Narrator / Prosecutor (26:45)
Officer Yuri Melish with the Orange County Sheriff's Office Missing Persons Unit was assigned to the Anthony's case as the lead investigator. By then he'd been briefed on what the Anthony's had reported, including Casey's claim that she'd dropped Kaylee off with Zanny, the nanny at the Sawgrass Apartments. The next day, Melish went to the complex and spoke with a supervisor. He asked about a woman named Zenaida or Zanny living there in June of 2008. He was told no one by that name had ever lived in that unit. In fact, the apartment Casey had pointed to had been vacant for months. Investigators moved on to the next set of names Casey had offered Juliet and Annabelle. The co worker and her child. Detectives checked. Juliet wasn't employed at Universal. She wasn't an event coordinator. She wasn't connected to Casey at all. She and her daughter Annabelle didn't exist. Casey had given detailed descriptions, job titles, backgrounds and personal histories of people she had completely made up. Next, investigators focused on Jeff Hopkins. Casey had claimed she spent significant time with him while Kaylee was missing. She said his son Zachary was also cared for by Zanny, that the children were together. Jeff Hopkins confirmed he knew Casey. He had once worked at Universal Studios, but he hadn't worked there in six years. He told detectives he and Casey were not close, barely acquaintances. He had not been with her in Jacksonville. He had not been at the Hard Rock Hotel. In fact, he hadn't even spoken to her recently. And then investigators asked the question that collapsed another part of the story. Did Zanny also babysit his son Zachary? That's when Jeff told detectives, no, Zanny doesn't babysit Zachary because there is no Zachary. He doesn't have any children. Prosecutors argued that Casey used Jeff Hopkins and the idea of being out of town with someone stable and wealthy to buy time and create distance between Kaylee and her grandparents. And they argued that once the tow yard letter arrived, the entire structure of that story began to cave in. As detectives dug deeper, they uncovered another lie, one that went beyond the month Kaylee was missing. Casey had told her parents she worked as an event coordinator at Universal Studios. But in reality, she hadn't worked there in two years. For two years, prosecutors said, Casey had been getting dressed each morning, leaving the house with Kaylee and telling her parents she was going to a job that didn't exist. At this point, investigators were left with two questions that mattered most. Why is she lying? And where is Kaylee? Detectives decided to test Casey's claim in real time. Casey insisted she had an office at Universal. Investigators arranged to take her there. At the employee entrance, security checked the system. There was no employee listed under her name. Casey offered a supervisor's name that wasn't in the system either. A manager intervened and allowed Casey to walk the detectives inside. They followed her through hallways as she smiled and waved at employees as if she belonged there. Some waved back politely, but with hesitation, as if trying to place her. Then Casey reached a dead end. With nowhere left to lead them, she turned to the detectives, slid her hands into her back pockets, and admitted she didn't work there. Casey told detectives she lied because she thought she could find Kaylee on her own. She said she didn't go to police because she was afraid that if she did, Sammy would hurt her daughter. Up to that point, detectives had approached Casey as a mother whose child might still be found alive. After that moment, their tone changed. On July 16, 2008, Casey Anthony was arrested and charged with child neglect, giving false information to law enforcement and obstruction. While Kaci was in jail, her brother Lee confronted her with the fact that no one named Zinaida had ever lived at the Sawgrass Apartments. And suddenly, the kidnapping story began to shift. According to prosecutors, Casey realized she could no longer sustain the version where she had calmly dropped Kaylee off and later discovered she was gone, so she gave a new account. This time, Casey said she met Xannie at a park. She claimed Zanny arrived with her sister and several children. The meeting, Casey said, quickly turned hostile. While sitting on a park bench, she alleged that Zanny and her sister grabbed her wrists and held her down. Then, Casey said, Zanny took Kali from her. According to Casey's statement, Zanny told her she was not a good mother, that she was taking Kali to teach her a lesson. Casey claimed she was warned not to go to the police and that if she did, she would never see her daughter again. Casey said she was scared. She didn't know what to do, she said. After that confrontation, Zanny continued to control her, allegedly accessing Casey's MySpace account, using her password, sending her messages and instructing her where to go and what to say. This evolving