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.
