True Crime Stories | The Bizarre Behavior of Casey Anthony Explained

If there was ever a true crime case that allowed you a window to look inside of what addictive behavior looks like, it's the Casey Anthony case. Now, I'm not going to recap everything that happened. If you're really interested in hearing the whole story, I strongly suggest that you watch Stephanie Harlow's version of. I think it's broken into three parts. She does a fantastic job telling the story, giving all the little details. The thing about this case that was so mind boggling was Casey's behavior after her daughter went missing. When you watch the police interrogation videos.

Well, that was one thing that they all agreed upon was the fact that you've extended, you know, your hand to.

Help the phone calls that are recorded between her and her parents.

Sweetheart, settle down.

Nobody's letting me speak. You want me to talk?

All right, give me three seconds to see something.

I'm not in control over any of this because I don't know what the hell is going on.

The way her facial expressions, her affect, her body language was during the trial, it really just blows your mind. You're like you're looking at it thinking, what in the world? Why are you so disconnected? Why don't your emotions line up to the situation? And even when I look at that, you think, surely to goodness this girl's got some kind of personality disorder, some kind of severe mental illness. But she was examined by at least two psychologists. In some reports, I've heard four psychologists, none of which came up with any serious mental health disorder. There's even this interview that you can see with Dr. Drew who's interviewing one of the psychologists.

So let me ask another question. So she may not have a diagnosable disorder with axis 2. Does she have what we call borderline traits or sociopathic traits?

No, she doesn't have those traits either.

That's impossible. I can't believe that. Wait a minute, Doctor. I can't believe that. She's created a vortex. She's a chronic liar. She's engaging in criminal behavior. How is that possible?

Not just that psychologist, but at least one other forensic psychologist agreed that there was no personality disorder, no serious mental health disorder. But one of the interesting things I found out was that the psychological analysis that she was given was actually given in 2010. And if you remember, this case started in 2008. So you're dealing with Casey two years after the crimes and two years of coming to terms with this situation. Having an addiction in clinical terms is really called a substance use disorder, and that is considered a mental health disorder. But I don't really think that's the ones that they were looking for when they were doing this analysis of Casey Anthony. Because essentially what they're looking for is is there anything that the defense could use? Is there anything that would make her not competent? And nothing like that was found. But if you look at the behaviors leading up to the crime, and I'm not even going to weigh in on whether or not I think she committed the crime, other than to say I agree with pretty much everyone else out there, it is clearly an addiction issue. Let's take a look at the evidence. There was clear evidence of a ton of partying. I mean, there's lots of pictures of it. And there's clear evidence not just of partying, but of drug and alcohol use, particularly. Xanax was mentioned. And as you'll recall, Casey kept saying that Kaylee was with Xanny the nanny. And lots of people think that what that means, it's almost like code for Zanny the nanny, as in she had given Kaylee Xanax, maybe to knock her out or make her sleep so that she could go and party. Let's look at some more evidence. She did not graduate from school like she was supposed to. In fact, it came right up until she was supposed to graduate. Her parents get a call from the school saying she's not going to graduate. They're completely surprised come to find out she did not show up, she did not do what she was supposed to do, and she wasn't going to get to graduate. Now, how many people do you know that get that close to graduation and then blow it? I know lots of them, and most of the ones I know that's related to some kind of addictive behavior. I've worked with lots of young people that have done things like this because they were skipping school, sneaking out, they were coming to school intoxicated, they weren't coming at all. All that revolving around their addiction. She was constantly lying. Not just little lies, but detailed, deep, fabricated stories with multiple, multiple layers. She was a very in depth liar. We're going to come back to that. So, hang on. Casey would almost never come through with what she would say she was going to do. She would say she was going to show up here or this family event or help a friend, and in the end, she would always make an excuse and never show up. That kind of behavior is really typical of someone that has an addiction. And possibly the biggest piece of evidence of all is all the money that she stole from family and friends. She stole money from her grandmother, stole the money right out of the account that paid for the nursing home her grandfather stayed in. She stole money from her mother and father. In fact, she stole at least $40,000 worth of money from them in the year leading up to the crime. And she even stole from her best friend and spent money using her checkbook multiple times while her friend was away on a vacation. That is a lot of money. Now, during the year leading up to when Kaylee went missing, Casey would tell her parents that she was going to work when in fact she really wasn't going to work. She really didn't go back to work after maternity leave. And in fact, not only did she lie about going to work at that job, but she even made up a second job. And during the time that she would leave the house and be gone to work, she would be out hanging out with friends, using substances, partying it up, having a grand old time. And I mean, this went on for a long time. Now you're going to be able to tell from looking at some of these old tapes how emotionally immature that Casey was. Now, I know she was a young woman. I think she was like 21 or so when she was arrested. But even for that age, her emotional maturity just wasn't there. To me, when you look back at the video recordings, well, someone just said.