version of events only deepened investigators concerns. The story was no longer just unverified, it was changing again. And with no evidence that Zanny the nanny existed and Casey's credibility collapsing by the hour, the investigation widened. What began as a missing persons case was now moving towards something far more serious. When George and Cindy Anthony retrieved Casey's car from the tow yard, both commented that it smelled like a dead body had been in the trunk. George, who was a former law enforcement officer, told the jury that decomposition has a distinct odor, one you don't forget. As he approached the car and caught that smell, he said he prayed silently that it wasn't coming from his daughter or his granddaughter. The tow yard manager also took the stand. He testified that he had been in the towing business for years and had encountered vehicles containing deceased individuals. Based on his experience, he believed the odor coming from Casey's trunk was consistent with human decomposition. Investigators noted the smell as well. But it wasn't just the odor that concerned them. Inside the trunk, they located strands of hair similar in length and color to Kaylee's. The hair was confirmed to be human, but because it lacked a root with nuclear DNA, analysts could not make a definitive individual match. Microscopic comparison showed similarities to Cayley's known hair sample, but it was not conclusive. To narrow it further, forensic scientists conducted mitochondrial DNA testing. That testing cannot identify a single individual, but it can determine maternal lineage. The result? The hair came from someone within the Anthony maternal line. Then came the FBI laboratory analysis. Examiners testified that the hair exhibited characteristics consistent with post mortem root changes, including what is known as a decomposition band, sometimes referred to as a death band. This banding pattern can occur when hair separates from the scalp after death. To investigators, this suggested that a body, likely Kaylee's, had been in the trunk of Casey's car. A cadaver dog trained to detect the scent of human decomposition was also deployed. The dog alerted to the trunk area. With all this evidence mounting, prosecutors argued that the trunk of Casey Anthony's car had held the remains of a deceased child. And In October of 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted for the murder of her two year old daughter. For months, Kaylee Anthony was considered a missing child. Search efforts continued. Media coverage intensified. Hope, however faint, still lingered. Then, on December 11, 2008, a utility worker named Roy Cronk called authorities after discovering what appeared to be skeletal remains in a wooded area less than half a mile from the Anthony home. The area was swampy and heavily wooded, a place that had previously been searched but had been underwater during earlier attempts. Investigators recovered skeletal remains along with a child's Winnie the Pooh blanket and a laundry bag. The remains were later confirmed to be Kaylee Anthony. For the prosecution, this discovery changed everything. They were no longer searching for a nanny with an abducted child. This was now a homicide case. When the remains were examined, investigators noted that duct tape was found in the area of the skull. The tape was adhered in a way that prosecutors would later argue was consistent with suffocation. But because the remains were skeletal, the medical examiner could not determine an exact cause of death. However, the manner of death was ruled a homicide. The proximity of the remains to the Anthony home, which was within walking distance, became a key point for the state. Prosecutors argued that location suggested familiarity with the area and intentional placement. Combined with the trunk evidence, the decomposition testimony, and the false kidnapping story, the state contended that the totality of evidence pointed in one direction. Kaylee had not been kidnapped. She had been killed and her body had been discarded and near her own home. With Kaylee's remains recovered, investigators began putting together their case against Casey Anthony. Over the next two years, prosecutors worked to organize the forensic findings, digital evidence, witness testimony, and expert analysis into a case they believed proved premeditated murder. By the time the trial began in 2011, the state of Florida was prepared to present to the jury what they argued was a clear narrative. Kaylee Anthony had not been kidnapped and her mother lied repeatedly to authorities about it. They had forensic evidence that they believed showed Kaylee's body had been in the trunk of her mother's car before being left in the woods. During the trial, Casey's boyfriend, Tony Lazzaro, took the Stand. So did his roommates and several of Casey's friends. One by one, they testified that during the month Kaylee was gone, Casey never told them her daughter was missing. She never appeared