That's the reason some people were so concerned about this case.
A couple of months ago my wife and I had the scare of a lifetime. It was about 9PM on a Sunday night and I was off testing my bike out because I just got it back from the shop and wanted to make sure it was running right so I could start riding it to work again. My wife and three year old daughter (who has been diagnosed as high functioning autistic) were at home. As is the case when I leave for work or to go anywhere, my daughter threw a fit as I was leaving, and I remember her banging on the window and crying as I rode off to make sure my bike was working. My wife said that she went to the bathroom for just a minute or two, and when she walked back in the living room the front door was unlocked and open and my daughter was gone.
As I was on my way back to the house just minutes later police cars sped by with their lights on. I had no idea they were headed toward our house. When I got home they had already found Lilly, but police were everywhere Heather had been screaming her name in the streets banging down doors calling 911 people from all over the neighborhood had been looking under every bush and around every corner for her.
Turns out she had figured out how to unlock the deadbolt, ran outside to find me, but then noticed the playground down the street and went to play in the dark of night. A neighbor found her safe and happy on a swing maybe 500 yards down the street. We're all very thankful that she was found safe and immediately. We talked to the police and even DFS and figured out what had happened. I changed the normal deadbolt on our front door to a double-lock deadbolt that doesn't have a handle on either side. We spoke with her pre-school teacher and they started working with her about following directions and not running off. We're both much more vigilant now. But even talking about this today still makes us both physically tense and upset. Even though she was found safe and quickly, this is not something we're just going to get over like it was nothing.
This kind of thing is actually pretty common though, and our reaction was absolutely in line with how every other normal parent in that situation reacts time and time again, with extreme fear, panic, screaming, searching, etc, until their child is found. The reason so many people were absolutely fixated with the Casey Anthony trial is because there was so much evidence that she did not react this way at all. She was partying, she was sleeping with random guys, she was lying to her parents, once it was discovered that her daughter was missing she was lying to the police, and even those volunteers who were looking for her daughter. The time where she lied to detectives, telling them that she worked at Universal Studios, argued her way past the security guards and lead the detectives through the offices of the Studios down hallways before finally stopping mid stride and saying "Okay, I don't really work here" was absolutely mind-blowing.
I think the verdict the jury came to is probably the best they could possibly do, given the prosecution's very weak case. That's the way the American justice system works, and it's much better than the alternative. But you've got to realize there is something deeply, terribly wrong with this woman. Her reaction to the loss of her daughter was absolutely, positively not normal. That's why my wife and I, as well as thousands of others were so captivated by this trial.
