Casey Anthony Case: Caylee's Death Possibly Accidental, But The Florida Mom Is 'The Only Person That Really Knows,' Judge Says

Belvin Perry, the now-retired judge who presided over Casey Anthony's 2011 murder trial, continued to speak out Wednesday about the high-profile case to Florida media. After telling a small Orlando blog that he thought Anthony may have unintentionally killed her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, with chloroform, he clarified his remarks.

"To me, that was the most logical thing, looking at the totality of the entire situation," Perry told WFTV. "There was never any evidence of abuse of the daughter that was documented that was presented anywhere."

Anthony's mother reported Caylee missing in the summer of 2008 after not seeing the toddler for weeks, telling the 911 dispatcher that she found her daughter's abandoned car "and it smelled like there's been a dead body" in it — a statement she later retracted, according to ABC News. Anthony was arrested and eventually named a suspect despite her insistence that a babysitter had taken the baby. Caylee's remains were found near the Anthonys' house that winter.

Anthony maintained her innocence throughout her 2011 trial, after which a jury decided she was not guilty of killing her daughter. She was convicted for lying to police and was released just after the proceedings ended.

Perry, who was the judge for the infamous trial but now works for Morgan & Morgan in central Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel there are several theories about Caylee's death in 2008. And indeed there are: According to psychiatrist Jeffery Danziger's deposition, Anthony told him she believed her father had sexually abused the toddler and drowned her as a cover-up. Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape.

Perry told the Orlando Sentinel and other publications Wednesday he thought Anthony may have been trying to quiet Caylee with chloroform but accidentally gave her a fatal amount. But he emphasized that his statements were simply hypotheses.

"As I’ve expressed, the only person that really knows what happened was Casey," Perry added.