was one of the most shocking moments

of any trial I've ever covered.

Everyone wants to know what happened.

How in the world can a mother wait 30 days

before ever reporting her child missing?

The defense, to use Nancy Grace's phrase,

dropped a bombshell.

The answer is actually relatively simple.

She never was missing.

Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008

when she drowned in her family's swimming pool.

Jose Baez said Caylee wasn't missing.

There was no murder.

She drowned.

It was an accident.

So he totally changed the manner of death

from homicide to accident.

Perry: That totally shocked that courtroom.

Baez: On June 16, 2008, Casey was home with Caylee,

and so was her father.

They have an above-ground pool, with a ladder.

The defense showed many examples

of the family being in the water.

Baez: Caylee loved to swim,

and Caylee could get out of the house very easily

and did so on that day.

Mason: What we believe was that Caylee

let herself out --

We had a picture showing her ability to do that --

went out and got into the pool and she drowned.

He talked about how George had found her.

Baez: Casey saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms.

She immediately grabbed Caylee and began to cry

and cry and cry.

And shortly thereafter, 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 fricking life."

Then came the cover-up,

for which Jose Baez suggested George was entirely responsible.

Karas: The defense said it was George who disposed of the body,

not Casey.

Velez-Mitchell: Then Jose Baez proceeds to totally get rid

of all the lies by saying,

"Well, why does she lie so much?"

And it all began when Casey was eight years old

and her father came into her room

and began to touch her inappropriately.

Jose Baez laid out that Casey

had been sexually abused by her father.

And he did it in graphic terms.

Baez: Casey was raised to lie.

She could be 13 years old,

have her father's penis in her mouth,

and then go to school and play with the other kids

as if nothing ever happened.

Everybody's like, "[Gasps]

Oh, my God, did he really say that?"

It was astounding.

Kobilinsky: The defense wanted to shift the blame

from Casey to George.

He became the bad guy.

Savage: George was an easy fall man

because he was one of the last people

to have seen Caylee alive.

Velez-Mitchell: A big problem for the prosecution,

all the forensic evidence they collected

at the crime scene where little Caylee was found --

the garbage bag, the duct tape, the laundry bag,

the Winnie the Pooh blanket --

it all connects back to the Anthony home,

but that could just as easily be used to implicate George.

Karas: So that could play right into the defense's argument

that George was responsible for disposing of the body.

This whole drowning accident was a big surprise to the media,

but it wasn't a surprise to the prosecution

and to George and Cindy Anthony.

Because before trial,

the defense alerted the prosecution

that this was where they were going.

I insisted that we call George Anthony and tell him.

After that, George wrote Casey a letter...

You know how much I love you, how much I've always loved you.

You'll always be my buddy, even besides my dad.

Velez-Mitchell: This is a story about betrayal.

And Casey Anthony's family was totally betrayed by Casey.

He can't fathom the idea

that she will destroy anyone to save herself.

Jordan: The jury could not unhear that.

Is it first-degree murder, or was it an accident

that her father covered up?

It told me that George Anthony was going to be the centerpiece.

They were going to lay a lot of blame on him,

and that's exactly what they did.

All of our lives are not gonna be what we're used to.

You know, people ask me, "What is it going to be like

to be normal again?"

I'm not in control over any of this

because I don't know what the hell is going on.

I don't know what's going on.

My entire life has been taken from me.

Banfield: So Jose Baez suggested

that Caylee had been dead all along

and Casey knew it and George knew it.

She died in the pool in the backyard.

And if that wasn't enough, Baez tried to figure out a way

to mitigate the colossal lying that Casey had done.

And I guess, the theory he came up with was that

she was a victim of sex abuse

at the hands of her dad.

Would you just please start by stating your name

for the record?

George A. Anthony.

George was the first witness that Jeff Ashton called.

Very soon he was asked whether or not

he ever sexually abused his daughter

or had anything to do with disposing of Caylee's remains.

And it was all denial, "Absolutely not."

Ashton: Have you ever sexually molested

your daughter Casey Anthony?

No, sir.

