Nevertheless …. of course she could have left. She had a car, so all she needed in order to leave was money to put gas in the car. We know she had money during that 30-day period, because that was when she stole all that money from her friend Amy. You are also assuming she couldn’t have stolen from Tony, when in fact she could have stolen from him had she chosen to do so, since she was in his apartment all the time and he wouldn’t have been suspicious of her actions there.

The question is therefore not whether she could have left, since she obviously could have done so, but rather why she didn’t leave. She wouldn’t have to go to South America, LOL. She just had to go somewhere her parents wouldn’t think to look.

Are you suggesting she stayed because the boyfriend was there, or because she isn’t very smart, or another reason?

I once was involved in a case wherein a couple of guys were drinking beer in a deserted area, and decided they needed money for more beer. So, they utilized some old road construction blockades which had been inadvertently left there, and stopped the next person who came along in order to steal their money. That person refused to hand over his wallet, and he was brutally murdered for less than $20. They buried him in a shallow grave, and used his truck to get some more beer, later abandoning it in that same area. They even continued to party on that very spot. They thought they’d get away with that, too.

You should have heard the tales they’d weave. One claimed they were indeed out there drinking beer (hard to deny, since their fingerprints were on the beer cans) and that the “real killer” had actually tried to rob them as well, but that they had managed to fight off the assailant and were therefore actually heroes.

The other explained the fingerprints in the truck by saying they “found” the truck with the keys in it, and moved it out of the road for fear that it would be struck by another car, and that the cops should actually be thanking them for it.

They have never admitted their guilt, despite all the evidence against them. They never will, either.

To this very day, many years later, I still have to shake my head in amazement that anyone is dumb enough to think those kinds of stories would ever be believed.

I have added you to my blogroll, and I hope you won’t be a stranger!

I think you’re right, and that Lee didn’t know at that time. I think Lee knows now, though. In fact, I think they all know.

There’s a very big difference between knowing and accepting, though.

I just sat through all 4 clips of Lee talking to Tony (without knowing it was taped), and it was very sad to watch this young man try to figure out what happened to his niece, and who may be responsible for this. He truly did not know at that time what happened. I’m wondering if he knows now.

The latent prints found on some of the duct tape could just be partials or they could be smudged, distorted, overlapping, or any combination, depending on how they were deposited. Generally, they contain less clarity, so in my opinion, as much as any fingerprints are very crucial to the case, I question whether people have their hopes up by reading too much between the lines that may not really be there. I sure hope I’m wrong in this regard, and that good prints do exist.

Anyway, I think it’s great that there are a few of us who will continue to look at this case as pragmatically as possible. You have no idea how much I was screamed at and accused of being an Anthony lover for just trying to state the facts. A lot of people don’t seem to want to hear them. I am going to link your site to mine and I will definitely stop by more often to explore more of your writings. Thank you again!

I think Casey thought she could confuse LE with all the twists and turns she took and all of the lies that they would just scratch their heads and call it a missing child case.
She thought she (a high school dropout) could outsmart professional veteran detectives who have done this everyday for a living for years. They have seen it all and have been trained to read body language, and uncover lies with ease. It’s just unreal to imagine being that dumb, but she was.

Why do you think Casey didn’t leave the area and continue her ruse from a remote location, where she couldn’t be tracked and no one could prove Caylee wasn’t with her? Had she done that, it would have been much easier to get away with murder, because she could ingratiate herself with people who didn’t even know she had a child, and eventually drop off the map altogether. If anyone noticed stretch marks etc, she could have tearfully claimed her child was born prematurely and died shortly after birth, or some such other sympathy tale intended to make others too uncomfortable to press her on the subject. She is a very accomplished liar, after all, so it’s not as if she couldn’t pull it off.

You are absolutely right that this is an extremely complex case, and nowhere near as cut and dried as most people seem to believe. There is even a possibility that Casey Anthony will be acquitted unless her fingerprints are not only on that duct tape, but in an area where they could not have been left there innocently during a previous utilization of that tape.

It’s just great to find someone who is also willing to maintain an open mind while examining the case. Kudos to you, Dave, for having the guts to speak your mind.

In the end, my goal was to show the hows and whys of filicides, maternal in particular, and to illustrate what goes through the minds of people who specialize in these fields. In the end, it’s not a matter of who hates the Anthonys for whatever reasons, nor is it a case of mere guilt or innocence. There are a ton of complex factors involved in something of this magnitude, more than what appears on the surface.