Pathological: The Casey Anthony Story — Planting The Seed — Ep. 4 | MK Confidential

0:00Hey, it's Dan Cummins. If you're into the weird, the wild, and the downright bizarre, check out my podcast, Time Suck. Each week, I dive into shocking stories like the rise of the NXIVM cult, the origins of conspiracies like QAnon, and the San Francisco witch killer murders. With deep dives and dark humor, Time Suck brings you the stories that'll fascinate you, make you laugh, and fill your head with lots of strange facts. New episodes drop every Monday. Join the cult of the curious. Follow Time Suck wherever you get your podcasts. I like things my way, my coffee, my schedule, and my treatment.

0:33So I talked to my doctor about self-injecting with the Vivgard Hytrulo Pre-Filled Syringe, which contains F-Gartigamide Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC. It's injected under your skin subcutaneously. It means I can inject in my space on my time. It's my treatment, my way. Visit VivgardMyWay.com. That's V-Y-V-G-A-R-T MyWay.com. And talk to your doctor about Vivgard Hytrulo. Brought to you by Argenics. At 8.30 in the morning, George Anthony walks out of his house on Hope Spring Drive, carrying several bottles of medication and a handful of pictures. He gets in his car and leaves Orlando behind, driving east toward Daytona Beach.

1:14Six weeks earlier, his granddaughter Kaylee's remains had been found in the woods less than a quarter mile from his own home. It is January 22, 2009. Around 7 p.m., George checks into a room at the Hawaii Motel in Daytona Beach alone. He has his blood pressure medication with him. He also has the medication his psychiatrist prescribed for his anxiety. And sometime after he gets into that room, he starts taking pills. By his own account, about 70 of them. Not one prescription. Whatever he has with him. He starts drinking beer, too, as much as he can. At some point, he sits down and begins writing a letter.

2:00Later that night, George starts sending goodbye messages. He texts friends, family, even lead defense attorney Jose Baez. He leaves Baez a voicemail asking him to tell Casey he is sorry and that he loves her. George tells people he wants to be left alone. He says he wants to make sure Kaylee is in God's arms. He says he does not want to live anymore. People get scared that George is going to kill himself. Finally, the family lawyer calls 911.

2:37Police begin tracking George's cell phone, trying to figure out where he has gone. Officers follow the signal east to Daytona Beach, to the Hawaii Motel where George's car is sitting outside. Then there is a knock at his door. It is Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood. George opens the door and immediately says, he's doing fine, he's great. Hey, I needed to get away, he says. I needed to think. I needed to clear my head. I'm fine, you guys can leave. George's letter runs eight pages and he never finishes it. He writes to Cindy about the ways he thinks he has failed her over 30 years of marriage.

3:19He writes that he needs to be with Kaylee, that it should have been him that died, not her. And then, near the end, the letter changes. He stops apologizing. He starts asking, why? He wanted to die. He wanted to be with Kaylee. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton reads part of that letter aloud at trial. Kaylee Marie, I miss her. I miss her. I want my family back. I sit here falling apart because I should have done more. She was so close to home. Why was she there? Who placed her there? Why is she gone? Why? For months, you and I, especially you, always questioned why. I want this to go away for Casey. what happened why could she not come to us especially you why not lee who was involved with this stuff for kaylee before that he says i blame myself for her being gone you know for months as a matter of fact for a year or so i brought up stuff only to be told not to be negative two and a half years after he wrote them those words come back Only now, George is not sitting alone in a hotel room.

4:41He is sitting a few feet from his daughter. Casey Anthony is on trial for murdering his granddaughter, Kaylee, and a prosecutor is reading his suicide note to the jury, trying to show them that George had no idea what happened to Kaylee. It is a point made necessary by defense attorney Jose Baez, who in his opening statement tells the jury that George found Kaylee. dead in the family pool and helped conceal her body. As a result, George was the first witness. The prosecution called. Were you present in your home when Kaylee Anthony died?

