There’s no doubt in my mind that Casey is guilty.
The circumstantial evidence alone should have been enough.. Who goes out partying shortly after their four year-old “disappears”? If it were one of mine I would have either been bedridden or out searching for her.
What's really shocking is that there are many similar cases to this with the exact same pattern of behavior, usually involving husbands who murder their wives/girlfriends rather than divorce them or break up with them.
Chester Gillette, 1906:
He pulled a Scott Peterson, took his pregnant girlfriend out to Moose Lake and murdered her with a blow to the head. She was from a lower social class than him, so he didn't want to actually marry her.
Similarities to Casey:
1) Two days later he joined a group of vacationing friends at another lake and acted completely normal. His friends said that at no time did he appear to be upset, distracted, depressed or unsettled.
2) He crafted an elaborate scheme and
constructed a fake persona. He registered under that name at a hotel and then registered under a different name when he rented the boat. Both names matched his initials.
3) He attempted to frame the murder scene to make it look like Grace and her mysterious companion died in a boating accident by dumping his straw hat in the water to make it seem like this fake person may have sunk to the bottom of the lake.
4) When the police tried to question hi, he told them "he had to play tennis."
5) He changed his story once more evidence emerged revolving around eyewitness identification. He then tried to claim that he had taken Grace out to Moose Lake and she had committed suicide after he suggested they talk to her parents and tell them about her pregnancy. He claimed he jumped in after her, looked for her for a minute or two, then gave up and swam to shore.
He never reported her missing or dead.
6) His lawyer insisted that he was guilty of "nothing more than moral cowardice, of running away after a rash and tragic suicide because he was "just a boy at the time."
7) Grace was found with a blow to her head. The jury didn't buy it despite the defense claiming she may have hit her head on something on the way down.
Ewing Scott, murdered his wife and managed to hide the body well enough that no one ever found it.
Similarities to Casey (he has a lot):
1) After his wife disappeared, he never reported her missing.
2) He ignored letters and calls from his wife's worried friends and
gave a series of growing and inexplicable reasons for her absence. He claimed that she was suffering from mental illness and alcoholism and had gone east for treatment. Other times he said she was at home, but refused to let any of her friends speak to her.
Authorities didn't get involved until his wife had been missing for two and a half months and only then after her friends visited the DA's office.
3) Once he was forced by the authorities to tell them where his wife was, he claimed that she had gone out to buy tooth powder and never returned. He claimed she had throat cancer. He claimed he found her car two days later in a cemetery, but never reported it. He even claimed his wife was trying to kill him. The police eventually found her dental bridge, glasses and some pills near an incinerator, but no evidence his wife had been cremated there.
4) He forged his wife's signature on several bank documents.
5)
He then tried to frame his wife's disappearance as a kidnapping. His wife's car was found on the street with two bullet holes in it. But both shots were fired from the inside and there was no blood anywhere.
6) He started pointing the finger at his wife's brother.
7) He said "
It is my belief that my wife is alive. I fervently believe she would come forward if it is at all possible, unless she is held against her will by those who stand to profit from these actions. Or maybe she has amnesia."
8) The defense tried to claim that Ewing Scott's frequently changing explanations were "simply a husband's foolish attempts to assuage his own bruised ego, to shield himself from the fact that his wife had abandoned him."
The prosecutor very clearly explained circumstantial evidence The jury convicted him of first degree murder.
I doubt Casey's jury would have. No body, so they don't know how she died and to them, a defendant's lies don't really matter. In fact, they used her lies to exonerate her and blame George. To be fair though, I think both of these genius defendants took the stand.
uke: Interesting, considering she accused her father of molesting her and she's now shacked up with a man around his age. 