If you look at him, I think the inherent rage in his answer

when he flatly denies it, I believed him.

Were you present in your home when Caylee Anthony died?

No, and when I heard that today, it hurt really bad.

Because if I would have known something would

have happened to Caylee, we wouldn't be here today.

But at this point, jurors didn't like him.

What they had learned in the opening statement,

they didn't like him.

Perry: George's credibility was assaulted,

and any positive testimony

that he gave was totally neutralized.

The defense combed the lives of the Anthony family

and came up with the history

of how the family buried their pets.

Baez: And how was that dog buried?

Uh, in our yard, where we used to live at.

They would put the dead pet in the bags

and then wrap them with duct tape.

Just like Caylee had been disposed of in that swamp.

Jordan: The theory of the defense was that George

put the body out there almost as the same ritual

of when they would have buried a pet when Casey was a child.

Was the dog wrapped in a blanket?

To the best of my recollection, probably, yes.

Every time the prosecution tried to paint George as sympathetic,

the defense would use the same evidence

to paint him as somebody suspicious.

To wit, the suicide note.

There came a point in time where he --

he attempted suicide.

When Caylee's body was found, obviously,

any hope that she was still alive was dashed.

George ended up, of course, taking pills,

and writing a long, emotional suicide note.

Late January of 2009, you attempted to commit suicide.

Did you, sir?

Yes, sir, I did.

♪♪

You expressed some guilt, did you not, sir?

Ashton: Objection.

Jordan: This was grabbed by Jose Baez

and used against George to basically say,

"Well, he is suicidal and he's trying to kill himself

and he's writing suicide notes because he is responsible."

♪♪

Do you know George Anthony? Yes.

Jordan: It was clear the defense strategy

was to make George Anthony the culprit,

beyond that, to demonize him.

And part of that strategy included

introducing a woman named Krystal Holloway,

who said she'd had an affair with George.

Did you develop a relationship with Mr. Anthony?

Yes, sir, I did.

Krystal Holloway testified that George Anthony told her

that he believed what happened to Caylee

was an accident that went horribly awry.

He had said it was an accident

that snowballed out of control, but I was in shock.

So the defense uses that to point the finger at George

to damage his credibility, to paint him as a cheater,

and also to say that he was the one

who knew that it was an accident

because he found the child's body.

Golenbock: George took the stand and he denied

ever having an affair with Krystal Holloway.

Did you have a romantic relationship with her?

[ Chuckles ] No, sir.

No.

To me, that's -- that's, uh, very funny.

But if you listen to the jurors,

they didn't believe him for a second.

Banfield: George was curt on the stand and defensive.

Cindy, on the other hand,

was a completely different witness.

Burdick: In 2005, were you blessed with a grandchild?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, who was that?

Caylee Marie.

Karas: Cindy Anthony was very emotional on the stand.

You had to feel sorry for Cindy Anthony.

Obviously, this is a woman tormented by the idea

that in order to have justice for her granddaughter,

she would have to say things

that would implicate her daughter,

and she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

She backtracked on everything that she initially told police.

Most notably, "It smells like there's a dead body

in the damn car."

Baez: When you got the car and it was in the garage,

it was your understanding that what you were smelling

was garbage, was it not?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

And you're clear about that?

Yes, sir.

Karas: She clearly was trying to help her daughter.

You used the computer at your home, correct?

One of the most damning pieces of evidence

was that the forensic analysis of the Anthony home computer

showed that there had been Internet searches

for chloroform.

The chloroform search was critical because we believed

that potentially it was one of the --

the ways in which Caylee could have -- could have died.

Karas: When Cindy's questioned about the chloroform searches,

she takes the blame for it.

She says those were her searches.

Do you recall in March of 2008

you doing any types of searches

for any items that might include chloroform?

Yes. I started looking up chloroform,

I mean chlorophyll,

and then that prompted me to look up chloroform.

I think she was doing everything she could

to help save her daughter.

A lot people have been asking whether or not your office

will file perjury charges against her?

Clearly, you know, she said that she did a certain thing

on a certain day and the records clearly show she didn't.

