Casey Anthony Finally Speaks Out In New Peacock Documentary

Most people have a preconceived notion of Casey Anthony, the young mother accused of murdering her daughter in a case that drew salacious headlines in 2008. They either think she got away with murder or think cops and crime reporters gave her a raw deal.

Whatever their opinion, it’s going to be hard to change it. And Peacock’s new documentary, Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies, probably won’t cause anyone to rethink where they stand.

Debuting today on the streaming service, the new doc is billed as Anthony’s first on-camera interview since being acquitted of murdering her daughter in 2011. It does contain some minor revelations, or really elaborations on previously discussed or hinted-at claims, but has no smoking gun.

If you’re interested in the psychological profile of a young mom who was at the least troubled and at the most homicidal, then you’ll enjoy the slick production. If you want a definitive answer to who killed Caylee Anthony, who was just a toddler when she disappeared, then there’s nothing substantial for you.

The case has always set Casey at odds with her parents, with mom Cindy Anthony the one who first reported the toddler missing in 2008. At that point, Caylee hadn’t been seen in more than a month, and Casey had never contacted the police.

Clearly, something was off with Casey, and she spends a good portion of the first episode making the case that previous trauma impacted her poor decision-making. She admits to lying to police and says there was no justification for it; then she proceeds to lay out her justification.

Anthony repeats her previous claim that she was sexually abused by family members and that Caylee was the product of rape. Watching her sob as she speaks about years of therapy, lose her composure as she looks at pictures of her daughter, and talk about her messed-up family is affecting. But at times, her responses also seem calculated to elicit sympathy. One has to wonder her motivations for opening up after more than a decade of silence. And it’s hard to separate her past lies from that motivation, however awful (and it is awful) her past may be.

“I’m responsible for answering everyone in the world’s questions about her, about what happened,” Anthony says at one point.

Those who disbelieve the still-young woman will find plenty to back up their suspicions, including detectives saying they think she killed her daughter and didn’t want to talk. But Anthony’s supporters will see just as much to support their case, pointing to her exoneration and institutionalized misogyny that could account for some of her seemingly counterintuitive behavior with police during the investigation.

Watching Anthony view a video of her parents fighting about why she reacted the way she did when Caylee went missing and debating what led their daughter to make poor decisions is particularly jarring. But it may still be hard to muster empathy for Anthony for anyone who followed the case and remember Cindy Anthony telling a 911 operator, “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today, and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car.”

The documentary doesn’t take sides, giving time to prosecutors and Anthony’s parents as well. But it does revel in being the platform Anthony chose to open up to. At one point, she’s preparing breakfast for herself and the interviewer and notes that it’s been years since she made the meal for anyone besides herself — a clear throwback, we’re meant to think, to when she cooked for her daughter. Moments like that feel manipulative and take away from the doc’s impact.

Ultimately, those who followed the Anthony case, one of the early social media-fueled true crime tragedies, will find the doc intriguing, despite the lack of substance. And that still constitutes a substantial number of people.