HLN jumps to first place in ratings with over 1 million viewers of sensational killer mom trial

Almost 24 hour a day coverage of the Casey Anthony trial in Orlando Florida has viewers riveted to their sets.

Could a callous and selfish 25 year old woman kill her own daughter to go partying, viewers are asking themselves.

The 4th place HLN Network has catapulted over Fox and CNN to hit first place with viewers.

Nancy Grace’s coverage has reached over 1.5 million viewers.

Since I’ve been laid up with a broken leg for the last month, I have been struggling to pass the time in the “500 channel universe.” Nothing tops the building suspense of HLN’s minute by minute coverage of the last week of Casey Anthony’s trial for the 1st degree murder of her child.

The five weeks of testimony ground on with boring agony as experts argued minute points about the evidence. Last week the case reached a climax with the final evidence and closing arguments.

The jury is now in deliberations and the suspense has people wondering – will Casey Anthony be found guilty of murder in the first degree? A death penalty hangs over that verdict.

For parents the story has chilling views in a family gone astray, wild behavior by young mothers and the seeming abandonment of normal behavior. The story is a parent’s worst nightmare.

The facts in the case are well known. Photogenic Caylee Anthony disappeared from her grandparents’ home two months shy of her third birthday on June 16th, 2008.

Her mother, Casey Anthony, spun a web of lies that the child was somewhere else when questioned by her mother Cindy Anthony.

Casey Anthony had Bella Vita (Beautiful Life) tatooed after the murder of her baby daughter (from arrest photos)

For the next 31 days, Casey partied like it was 1999.  The Party Girl appeared in numerous Facebook postings having the partying time of her life but no pictures of the baby were taken.

In desperation, the grandmother called the police and reported her missing.

Florida police questioned the mother and when Casey’s stories about the missing child became more and more improbable, they booked her on suspicion of a felony in the disappearance of her the child.

A massive search failed to produce the baby, dead or alive. A meter reader thought he saw the body in August but was blown off by police. Police did find Caylee’s remains in a swampy area on December 11, 2008 more or less where the meter reader spotted them 4 months prior.

Did Casey murder the child, as the state contends. or was it an accident “gone horribly wrong?”

Someone at the Casey home was searching for ways to murder someone in March 2008. The state proved it wasn’t Casey’s mother, who tried under oath to cover for Casey.

If it was an accident, why was the little girl thrown in the swamp to be eaten by wild animals asked the prosecutors?

In the final prosecution arguments, the state painted Casey Anthony as a selfish liar who killed her child to get more time with a new boy friend. Casey’s web of lies and deception with her family, friends and police made her the worst liar on record, according the the state.