Casey Anthony Breaks Silence

Almost nine years after her 2-year-old daughter Caylee's death—and six years after she was controversially acquitted of murder and child abuse—Casey Anthony has broken her silence about the girl's death in an interview with the AP. "I'm still not even certain as I stand here today about what happened," the 30-year-old says in an interview that the AP says contained "revealing, bizarre, and often contradictory answers" that raised more questions than answers about Caylee's death. Some highlights:

• "Caylee would be 12 right now. And would be a total badass," Anthony says. "I'd like to think she'd be listening to classic rock, playing sports," and taking no nonsense, she says.

• Anthony, once labeled the "most hated mom in America," says she knows many people still think she killed Caylee. "Based off what was in the media"—the story of a woman who could not account for a month in which her child was missing, and whose defense involved an accidental drowning for which there was no eyewitness testimony—"I understand the reasons people feel about me. I understand why people have the opinions that they do," Anthony says.
• Anthony sees herself as Alice in Wonderland, with the public as the Red Queen. "The queen is proclaiming: 'No, no, sentence first, verdict afterward,'" she says. "I sense and feel to this day that is a direct parallel to what I lived. My sentence was doled out long before there was a verdict. Sentence first, verdict afterward. People found me guilty long before I had my day in court."
• On her drowning defense, Anthony says: "Everyone has their theories, I don't know. As I stand here today I can't tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter I believed she was alive and was going to be OK, and that's what was told to me."
• Anthony admits lying to police about details, including leaving Caylee with a babysitter and telling two people the girl was missing, but she believes she would have ended up on trial even if she told the truth. "Because cops believe other cops. Cops tend to victimize the victims," she says, adding: "Cops lie to people every day. I'm just one of the unfortunate idiots who admitted they lied."
• Anthony lives in the home of a private investigator who worked on her case and employs her to do investigative work. She says she plans to go skydiving for her 31st birthday—and is happy, despite her pariah status. "I don't give a s--- about what anyone thinks about me, I never will," she says. "I'm OK with myself, I sleep pretty good at night."

The interview was one of a series that Anthony granted to an AP reporter she encountered at an anti-President Trump rally in Palm Beach, Fla. She later asked the reporter not to run the story, citing, among other things, the fact that the rights to her story had been sold to a third party during bankruptcy proceedings in 2013, prohibiting her from speaking publicly about the case. (The judge who presided over Anthony's murder trial thinks he knows what really happened.)