distressed. She never asked for help finding her child. On June 16, the last day, George Anthony said he saw Kaylee alive. Phone records showed Kayce remained near the Anthony home until around 4pm that evening. Surveillance video captured Casey and Tony at a blockbuster. She appeared relaxed and affectionate, her arms around his waist. Kaylee was not with them. Prosecutors argued that by that point Kaylee was already dead and likely in the trunk of Casey's car. The state also focused on a pattern. Cindy left for work between 7 and 8am and returned after 5pm George typically left before mid afternoon. So on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the house was empty for several hours. Phone records showed that on those specific days when the home was unoccupied, Casey often returned to the Anthony residence. The day after Kaylee disappeared, a neighbor testified that he saw Casey pull into the driveway and back her car into the garage around 2:45pm she remained there until approximately 4:30 before leaving again. The following day, he saw her again backing into the garage. This time she asked to borrow a shovel. He testified that she kept it for about an hour or so before returning it. Over the next several days, when either George or Cindy was home, Casey did not return to the house. Instead, jurors heard about what she was doing elsewhere. On Friday night, Casey went to an Orlando nightclub called Fusion wearing what would later be referred to as the blue dress. She was photographed dancing on stage during a hot body contest. Witnesses from the club testified. And jurors were shown photos of Casey on stage smiling ear to ear as she danced for the competition. At the same time, Casey was telling her mother she was on a work trip in Tampa and that Kaylee was with the nanny she was out clubbing. Over the course of that month, witnesses described Casey attending parties, staying out late shopping and spending time with friends. Absent from every account, Kaylee prosecutors argued that this was not the behavior of a mother who knew knows her child had been abducted. They also highlighted two incidents involving Casey running out of gas. The first time, Toni helped her break into her parents shed to retrieve gas cans. The second time, on June 27, 12 days after Kaylee's disappearance, Casey was complaining to a friend about a strong odor in her car, saying there was a dead animal stuck to the frame. Minutes later, she ran out of gas near an Amscot on University Boulevard. Tony testified that when he arrived to pick her up. He noticed grocery bags filled with items from a refrigerator and clothing inside the car. Casey left the vehicle there, and when the manager noticed it sitting all weekend, they called to have it towed. On July 3, 18 days after Kaylee was last seen, Casey got a tattoo that read Bella vita, Italian for beautiful life. The state introduced this not as character evidence, but but as part of the timeline. They argued that while her daughter had not been seen for nearly three weeks, Casey appeared to be living freely. Throughout the trial, prosecutors framed this pattern of behavior, the parties, the lies, the lack of urgency as consciousness of guilt. They argued that Casey was not behaving like a mother who believed her child had been kidnapped. They argued she was behaving like someone who knew her child was not coming back. Jurors heard recorded interviews in which Casey maintained the kidnapping story even after her arrest. They listened to jail calls between Casey and her family. And prosecutors suggested that while Casey became emotional when discussing herself, she remained detached when discussing Kaylee. But behavior alone does not prove homicide. To secure a conviction for first degree murder, the state needed more than character judgments. They needed forensic evidence. They needed something physical, something scientific, Something that tied Kaylee's death directly to Casey. So they walked the jury back through the trunk of the Pontiac, back to the wooded area where Kaylee's remains were found, back to the duct tape, the computer searches the decomposition evidence. And piece by piece, they argued that the science told the same story. The timeline did. They begin with the scene where Kaylee's remains were found. When investigators recovered her skeletal remains, they also recovered a child's blanket featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet characters that decorated Kaylee's bedroom at the Anthony home. Her remains were located inside a canvas laundry bag. Testimony established that the bag had originally been sold as part of a two piece set. During a search of the Anthony home, investigators recovered the matching bag. To the state, that connection was important. It suggested that the bag did not come from some unknown location. It came from inside the home. Then there was the duct tape. When Kaylee's skull was recovered, duct tape was found in the area of her mouth. Prosecutors