Sorry if anyone else posted along these lines, but it bothers me everytime I see people talking about it on TV or on-line...
RE: Casey's Motive
I know there was a revolving disgussion about Casey being motivated by wanting to party hardy, or in a fit of jelousy towards Caylee in regaurds to family attention. In my opinion these theorys benefit the DEFENCE because in case one Casey could just give custody to Cindy, and case two is REALLY unthinkable. I mean really, most of the testimony shows Casey to be a liar but not a jelouse B****. There are plenty of jelouse types more so than Casey who don't murder. I think the following is much more likely:
Remember Lori Hacking? NOBODY thought that guy would kill his wife, but he had built himself up into this big acomplished guy, and when those lies came crashing down he couldn't face it and killed her. He told people he was in med school and came off as this AWESOME husband not unlike Casey came off as this AWESOME single mom to all her friends. Going to child support and custody court would have ruined EVERYTHING for Casey because the court would have needed full disclosure...her parents and family would find out she had no job (or at least no REAL job) her friends would have realized she doesn't go to school, doesn't have her own money, isn't super mom, isn't going to "own her parents house" and basically is a completely different person than they thought. Think about it: mothers who walk away from their kids are looked at like they're monsters. Everyone in Casey's life would have looked down on her and her carefully crafted image as a working school-going single Mom "who just needs a break sometimes" would be shattered. They'd see her for the jobless, debeat mom she was. MUCH stronger motive in my opinion...and also much better indication of premeditation. There was no way out for Casey...Cindy wasn't going to put up with her crap anymore. ALSO I got the impression that Casey got away with much of her stealing and lying in regaurds to her family because she used Caylee as a power chip...even great gramma said she let the theft slip out of concern for Caylee. If Cindy's not worried about Casey yanking Caylee out of the house out of spite anymore (due to having custody), that means the free family money train would likely be cut off, and Cindy wouldn't even think twice about telling Casey's friends when she was derelict in child support due to being JOBLESS.
This same exact thing happened with my sister and my nephew...fortunately she found a face-saving "way out" by telling everyone that her son has to live with us "so he can get medical insurance". Her friends really believe that. They don't know he lives here 24/7 and she barely ever visits because she's too busy partying. I let her tell them whatever they need to hear. Back when we butted heads over her irrisponcibility (like Casey and Cindy did) she would do these big dramatic powerplays and I would get calls from her a day later to come pick him up because she couldn't handle him. It was only when we let her live in her fantasy land and stopped telling her she was a bad parent that she gave us custody and went off to live her own life. I can't EVER imagine my sister killing her son...but she was never backed into a corner where all her friends would find out about her lies. Plus to be honest my sister does have a job...she just prefers to spend all her money on partying, so there were fewer lies to begin with.
Anyway, go look at the Hacking case again. People compare Kc to Susan Smith or Diane Downs, but I think Lori Hacking is closer if you catalog Kc primarily as a "liar" instead of a "Mother". Liars kill to hide their lies.
I guess in most cases children are usually killed quite simply by their parents.. suffocation... inattentiveness... negilience... or quick hot violence.
