Thank you for sharing that, pizmex! This has been my thought all along...that an accident of some sort happened such that it was way too late to call for any help. Casey knew she'd be in trouble -- neglect, medicating, whatever she may have done to Caylee (or not done for her) -- so instead of calling 911 or LE, she selfishly got rid of Caylee in order to try to save her own hide. She thought she could come up with some explanation that everyone would buy. But she didn't/couldn't come up with anything remotely plausible. She just wasn't clever enough to pull it off.
But then her behavior during this period kind of wrecks that theory for me. If there were a true accident, seems like she would have been extremely emotional, even if she didn't tell anyone. Surely, someone would have noticed some sort of change in her demeanor. Instead, she was carrying on as if she were footloose and fancy free. I don't think there's any way she could have entirely hidden the grief of losing her child all that time if she'd truly lost her to an accident and were truly grieving her death.
The only way I could see the accident theory working is for Casey to have been so traumatized by the event that she is totally blocking what really happened because her mind is protecting her from the pain and trauma of having to face the truth, and so she concocted an alternate scenario wherein Caylee is still alive. I sorta doubt that's the case, but it's the only way I can reconcile her happy-go-lucky behavior during all that time with the grief and guilt a loving mother
should be experiencing. A break with reality is all I can think of to explain it.
You know, even if she were an irresponsible, selfish mother, all the pictures we've seen of Caylee and Casey together portray to me that she did love Caylee -- maybe not in the unselfish way most moms love their kids, but to the extent she was capable. The family and friends who knew of her relationship with Caylee all say she loved her very much. I can't see her just outright murdering Caylee, but I know those things do happen -- people you would never suspect sometimes do horrible things. And there certainly are signs that Casey is a terribly selfish, narcissistic, pathological liar who is not a responsible person and not very empathetic towards others. So who knows.
I guess I want to think "accident" so I don't have to think she intentionally killed her own daughter. But unless she had some kind of traumatic break with reality after the accident, I just can't see her behavior fitting that scenario.
What do y'all think?