ID’s new true-crime series Crime Scene Confidential stars former Orange County, Florida C.S.I. Alina Burroughs leading viewers through investigations into murder cases including the heartbreaking death of toddler Caylee Anthony. Burroughs was involved in the case as a Crime Scene Investigator and helped recover and process little Caylee’s body.
The Caylee Anthony case is examined in the first episode of Crime Scene Confidential airing on Tuesday, March 8th at 9pm ET/PT on ID and streaming the same day on discovery+. During the 2022 Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Burroughs discussed not only the Caylee Anthony case but also the six-episode first season.
Burroughs goes into each investigation with an open mind, depending on the evidence to lead to the truth. Even when the murder victim is a toddler, as in the case of Caylee Anthony, Burroughs says it’s important to keep your emotions out of the investigation and instead follow wherever the clues lead.
“[…]When we do this, what happens is when we let our emotions kind of take over it can lead us to follow a dangerous path,” explained Burroughs. ”It can lead us to fall prey to listening to narratives that have been created for us by sides – by the defense, by the prosecution, by the media. And then we hear that and our emotions will tie us into that and we will go, ‘That sounds good,’ and we want to fall into that.”
“We want to look at the evidence and what it’s telling us. And what’s important as a CSI on this case or any, we have to look at what the evidence is telling us but we also have to look at not only what we have, but what we do not have. In this case, especially on the recovery scene, when we look at the way that Caylee was found, when we look at what she was wearing, the clothing she was in, the diaper, the laundry bag, Winnie the Pooh blankets, when we look at the car that was questioned with the odor, all of those things, one thing in common [was] that those originated from connections to the Anthonys. What we do not see is evidence of third-party involvement, right? We don’t see things like broken windows at the Anthony house that would lead us to believe there was a break-in, a kidnapping, something to indicate a third party,” explained Burroughs.
Burroughs continued: “So I think fairly immediately investigators were not necessarily looking at this like there’s third-party involvement. There might be some red herrings that were thrown in there with the intent of leading us to a different direction, but when you really focus on physical evidence, there was nothing to lead us in the direction of a third party.”
Dealing with death takes a toll on all involved, however dealing with the murder of a child is particularly distressing. Asked how she copes, Burroughs replied, “They’re all challenging and we all have coping mechanisms and ways that we deal with this. I think we all have a unique sense of humor among law enforcement. We have to deal with taking care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally. This case was a challenge in that particular aspect because normal cases that don’t receive this amount of media attention you can pack up in a little box, put in the back of your brain and move on.
In this case, how many years later, it’s still something that we are discussing. So, it’s hard to move on, to move over, to get over it. But the way that I cope with these cases – because this wasn’t the only case I was working, this was not the only infant death that I’ve ever dealt with, there were dozens in my career – you have to use the sadness, the sorrow, the pain and take that as fuel for your fire.”
Burroughs calls Crime Scene Confidential her passion and truly believes her work makes a difference. “I think that Crime Scene is the way that I can do that. So, when you see suffering and as a crime scene investigator it’s done…I can’t undo the suffering but I can damn sure make sure that I can hold somebody accountable and make sure that it doesn’t happen again. And so, I have to turn that into power and to take it forward to ensure that it doesn’t happen again and that I can use that as fuel to my fire.”
Caylee Anthony’s murder is the focus of episode one. The murders examined in depth in the five other season one episodes were selected using 16 specific criteria.
“We want to get these thought-provoking cases that showcase and highlight the importance of the crime scene, the crime scene investigator as a career or as a role, that showcase the importance of evidence. Cases where the evidence may have provided a wrongful release, a wrongful conviction – we want cases that have experts that have been involved, experts that might have divergent opinions,” said Burroughs. “In particular, what always intrigues me is when we have experts with divergent opinions about a pivotal piece of evidence – a single piece of evidence that is viewed very differently from two opposing sides.
We look at how that narrative was crafted and how it was portrayed and through that, through the court process and how it played a large role in that court process, and what it did in that particular case. We wanted to showcase a variety of different types of forensic evidence and a variety of different types of causes of death. There are challenges of time. There are challenges of technology. But access to the actual crime scene is one of our criteria.”
