Casey Anthony Investigators Overlooked Google Search Evidence
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Orange County sheriff's Capt. Angelo Nieves admitted on Sunday that detectives investigating the disappearance of Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, overlooked evidence that someone in the Anthony home did a Google search for "fool-proof suffocation."
During the June 16, 2008, search, detectives looked through several entries only from the computer's Internet Explorer browser. They apparently failed to look through the Mozilla Firefox browser commonly used by Casey Anthony, according to Orlando area television station WKMG.
More than 1,200 Firefox entries, including the suffocation search, were overlooked.
During her trial, Anthony's attorneys argued that Casey helped her father cover up Caylee's drowning in the family pool. Prosecutors argued that the little girl had been poisoned with chloroform and then suffocated by having duct tape placed over her mouth and nose.
The new evidence shows that someone had Google-searched the term "fool-proof suffocation" and then clicked on a link about suicide, taking poison, and putting a bag over one's head.
Anthony's defense team actually knew of this evidence, but lead attorney Jose Baez says in his book about the trial, Presumed Guilty, that Casey's father, George Anthony, was the one who conducted the search after Caylee drowned because he wanted to kill himself.
MySpace was also found to have been clicked to on the same Firefox browser. Casey Anthony had a MySpace account, while her father did not.
Prosecutors were unaware of the Google search.
"It's just a shame we didn't have it," prosecutor Jeff Ashton told WKMG. "This certainly would have put the accidental death claim in serious question."
Capt. Nieves admitted that his detectives did not consult with the FBI or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to help search Anthony's computer thoroughly. The oversight was called "a learning experience."
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