Why This case Is So Popular ??

I've wondered that about this case. Why am I so drawn in, insanely so? I recall the start of the case and I was mildly interested. Then I saw the news-- showing police digging in the back yard of the family home, and I figured they will find that poor baby there, sad. When no baby was found, I hopped on WS to read up on it. I knew there would be links to follow and make it easy to learn about. But the 'story' wouldn't end, it still won't.

1) I think the whole family is attractive and all American looking. From the outside everything in and around their life looks good.

2) Casey will not cave in and tell the truth.

3) The release of the 911, calls--then the release of the 1st call home from jail. WOW! One can't help but do a double take on that phone conversation!

4) Cindy Anthony won't quit going on TV with all sorts of varied stories, it's like following the bouncing ball! She gives challenges to the public and press. (pizza stories yada)

5) Then all sorts of odd characters start showing up on the scene.

6) Woman gets bailed out by strangers, back in the pokey she goes (arrested on national TV, no less)

7) She's bailed out again and now million dollar offers are out there for her to sell her baby ( if she didn't sell her baby before, sure looks like she's ready to now, imo)

8) Little Caylee in the center and she's so cute and looks very much like many little girls we may know. She looks very similar to my step daughter as a wee one, she looks slightly like my niece who is Caylee's age. It's heart breaking, where's this baby--we all want so badly to reach out there and find her. It's maddening!

9) Casey was a wild thang with the boys, imo. and I certainly wasn't tame, so for me to think she was pretty wild, well.

10) Casey won't talk and her family shows all the ugly under the 'the beautiful people' when they refuse to shut up.

It's just hard to turn away from such a travesty, imo. The woman Summer ManyWhiteHorses, it appears she was a sick woman and there was a conclusion. Look at Casey's life, she had it all and she is throwing it away and thumbing her nose at her child and the public by all appearences--she provokes us, Cindy provokes us. I think that's why I follow.

I agree Tricia the "strange" factor has a lot to do with it. In the Van Dam case no one could believe that this pretty well-to-do very well educated middle aged man could simply walk into his neighbors home, scoop up Danielle in his arms and take her back to his house. It was so "out of the ordinary". Same with the Ramsey's, same with the Anthony's. Same with the Runion case even though that came to an end pretty quick. The Smart case as well. Just out of the ordinary strange occurances in an otherwise "normal" situation. The Darlie Routier case is another aspect of Rich and Strange. These things aren't supposed to happen to these type of people.

DazzlinDebSD said:

Why is there so much attention on this Casey Anthony case and we haven't heard anyting about this little boy who went missing months ago? Notice, I did say Casey Anthony, not Caylee Anthony!!!

NG didn't even mention this mother, Summer ManyWhiteHorses, that was charged Monday with deliberate homicide. Why is Casey such a media target and this monster of a mother isn't? I just don't get it. This little boy had nobody missing him? No Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Neighbors? No media attention? Nothing? What's wrong with this picture?


http://www.bnd.com/430/story/465279.html

Click to expand...

thats not true. He did have relatives who cared about him. I saw a clip a few days ago with the relatives. They are very sad.
There were different circumstances in this case, I believe. The grandparents were not raising this little boy (unfortunetly) for the mother everyday like Cindy had to do for Cindy. Plus she didnt live at her mommy and daddys house still. No reason to think anything wrong. Its very sad.

DazzlinDebSD said:

This should have been newsworthy!!!!

Child welfare officials moved for custody of the daughter in August and were trying to determine the boy's whereabouts.

During the investigation, authorities learned that ManyWhiteHorses told relatives the state had taken the toddler long ago, that state officials were told initially the child was in Browning and then later that he was in Portland, Ore.

"Her stories varied based upon who she was talking to," said police Detective Bruce McDermott.

Click to expand...

What's interesting about this article is they give the mother's name and not the childs (victim)...maybe it's the slant news gives us?

Ned, liked your story up there.

Thanks PT. I have my face back now. I had lost it years back, not the exact same one, but the pipe still works :crazy:

nite folks

Nedthan Johns said:

When the VanDam case came along, (at that time I only lived 30 minutes from them and my daughter was just a little bit older than Danielle). I became obsessed with finding the little girl and HAD to search for her, because I wasn't sleeping at night and could only imagine the pain the parents were going through not knowing where she was. The not knowing part is the worst. I reported the case here on websleuths complete with photos of the Van Dam and Westerfield home. Posted websleuths address in the guest book that was outside of the VanDam home for wellwishers, and before you knew it we had David Westerfield's cousin on here and neighbors of the Van Dam's.
.

Click to expand...

