(NBC Newsource) — Once called “the most hated mom in America”, Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of killing her daughter back in 2008 is speaking out for the first time in years.
The Florida woman is telling the Associated Press that she knows much of the world believes she killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
But now, nearly nine years later — in that AP interview — she insists she doesn’t know how the last hours of the toddler’s life unfolded.
Almost nine years after little Caylee’s death, and six years after her mother Casey Anthony was controversially acquitted of her murder — Casey is breaking her silence in a series of exclusive interviews with the Associated Press about her daughter’s death and the years since then.
Once labeled the “most hated mom in America,” Anthony says she knows many people still think she killed Caylee.
Reporter: “To your understanding how did she die?
Anthony: “I don’t know.”
Reporter: “You don’t know? Something about drowning, possibly?”
Anthony: “Everyone else has their theories. I don’t know.”
Reporter: “So your parents had her?”
Anthony: “My dad did.”
Reporter: “and the next thing you know she is missing, right? Right? How did it play?”
Anthony: “I did what I was told, I don’t remember too much of what happened.”
Caylee went missing in June 2008 but had been gone for over a month before her grandmother contacted police.
Casey Anthony was eventually charged in her Disapperence — police later finding Caylee’s remains in a wooded area near the family’s home.
Anthony says the last time she saw Caylee she “believed that she was alive and that she was going to be ok.”
Reporter: “give me the situation of when things went wrong. When did things go wrong? All of a sudden is it like, where’s Caylee? is that how it went?
Anthony: “No, what I remember is being in bed, my mom coming in before she left for work and saying goodbye to us. And then, waking up several hours later.”
Reporter: “Later in the morning?”
Anthony: “Later in the morning, hour, two hours later and not knowing where she was.”
Reporter: “don’t you wish you know what happened?”
Anthony: “Absolutely.”
Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder by an Orlando jury in 2011, but was convicted of lying to police — and served three years in prison.
Anthony says she believes Caylee would be extraordinary pre-teen if she was still alive.
Anthony: “Caylee would be 12 this year.”
Reporter: “What would she be like right now?”
Anthony: “A total badass. (laughs). I would like to think she would be listening to classic rock and playing sports and not taking shit from anybody.”
These days, Anthony lives and works with Patrick McKenna, the private detective who was the lead investigator on her defense team.
She says she tries to live a normal life, staying under the radar.
Anthony: “I don’t give a s*** about what anybody thinks about me, I don’t care about that. I never will. I’m ok with myself. I sleep pretty good at night.”
In the interview, Casey says she keeps her bedroom decorated with photos of Caylee , openly weeping when she showed off colorful, finger-painted artwork by her daughter.
NBC News has not seen the full transcripts of those Associated Press interviews.
The AP says they were conducted over a span of about a week, five interviews in all. Many of them were actually taped.
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