Caylee Anthony

Caylee Marie Anthony (August 9, 2005 – June 16, 2008) was a two-year-old girl reported missing in Orlando, Florida in July 2008, whose remains were found in a wooded area near her home in December 2008. Her 22-year-old mother, Casey Anthony, was acquitted of first degree murder, but convicted of lying to police officers, in a televised trial in the summer of 2011 that was described by Time magazine as "the social media trial of the century."[1]

Caylee was reported missing on July 15, 2008 by her maternal grandmother, Cindy Anthony, who told the emergency dispatcher she had not seen the child for 31 days, and that Casey's car smelled as though there had been a dead body inside it. Although the mother and child lived with the grandparents, the grandmother said Casey had taken the child away for a few weeks, on what was alternately described as a business trip or holiday. It was not until July 15, she said, that Casey had admitted she had not seen her daughter for weeks.[2]

Casey at first told detectives the child had been kidnapped by her nanny on June 9, and that she had spent the time since then trying to find her, too frightened to alert the authorities.[3] It was soon discovered that the child had no nanny, and this became one of a series of stories Casey was forced to admit she had fabricated. With the child still missing, Casey was charged with first degree murder in October, pleading not guilty. Two months later, on December 11, the child's skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near the family home, wrapped in a blanket and hidden inside two bags. The police reported there was duct tape attached to the skull, which the prosecution later alleged had been wrapped around the child's nose and mouth before she died, making it the murder weapon. The prosecution, led by Linda Drane Burdick, sought the death penalty.[4]

The trial lasted six weeks, from May to July 2011. The prosecution said Casey had murdered her daughter by administering chloroform, then applying the duct tape, and that she had done so because she wanted her freedom. The defense team, led by Jose Baez, countered that the child had drowned accidentally in the family's swimming pool on June 16, 2008, and that Casey had lied about this and other issues because of a dysfunctional upbringing, which they said had included sexual abuse by her father. Casey did not take the stand, and no evidence was presented to support the defense's allegations, or to explain the abandonment of the child's remains. The defense instead sought to raise doubts about the integrity of the prosecution's case—particularly its forensic evidence—and on July 5 the jury found Casey not guilty of murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.[5] With credit for time served, she was released on July 17. The verdict was greeted with public outrage, and was both defended and attacked by media and legal commentators. Several complained that the jury had misunderstood the meaning of "reasonable doubt," while others said the prosecution had relied too heavily on the defendant's allegedly poor moral character, because it had been unable to show conclusively how the victim had died.