God, I don't know the why of the duct tape, it's almost too horrific to contemplate. Personally, there are only two scenarios that make sense of KC's use of that duct tape:
1) Enraged payback from KC against Caylee for "tattling" on her to Cindy. I think its possibile that on June 15th, during their nice long drive back and forth to Mt. Dora, Caylee unknowingly told Cindy something about KC that absolutely infuriated Cindy.
Maybe KC said something like, "Mommy makes me sleep in the trunk," or "Mommy makes me take medicine to sleep," or "We don't have no Nanny--Mommy is Nanny," or "Mommy sleeps in Tony's bed," or Mommy doesn't go to work, we come home and play here." Who knows--it could be anything, but whatever it was, it made Cindy go off on Casey that night when they got home.
I think this is EXACTLY on target. I believe Caylee's developing verbal skills escalated her demise, her heinous fate at the hands of her own "mother."
Casey of course denied it and convinced Cindy that Caylee was wrong, then KC and Caylee went to bed. Maybe Cindy did tuck them in. But that night, Casey stayed awake seething because Caylee had ratted her out and Cindy had gotten in her face because of it. Not only that, but it was also now apparent to furious KC that Caylee's ability to talk was bringing an immediate end to what little freedom KC had.
The next day, around 1 PM, Casey and Caylee said goodbye to George (Casey was dressed for "work."), then--as was KC's habit, she and Caylee returned to the house after George left and before Cindy came home. While they were home, KC did something Caylee didn't like, Caylee had a tantrum and threatened to "tell Gramma." Or maybe Caylee had a tantrum when it was time to leave and said she wanted to stay home with Gramma and go swimming. With Caylee kicking and screaming or dragging her feet, an infuriated Casey hauled Caylee out of the house-- through the inner garage door--(toward her car in the driveway.) AND THERE WAS THE DUCT TAPE.
Very good theory here.
I think Casey grabbed it, taped it around Caylee's face to shut her up, (and perhaps put tape around her legs, too,), and said, "So, you want to go swimming?" Then she hauled Caylee back into the house, out the porch door, and threw her into the swimming pool. After awhile, she fished a dead Caylee out of the pool, shoved her into two plastic garbage bags, then she jammed those into the white laundry bag. All a neighbor would have seen, had a neighbor been looking, was Casey benignly putting her laundry into the trunk.
Bolded part ITA with. Still not sure about drowning. I think COD more likely asphysiation/medication overdose.
2) The same scenario above except that Casey didn't use the duct tape before she threw Caylee into the pool, she used it after she fished Caylee out of the pool and laid her on the ground. At that point, she put tape over Caylee's face so she didn't have to look at it, pressed a heart-shaped sticker over her mouth "to make it all better," then she folded Caylee "in half," trussed her up with more duct tape to keep her that way, and shoved her into the bags as above.
Maybe instead of putting Caylee's body in her trunk that day, she hid her in the playhouse or elsewhere and went back for her a couple days later.
Bonechilling but could very likely be at least similar to what happened.
Either way, I think she realized she lost something in the pool the day Caylee drowned (maybe the missing "Tiffany ring?") or her own shoe or something she was afraid Cindy would see in there. She went back for it a couple days later, dragged the ladder over to the pool, and tried to fish it out with the shovel. This time, she just left the ladder there. If she'd left Caylee's body there before, she took it with her now.
IDK, still not convinced about drowning.
God that was horrible to type.
I completely understand.
That's my private hellish idea of what might have happened to "our" baby girl. Purely my imagaination, of course.
Every time I see that picture of Caylee as an infant, sleeping peacefully on Jesse's big chest, I think to myself, "That's the safest she was ever going to be."