That Kaylee was dead this morning, that she drowned at the pool. That's the newest story out there.

Surprise, surprise.

It's almost like you're talking to a 14 or 15 year old, which to be honest is not uncommon when you're dealing with someone that has an addiction because at whatever age that person started using drugs pretty regularly. It's like they get almost emotionally stuck at that age. They don't emotionally mature from there. And that might give us some reason as to why she was so different two years later when she had those psychological reviews because she was in jail for almost all of that time. And I would hope, hope that she's not getting drugs in there. And if she was, it probably wasn't enough for her to be using continuously. And so I'm thinking that some of her emotional maturity could have developed over the course of those two years. And probably the most frustrating of all of Casey's behaviors is her tendency to turn the conversation around from something that she did wrong or to keep herself from getting in trou or to keep herself from admitting something. She would blame others. I'm telling you, she had a lot of tactics. Now, many of you have seen my videos on how addicts and alcoholics manipulate their loved ones. In those videos, we talk about things like splitting or starting an argument or being really nice or hiding behind mental health problems. And of course, there's a lot more than that. But let's take a look at these conversations that Casey had with her parents.

We need to have something to go on.

Mom.

I don't have anything. I'm sorry. I've been here a month. I've been here a month today. Do you understand how I feel?

Hold on, sweetheart. Settle down, baby.

Nobody's letting me speak. You want me to talk, then.

All right, give me three seconds to see something.

I'm not in control over any of this because I don't know what the hell's going on like that. And that's not even getting put on the air with.

It should be.

It's everything else. Everything that I'm not saying. Again, that's all I could do was backtrack. I can't backtrack on anything. A month, I've been removed from the situation. You don't. You guys are not understanding my side on this. And I'm sorry.

Now, I know I gave you a lot of reasons why I think Casey Anthony was dealing with an addiction issue. I know some people say she was young, she was having fun, or it's not uncommon for a young parent to want to go out and have fun. And I. I totally agree with that. But even for a young person, even for a mom that needs a break every now and then, you're not going out every day stealing money, lying about having a job day in and day out for months on end. That is well beyond what you would expect from some sort of developmental phase. Now, for those of you who'd like to see the official criteria for having a substance use disorder, I've put a link in the description, and you can download a free copy of the actual for real official clinical criteria for substance use disorder. I'd love for you to go through them and tell me which ones you think she had. But you know what? I think that there's something positive that we can learn from Casey. She was such a great master manipulator. In this interrogation interview she has with a police officer, you're actually going to get to see her use some seriously good skill. In fact, she's using a lot of the skills that I actually teach families. As far as how to verbally de escalate a situation. As far as how not to start an argument. She uses a lot of reflection statements. She finds points of the police Officer says that she can agree with validating those while leaving the others and not saying anything else about them. I'm telling you, just look at it. It's a little bit impressive when you think about it, because I'm sure she wasn't trained for these skills. I'm sure she'd been doing this a long time, and this was her way of deflecting conversations and keeping the momentum going in the direction that she wanted it. And there's a couple of times, though, that she has this way of sort of trying to call out the police officer, and she does it in such a way that kind of backs him into a corner. So make sure you listen for that one as well.

I've said it to your mom, I've said it to your Ned, and I said it to your brother, even.

Well, that was one thing that they all agreed upon was the fact that you've extended, you know, your hand to help. Most people haven't.

