Debora Dale Alt logo
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
where fear and passion collide
Debora Dale Alt logo
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
where fear and passion collide

Little Caylee Anthony caught our attention in July of 2008 when she was reported missing. We all watched the  news, hoping to hear something good – that this toddler had been found, unharmed, and returned to her loving family. Instead, we heard lies from her mother. Lies about a baby sitter, lies about a job. So many lies we couldn’t help but believe this mother was involved in the child’s disappearance.

We remained connected to the story. And then the news broke. A skull was located in a swampy area less than a mile from the Anthony home.

We all ‘knew’ Casey killed her little girl. We all knew Casey was a habitual liar and a party girl. A twenty-something saddled with a child who threw off her groove.

And now, as long into Casey’s trial as Caylee had been missing, we’re hearing closing arguments. I’ve watched some of the trial each day. I’ve nearly gagged on some of the absurd notions the defense has asked us to digest. The entire defense sounds like one Casey Anthony lie after another. And what lies they were. She made up people. She gave them jobs, illnesses, families, homes. She thought on the fly sometimes. Had other lies planned. She wove a tail a best-selling author would envy.

But there was one difference.

In fiction, we hope our readers will suspend disbelief as our stories sweep them into another world for three or four hundred pages. Casey’s fiction, with all its twists and turns, is meant to convince without question. In her fiction, fiction and truth overlap, meld, become a cohesive tale so intricately woven, one cannot help wonder how and why she lies so easily.

From my seat on the sofa, watching this trial, I have no doubt she’s guilty. The defense threw out a scenario of this child’s death but failed to follow up with details of what happened to her little body. If she drowned in the family pool as they said, and 911 was not called… what happened next? Where did they put her body? Instead of telling us this vital detail, they’ve blamed Casey’s father, her brother, her mother. Everyone else is a suspect.

But a suspect in what?

They said the child accidentally drowned in the pool. There’s nothing more to it than that except that they panicked and did not call for help and then disposed of Caylee’s body improperly. What is improper and how does it relate to how little Caylee was found?

It’s easy to question the defense – and the prosecution, I suppose – from my living room. But, if I were on the jury, hearing only what the jury is permitted to hear, would I feel the same way?

I don’t think so.

Just the closing arguments yesterday were enough to put doubt in my mind. This is a capital case, with the death penalty as punishment. You only vote guilty if the prosecution proves its case “beyond a reasonable doubt”.

I ‘know’ Casey Anthony committed a horrendous crime against her innocent little girl.  The prosecution, IMO, has presented a solid case proving that. But if I were a juror in this trial – unable to discuss the case with people I know, unable to listen as pundits hash out the details on TV – I’d have to raise my hand for “not guilty”.

What say you?