Burdick: Mrs. Anthony, is it your testimony

that despite the fact that your work records show

that you worked, that you were home between the hours

of 1:43 p.m. and 1:55 p.m. on March 17, 2008?

it's possible, yes.

Perry: I would have put Cindy on just one time.

Beyond that, it's like

playing Russian roulette with 6 bullets --

you're going to blow your brains out

with Cindy Anthony as a witness.

After the trial's over, the most damning piece of evidence

is revealed by Jose Baez himself,

when he says that an Internet search

for "foolproof suffocation" was done on the very last day

that little Caylee was seen alive.

Ahh. Why didn't the prosecution know that?

Foolproof suffocation,

that would have been helpful.

The cops never found that Internet search

because they didn't inspect the browser that Casey liked to use,

which was Mozilla Firefox.

They searched other browsers.

So the most damning piece of evidence, they missed.

Karas: I don't know if it would have convinced 12 jurors,

but it certainly wouldn't have hurt.

Ashton: Do you have an opinion as to the manner

of death in this case?

You were trying to argue reason and science

in an alternate universe.

You want to scream.

Casey: We're all going to be back there.

We're all going to be home together.

You guys just need to have strong faith,

just keep believing that.

Welcome back to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

By June 2011,

Florida vs. Casey Anthony was in full swing.

Prosecutors claimed Caylee was murdered

by her mother, Casey, and believed it was done

using a combination of chloroform and duct tape.

The defense team said it was an accident --

little Caylee drowned in the Anthony family pool.

A fierce court battle was about to ignite over forensics.

The critical question -- How did Caylee die?

♪♪

My name is Dr. Jan Garavaglia.

A medical examiner gives two opinions.

One is the manner of death.

Is it homicide, suicide, accident,

natural causes, undetermined?

Ashton: Do you have an opinion

as to the manner of death in this case?

Yes.

What is that opinion?

Homicide.

Karas: The other one is cause of death,

like what actually is the mechanism that caused the death.

Jordan: The body had been in the woods

for so long partially submerged,

that how Caylee died would never be definitively determined.

We don't have any soft tissue, we don't have any blood,

we don't have any bone marrow.

These are dry, non-smelly bones.

I couldn't definitively say what the cause of death is.

But there is enough circumstantial evidence.

There is no child that should have duct tape

on its face when it dies.

And so she put two and two together

and said somebody killed this child

by placing duct tape over the mouth and over the nose.

That is not, uh, necessarily true.

But that was her conclusion.

And that's what the prosecution went with.

Mason: You're saying that circumstantial evidence

to you says that it probably was a homicide.

Not probably, I think that is the only logical conclusion

based on information

we have about homicides and children dying.

Garavaglia: She was in control of the child.

She never reported the child missing.

The child is found dead in an abandoned field

a 4th of a mile from her house, rotting in a plastic bag

behind a rotten log to try to hide the body,

with duct tape over the lower face.

We don't need anything else.

Kobilinsky: The defense is saying

Caylee died based on a swimming accident,

an accident in the swimming pool,

somehow she got in and drowned.

Garavaglia: I thought the drowning theory

was total hog wash for many reasons.

Ashton: When you were a law enforcement officer,

were you trained in CPR? George: Yes, sir.

is there any extent that you would not have gone to

to save Caylee's life?

I would have done everything possible, humanly possible

to save my granddaughter

First of all, why didn't she mention it?

Why would you not call EMS?

We know that most people,

when there's an accidental drowning, call 911.

Accidental drownings don't turn into homicides

or people disposing of bodies.

Tell this jury, 100%,

that there's no way that this death

could have been accidental.

Mason: The evidence did not establish how that child died,

when she died, where she died,

and who, if anyone, was with her when she died.

Juries really don't like to guess how people die.

♪♪

Frank: When you first opened the garage door,

and walked into the garage what do you recall noticing?

Lee: A smell.

Was it an offensive smell? Yes.

The decomposition that I smelled

in the trunk of my daughter's car

smelled like human decomposition.