I was afraid that some of what I said to them probably offended them because I told them that if I find out something that you don't want to hear, I'm gonna tell you anyway.

Well, honestly, they'll respect that. That's just, you know, the type of.

People that they are.

I'm the same way.

I know they are. But when I hit them with certain things, they don't want to hear it. And I understand that, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to say exactly.

When you have different beliefs than somebody, it is hard sometimes to hear their opinion.

That's true.

That doesn't mean that they don't respect your opinion or the fact that you're coming forward with what you think or what you feel.

So.

To some extent, it's comforting to hear you say that, because it was never my intention to piss anybody in your family off. You know, I'm not in it to get a conviction. I get nothing out of it. I get zero.

Exactly. You have a job you're trying to do.

I found a few and I found a few. And it sucks both ways.

Yeah, agree. Here's my question. I know this is a question that a lot of people have asked the grand jury and all that supposed to be secret, but it was released to the media right off the bat. My dad hadn't even been subpoenaed, and that was released. So I just think a lot of that's kind of funny, and the fact that they invited the media in when they were releasing the decision. My mom had received a text message from someone in the media saying they're lay. All of a sudden when they make the decision, we're thinking, are you serious?

There are.

Rules.

I ain't quite sure that one of the rules that was followed was that when the decision to indict has been made, that part of it is public.

Yeah, that part's public.

And they can let the Navy into the courtroom at that point. Yeah, I bet. This is just my bet. I don't know what the Florida rules are. I'm more federal stuff, familiar with that. But what I bet is that it was done under seal and there were no names and no official charges. Probably read aloud. It probably just was. There's been an appointment received in a case and that's it.

Well, when the media was out there all day and they knew about this a week ago, that it was going to happen, it's just kind of funny. It's supposed to be secret. And everything was released.

The happenings are secret. What. What takes place within the room is secret.

Yeah, but as far as when it actually is convened and, you know, pulled together the witnesses and stuff like that, that's not also supposed to be secret.

It depends on how they are subpoenaed.

Okay.

I mean, if you're subpoenaed under a regular court order, My dad was through.

His attorney, so I'm not quite sure how that came through.

Yeah, but if the subpoena itself is just a regular federal grand jury subpoena, that's public records. It doesn't say what it's for. It doesn't say what case it's in. It just says you're subpoenaed to appear in court.

Now, as far as the criminal case goes, you know what this case really reminds me of? It reminds me of the Chris Watts case. There are a ton of similarities. Both of them were living a double life. Both of them had built this house of cards made of lies that was very shortly about to come down on their head. Neither one of them had a history of aggressive behavior. Both Chris Watts and Casey Anthony had a strong desire to live this fantasy other life. And in the end, they both made some really impulsive and irrational decisions. Most notably, the thing that they had in common is that they were both in a state of limerence. That is that very first initial infatuation state. When you're in a new relationship, when you're in a limerence state, you have spikes of dopamine in your brain, which is the chemical that makes you motivated and want something. You have elevated neuroepinephrine which is the chemical that makes you really focus intently on something. And when you have a lowered amount of serotonin, there's actually an increased chance of aggressive, especially impulsive, aggressive behavior that could be pointed toward yourself or to others. Now, even though I told you that I think Casey Anthony had an addiction problem leading up to this, I really don't think that's why she allegedly committed those crimes. I think the reason she committed those crimes had a little bit more to do with this relationship she was in. Much like my theory on Chris Watts. If you haven't seen that, make sure you check that out. But you see, she had this relationship with this guy named Tony, which she told her really good friend. She really, really liked him. But you see, Tony was a nightclub promoter. He had the party lifestyle, the going out. His whole job was creating the party, inviting people, making sure people had fun, and Casey loved it. But as you can imagine, that kind of lifestyle doesn't go very well with being a mother. And reportedly, Tony told Casey that he really never did want to have children. And if he did have a kid, he wish it would be a sun. Does that sound similar? Is it just me, or is there a lot of similarities in those two cases? To learn more about how addiction affects your thinking and your behavior, watch this next.