Content warning: This article contains mentions of child neglect, child abuse, homicide, and graphic descriptions of bodily harm involving a minor.
A controversial new figure on TikTok has been causing waves across social media. On March 1, Casey Anthony —@caseyanthony_substack — posted a three-minute video stating, “If I’m going to continue to operate appropriately as a legal advocate, that I start to advocate for myself and also advocate for my daughter.” For the rest of the video, Anthony goes on to state that she wants to “use the platform thrust upon her” to advocate for the LGBTQ community, women’s rights, and the privacy of individuals.
So, why are people making such a big deal of this on TikTok? For those who don’t know, Anthony states in the video, “My daughter is Caylee Anthony, my parents are George and Cindy Anthony.” In August 2008, Anthony’s story took Orlando, Florida, and the rest of the country by storm when her daughter, Caylee, went missing and was later reported deceased four months later, ruled as a homicide.
At the time, Caylee Anthony’s death was often said to be the “O.J. Simpson trial of the 2000s” due to its massive media coverage and eventual verdict. On June 16, 2008, Anthony was reported to have left her home with Caylee to go to her nanny, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. According to ABC News, just 30 days later, Anthony’s car was discovered to be impounded and abandoned at an Orlando Amscot before being towed away. That same day, Cindy, Anthony’s mother, reported Caylee missing to authorities and claimed the impounded car smelled “like there was a dead body inside.”
After her arrest on July 16, 2008, and the investigation that followed, Anthony was charged with child neglect, obstruction of a criminal investigation, and providing false statements to police, with a denied bail due to “woeful disregard for the welfare of her child.”
During the investigation, authorities discovered that not only had Anthony lied about her employment at Universal Studios, but the apartment of Caylee’s nanny, Fernandez-Gonzalez, where Caylee supposedly was located, had been abandoned for more than 140 days.
Following the use of cadaver dogs that picked up the scent of human decomposition behind the home of her parents, George and Cindy, and her abandoned car trunk, Anthony was charged with first-degree murder on Oct. 14, 2008. She was also charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, and providing false information to law enforcement.
Then, the news that nobody wanted to hear: on Dec. 11, 2008, the skeletal remains of a young girl were discovered within a trash bag in a wooded area less than half a mile away from Anthony’s parents’ home by Orange County utility worker Ray Kronk, who had attempted to contact Orange County sheriff’s line several times earlier that year in August due to finding a suspicious object in the area, but to no avail.
The state of the body was something no child should experience in death. Duct tape was found holding her hair and tissue to her skull, and within the following days, more and more of her bones were found scattered in the area. The chief medical examiner for Orange County, Dr. Jan Garavaglia, confirmed in the report, “This duct tape was clearly placed prior to decomposition, keeping the mandible in place.” On Dec. 20, 2008, the body was confirmed to be that of Caylee Anthony.
The trial that followed the case in 2011 was a long, agonizing period. For the opening statements, prosecutors stated that Anthony used chloroform to incapacitate Caylee before suffocating her with duct tape, leaving the body in the trunk of her car before disposing of it. The defense, Jose Baez, claimed and pushed that Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family’s pool on June 16, 2008, and that Casey and George covered up the drowning to spare her a potential child neglect charge. Post-opening statements, several pieces of evidence were presented, such as ‘microscopic’ hair samples of Caylee’s found in the trunk of Anthony’s car and possible post-mortem root-banding, or an opaque microscopic band near the root area of hairs, as defined by the FBI in 2005.
The trial continued until July 2011. During the closing statements, the defense strongly emphasized the circumstantial nature of the case and the evidence presented and asked the jury to keep their emotions in check during deliberation. After that deliberation, the jury came forward on July 5 with their verdict, and Anthony was found not guilty on the counts of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse while finding her guilty on the counts of providing false information to law enforcement.
Disbelief and outrage spread across the country like wildfire. Remember when I said this was referred to as the O.J. trial of the 2000s? Just like the verdict for that case, people could not believe that this woman, who was seemingly the sole suspect in her daughter’s murder, would be able to evade the murder charges she faced and Florida’s death penalty.
Now, flashforward 14 years later, this same woman who had to stand on trial and face the fact that she could be charged for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, who had faced national backlash, has come back and resurfaced on TikTok as a ‘legal advocate’ using the platform ‘thrust upon’ her by her daughter’s death. It is not too shocking to see why social media users are up in arms about the situation.
We may never know what really happened to Caylee, and maybe Anthony does intend to uplift other communities through her advocacy. But one thing is certain: the treatment Caylee suffered in the days leading up to her passing was unfair, terrible, and something no child should have to live through, especially at just 2 years old. Writing this article, I had the sad realization that Caylee was only born a mere six months after me, down to the day — Aug. 9, 2005. Had her life not been robbed from her, she would be a young 19-year-old, living her life as she should have been able to.