How HLN broke the Casey Anthony story - HLN

How HLN broke the Casey Anthony story

By Anna Rhett Miller
Thu July 05, 2012
updated 5:03 PM EDT

• Anna Rhett Miller is the HLN producer who initially found the Casey Anthony story
  She remembers the first day the network covered the story

Editor’s note: Anna Rhett Miller is a producer with HLN. She first broke Casey Anthony’s story for HLN in July 2008.

The morning of July 16, 2008, began like any other day on the Nancy Grace show. I started my day scanning websites, newspapers, wires and local TV stations in search of a great HLN mystery that we could bring to our viewers. The obvious place to start? Florida.

Most of the wire stories I started reading were pretty standard (by Florida standards, that is): You know, people being arrested for nudity, shark sightings, monkeys on the loose… but a story about a missing two-year-old in Orlando stuck out.

It was a simple news wire write that included only the basics – police are searching for a missing 2-year-old girl from Orlando, Florida. She was reported missing by her grandmother, who had not seen the child in several weeks.

To me, there were a few things about this seemingly simple story that made it interesting and left lots of unanswered questions. Why was she reported missing by her grandmother? Why hadn’t anyone seen the child in weeks? Why did her mom wait so long to report it? Was she abducted? Did she wander away? Even on the surface, this seemed like more than a simple missing child case.

The missing two-year-old was named Caylee, and her mom was Casey Anthony.

I emailed the story to the Nancy Grace show team. I was extremely excited when my boss emailed me back and told me it looked like a great story and that Nancy would cover it that night. She then asked me and my co-worker to start digging for more details. Something definitely stood out to her about it, as well. That was how it all started.

I don’t think anyone on the show team -- or even Nancy herself -- could have predicted how it would all end. Day after day, the Nancy Grace show covered the story, and day after day, I found myself surprised at the crazy twists and turns the story took.

I was surprised to learn that Casey Anthony’s car smelled like a dead body. I was surprised to learn that she told everyone she left her daughter Caylee with a nanny no one had ever seen or heard of. I was surprised when Casey Anthony was marched out of her parents' house in handcuffs wearing her “Have You Seen Me?” T-shirt live on national television, as crowds protested on her front lawn. And I was most surprised when the jury announced their verdict in the case.

It is not often that you can get an entire newsroom full of journalists who are all busy working on breaking news, dealing with reporter live shots, booking satellite time, talking on two phones at the same time and yelling across several desks to be quiet and pay attention to something happening on TV. The Casey Anthony verdict did just that. My co-workers and I grew silent as we awaited the verdict in one of the most high-profile, emotionally charged court cases of the century.

And then came the collective gasp as the verdict was read: Not guilty. In a room full of journalists who don’t get surprised by much, this left many speechless.

After the verdict, the noise level quickly returned to normal as my co-workers and I went back to what we were working on, but I don’t think anyone in the newsroom will ever forget where they were or what they felt when the jury announced Casey Anthony was not guilty of killing her daughter Caylee.

I know I could have never imagined that a simple wire on a missing two-year-old girl in Florida would turn into a story that gripped the nation.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/07/05/how-hln-broke-casey-anthony-story