As you know......I lived a few minutes from the Van Dams and also knew David Westerfield. That case sucked the life out of me just like this one is. Atleast I was able to be out there searching all day for Danielle with you Ned. I'm too far from Caylee to search for her. Thanks for the beautiful post Ned.

Tricia said:

In the case of Manywhitehorses you have a drug addict who put her child in the trunk. There is no mystery. No "strangeness" if you will other than the act itself. There was no national search because no one could figure out where the child was. Now, if Maywhitehorses parents were chatty like the Anthony's you can bet this case would have gotten the same attention. From what I gather, this woman was known to be a bad mother and the case is already solved.

Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing that out Tricia. Rough day in the news today!!! Headline News depressed the hell out of me with this baby in the trunk case, then the microwaved baby case, and to top it off the crack addict trying to sell her baby for drugs. This world has gone completely nuts!!!

Alyzabeth said:

(1.)I think my main draw to this case is the way Casey is being strung up when there is so little to go on that points in her direction.
(2.)Seriously, so she steals...anyone checking these forums from work PC's when they are supposed to be doing what they get paid for is "stealing" in a sense. So, that doesn't make her guilty of murder in my book, at least not without incriminating a whole bunch of forum readers/posters as well.
(3.)She lies...who doesn't? Maybe tiny lies, maybe big lies, we all do it. I lied this morning when I told my friend I had to get off the phone so I could go out and get my mail. I really just wanted off the phone...period.
(4.)To watch this young woman being raked over the coals without sufficient cause is making me feel a great deal of sympathy towards her. And honestly, I am so thankful that there are people like Jose Baez, Leonard and Tony Padilla and all the others that are willing to help Casey.
We don't know why she has kept her silence. Plain and simple. I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt until I see reason not to.

Click to expand...

I have underlined and numbered the points in your post that I would like to respond to.
1.) There is a MOUNTAIN pointing to her.
2.) To equate sneaking a look at a forum while at work and lying to the police about your missing daughter is like saying that a man who murders another man is the same as someone who swats a fly. They HARDLY compare. It is apples to peanut butter and it does not compute REALISTICLY...
3.) But we do not all LIE to the police when the ISSUE is our missing CHILD. We do not lead the police on a wild goose chase that in no way helps them locate our child and only wastes their time...This, again, does not compute in REALITY. Yes, everyone may lie to get off the phone, that is SIMPLISTIC-but everyone does NOT lie to the POLICE when their child's life hangs in the balance...
4.) Spend some time and read the 471 page document dump with all the statements and the REALITY may just set in you too...

Alyzabeth said:

I think my main draw to this case is the way Casey is being strung up when there is so little to go on that points in her direction.
Seriously, so she steals...anyone checking these forums from work PC's when they are supposed to be doing what they get paid for is "stealing" in a sense. So, that doesn't make her guilty of murder in my book, at least not without incriminating a whole bunch of forum readers/posters as well.
She lies...who doesn't? Maybe tiny lies, maybe big lies, we all do it. I lied this morning when I told my friend I had to get off the phone so I could go out and get my mail. I really just wanted off the phone...period.
To watch this young woman being raked over the coals without sufficient cause is making me feel a great deal of sympathy towards her. And honestly, I am so thankful that there are people like Jose Baez, Leonard and Tony Padilla and all the others that are willing to help Casey.
We don't know why she has kept her silence. Plain and simple. I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt until I see reason not to.

Click to expand...

What about her not reporting the child missing? Or partying while she was supposedly looking for her? Her total and complete lack of concern over the wellbeing of her child? I can't believe that there are people who can still give her the benefit of doubt when the only thing she was concerned about when she was first put in jail was getting her boyfriend's phone number. "All they care about is Caylee." You want me to give THAT the benefit of doubt?

gypsiechavi said:

I have been drawn to this case because as far as I know this is the only case in which a little 2 year old girl has been missing for 30+ days and the mother never reported it. This was the very first thing to intrigue me.

Click to expand...

Actually there was another case not too unlike it just reported today. I wish I could find the article. It was from the US Southwest, and the mother is an American Indian. The child was missing for about a month. The mother finally admitted the child was dead and claimed it was an accidental death. Very shocking. But somehow it never reached the level of this case.

I suspect in part it is a combination of those pictures of Caylee that just grab you attention, combined with the absolute unconcern of casey. People are watching something completely alien to them. They cannot understand how Casey thinks or is wired. It is rare that we see quite that level of for lack of a better word, cold calculating evil, in a woman. We tend to expect in more in the Jeffrey Dahmer type serial killers.

