Forensic Transmissions

Episode 35: Casey Anthony Police Interview

Dec 1, 2017

Casey Anthony, mother of the missing Caylee Anthony, reveals gripping insights from her tense police interview. During the confrontation, detectives challenge her inconsistent claims about a fictional babysitter, Zenaida Fernandez Gonzales. Casey insists on her innocence, leading to harrowing revelations about a mother's desperation and fear. The detectives' pleas for honesty underscore the urgent need for truth amidst the heart-wrenching circumstances surrounding Caylee's disappearance, shaping a chilling narrative of love, loss, and the search for answers.

44:22

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Episode guests

Casey Anthony

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

The interrogation reveals Casey Anthony's persistent dishonesty about her daughter's disappearance, raising critical doubts about her credibility and intentions.

Investigators emphasize the urgent need for Casey to disclose the truth to potentially alleviate the situation and aid in finding her daughter.

Deep dives

Accusations and Deception

The conversation revolves around the interrogation of a mother regarding her missing daughter, Kaylee. The investigator asserts that everything the mother, Casey, has said so far is a lie, including the whereabouts of her child. They have verified that the information provided by Casey, including various addresses and names related to her daughter's caretaking, has proven to be false. This establishes a sense of urgency, as the investigator emphasizes that Casey must stop lying and reveal the truth to locate her daughter.

Intro

3min

The Weight of Lies

9min

The Weight of Truth

15min

The Babysitter and the Missing Child

2min

Challenges of Managing Contact Information and Technology

2min

Chronicles of Child Care and Communication

10min

Desperation in the Interview Room

4min

Casey Anthony’s interview with an Orange County sheriff’s sergeant and two detectives was conducted on July 16, 2008, in a conference room at Universal Studios. The interview concerns Casey’s infant daughter, Caylee, who was last seen June 16, 2008, but was not reported missing until a month later. Casey claimed she worked at Universal Studios and led the officers there, only to eventually confess that she had not, in fact, worked there for some time.

Casey claimed that Caylee had been kidnapped by her nanny, the fictional Zenaida Fernandez Gonzales, but the detectives do not believe her. They plead with Anthony to tell the truth about what happened to Caylee. “None of us are sitting here believing what you’re saying because everything that’s coming out of your mouth is a lie,” Detective Yuri Melich tells Anthony. “Everything. And unless we start getting the truth, we’re going to announce two possibilities with Caylee: Either you gave Caylee to someone that you don’t want anyone to find out because you think you’re a bad mom. Or something happened to Caylee and Caylee’s buried somewhere or in a trash can somewhere, and you had something to do with it. Either way, right now it’s not a very pretty picture to be painting.”

Asked later whether Fernandez Gonzales accepted money, Anthony says, “I would not have sold my daughter. If I wanted to really just get rid of her, I would have left her with my parents and I would’ve left. I would’ve moved out. I would’ve given my mom custody.” When asked what Anthony wants her mother to give the media as a message to Caylee, Anthony breaks down as she says to tell her daughter “that Mommy loves her very much, and she’s the most important thing in this entire world to me, and to be brave. I truly, truly love that little girl, and miss her so much.”

Later that day, after authorities failed to find Zenaida Fernandez Gonzales in a database of Florida driver’s licenses, Casey Anthony was arrested on suspicion of giving police false information, obstructing an investigation and child neglect. The skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony were found in December 2008, not far from the Anthony home. Casey was charged with seven counts in Caylee’s death, including first-degree murder. She could have faced the death penalty, but was found not guilty, and released.

Listen to the interview here.

Read the transcript here.