(NewsNation) — It’s been 15 years since Caylee Anthony’s body was found in an area near her mother’s home in Orlando, Florida. After being suspected of her murder, her mother, Casey Anthony, was acquitted in 2011.
Cheney Mason, Casey Anthony’s former attorney, told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield that Anthony “is doing fine.”
After so many years, Mason said he still keeps in touch with Anthony, whom he’d become close with throughout the trial. She had even lived with Mason and his wife for some time as well amid the aftermath chaos.
“I spent a lot of time on this case — a couple of thousands of hours on this case. It cost me over $1 million,” Mason said.
He paid for preparations, travel and experts. After all this time, Mason fully believes Anthony is innocent and doesn’t know what happened to her daughter.
He said that while he has seen her occasionally, he has never seen her be truthfully happy.
“I suspect the loss of her child, like so many other losses, never goes away,” Mason said.
Mason described the moment it finally sank in with Anthony that she had lost her daughter.
“I don’t believe that Casey really accepted, fully internalized, the loss of her daughter, until we were in trial,” he explained. “She broke down, and she sat next to me. I’ve told people that before. And all the time spent, that’s when I know that, in my opinion, it’s the first time she really fully internalized her acceptance of this loss.”