Nancy Grace shares why she declined to take part in new Casey Anthony docuseries
Fox Nation host Nancy Grace rips Peacock's upcoming Casey Anthony docuseries and shares why she declined to take part in the show.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from the upcoming Peacock docuseries, "Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies."
A devastating case that gripped the hearts of millions for years has once again been thrust back into the spotlight as the woman at the center of it all – Casey Anthony – has emerged with renewed claims against her father.
Anthony, who was acquitted in 2011 for the 2008 Florida death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, sobbed as she told filmmakers what she described as being the real truth behind what happened over a decade ago – despite her admitted lies.
"I admitted that I lied," she told filmmakers, "but no one asked why."
CASEY ANTHONY ACCUSES FATHER GEORGE IN DEATH OF 2-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER CAYLEE: 'SHE WAS COLD'
Casey Anthony returns to spotlight in docuseries on her daughter's murder. (Fox News)
"Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies" documents the first time the woman has appeared on camera since she was found not guilty of Caylee’s murder, but guilty of lying to law enforcement.
"She became a pariah – one of the nation’s most despised women."
Each episode, which spans more than an hour, heavily features interviews from members of Anthony’s former defense team, sans lead attorney Jose Baez. Baez previously told Fox News Digital he was not involved in the show and had not seen it.
Anthony stopped short of alleging her father, 71-year-old George Anthony, intentionally killed Caylee, but heavily accused the man of being somehow involved.
CASEY ANTHONY MYSTERY: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
"I’m not outright accusing him of murder, but it wasn’t an accident in the pool," Anthony said in the three-part series, provided to Fox News Digital in advance of its Nov. 29 release.
"There was just nothing that led us down that road that George is responsible in any way for the death of the child."
George Anthony told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that he has been in contact with an attorney. He would not comment when contacted by Fox News Digital on Tuesday, noting that he wanted to first watch the full documentary. Fox News Digital did not have the access to provide Anthony with show footage.
Orange County detectives worked to track down dozens of tips in their search for missing 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony. (Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"I lost everything the day I lost her – everything," Anthony told the camera. "Every day, I live with a broken heart. I want to know why."
Anthony’s trial last more than a month, during which time her parents and her brother were among those called as witnesses.
Baez argued that Caylee accidentally drowned and her death was then covered up, though Casey said she does not believe her daughter drowned in the family's above-ground pool. Meanwhile, prosecutors argued that Casey Anthony suffocated the girl using chloroform and then covered the toddler's mouth with duct tape.
During the trial, a woman named Krystal Holloway, who said she had been in an extramarital relationship with George Anthony after Caylee’s disappearance, testified that he told her, "it was an accident that snowballed out of control."
CASEY ANTHONY WANTS TO ‘TELL HER TRUTH’ IN A DOCUMENTARY, PAL SAYS: ‘SHE FEELS LIKE IT’S TIME’
A jury ultimately deliberated for 11 hours before finding Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. She was convicted of four counts of lying to law enforcement.
LIFE AFTER TRIAL
Anthony admitted that jurors delivered "the right guilty verdict."
" I did lie to law enforcement. I admitted I lied to law enforcement," she said.
When asked about her "relationship to truth and lying today," she responded: "I’m a little too honest. I’m blunt. I’m direct. Almost painfully so."
Casey Anthony sits in the courtroom before a sentencing hearing in Orlando, Florida, July 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Joe Burbank, Pool)
After the trial, Anthony went to live with her defense team’s lead investigator, Patrick McKenna, and his family. McKenna lauded Anthony as the equivalent of one of his own children, and confirmed years-old reports that Anthony had gone on to work at his investigation firm.
"I think she’s very truthful today," he said. "I trust her so much that I trust her with my research, with my invoices … I’m pretty good at catching lies – it’s kind of my job. She’s very honest."
Anthony, who now lives on her own, maintained a low profile outside of sporadic media interviews prior to the documentary.
She has kept in contact with many of the members of her legal team, including a forensics expert who spoke highly of her during all three episodes. The members of the team argued in the show that George’s statements surrounding his daughter varied based upon whether he was speaking with law enforcement officers or the media.
Eric Edwards, a homicide detective who investigated the Anthony case, said George, who was a former member of law enforcement, had reported to investigators that Casey was the last person who saw Caylee. Edwards said investigators did also probe whether George should be a suspect.
"Would that, in my mind, immediately make him a suspect because he's one of the last people that sees the two together? You'd be remiss not to realize that as a possibility," Edwards said. "But there was just nothing that led us down that road that George is responsible in any way for the death of the child."
But McKenna described how law enforcement "believed everything" out of George Anthony’s mouth, rather than viewing every person as "a suspect."
"I think they viewed George as, rather than just be a witness, he’s like in on it with them," McKenna went on. "The mentality is, ‘We got our girl. We’re not looking at any other place because it doesn’t fit our story.'"
