I got a bad feeling when I looked at the photo of her and Casey, like she was not happy...what small child would be happy having to hang out with adults all the time...kids need other kids, I don't see that she got any of that. That picture made me sad.
I agree with you. I don't think Caylee was a very happy child overall. She was toted around by a mother who really didn't love her and who increasingly was viewing her daughter with resentment, as a threat to casey's position as the princess in the house, as an obstacle to freedom and as a tool to get back at Cindy. I think little Caylee could sense these feelings, even if she did not understand them.
However, I continue to believe Caylee was not obviously maltreated or phsycially abused by casey until the murder. I see casey as a coldly calculating person who did not have enough passion about Caylee either way, such that she would want to physically abuse her, yell at her, etc. Instead, I think she just wanted to get rid of her as quickly and easily as possible and simply go on with her life. I think the real rage in casey was reserved for her mother. Killing Caylee would be a way to get back at her mother for not giving casey what she wanted and would get rid of the "problem". But, as evil as casey is, I don't see her as the type to fly off in a physically violent manner.
This point of view may be hard to understand for some. It's hard to imagine a person who does not grossly neglect or abuse their child, snuffing out the life of the child later on. Especially after being viewed overall as a loving parent, or at least one who meets the needs of her child in a fairly normal way. But, it does happen. Susan Smith is a great example of someone who was viewed as a very loving, devoted mom before she drowned her sons. I have read a few other cases, of men, mostly, who seemed loving to their kids, good parents, and then killed them either to be free, to get insurance or to get back at the ex spouse. This seems to work with spousal murders as well, ala Scott Petereson, Mark Hacking, Neil Entwhistle: They all seemed to be ideal husbands and in Entwhistle's case, a devoted father.
The one thing in common these people seem to have is a level of sociopathy, narcissism, selfishness, a great ability to act and overall apathy to his or her fellow man. These people are not rage-fueled sadists, but rather, smiling death heads who no one would suspect. I think casey is like this instead of your run of the mill child batterer like Riley Sawyer's mother. I can't say which is worse. They should all go to hell.