Over 12 years after her daughter, Casey Anthony, was acquitted of murder, Cindy Anthony is now speaking out.
In a new TV special, Cindy reunites with the very same crime scene investigator who helped recover the body of her granddaughter, Caylee.
This past week’s premiere of Crime Scene Confidential on Investigation Discovery, Cindy gave a rare interview about the high-profile case that thrust her family into the headlines and ultimately, left her with a broken family. At one point in the interview, Cindy gets emotional as she speaks to host Alina Burroughs about their work.
“I know you guys didn’t want to leave until you found every single [bone],” she tells Burroughs. “It means a lot.”
“I didn’t know how Cindy was going to react to me,” Burroughs shared with the outlet. “I mean, I was a prosecution witness, so she could’ve seen me as someone who wanted to lock her daughter up. But she was very gracious. And I think in some ways, the interview gave her some closure.”
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The Anthony family became a national conversation in 2008, when 2-year-old Caylee Anthony went missing. The little girl hadn’t been seen for 31 days before Cindy reported her missing, over Casey Anthony’s protests.
And after an extensive search for the toddler, her remains were discovered in a wooded lot less than one-third of a mile from the Anthony family home. Casey was charged with first-degree murder and Cindy was one of the primary witnesses.
Anthony’s 2011 trial was one of the most-watched to date with at least 40 million people watching at least some of the testimony, according to Nielsen Research. Anthony was infamously acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges on July 5, 2011, but convicted of four counts of lying to police.
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She was described by a Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman as “one of the most hated women in America” after her acquittal.
And while Cindy did not speak with her daughter for many years, the two have just begun communicating here and there.
“It’s hard for her to speak out about this case,” says Burroughs. “She really went through hell and back, and she’s never been the same.”
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