Baez said he believed Caylee was dead early on, even though Anthony was still telling him a babysitter kidnapped her. Baez writes in his book that it was in early 2009, more than seven months after Caylee vanished and a couple of months after her body was found, that Anthony told Baez that Caylee had drowned in the swimming pool and that Anthony’s father had molested her.
Baez writes of Anthony’s mental health issues, which he says contributed to her habitual lying and that detectives should have realized Anthony had built a “fantasy world.” Baez writes her lies weren’t evidence of guilt but signs of someone with “serious mental health issues.”
Anthony originally told detectives that her daughter, Caylee, was taken by a babysitter in June 2008, and that she didn’t report her missing for more than a month because she was searching for the toddler on her own. During Anthony’s trial last year, Baez argued that the little girl accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool while Anthony and her father, George, were at home. Anthony panicked from the traumatic effects of being sexually abused by her father and George Anthony hid the body, according to the defense argument.
Baez writes that Anthony described the drowning and molestation to him in early 2009 and that he believed Caylee was dead early on. George Anthony denied the defense’s allegations that he abused Casey and helped her cover up Caylee’s death.
“Tears flowed from Casey’s eyes. I’d never seen her break down like this,” Baez wrote.
