What if everything you knew about Casey Anthony – the woman once dubbed ‘America’s most hated mom’ amid suspicions she killed her 2-year-old daughter – was wrong?
It’s the swing-for-the-fences thesis of a three-part docuseries, “Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies,” streaming now. on Peacock. In it, Anthony, now 36, gives his first on-camera interview since his acquittal in 2011.
The fact that Anthony was found not guilty in the death of his daughter Caylee shocked those who had convicted Casey in the court of public opinion. After all, she never reported her child missing in the summer of 2008, despite not having seen her for 31 days. She got a “Bella Vita” tattoo, Italian for “beautiful life”, and was found guilty of four counts of providing false information to law enforcement, although two were overturned by the following.
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“So far, everyone has heard one side of the story,” says Alexandra Dean, director of docuseries (“This Is Paris,” “Secrets of Playboy”). “So of course they believe that’s the only truth, and the outrage is understandable. I think when they watch the documentary and hear the other side of the story, they’ll realize that ‘there are a lot of unanswered questions.
Casey claims she began lying as a coping mechanism to cover up the sexual abuse at the hands of her father, George Anthony, and brother, Lee. George denied abusing his daughter and refused to speak to the filmmakers. Lee, who testified at Casey’s trial, did not speak for the documentary. Neither could be located by USA TODAY for comment.
Casey says, “I lied way more than I ever told the truth because the truth was too painful.”
She thinks her dad was abusing Caylee and might have accidentally killed her by suffocating her with a pillow so she couldn’t fight him – like Casey says George did with her. She claims he brought Caylee’s wet body to her and assured her the child would “be fine” before taking her to an unknown location.
“Just keep doing what I tell you to do,” he allegedly told Casey, which included lying to the police. “You will soon be reunited.”
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“I was convinced she was fine, until December 2008,” when Caylee’s remains were found, Casey says.
Dean reveals why she thinks Anthony is telling the truth now, why Casey is sharing her side of the story, and what she hopes viewers take away from the show.
Edited for length and clarity.
Question: What is Casey’s motivation for wanting to release his version of events now?
Alexandra Dean: Casey went through 10 years of therapy, and she felt she had begun to realize a lot of things about what had happened to her and what had happened to Caylee that she hadn’t been able to understand before, and she wanted to say in the world .
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You say Casey’s case was not properly investigated. How?
Where the documentary lands is that the police did not consider George a suspect, and so they did not look at his phone records for geolocations, did not compare his story with Casey’s phone records. .
You talked about approaching this as an investigative journalist. How did you decide who you would interview to tell a true story?
One of the most important sources for me was the transcripts of conversations Casey had with psychiatrists and psychologists in prison. And what I realized was that the story she’s telling me now is completely consistent with the story she was telling them back then. The fact that she talked about abuse to other people was important.
Dozens of other documentaries say Casey was probably guilty. What (viewers) didn’t hear is why so much of this evidence was rejected by the court, and I think we’ve explained that pretty well.
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People in the docuseries talk about Casey’s usual lying and manipulation, which Casey herself has acknowledged. How can you be sure what she was telling you was the truth?
It was not easy. I spoke to his employer, Pat McKenna (an investigator Casey met while working on Casey’s defense team). He tells me that she was honest with him.
I’ve talked to a lot of psychologists and psychiatrists to find out if it’s possible for someone who was a pathological liar 10 years ago to go to therapy and come to a point where they’re no longer a liar. And several experts told me that it was very possible.
Do you really know what schizophrenia is? Most people don’t.
In the docuseries, Casey says she didn’t want to leave her daughter alone with her father for fear that her daughter would be abused. If she was so afraid of this man, why wouldn’t she have called the police when he took her away?
Trauma is complicated and difficult to understand. Casey tries to explain that when you’re traumatized from a young age by someone who abused you, you can still love them and want to believe they’re not trying to hurt you, even though they has obviously harmed you and may harm you. the other people. But both realities can be true. I don’t think any of us can fully understand this unless we’ve been abused by people we love too, like a parent.
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After spending time with Casey and talking to former friends who described her as a good mother, experts, members of her defense team, what is your opinion?
My opinion is that the police should have considered George a suspect.
What was the biggest challenge in making this docuseries?
The biggest challenge for me was understanding the traumatized brain. It’s very complicated to understand how child abuse can alter the brain. And I’ve talked to a lot of experts who’ve tried to explain to me that you can end up with a kid who, like Casey, seems like a pathological liar because of the way child abuse affects the brain, and you may also find yourself with a person who can keep two realities in mind.
What do you want viewers to take away from the docuseries?
I want people to judge a little less quickly when they hear a complicated story like this. I want people to realize that the media can create a circus around a person or try to make someone a villain or a reality TV hero because it’s good television. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve heard their whole life story.
