“America’s Most Hated Mom,” Casey Anthony, is known for being accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony, and being acquitted shortly after. Anthony makes a reappearance in the media, more specifically TikTok, and attempts to rebrand herself as a legal advocate who becomes a resource to those who need legal advice and assistance. Anthony continues to talk about being in the legal system for years and how she has been recently working as a legal assistant and claiming to be someone who has a passion for helping others get justice. Who would believe this? Does anyone really want advice from a cold and heartless murderer?
The case
In Orlando, Florida, 2-year-old Caylee Anthony was reported missing on July 15, 2008, by Cindy Anthony, her grandmother, after not seeing or speaking to her since June 16, 2008. Her mother, Casey Anthony, was arrested on July 16, 2008, and charged with child neglect, providing false statements, and misleading police about her daughter’s whereabouts. Anthony gives a story about how her daughter disappeared after being left with her babysitter, “Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez,” a woman who was never Caylee’s babysitter (a real woman in Florida sued for defamation), coincidentally also vanishes. Anthony leads the detectives on a wild goose chase, bringing them to the apartment of “Zenaida” (an apartment that was vacant for 140 days), where she claimed she worked at Universal Studios after being unemployed for three years and lying about speaking to Caylee on the phone briefly prior the police found her. Anthony claimed she lived in fear for the past four weeks she was without her daughter, afraid that someone would take her and would hurt her or her parents if she reached out to police or family members for help.
Cadaver dogs pick up a scent indicating traces of human decomposition in the trunk of Anthony’s car, also being proved via air sample. George Anthony, Casey’s father, and retired police officer also recognized the smell as human decomposition. In December, the skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony are found in a laundry bag, with tape over her mouth and nose, in the woods near the Anthony family home. Her cause of death was ruled as a homicide. The trial resumes and the prosecution finds resounding evidence that Anthony is guilty. Evidence like her incriminating search history, photos of her partying over the four weeks her daughter was gone, diary entries written on June 21, talking about feeling happy with her decision and having no regrets, getting a tattoo of “Bella Vita” meaning good life, again not showing any sense of despair or sorrow any mother would’ve shown after losing a child. Anthony showed zero remorse or emotion about her daughter, in the recorded phone calls to friends and family, in front of detectives, and the initial 911 call, seeming annoyed, emotionless, and narcissistic. Anthony’s history of lying and not facing consequences is incredibly long — she can create lies and manipulate others as if it’s a reflex. In her senior year of high school, she was denied the ability to walk at graduation because she stopped attending in her second semester. She was able to lie and convince her parents that it wasn’t her fault, and her parents protected their daughter and continued to celebrate her graduation, throwing a large party for her. For the rest of her life, she mastered the ability to lie, get away with it, and pass through life with no consequences.
Jose Baez is an accredited and famous lawyer known for defending popular cases involving Harvey Weinstein and Aaron Hernandez, and he manages to find a way to excuse Anthony for her lack of remorse and explain what she thinks happened to Caylee. Baez convinces the jury that Casey Anthony was sexually abused by her father during the duration of her childhood, explaining her history of being a pathological liar. He attempts to expose the Anthony family as dysfunctional and manipulative and explains that Caylee passed in an accidental drowning in the family pool. Anthony and her defense team stick to this story of Caylee drowning in the family pool, claims that her father refused to call 911, so she left to stay with her boyfriend for 31 days, hoping that there was a chance she was still alive.
As the trial continued, more evidence and statements came out, and the verdict was found to be not guilty on all the major charges relating to murder in the first degree and neglect, but guilty on counts relating to providing false statements to the police. Anthony served four years for each of the four counts she was found guilty of and also ordered to pay fines and investigative costs. Florida’s Department of Children and Families releases a report stating, “The actions or the lack of actions by the alleged perpetrator ultimately resulted or contributed to the death of the child” acknowledging her guilt and her failure to be a mother to baby Caylee. After killing her 2-year-old baby girl, she is now able to walk freely, spotted at bars, Disney, and around Orlando, living the life she sacrificed her for.
“Legal Advocate”
According to OneLegal, “A legal advocate works within the legal system on behalf of another person to advocate for their rights or needs”. Legal advocates assist with preparing court work, documents to be used or signed, giving legal advice, doing research, and representing clients in court. Legal advocates who want to represent someone in court would typically need to go through schooling and become accredited.