5:25No, and when I heard that today, it hurt really bad. Because if I would have known something would have happened to Kaylee, we wouldn't be here today. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton does not move on. George had spent years in law enforcement, so Ashton asks him to imagine Kaylee in danger. If there had been anything he could have done to save her, anything at all, would he have? I would have done anything I would to save my granddaughter. Then Ashton gets more specific, hitting Baez's claims that George placed the duct tape on Kaylee in the process of disposing of her body. Did you dispose of the body of your granddaughter?

6:06No, I did not. Did you obtain duct tape from your shed or garage and place it over the nose and mouth of Kaylee Anthony? No, I did not. I'm Megan Kelly. This is MK Confidential.

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7:13For a limited time, try One Skin with 15 % off using code Megan at oneskin.co slash Megan. That's 15 % off, oneskin.co with code Megan. After you purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Support our show and tell them that we sent you, and using our name will also ensure you get your 15 % off. May 24th, 2011. Linda Drain Burdick wraps up the prosecution's opening statement in the morning. After a lunch recess, when the jury comes back, Jose Baez gives the opening for the defense. Almost immediately, Baez tells jurors that this case is not what prosecutors say it is. Kaylee Anthony was never murdered.

7:59She drowned, he tells the jury. He tells them it happened on the morning of June 16, 2008, in the above-ground pool behind the Anthony home on Hope Spring Drive, and that George Anthony, Kaylee's grandfather, was the one who found her. Then Baez goes somewhere else entirely. He paints a picture of a deeply dysfunctional family, making two very serious allegations about the Anthonys. One involving Casey's father, George, and another involving her older brother, Lee. Jose Baez starts with George. This family must keep its secrets quiet. And it all began when Casey was eight years old and her father came into her room and began to touch her inappropriately.

8:51And it escalated. And it escalated. What does a sex abuse survivor look like? They wear a scarlet letter. They have a tattoo on their forehead. we could all be sitting next to a person who's a sex abuse survivor and never even know it. These things are kept quiet. And these ugly secrets slowly will come out through this trial. No such thing will come into evidence in this case. But the character assassination of George Anthony has begun. Baez does not, however, call George a murderer. We are not, nor will we ever, say that George Anthony killed Kayleigh or that he had something to do with her death.

9:44And the reason is simple. It's not true. It was an accident. This is a tragic accident that happened to some very disturbed people. Then Baez moves to Casey's brother, Lee. And you'll hear evidence that Casey has a brother, and he too wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. And on certain occasions when he was a teenager, he attempted to also touch his sister, although it didn't go as far. It got so bad that the FBI did a paternity test to see if he was Kaylee's father. And when he was confronted with this information, he didn't deny it. He said, we'll talk about it when the time is right.

10:37Well, the time is now. The time is now to try and save his sister's life. It's true about the FBI. They asked Lee to take a paternity test, allegedly to help clear up an Internet rumor. He does, and it is negative. Baez tells the jury these allegations explain Casey Anthony, the lies, the imaginary nanny, the fake job, the life she appeared to be living while Kaylee was missing. Jose Baez describes Casey as a sex abuse survivor who had learned to retreat into a world of her own making. In Baez's words, quote, that's what Casey had to do to live. She forced herself to live in a world that she wanted to, not the one she was thrust into.

11:25No witness will ever come into that courtroom and support either allegation against George or Lee Anthony, which both men flatly deny. George is the first to deny the allegation. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton asks him about it directly. Now, Mr. Anthony, I need to ask you some questions about something else. Have you ever sexually molested your daughter, Casey Anthony? No, sir. Have you ever committed any sexually inappropriate act with or in the presence of your daughter, Casey Anthony? No, sir. The defense story is that on June 16, 2008, while Casey and George are both at home, George finds Kaylee dead in the pool.