Another battle came with another expert later,

Arpad Vass, about whether or not his experiments and research

into the odor of decomposition is really a valid good science.

Kobilinsky: There are many issues that come out as

to whether that is a reliable indication of a body or not.

What that meant is that chemistry needed to be applied

and samples were taken from the trunk.

The large peak was identified as chloroform.

The prosecution decided that they would be going

with this technology that Dr. Vass was using

to test the air in the trunk.

They thought this was state of the art.

I think it was more not ready for prime time.

That tevlar bag is a polyvinyl fluoride type of plastic.

Was it a little too technical for the jurors to understand?

I didn't think so.

The danger with forensic evidence

is that if you make it too complicated,

if they don't understand it,

then they're going to disregard it.

And the lesson of the O.J. Simpson case

was keep it simple.

Woman:Hi, Larry. Hi.

I have a question for the Anthonys.

Um, what will they do if their daughter is found guilty?

Will they still support her or will they cut all ties?

I can't cut ties from my own flesh and blood, so no.

♪♪

Banfield: So finally, June 30th, the defense rests,

and they make the announcement in court,

"Casey is not going to take the stand."

Perry: Is it your decision not to testify

based upon consultation with your counsel?

Yes, sir.

Breaking news -- Casey Anthony's fate

now in the hands of the jury.

Going into verdict watch, people were pretty resolute --

she was going down.

She was guilty.

I thought the state had put on a strong case.

I thought a jury would return

a verdict of murder in the first degree.

If you were to review all of the daily news coverage,

there was no question

she was heading for the death penalty.

Bombshell tonight --

We are in a verdict watch here at the Orange County Courthouse.

Kobilinsky: I think the public felt they had it all wrapped up,

I mean, this was a no-brainer.

Casey did it.

she's going to prison, or they're going to take her life.

Savage: You could feel the tension in that room.

As to the charge of first-degree murder,

we the jury find the defendant...

I love that little girl more than I ever thought

I could love anything in this entire world,

or anyone for that matter.

Man: So this jury has been deliberating now

10 hours and 40 minutes.

We have word that the jury has a verdict

in the Casey Anthony murder trial.

After almost 11 hours of deliberation,

on July 5th, the jurors returned their verdict.

Mason: And so the judge comes in and the clerk,

the deputies all gather.

Perry: The court deputy brought the verdict forms up to me.

Savage: You could feel the tension in that room.

You couldn't even hear people breathing

because people were literally holding their breath.

Perry: Will the defendant rise, along with counsel?

The State of Florida versus Casey Marie Anthony.

As to the charge of first-degree murder,

verdict as to count one,

we the jury find the defendant not guilty.

So say we all dated at Orlando,

Orange County, Florida, on this fifth day of July, 2011.

I was totally floored.

Jordan: I was in complete shock and disbelief.

It knocked the wind out of me.

Grace: You are seeing the inside of a stunned courtroom.

Allen: It wasn't George's car that smelled

like it had a dead body in it, it was Casey's car.

It wasn't George that spent a month

lying about where the baby was,

it was Casey.

Grace: Tot mom Casey Anthony has been found,

for all intents and purposes, not guilty.

I thought, "Surely she would be responsible for something."

Woman: Not guilty of aggravated manslaughter.

Not guilty of aggravated child abuse.

The only thing they found her guilty of

was lying to the police.

Savage: Casey was crying, and I thought

that was all, like, manufactured crap.

That she just pulled something over on the world.

The devil is dancing tonight.

I think the prosecution was stunned,

and so was the public.

They call this justice?

O.J. number two.

O.J. number two, that's what you're hearing here.

Fanning: It's as if all the outrage of any indecency

that had ever been done to a child

was now all focused on one person -- Casey Anthony.

Woman: It's wrong she got away with it.

I can't even talk, I'm appalled by this.

I mean, these people were angry.

Crowd: [ Chanting ] Justice for Caylee,

Justice for Caylee, Justice for Caylee.

Mason: The only thing they did not have

was pitchforks and ropes and burning torches.

The best feeling that I have today,

is that I know I can go home and my daughter will ask me,

"What did you do today?"

