The morning of June 16, 2008, she recalled, she made Caylee breakfast but wasn’t feeling well, so she went to lie down, bringing Caylee into the bedroom with her and turning on the TV. They were living at Casey’s childhood home with George and Cindy.
Casey said she fell asleep for awhile and woke up to her father asking her where Caylee was. She said she started frantically looking for her out in the yard, then walked around the side of the house to find George holding a “soaking wet” Caylee. “I can see him standing there with her in his arms,” Casey said. “And handing her to me and telling me that it’s my fault, that I did that, that I caused that. And I just collapsed with her in my arms.”
Casey said Caylee felt “heavy” and “cold,” and she herself was “hysterical.” George, taking Caylee from her, “immediately softens his tone and tells me, ‘It’s going to be OK,'” Casey said. “That she was ‘going to be OK.’ That’s what he said to me. I wanted to believe him because I wanted her to be OK.”
After pausing for a few seconds in the interview, her face tear-stained, she continued, “And I don’t know how long I sat outside, I don’t know where he went. He took her from me and he walked away. I know he went back in through the screen doors and he went back into the house. And I don’t know where she went. And I don’t know what he did. I just want her back.”
Testifying at Casey’s trial, George denied having any knowledge of how Caylee died or being involved in disposing of her body. “I would have done everything humanly possible to save my granddaughter if what was said happened, happened,” he said, adding that he “never knew of anything that happened to Caylee” until she was confirmed dead.