argued that the way the mandible remained positioned suggested that the tape had been applied over the mouth and nose before decomposition occurred. The state's theory was that the tape was used to suffocate her. The brand of duct tape that was used was also not a common brand. In fact, that brand hadn't been sold since 2007. Later, they also found a piece of that same unique tape on the Gas cans that Casey took from George's shed. Prosecutors also addressed the odor evidence. Using chemical analysis, Dr. Arpad Vas identified compounds consistent with human decomposition. The state argued that the odor described by witnesses was not garbage, not spoiled food, but the scent of a body. Dr. Vass also testified that he found unusually high levels of chloroform during his testing. Chloroform is most well known for being used to incapacitate people. And police believes that Casey used chloroform to render Caylee unconscious before using duct tape to suffocate her daughter. To support this theory, they turned to the computer Records from the Anthony family. Computer showed Internet searches conducted during times when both George and Cindy were at work. Among those searches were terms related to chloroform and how to make chloroform at home. The state argued those searches were consistent with premeditation, that someone in that home had researched a way to incapacitate. Prosecutors also introduced evidence in another form. Casey's social media password. Casey had set up a password for her accounts that she told her brother was related to kaylee. The password timer55. Prosecutors argue that the day Kaylee disappeared was 55 days before her third birthday, and Casey knew that she would only be able to stall her parents for so long. They suggested that Kaylee's birthday would be the day she could no longer stall, and she had a countdown going until that day. To support this, they reminded the jury that when police first asked Casey about where Kaylee was last seen, Casey got the date wrong, saying it was June 9th instead of June 16th. But she didn't get the number of days wrong. She knew that it had been 31 days. And they argued that's because she had a timer until her birthday. To prosecutors, the evidence was damning. This was not a kidnapping. This was a homicide. And they argued the evidence pointed to only one person. During closing arguments, the prosecution walked the jury through the entirety of the evidence. They said Casey wanted a bella vita, a beautiful life, free of responsibility. She wanted to party. She wanted hang out with friends, go shopping and date as she pleased. She chose to sacrifice her young daughter to create that life. The state's theory was that Casey researched how to make chloroform, then used chloroform to incapacitate Kaylee. She then placed three pieces of duct tape over her nose and mouth, making sure it was all covered, resulting in her death. She placed Kaylee in her trunk and returned home when George and Cindy were gone, backing her car into the garage, then borrowing a shovel from her neighbor. Her intentions, according to the state, were to bury Kaylee in the backyard with the family pets. But the job was too difficult and the ground was too hard. So Casey wrapped Kaylee in a blanket and the canvas laundry bag from their home, placed that in a plastic bag, and dumped Kaylee in the swampy woods around the corner from their home. Then she spent the next 3:31 days living her Bella vita. She went shopping. She spent time with her friends. She moved in with her boyfriend and his roommates, frequenting nightclubs, and even entered a hot body contest. She's seen on video all over town, shopping and partying, living the life she chose Prosecutors argue that Kaylee Anthony died before her third birthday because her mother decided that the life that she wanted was more important than Kaylee's. With the prosecution's case complete, it was the defense's turn. But how do you defend someone the media has already labeled the most hated woman in America? Long before the jury was seated, defense attorney Jose Baez stood before cameras insisting his client was innocent. And when he stood to address the jury at trial, his explosive opening statements turned this entire case upside down. The defense acknowledged the lies, but instead of denying them, they turned them into part of the defense. They argued Casey Anthony was not the villain of the story, she was a product of it. Then came the allegation no one saw coming. According to the defense, the real darkness in this case didn't begin with Casey. It began inside the Anthony home. It had involved her father, George Anthony. The claim ignited a media firestorm, and when the jury returned with its verdict, the courtroom and the nation were left stunned. 13 13th juror is an Audio Chuck production hosted by Brandi Churchwell. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. You can follow 13th Juror on Instagram. 13th Juror podcast I think Chuck would approve.