And I can say, "I saved a life."

I'm sure the question that was on everyone's mind

at that moment was, "Are you kidding me?"

How could the jury have thought this?

How does that happen?

I thought that the jury got it right.

The state didn't prove their case.

Cause of death would have been helpful.

Like, really helpful.

Or at least where it happened

or when it happened or any witness or anyone

even that would have said she was not a good mother.

Velez-Mitchell: Prosecutors should beware

of open-and-shut cases.

Slam-dunk cases, I've seen it many times,

with the Michael Jackson child molestation case,

with the O.J. Simpson case, and with the Casey Anthony case.

These mega-cases are runaway freight trains.

In chaos and confusion, there is reasonable doubt.

Banfield: Probably mistake number one

was charging her with first-degree murder

and putting the death penalty on the table

in a case where there were huge gaps in the facts.

Velez-Mitchell: I think the prosecution could have done more

to spell out how they believed that Casey killed Caylee.

I can't visualize it.

While I don't believe the defense,

I can totally visualize their version of events.

Ultimately, the jury was asked a very simple question.

"Do you know what killed this child?

How did she die?"

They don't know.

Could it have been an accident?

Sure.

That did it, reasonable doubt, that's all they needed.

Mason: She is convicted on four counts of lying to the police.

He gave her a maximum sentence, a full year

and a thousand-dollar fine for each of the four.

Velez-Mitchell: July 17, 2011 --

we are waiting for the ultimate moment,

the moment that Casey is gonna waltz out from behind bars

and disappear God knows where.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

And all of a sudden, shortly after midnight,

there comes Casey.

She gets into this vehicle and heads off into the night.

♪♪

After many years, Casey Anthony finally gives an interview.

She's asked, point blank, what happened.

♪♪

Golenbock: Despite the verdict,

Casey was still the most hated person in America.

I suspect for a lot of people, it's still that way today.

Casey's living out a very unusual life.

Semi-seclusion, I think you could say.

She's in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mason: Casey only recently has felt sufficiently safe

to be able to go outside the house to go to a store

because of the threats.

Ultimately, she ended up living with Pat McKenna,

the lead investigator on the defense team,

and he's somebody who also handled the O.J. Simpson case.

♪♪

♪♪

Reporter: Right, so -- so you find --

you -- you feel like you're in the same boat in a way?

There's a parallel.

Casey: There are a lot of parallels.

And I can empathize at least a little bit with his situation.

Velez-Mitchell: She's doing research for Pat McKenna.

She's also got her own "photography company."

I don't know what it is about these women accused of murder.

Jodi Arias was a photographer, too.

To your understanding, how did she die?

I don't know. You don't know?

Something about drowning, possibly?

She's asked, point blank, what happened.

And she says, "I don't know."

Mm-hmm.

And then waking up several hours later

in a panic. Later in the morning?

Later in the morning, hour, two hours later

and not knowing where she was.

Velez-Mitchell: What I see is Casey trying

to maintain her mystique,

to intrigue the public,

"Oh, wait, now we're back to square one.

We don't know what happened."

I personally don't believe her.

I think she knows exactly what happened to her daughter.

But she's a woman who can live with lies,

and maybe she's convinced herself that she doesn't know.

Casey just doesn't accept responsibility

for what she did to her family.

She doesn't care about anybody but Casey.

Whether or not we will ever have closure on this, I doubt it,

because there's only one person that can actually provide that,

and that's Casey.

We all pay for our sins,

and some of us pay for it in this lifetime

and some of us will pay for it in the next.

She'll get what's coming to her, I'm very confident of that.

♪♪

Public outrage about the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial

led to new legislation, not only in Florida,

but in a few other states, as well.

Known as Caylee's law,

it criminalized a parent's failure

to report a child missing or dead.

After Casey's trial, prosecutors declined charging her mother

with perjury for her testimony about chloroform searches.

And after all this,

George and Cindy Anthony stayed together,

Casey and her mother still communicate.

However, George says he has no interest

in a relationship with his daughter.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.