Death of Caylee Anthony still captivates

updated 12:03 p.m. ET July 15, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. - It's easy to forget 2-year-old Florida toddler Caylee Anthony was slain after all the plot twists and turns in her story.

There are the grandparents, George and Cindy. The phantom baby sitter. The bounty hunter. The meter reader.

At the center of it all is the toddler Caylee Anthony and her mother, Casey, the 23-year-old charged in her daughter's death. It's been one year since the toddler was reported missing, and while her remains were found six months ago, authorities still don't know exactly how she died.

That's one of the many unknowns that has kept the public's interest over the last year. Viewers tune in to the cable television news show hosted by Nancy Grace, who dubbed Casey the "Tot Mom," to find out about every development. People chat on parenting Web sites about her chances of a fair trial and debate over her innocence or guilt has filled talk radio.

"It certainly has the makings of a made-for-TV movie or a soap opera," said Bob Longo, news director of WESH, which like other Orlando television news stations has relentlessly covered the case. "I think people have opinions on the characters in the saga. They identify with them or against them."

Was there a baby sitter?
The story started as a mystery, centered on finding out what happened to Caylee. But soon, Casey Anthony became the chief suspect and the image of a sympathetic mother morphed into that of a party-loving club-hopper. The stories she told detectives and her parents about where she worked and where she had dropped off Caylee with a baby sitter were lies, police said.

It turned out Caylee had been missing more than a month before Casey Anthony told her family. After her arrest, she told police she had been conducting her own investigation into her daughter's whereabouts.

George and Cindy Anthony, the grandparents, were used to seeing the little girl almost every day. But beginning about mid-June 2008, Casey and Caylee just weren't around.

When the grandparents inquired, Casey said she was traveling with Caylee around central Florida. Cindy began to worry, though, and called her daughter frequently, demanding to know Caylee's whereabouts. There were always excuses: Caylee was with the baby sitter or at the beach with friends.

In mid-July, George and Cindy picked up their daughter's car from a towing lot and noticed a stench from the trunk. Cindy Anthony confronted her daughter, who initially said Caylee was with the phantom baby sitter. Then, Casey finally admitted the little girl had been missing for a month.

"There's something wrong," Cindy Anthony said in a 911 call. "I found my daughter's car today and it smelled like there's been a dead body in the damn car."

'Everything has been taken from me'
Casey Anthony was arrested the next day on charges of child neglect and providing false information to authorities. She continued to tell law enforcement that Caylee had been left with a baby sitter, whom she identified as Zenaida Gonzalez.

That's when the story switched from a private drama of domestic tensions between parents and a daughter to a very public tale. Reporters camped outside the Anthony home for weeks and protesters with "Baby Killer" signs picketed their street.

Casey Anthony maintained her innocence throughout.

"I'm not in control of this because I don't know what the hell is going on," she tearfully told her parents during a jailhouse visit last summer. "My entire life has been taken from me. Everything has been taken from me."

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