New Revelations in Caylee Anthony Murder

"48 Hours Mystery" teams up with CBS News' "The Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez for an exclusive interview with three members of Casey Anthony's defense team and an in-depth look at a case that has become a national obsession.

It is a case that has captivated the country. In the summer of 2008, Orlando, Fla. toddler Caylee Anthony disappeared, only to be discovered six months later a short distance from her home, her skeletal remains stuffed in plastic bags and her mouth sealed with duct tape.

Her mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was charged with Caylee's murder after not reporting her daughter missing for a month, and allegedly lying to police. With Casey facing a murder trial and the possibility of the death penalty, her parents, Cindy and George Anthony, are standing by their daughter as they search for the truth.

Now, for the first time, three of Casey's defense lawyers - Jose Baez, Linda Kenney Baden and Todd Macaluso - discuss the case in an exclusive interview with CBS News' "The Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez on "48 Hours Mystery," Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Excerpts from the "48 Hours Mystery" interview are below:

KENNEY BADEN: The state had led you to believe that there's duct tape around the mouth.

RODRIGUEZ: Oh, you're saying there's not?

KENNEY BADEN: All we can say is that's going to be a disputed issue.

BAEZ: I think they botched this from the very beginning by arresting Casey Anthony without fully investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this child's disappearance.

KENNEY BADEN: It was ruined and spoiled in a lot of ways. For instance…the most important piece of evidence that the state thought they had, which is this demonizing duct tape, was contaminated by the FBI.

A lab technician's DNA was found on the duct tape. Along with DNA belonging to an unidentified person…

KENNEY BADEN: Another party that did not belong to the FBI, did not belong to law enforcement, did not belong to Casey or any of her family members that is on that duct tape.

MACALUSO: A stranger. It was a stranger involved.

KENNEY BADEN: Somebody else is the killer of this child.

BAEZ: They want you to believe that this 22-year-old girl is a master forensic sleuth who could outwit and outsmart the entire FBI and still be dumb enough to leave her child's body off the side of the road…a block from her house.

But authorities say they have evidence that Casey premeditated the crime, conducting incriminating research on a family computer…. The subjects included "neck-breaking," "household weapons," "shovel," and "how to make chloroform."

KENNEY BADEN: You just assumed that Casey was conducting those searches.

RODRIGUEZ: No, I didn't assume. That's what the state says in their evidence.

KENNEY BADEN: They're absolutely mistaken.

RODRIGUEZ: So you don't deny that the searches happened, but you say it wasn't Casey?

KENNEY BADEN: Correct.

While the defense claims that the prosecution's evidence is not concrete, detectives have said that the fact that Casey did not immediately report Caylee's disappearance, as well as Casey's own behavior during the month her daughter was later said to be missing, which included partying at nightclubs, are damning. But Casey's lawyers and her parents say that things are not as they seem.

RODRIGUEZ: Does it seem odd to you that she would be out dancing when Caylee was missing?

GEORGE: Casey told us she was trying to find where Caylee was at. There's some kind of a connection there somewhere.

BAEZ: Things are not always as simple as they seem.

RODRIGUEZ: Would you care to elaborate?

BAEZ: No.

RODRIGUEZ: We have photographs that show Casey was out partying while her daughter was supposedly missing. How will you explain to a jury how a good mother who's worried about her daughter is capable of doing that?

BAEZ: Everything will come out at its proper time and place.

Rodriguez also spoke with Casey's former fiancé, Jesse Grund. Grund and Anthony had only dated for six weeks in early 2005. But months after they broke up, she told him that she was pregnant with his child. A paternity test would soon reveal that he was not Caylee's father, but Grund was committed to the baby. He assumed the role of father and proposed to Casey.

GRUND: Caylee was a really easy baby, I gotta be honest…so wonderful. I fell in love with her as soon as saw her.

[A paternity test] said zero-percent probability that I was the biological father. It was relieving and heartbreaking at the same time. I didn't want anybody else to be that little girl's father except for me.

I could have just jumped ship and left. But that was never my intention.

RODRIGUEZ: It didn't matter that Caylee wasn't his…Jesse was in love with his new family. But just 5 months after she said "yes," Casey called off the engagement.

GRUND: She claimed I loved Caylee more than I loved her.

RODRIGUEZ: What do you think happened to Caylee?

GRUND: Honestly, I don't know… The Casey that I knew was incapable of hurting a hair on Caylee's head… But this person, this dark, selfish, remorseless individual that sits in jail right now, I'm not sure what she's capable of.
Many of Casey Anthony's friends echo Grund's sentiments of confusion about what she is really capable of doing, but her parents, George and Cindy, refuse to believe she killed her own daughter - their granddaughter. Their steadfast defense of Casey has put them on trial in the court of public opinion, and the public outcry - including daily protests in front of the Anthonys' home - nearly pushed George to commit suicide.

GEORGE: People hate her… I think it's almost like a hangman's type mentality for some of these people.

How are you supposed to feel when you're being called particular names? It just gets to you after a while. It needles you. It eats at you…. If you get spit on, you get called-and you get stuff thrown at you---what are you supposed to do? You supposed to stand back and just not let it bother you?"

Knowing that my granddaughter was gone, knowing where my daughter's at and what she's facing for the possibility of her life, how much it's hurting Cindy…I couldn't take it no more. I wanted to join Caylee. I miss her so much.

The Anthony's home has turned into a shrine to Caylee-her bedroom remains just as it was, her furniture, clothing and toys are still there, her handprints are still on the mirror. They even keep her death certificate lying out in the open, the saddest reminder of what has devastated this family.

GEORGE: We're not gonna get rid of anything of hers. Most everything we've held on to. We just can't let it go. We can't let it go.

RODRIGUEZ: Everywhere you go in the house, there are pictures of Caylee and Casey

CINDY: Right. Casey was always taking pictures of Caylee. This is Caylee's room. There's days that it brings me smiles and there's days that I just come in here and I just cry."

MAGGIE: You will never clean this mirror?

CINDY: No! And I can't even wipe the dust off cause I'm afraid I'm gonna take a smudge off of her."

GEORGE: I can hear her, I can smell her right now...I can visualize her…There's a presence inside of our house that we can feel…we can see.

CINDY: It wasn't Casey's child. It was our child. She belonged to all of us.