Casey Anthony, however, presents herself on TikTok as a legal advocate (knowing about her background in school, legally cannot) who is willing to give others legal advice and help prepare them for court as she’s been working as a legal assistant, and been in the judicial system since. Her history of being a pathological liar and someone who got away with murdering their child, doesn’t really help her cause as well as she thinks. She goes on to say:
“I am a legal advocate, I am a researcher, I’ve been in the legal field since 2011. In this capacity, I feel that it’s necessary if I am going to continue to operate appropriately as a legal advocate, that I start to advocate for myself and also advocate for my daughter… The whole point of this is for me to begin to reintroduce myself, I’m doing this both personally, for me, but in a professional capacity.”
Casey Anthony talks about being in the legal system since 2011, she wasn’t practicing and advocating in the legal system, she was being tried for the murder of her toddler. The video is an ad, promoting herself on Substack which is newsletter publishing platform that can also feature podcasts, videos, and tweets. People can pay for subscriptions for content on the platform, Anthony hoping the popularity of the case brings her some extra income, probably to continue to pay off those investigative fees. Subscriptions to her Substack are $10 a month or $100 annually, and as of writing this she has over 4.5K subscribers. Her TikTok caption stating, “Raw, uncut, unfiltered”, as an attempt to lure people to see raw uncut scenes of things she wants to talk about on the platform, an attempt to reenter social media. Her Substack bio says, “It has been more than 16 years since my name became a household one. Everyone seems to have an opinion — about me, and about my life. I am an advocate, a researcher. These are my words, this is my REAL life. – CA,” attempting to play the victim and continuing to play innocent, only doing so when it’s beneficial to her. Evidence and jury aside, if Anthony (in some alternate universe) did not murder Caylee, she showed no care, no sorrow, no symptoms of grief that someone who lost a child would have.
She continues to talk about how she wants to open up to audiences on social media, gain attraction, and build a platform, to move towards her, “…goal is to continue to help give a voice to people, to give people tools and resources that they can utilize so they actually know where they can turn to”. Her plan is to have people be able to contact her for advice and assist in research for cases, in which she has no professional background in, just the fact she was involved in one of the most televised trials, involved as the main suspect.
Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace is an award-winning legal commentator, ex-prosecutor, show/podcast host featuring criminal cases, and advocate for victims’ rights, shining light on a variety of cases. Grace is well familiar with Anthony, covering her trial and updates released since, and she does not hide her disgust for Anthony. Grace responds to her claim of being a legal advocate saying, “Legal advocate? No you’re not? You were tried for the murder of your little girl. Legal advocate my rear end.” Anthony’s claim for wanting to advocate for herself and her daughter brings Grace to tears of frustration, “Advocate for my daughter? Who called 911? Not you?” when Caylee was “missing” for 31 days and hidden from her grandparents, it took her mother to step in and call 911.
Grace talks about how Anthony’s attempt to make money off of the fact she was considered one of the worst mothers in America by pitching Substack, wouldn’t be the first time she tried to get attention and money grabs. The attention garnered by her social media presence, the money made off Substack, is to fool, “…any idiot that wants to pay for it.” Back then, Anthony pitched an idea to be the main character of a reality TV show, showcasing the day in the life of “One of the Most Controversial Women in America,” giving insight to her life, the life of remorseless mother who murdered her daughter. The reality TV show was never produced or accepted. Anthony’s documentary was also seen as a money grab by Grace, and she is aware that Anthony will continue to seek money grabs, any way to enter the spotlight and seek attention, by creating partnerships, subscription-based content, and by continuing to bring up Caylee and her parents.
COnclusion
Even though Anthony was acquitted, the amount of evidence against her and the quality of it, the evidence of her narcissistic and sociopathic character, proves her guilt. A juror from the trial says they regret their unanimous decision of not finding her guilty of the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, years too late. The facts behind how Caylee was found, how she passed, and how bright of a girl she was, is enough to make any right-minded person fight for her justice. Donating and subscribing to a cold and heartless murderer, someone who has no professional legal background (though she claims), is the last thing anyone who genuinely needs legal advice should do. I sense that this will not be the end of Casey Anthony’s social media resurgence, and that she will only continue to attempt to make profit off the legal system she was able to deceive.