PaperDoll said:

Why is the case so popular? What draws us to certain cases over another? There are lots of missing children in this world. There are children who die by the hands of their own parents and yet this case seems to stir up our emotions. Why? Why this one and not another? I look and see that Caylee has sooooo many supporters and prayers going out for her and yet there are others who are missing that don't have the support she is getting. Why is that?

Click to expand...

What draws me to this thread is...
1..Her child was missing
2..She did not care that her baby was missing for 31 days (big red flag here)
3..Continued to party like it was 1999, even though her baby was missing
4..Led the cops around like a dog on a leash
5..Changed her story
6..Do I need to go on?

Oh yeah,,,,
6..She was white
7..Caylee was beautiful

That's why

I would just like to add that Florida has a (comparatively) open judicial system which makes it possible to obtain much more information about cases during the active investigation. Think of how many Florida (and California) trials were featured on the old CourtTV. That is because Florida (and California) allow television cameras in the courtroom when many states do not.

I totally agree with the STRANGE factor here. It is like seeing someone with two heads. Tough to look at...but hard not to stare. As most of us here are somewhere in the "normal" ranges of any scale you want to choose, we are probably not exposed to the degree of dysfunction, arrogance, disregard for culturally accepted behavior, etc. that we've seen in the Anthony family. (Although some here probably do work in mental health, law enforcement or legal fields...) The behavior of this family - plucked out of their everyday routine and trapped on the dissection table of the media (television and internet) - is hard to turn away from...sort of like a man with two heads.

Now, when a friend tells you a lie, you can either blow it off and love them anyway or call them out on it. If your friend is normal, they will blush and 'fess up or huff off and get over it. Casey has been lying for a long time and apparently her friends/family have dealt with it as above. But this time it's very different. This time a two year old baby is caught up in the lies and nobody can blow it off and Casey can't just huff off and then get over it. We are personally insulted by her behavior and socially outraged that a baby appears to be dead by the actions of her own mother who continues to make up bizarre lies and then even more bizarre lies. I think if she had confessed on July 16th, the case would not have been so "two-headed strange" and we could all scrape up some compassion for a young mother whose child was tragically lost in an accident. But this mother has hidden the child's demise for going on three months and denies us any opportunity to feel compassion because of her behavior.

I think if the Many White Horses boy had been deliberately hidden from searchers for 80+ days and the mother was uncooperative, made up bizarre stories about the child's whereabouts and appeared to actually be happy the child is gone - the case would've received the same attention from media and WS as the Caylee case. It's not less tragic, but it is less newsworthy. There is no mystery to solve in the Many White Horses case. I can feel some compassion for the mother's unfortunate life and certainly for her poor child, but the world knows that he is now at peace.

We don't really know that about Caylee. We are angry that her mother/family seems to be unconcerned about the child but very concerned about the mother and the whole case just seems upside down - a puzzle. I know that I still pray for a miracle and that Caylee will be found alive. I can't stop thinking about what if she's alive and what's being done to her. Maybe it strikes at some deep fear in my own psyche that I could be lost and would anyone come and find me. I don't know. I just know that I will be a bit obsessed with this lost baby until I know she is in God's hands or some caring, loving, earthly hands.

I pray for all missing children and all children who are frightened and mistreated in their own homes. The world is just full of too many terrible atrocities and it seems that one is never far away that is even worse than all before it. I don't know any other way to help, other than prayer and monetary donations to organizations who have the technology and experience to bring our missing children home. Sometimes an opportunity arises such as the Caylee case where we are able to come together as a community and discuss theories or assimilate clues we find and these opportunities often become something of an obsession. As pointed out in earlier posts, that's not a bad thing.

nice post, Can't Sleep. Very nice
I just know that I will be a bit obsessed with this lost baby until I know she is in God's hands or some caring, loving, earthly hands.
amen

As previously posted, the, 'strange factor,' is paramount for many drawn to this sad, confusing case.

Maybe, there is a longing for proof that alien life exists as we might try to imagine, but can't truly fathom in any concrete, recognizable manifestation that resembles humanity on a level that we can comfortably relate to?

And we have no idea how to effectively communicate with them to promote peace.

Maybe, it is a deep-seated desire to illicit specific changes and resolutions, through sheer force of combined passionate will; that the Martians would conform to our cultural mores, since they're sharing our planet?

--------------------------------
“the foreigners brought the strike on.”
John Miller - 1919

(Before anyone jumps on me as posting something insulting, in the above quote in this context, 'the foreigners' = 'the lil' green men' we just can't relate to by mentally jumping the vast chasm between humans and alien, alternate life-forms that may resemble us in physique, but not in conscience.)