12:19Baez says Casey is distraught and that George is angry. In the middle of it, Casey begs her father for help. According to the defense, George agrees and takes over the cover-up, including disposing of Kaylee's body. A few hours into the trial, the state calls its first witness, George Anthony. He establishes the timeline of Kaylee's disappearance, Casey's behavior and her lies, and the incident with the gas cans in his driveway, where Casey seemed to want him nowhere near her car's trunk. On cross, Baez immediately starts trying to advance the defense story. He brings up the gas cans, aiming to link George to the unique brand of duct tape on them, The state objects.

13:02Judge Belvin Perry sustains it. Baez changes course and moves to the duct tape directly. Perry stops him there, too. And this time, the judge tells him exactly why. Judge Perry says, quote, You can ask him about the duct tape, but you cannot ask him about your opening statement. The opening statement is not evidence. After that, Baez never comes back to the sexual abuse allegation. not with George and not with any other witness. But that bell cannot be unrung. The jury does hear Casey Anthony in her own words. Months earlier, while she was being held at the Orange County Jail, George came to visit her, and their conversation was recorded.

13:46I wish I could have been a better dad and better grandpa, you know? You've been a great dad, and you've been the best grandfather. Don't for a second think otherwise. years later i asked veteran criminal defense attorney jay cheney mason about the allegation that george had sexually abused casey mason served as co-counsel on casey anthony's defense team sitting beside baez throughout the trial when i spoke with him in 2021 i asked what he made of that accusation. I told George in my office with the permission of his lawyer what was going to happen, that George is going to be accused of sexually molesting his daughter.

14:33I wanted to see his reaction. All George did was just look and sigh, put his hands on his legs and no other on his legs and no other response. I thought there was a peculiar response for a father having been accused in some situation like this by a lawyer of, you know, kind of officially, you know, this is what's going to happen. You make that kind of accusation, you got to prove it somewhere. This is a really bad situation for a defense lawyer or either side to make promises to a jury that they cannot deliver on. Jurors remember it. Later in the defense case, Mason calls Dr. Werner Spitz to the stand.

15:16Spitz has been doing this work for more than half a century. Over 56 years in forensic pathology, he has conducted or supervised more than 60 ,000 autopsies. He also literally wrote one of the standard textbooks in his field. Spitz testifies that he believes the duct tape was placed on Kaylee's face after she had died. He also has a problem with the autopsy in this case. He tells the jury it was incomplete. The reason, he says, is simple. Kaylee's skull was never opened. To not open the head, I think, is a failure, a failure of the autopsy. And I'll tell you another thing, that if an autopsy was done in a corresponding to what I think every forensic pathologist will tell you, where the head is not opened, that tells me about a shoddy autopsy.

16:13Excuse me the expression, but you provoked it. A shoddy autopsy, because if the head is not opened, what else wasn't examined? On cross-examination, prosecutor Jeff Ashton presses him on that point. Where is it written that a skull has to be opened for the examination to be complete? Spitz cannot say. Then Ashton asks Spitz why he believes the duct tape was placed on Kaylee's face after she had passed away. Spitz notes the tape appears to have adhered only to hair roots, not to skin tissue. He also believes the tape was used to secure the corpse during transport of the remains. On June 23, 2011, Cindy Anthony comes to the witness stand.

16:58The jury has already heard from her once when the prosecution called her earlier in the trial. This time she is here for the defense. Lead defense attorney Jose Baez takes Cindy back to the family computer and straight to one of the most damaging pieces of evidence in the case. As it turns out, there were two separate afternoons that someone searched the word chloroform on the Anthony family computer. On March 17th, the search was just for chloroform. The other, on March 21st, was for specifically how to make chloroform. If Cindy made those searches, the defense has an innocent explanation for them.

17:40If she didn't, the state can point the searches back to Casey. Then Baez asks Cindy a simple question. Why are those searches there? Well, I started looking at chlorophyll and I was concerned about my smallest Yorkie. We have two Yorkie puppies. And the smallest one was having some issues where she was extremely tired all the time. And both of the dogs would eat the bamboo leaves out in the back. So I started looking up sources from the backyard that could potentially cause her to be more sleepy than it would affect the larger dog. And I started looking up chloroform, I mean chlorophyll, and then that prompted me to look up chloroform.