George and Cindy Anthony in their seats after placing a teddy bear at the memorial for their granddaughter, Caylee Anthony, at First Baptist Orlando in Orlando, Florida. (MyFOXOrlando.com)
He added: "She became a pariah – one of the nation’s most despised women."
An at-times sobbing or emotional Casey Anthony told the camera she was 22 and "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," she said. "Manipulation after manipulation after manipulation. But somehow, he got cleared by law enforcement from day one."
CASEY’S CLAIMS
Casey Anthony holds hands with her defense attorney Jose Baez as they listen to the verdict at the Orange County Courthouse, July 5, 2011. (Pool)
Much like Baez during trial, Anthony told filmmakers she was sexually abused by her father, who would cover her face with a pillow if she resisted his attempts at doing so.
As for Caylee, Casey explained through tears her version of what happened on the day she last saw her daughter.
George Anthony steps out in Florida, Tuesday, November 15, 2022, as shocking accusations by his infamous daughter Casey Anthony emerge in a bombshell documentary. (The Mega Agency)
Anthony said she and Caylee had been resting together in her bed on June 16, 2008, because she "wasn’t feeling that great." She said she thought she had locked the door.
"I was awoken by him (her father) shaking me and asking me where Caylee was," she said. "She would never even leave my room without telling me."
She went on, "I immediately started looking around the house.… I go outside, and I'm looking to see where she could be. She's not in her playhouse. Where is she?"
Asked if she had looked inside the pool, she said, "Didn't have to."
George Anthony steps out in Florida, Tuesday, November 15, 2022, as shocking accusations by his infamous daughter Casey Anthony emerge in a bombshell documentary. (The Mega Agency)
She then spotted her father "standing there with her."
"She's soaking wet," she said. "He handed her to me and telling me that it was my fault. That I did that. That I caused it. But he didn't rush to call 911, or he wasn't trying to resuscitate her. I just collapsed with her in my arms."
Caylee was "heavy" and "cold," Anthony said.
George Anthony then changed his demeanor and took Caylee from his daughter, Casey Anthony said.
"He immediately softens his tone and tells me, ‘It’s going to be OK,’" she said. "That's what he said to me. I wanted to believe him.… He took her from me, and he walked away."
She said she did not believe her daughter had drowned and added that the above-ground pool had "no ladder" and there was "no way for her to shimmy up."
She added, "There's no way to explain that, unless [George] put her in the pool to cover up what he did."
Casey Anthony said she then left and spent a portion of the next 31 days with her boyfriend, but kept quiet about what she had seen. She claimed that she "genuinely believed that Caylee was still alive."
"My father kept telling me she was OK," she said in the show. "I was in contact with my father daily.… I just wanted answers. ‘When am I going to see her? How much longer are we going to keep doing this? Is she OK?’"
Asked what happened in the 31 days between when she last saw her daughter and when the police were notified, she said: "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 OK. The entire time."
Cindy and George Anthony leave the courtroom after listening to the first part of the state's opening arguments in their daughter's first-degree murder trial, at the Orange County Courthouse, in Orlando, Florida, May 24, 2011. (AP)
Caylee’s grandmother reported her missing on July 15, 2008, weeks after she was said to have been last seen on June 16. Anthony said her daughter was with a babysitter – whom she identified as Zenaida Gonzalez – when they disappeared.
She said during the documentary that she had met a woman with the same name who "was a babysitter," but added: "All that’s true. [She] was not my nanny, was not my babysitter."
Casey said she became pregnant with Caylee from a man who raped her after allegedly drugging her at a house party when she was 18.
Casey Anthony, 24, listens to testimony during her murder trial, in Orlando, Florida, March 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool, File)
"I wasn’t sure anyone would believe me because, again, I know what happens to girls when they go to a party," she said. "All the guy needs to say is, ‘Yeah, of course she wanted to do it. She wanted to be a part of it. She was asking for it.’"
She denied that her father was Caylee’s father.
As for the question of where she worked at the time of Caylee’s disappearance – a topic that was noted by law enforcement who cited her lack of truthfulness – she said her job was her "exit plan."
Casey Anthony cries next to her attorney Jose Baez after she was acquitted on first-degree murder charges on July 5, 2011. (Reuters)
"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," she said. "Because I wanted an exit plan for Caylee to get out of that house, to get away from those people and to start over."
She insisted she did work at Universal Studios for an independent contractor until the contract expired, at which point she "transitioned into working in the nightlife, bartending."
"I was making a lot of cash," she said. "I’d been telling my mom that I was still working at Universal because I didn’t want her asking questions about where I was getting extra money and why I had it… I didn’t want her to know my plan to leave until I was ready to tell her that I was moving away."
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"Casey Anthony: Where The Truth Lies," will air on Peacock on Nov. 29.
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