Meeting an alien tomorrow on the street would be no less foreign an experience than encountering some of this case's 'playuhs' face-to-face.

We speak different languages; we come from different cultural backgrounds; we basically believe in the goodness of spirit that exists in humanity --> and the aliens don't --> and we just don't get it.

Yuppers ---> the strange/unfamiliar quotient is absolutely a factor in this fascination.

Alyzabeth said:

I think my main draw to this case is the way Casey is being strung up when there is so little to go on that points in her direction.
Seriously, so she steals...anyone checking these forums from work PC's when they are supposed to be doing what they get paid for is "stealing" in a sense. So, that doesn't make her guilty of murder in my book, at least not without incriminating a whole bunch of forum readers/posters as well.
She lies...who doesn't? Maybe tiny lies, maybe big lies, we all do it. I lied this morning when I told my friend I had to get off the phone so I could go out and get my mail. I really just wanted off the phone...period.
To watch this young woman being raked over the coals without sufficient cause is making me feel a great deal of sympathy towards her. And honestly, I am so thankful that there are people like Jose Baez, Leonard and Tony Padilla and all the others that are willing to help Casey.
We don't know why she has kept her silence. Plain and simple. I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt until I see reason not to.

Click to expand...

Okay, it's understandable that you want to give her the "benefit of the doubt" - she is, after all, innocent until proven guilty. However, I've never stolen my best friend's checks and went on a shopping spree with them at Target. I've never used the routing number on my grandmother's checks or stolen money from her assisted living account. And furthermore, sure, we all lie, but I've never made a sport of it. I have a real job, I don't send myself fake emails in case anyone ever questions my employment. I could go on and on. But I will say this. I am with you on her silence. With all of the whoppers coming out of her mouth I think it's best if she keeps it shut, because every time it opens the hole just gets deeper and her credibility plummets further.

It makes me very angry that Skyla and Taylor aren't getting this kind of frenzied attention. We know for SURE that they were murdered and that there's some sick individuals out there who are getting away with it. They were children too and had their whole lives ahead of them. 178 people in this forum at midnight and 2 in Skyla and Taylors. I don't hear about the case at all in the media. I wish that they would cover it daily, but they just seem to have forgotten. I live in Washington and there were no media updates at all that I'm aware of with the recent progress in the case (Grand Jury witnesses). I check in at both forums here at WS daily.

reefshadow said:

It makes me very angry that Skyla and Taylor aren't getting this kind of frenzied attention. We know for SURE that they were murdered and that there's some sick individuals out there who are getting away with it. They were children too and had their whole lives ahead of them. 178 people in this forum at midnight and 2 in Skyla and Taylors. I don't hear about the case at all in the media. I wish that they would cover it daily, but they just seem to have forgotten. I live in Washington and there were no media updates at all that I'm aware of with the recent progress in the case (Grand Jury witnesses). I check in at both forums here at WS daily.

Click to expand...

TY for reminding us.

You're right, many new members have been drawn to the WS site recently strictly because they want justice for Caylee. It is a fact.

But, I also believe that there are some new members here who have experienced their own WS 'AHAH' moment, and will continue to carry forward what they've learned from more experienced WS members.

They'll volunteer for searches in their area should it ever be required; they'll research and explore options for supporting search teams in formal and informal ways; they'll learn from those that are truly committed to assisting in additional missing/murdered person cases.

That is just the type of steady, clear, subliminal message that WS promotes consistently - if users are listening.

I really respect that you're standing up and drawing attention to other cases. You're part of the long-term solution that WS gently promotes so well.

ETA: here is a link to the original Skyla & Taylor thread: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65845&highlight=skyla

(And pls. don't Mod spank me for posting O/T - this is a good one to keep???? When you just can't take anymore 'strangeness" in this area of the forum, there are other cases to learn about. TYIA for not beating me with a LART.)

I wish there wasnt so much interest in this case. So many kids are missing, with parents who wouldnt dream of acting like the A family does. Those families would give everything they have for the exposure this case has gotten. How hurt and frustrated those parents must feel that their child isnt as important as this one. I cant and wont imagine. I understand why the interest, no one can imagine what the A's are thinking on almost every level. Remember Susan Smith? No one imagined any mother could do that and believed her tears and pleas.

This case will be shadowed by another media event and will quietly go away. (they all do). Im a little suprised the end of the world event (big bang experiment) didnt draw more media. But I guess the end of the world isnt all that important in comparision. Thankfully experiment done, world didnt end. We are also getting pretty tired of the election news coverage, IMO, so this case is a good filler.

If it all went away, and concentrated on another child, the A's would get exactly what they deserve, NOTHING!!