18:28Right. Now, I don't understand how you can get those two mixed up. Not getting them mixed up. If you look into chlorophyll, there's some bacteria associated with chlorophyll production. And looking up that, it comes from different species of plants that have red and brown coloring. And that prompted me to look up chlorophyll because some species of algae and seaweeds and stuff produce naturally chloroform. The problem for Cindy is her work records. They put her at the office on the afternoons when those chloroform searches were made. Cindy says that does not necessarily mean she was at the office.

19:16She also tells the jury she had been searching other household chemicals that March after a warning about hand sanitizer and small children, things like alcohol, acetone, and hydrogen peroxide. Kaylee was just the age to get into something like that, Cindy says, so she went home and started looking up what was in it. On cross-examination, Prosecutor Linda Drain Burdick brings Cindy back to the dates March 17th and March 21st, 2008. Dates her employer has her at work. And Cindy's claim on direct that she might have popped back home. Linda starts reading off some of the other internet searches found on the Anthony family computer.

19:58Self-defense. Household weapons. Neck breaking. And a shovel. Cindy admits. Those were not hers. For most of this trial, Cheney Mason has let Jose Baez run the defense. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton says that Mason once passed the state's table a note, counting the ceiling tiles and recessed lights in the courtroom. Ashton later writes that on the last Saturday in June, with the defense case nearly over, Mason goes to Linda Drain Burdick about a plea deal. Baez, on the other hand, writes that Burdick approached him about a plea deal. According to Prosecutor Ashton, at this point, the state is willing to discuss second-degree murder for 30 years on a guilty plea.

20:44Both accounts note that there is also the possibility of aggravated manslaughter. But the state wants something in return, an explanation of how Kaylee died. And the explanation has to fit the evidence. Mason tries to broach the subject with Casey. Later, he tells Judge Perry that every time he brings it up, Casey seems to shut it down. She looks at him blankly. If he keeps talking, she acts as though he is not even in the room. It concerns Mason enough that he begins to question whether Casey is competent to continue with the trial. So the trial stops. Two psychiatrists examine Casey Anthony.

21:25Both find her competent. both report that she is not interested in a plea deal. So it goes no further. Back in the courtroom, the defense calls a woman named Crystal Holloway. She also goes by River Cruz. She met George Anthony in the summer of 2008 at a volunteer command center people had set up while Kaylee was still missing. Crystal testifies that she and George began an affair, and around Thanksgiving that year, while Kaylee was still missing, Crystal says George came to her house and told her something she has never forgotten. He was sitting on my couch, and I was sitting on the floor, and he had told me, he had said it was an accident that snowballed out of control, but I was in shock, and by the time I looked up, his eyes were filled with tears, and I didn't elaborate.

22:24I didn't ask him anything further. I didn't think that he could raise somebody that was capable of harming her child. And that's when he said it was an accident that snowballed out of control. George sits beside his wife Cindy during Crystal's testimony. He denies the affair from the witness stand, but Crystal Holloway has a text message from him. It's dated Tuesday, December 16, 2008, five days after Kaylee Anthony's body was found. The text reads, quote,

23:01George admits he sent the text, but his explanation is that he needed every volunteer he could get. Crystal admits that she lied to police when they first asked her about the relationship in February 2010. She tells the jury she was embarrassed. She thought George would get in trouble, and she assumed it would get out into the media. She was right. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton gets up to cross-examine Crystal. He points out that she gave an interview to the National Enquirer about her affair with George, and that Crystal, or a family member of hers, received$4 ,000 for it. He suggests she sensationalized her story for cash.

23:44She snaps back from the stand. I took what I could because I was being trashed in the media as it was. Then Ashton pulls out Crystal's sworn statement denying the affair dated February 17, 2010. On the stand, she admits she lied to police at first, but says she came clean about the affair within a week after her sister gave the media her name. Tell us how the contact from the National Enquirer or other media sources, how that related to your changing your story about the romantic relationship? I had no choice but to tell the truth because my name had already came out. Well, I mean, you had no choice but to tell the truth on the 17th because you swore you would, but you lied.

