Casey Anthony Jailhouse Tapes: She Threatens to Hang Up on Parents When They Ask About Caylee

Angry Casey Anthony threatens to hang up on parents when they ask about Caylee.

ByABC News
June 3, 2011, 11:17 AM

June 3, 2011— -- Casey Anthony threatened to hang up on a jailhouse conversation with her parents when her clearly distraught mother begs Casey for any information that can help them find 2-year-old Caylee.

During the call, Casey Anthony complains that no one is treating her like a victim.

The taped conversation was one of three submitted as evidence today in Casey Anthony's first degree murder trial, and each of the tapes reveal George and Cindy Anthony as emotionally exhausted but still determined to find their granddaughter Caylee. The tapes are from August 2008, weeks into the search for the missing toddler.

"I'm not doing well...Lee's [Casey Anthony's brother] been sick...Dad's blowing up at the media...somebody just said that Caylee's dead, she drowned in the family pool," said Cindy Anthony in a jailhouse conversation on Aug.14, 2008.

Casey Anthony coolly responds to the reports that Caylee drowned by saying, "Surprise, surprise."

At the time of the conversation, Casey Anthony was sticking to her lie that a nanny kidnapped her daughter. Her defense team now claims that Caylee did drown in the family pool on June 16, 2008, a month before she was reported missing. The prosecution claims the 25-year-old woman killed her daughter.

George Anthony continued to believe his daughter during the jailhouse phone call, telling her, "Hey sweetheart...I want you to know you are the boss through the whole thing...if something's not being done or being said, you can make the change."

Casey Anthony, clearly feeling sorry for herself, insists that she can't offer any help from a jail cell.

"I've been in here [jail] a month out of contact with everyone...do you understand? What am I supposed to learn from that...you guys are not understanding my side from this and I'm sorry," Casey Anthony said.

George and Cindy Anthony's insistent questions to Casey Anthony about what she knows or remembers that could help in the search for Caylee only infuriates their daughter.

"I'm going to have to hang up and just walk away because I'm frustrated and I'm angry...This is the first time I've truly been angry this entire time," Casey Anthony tells her parents.

Casey Anthony tells her parents that she has to focus on the case the police are building against her.

"You guys have each other, you're sitting next to dad, you still have [her brother] Lee...You're taking for granted the fact that I have no one to comfort me," Casey Anthony complains.

"I need to be looked at as a victim because I'm just as much a victim as the rest of you and it hasn't been portrayed that way," she says.

Cindy Anthony appears so fragile in the tape, she collapses onto her husband's shoulder. She also rocks back and forth, holding her head. The parents, wearing matching t-shirts bearing a message to Caylee on them, try to calm their combative daughter.

"Our focus has to be finding Caylee," Cindy Anthony tells her.

In another conversation, taped the week Caylee would have turned 3, her father describes how frail Cindy Anthony has become and apologizes to his daughter for not always listening to her.

"This is destroying your mother. She hurts so much...maybe we've all been too domineering. Maybe we didn't let you be the best mom," George Anthony said.

Casey Anthony insists she can't help in the search from jail and her dad apologizes for not being able to bail her out of jail.

"Mom and I have done everything financially we can to help with this. If we could do more, we would. I've even reached out to relatives and that's hard to ask," he tells her.

Her parents stick by their daughter, comforting her about the increasing public perception that she had something to do with Caylee's disappearance.

"You've got to have faith in everything...pictures are being painted that's looking tough," George Anthony said.

"I told you in my gut, she's still ok...I can feel it...We're going to get our little girl back...I'm going to be the crazy, overprotective mom," Casey Anthony said.

Following the jailhouse conversations, the prosecution submitted over a 100 pieces of evidence taken from the Anthony home, Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire and forensic evidence such as hair and saliva samples taken from Casey Anthony herself.