A spokesman for Casey Anthony's defense team suggested in a cable news interview that her little girl Caylee is dead — but later her lead attorney said the comments were taken out of context.
Todd Black, speaking on behalf of 22-year-old Casey Anthony's lawyer Jose Baez, discussed the first-degree murder charges against Anthony in her daughter's disappearance.
Black said during the live phone interview that the case is not just about the loss of the girl's life but about her mother's fate.
"It's very difficult," Black said in the TV interview. "This is a serious case involving not just the loss of the life of this little girl, but the loss of whatever is going to happen with Casey Anthony."
Baez held a press conference Thursday afternoon outside his office debunking the interview and echoing an earlier statement released by his office.
"I've come to the conclusion that it was taken out of context," Baez said of the remarks. He told reporters he'd watched the interview and spoken to Black and his comment was made in the midst of jokes made by other guests.
"I don't see how anyone can be making jokes about this case," he said.
Baez insisted that his team still doesn't think the child is dead.
"We believe Caylee is alive," he told the news conference. "I said that from Day 1; I continue to say that. For reports to be out there to suggest otherwise are completely false."
On Thursday, Baez's office issued a statement saying Black's comments were edited.
"Unfortunately what they distributed was completely taken out of context. Todd Black never was stating that there is any belief whatsoever by Casey Anthony or The Baez Law Firm, that Ms. Anthony's daughter, Caylee, might be deceased," the statement read.
"The words used by Mr. Black were referencing the comments of another guest. It was that guest who made the remarks about death, and Mr. Black was merely pointing to that remark by the other guest."
Anthony is jailed on first-degree murder, manslaughter and other charges, capping an exhaustive four-month-long investigation into the little girl's whereabouts.
The child, who vanished in mid-June, two months before her third birthday, has still not been found.
If convicted, Anthony could face life in prison or the death penalty. A spokeswoman from the prosecutor's office told FOXNews.com Thursday that no decision has yet been made on whether they will seek the death penalty.
Caylee's grandfather said he doesn't think the child is dead.
"It's not a belief that I have in my brain," Anthony told the Orlando Sentinel when asked about the spokesman's comments. "I don't believe 99 percent of stuff that is out there."
On Wednesday, his daughter Casey Anthony appeared before Orange County judge with attorney Baez and was ordered held without bond.
She wore a dark blue prison jumpsuit and shackles, and said nothing except "yes" when asked if she was Casey Anthony during the 90-second morning hearing. Anthony nodded as the charges against her were read before being led away.
Her arraignment will be held in approximately three weeks — on or around Nov. 7 — though no specific date was given by Judge John Jordan. Anthony was indicted Tuesday afternoon on seven counts by a 19-member Florida grand jury.
Click here for the indictment.
In addition to murder, she was charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators. She was arrested shortly thereafter and is being held without bond.
Police recently identified the young, unemployed mother as a suspect in the case, though she had been called a person of interest since early in the investigation, which began in mid-July.
Caylee's family didn't report her missing for a month after she vanished. Police have said they think the child is dead based on evidence of a decomposing body found in the trunk of a Pontiac Sunfire her mother was driving.
The child's grandmother Cindy Anthony first called authorities in July to say that she hadn't seen Caylee for a month and her daughter's car "smelled like a dead body."
Casey Anthony told authorities she had left her daughter with a baby sitter in June and the two were gone when she returned from work. She says she spent the next month trying to find her daughter and didn't call authorities because she was scared.
Investigators immediately started poking holes in her story. The apartment where Casey Anthony said she had left her daughter had been vacant for months, they said. They said she also lied when she told them she had been working at an area theme park as a photographer.
Click here for a timeline of the case.
Click here for some of the documents released.
Click here for more from MyFOXOrlando.com.
Click here for more from the Orlando Sentinel.
FOX News' Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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