24:33Yes, sir, I did lie. So what we're trying to figure out now is when this change in the story took place and how. Prosecutor Ashton also takes issue with her newfound recollection of George's alleged confession. He has her read the sworn statement she gave police on February 17th aloud. It goes further than what she just testified to on the stand, which was that George called it an accident that snowballed out of control. In her written statement, it was, quote, He just said that I really believe it was an accident and it went wrong. and she tried to cover it up. His tone rising, Ashton says that George never told Crystal he knew what happened to Kaylee and that he never told her Casey had confessed anything to him.

25:21This time, Crystal Holloway agrees with the prosecution. No, sir, she says, you're right. With the jury out of the room, the lawyers argue over what the jury is allowed to make of Crystal Holloway's testimony. Can they consider the claims about Kaylee's death being an accident? Judge Perry settles it. The jury can use Crystal Holloway's testimony for exactly one purpose, to decide whether George Anthony is trustworthy on the witness stand. In deciding whether Kaylee's death was an accident or intentional, the jury is instructed not to give any weight at all to the claims of Crystal Holloway. Everyone's talking about weight loss injections because the results can be so dramatic.

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26:47You could get started with 20 % off and free rush shipping, adding lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit TakeLean.com. Enter Kelly for your discount. That's promo code Kelly at TakeLean.com. Check it out. Hey, everyone. It's Stavros Halakas, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, Stavis World. Each week, we're joined by great guests like Josh Safdie, Eric Andre, Caleb Heron, and more. It's sort of an interview show, but really, we're just messing around, making each other laugh, and hopefully making you laugh while you're washing the dishes or grocery shopping or on a long drive.

27:23Plus, I take listener calls where we have honest conversations about dating life and everything in between. Imagine if your therapist was a vulgar degenerate whose office was in a Greek diner. No scripts, no polish, and absolutely no holding back. Listen to Stavi's World wherever you get your podcasts. On June 30th, 2011, the last full day of the defense case, Jose Baez brings the Anthony family back to the stand. This time, he wants to talk about their pets. Baez would later write that Cindy had told the defense team that George handled all the family pets the same way when they died. He wrapped them in a blanket, put them inside a plastic bag, and then duct taped it shut.

28:09At trial, Baez tries to link the way Kaylee's remains were found to the way this family has buried their animals over the years. But the memories on the stand do not line up neatly. George Anthony is first. Baez asks about a dog the family buried in Ohio almost 30 years earlier. George does not remember. Baez asks about another dog in Florida. George remembers burying the dog, but not exactly what it was wrapped in. Baez keeps going. The family cat? The other dogs buried in the yard? George still cannot give him any details. When Baez is finished, Prosecutor Jeff Ashton stands up for the state.

28:49He asks George Anthony just one question. Mr. Anthony, have you ever taken a dead pet and thrown him in a swamp? No, sir. And Ashton sits back down. No further questions. Then Cindy Anthony takes the stand. Her memories are much more specific. Cindy says that when the family buried pets, they would wrap the animal in a blanket or a special towel, then put the pet inside a couple of plastic garbage bags. Baez asks three times about the tape. What kind of tape was used? Each time, Cindy gives him the same answer. Clear packing tape, not duct tape. Lead prosecutor Linda Drain Burdick gets up to cross-examine Cindy.

29:34Has the family ever used chloroform on one of their pets? No, ma 'am. Have you ever put duct tape across an animal's face before burying it? No, ma 'am. Then Linda has Cindy describe what the family normally did when one of their pets died. When we moved to Florida, we designated a spot at our home that, you know, if any of the animals passed, we would put them there if possible. But this is something that your family did for a period of years that your children were aware of, correct? Yes, and we even had a dog, not really a headstone, but George had found a dog made of stone that we kind of marked the spots.