Casey Anthony crops up in online video

January 6, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla.

After exactly six months of living in seclusion, Casey Anthony resurfaced Thursday.

Anthony emerged in a roughly four-minute “video diary” someone placed online but made no reference to her high- profile murder trial, her dead toddler, her parents or her whereabouts.

Since she was acquitted of the most serious charges against her in July, speculation has been rampant about how and when she would resurface — and what the payout would be when she did.

Instead, the video answered no substantive questions about where Anthony is, how she has been spending her time or what really happened to Caylee Marie.

“It’s just a little surreal how much things have changed since July and how many things haven’t changed,” Anthony said. “But the good thing is that things are starting to look up, and things are starting to change — in a good way. I just hope they stay ... that things stay good and that they only get better.”

Local legal experts, who have followed the case since it broke in July 2008, called the video a “Casey Anthony classic” and proof of her narcissism.

But one of Anthony’s lawyers fired back, calling the video release “unauthorized” and “inappropriate.”

Defense attorney J. Cheney Mason insisted Anthony — who sports a blond bob in the video instead of her long, dark hair — did not release the video. Mason suggested it may have been hacked.