I absolutely agree with this. Your mind sometimes will "protect" you from things that are too horrific or painful.
My cousin found her sister who died in her sleep. She stopped over to see her after work one day and found her dead (she was just 39 years old) my cousin did not call 911 (her sister was very obviously had been dead for hours) she called her dad, then she went around and straightened up, she did the dishes, busy work, she remembers nothing of anything of this. She just shut down. My uncle found her doing dishes like nothing was wrong at all.
I think C&A (especially CA) immediatley went into a denial mode, thinking and believing there had to be some other explination.
Absolutely, N4GetC, I totally agree. Faced with two prospects, a) believing Caylee is dead and KC killed her, or b) Nanny kidnapped Caylee and she might still be alive ... which would any grandparent believe?
**Warning, graphic***don't read if you'll be offended***
Oh, and your story about your cousin rings true to me. We sometimes have a natural instinct to clean up when we're in shock... It's gruesome to recall this image, but I remember watching the video of JFK's assasination awhile back. And I couldn't get over how right after the bullets tore through Pres. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy was climbing onto the trunk of the car, picking up pieces of her husband's "grey matter" -- in other words, she was retrieving parts of his brain. She went into immediate "clean up" mode -- as if she could put everything back together. (sorry to be graphic).
Years ago, my brother's friend's father was killed in a tragic roadside accident, and something similar happened. The mother watched in horror as her husband was struck and killed by a passing truck after they'd pulled over to switch drivers. The frantic wife immediately started picking up her husband's body parts because she didn't want them littering the highway. She risked her own life wandering around at night, in shock, on a highway to pick up the pieces. I KNOW. I KNOW. It's gross. But she was in shock.
People do weird things when they're in shock, and under the stress of loss. They clean up messes, they impede investigation. They try to put things back together the way they were. They distance themselves from reality.
Why did CA give the wrong brush to the FBI? Why did she switch her story about the smell of death to the smell of rotten pizza? Is it possible that subconsciously she just doesn't want to help with an investigation into her granddaughter's death?
So, yes, maybe she has been impeding the investigation, but I don't believe it was conscious, or in a knowing attempt to get KC off. I think CA knew it in her heart, but couldn't bring herself to admit it.