Casey Anthony suggests in her first sit-down television interview that her father may have staged her daughter’s death to cover up his alleged sexual abuse of the girl, PEOPLE magazine reports.
Anthony, now 36, made the allegation without evidence as part of a forthcoming docuseries scheduled for release later this month on the NBC-affiliated Peacock streaming service.
The docuseries comes 11 years after Anthony was acquitted by a Florida jury of murdering 2-year-old Caylee.
In the upcoming docuseries, Anthony again asserts that her father molested her between the ages of 8 and 12.
“When I was 8 years old my father started to come into my room at night. I was physically hurt . . . scared because I can’t tell mommy what happened, she’ll get mad at me. That’s what I was told,” Anthony told Peacock, according to the Daily Mail.
“He’d put a pillow over my face and smother me to knock me out. That happened several times. I’m sure there were times where I was incapacitated as a child where my body was limp and lifeless.”
Anthony also alleged that her brother, Lee, also abused her.
“Then my brother started coming in shortly after I turned 12 and it stopped around the time I was 15. It wasn’t the same thing that happened with my father, my brother never raped me, but it was close enough where there was a pattern,” she says.
Anthony’s lawyers had alleged during the trial that George sexually abused his daughter, an allegation he denied strongly.
But in the Peacock interview, Anthony goes even further, suggesting that her father may have killed Caylee because he had started abusing the 2-year-old and was trying cover it up,
Anthony now alleges that she was awoken by her dad shaking her and asking her the whereabouts of Caylee, who Casey said had been on the bed next to her, according to TMZ.
“I wasn’t feeling that great, and I wanted to lay down. I had her lay in bed with me. I was awoken by [my father] shaking me and asking me where Caylee was. That didn’t make sense. She would never even leave my room without telling me,” Anthony told Peacock, according to PEOPLE.
“I immediately started looking around the house. I go outside and I’m looking to see where she could be. He was standing there with her. She was soaking wet. He handed her to me,” Anthony told Peacock, referring to her father.
Anthony’s defense team had previously asserted at trial that Caylee drowned in the family pool. Anthony said she does not believe Caylee could have drowned in the pool because it was above ground and there was no ladder.
“There’s no way to explain that, unless [George] put her in the pool to cover up what he did,” Anthony told Peacock, according to PEOPLE.
“It’s still something I can’t piece together but I wasn’t the only one home. I’m not outright accusing him of murder but it wasn’t an accident in the pool. Said it was my fault, that I caused it. But he didn’t rush to call 911 and he wasn’t trying to resuscitate her. I collapsed with her in my arms. She was heavy, and she was cold.”
“He takes her from me and he immediately softens his tone and says ‘It’s going to be ok.’ I wanted to believe him. He took her from me and he went away.”
Anthony’s father and brother have strongly denied her allegations and neither have ever been charged with a crime in connection with the claims, the Daily Mail reports.
The series is scheduled to premiere on November 29.
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[Feature Photo: Caylee Anthony/Handout]
