Casey Anthony Prosecutors Missed Bombshell: Report

WKMG reports on overlooked evidence
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 21, 2012 10:37 AM CST
Casey Anthony Prosecutors Missed Bombshell: Report
In this July 7, 2011 file photo, Casey Anthony smiles before the start of her sentencing hearing in Orlando, Fla.   (AP Photo/Joe Burbank, File)

Prosecutors overlooked a bombshell piece of evidence in the Casey Anthony case, Orlando's WKMG claims. On the day of daughter Caylee's death, someone did a computer search for "fool-proof suffication [sic]" and accessed an article that recommended using poison. Anthony lawyer Jose Baez was aware of the computer activity, and planned to say Casey's father, George, was responsible for the searches because he was thinking of killing himself after Caylee accidentally drowned. But the Orange County Sheriff's Office failed to give prosecutors the evidence, and WKMG's investigation reveals Casey was most likely the one searching.

The searches were done while cellphone records show Casey was likely home. They were done on Firefox, a browser primarily used by Casey, and MySpace was accessed a minute after the "suffication" search—that's a site Casey, not George, used often. "We were waiting for the state to bring it up," Baez tells the station. "And when they didn't, we were kind of shocked." WKMG blames "woefully incomplete information" from the sheriff's office for the fact that prosecutors never even saw the evidence; it apparently only turned over Internet Explorer browser history from that day. "It's just a shame we didn't have it. This certainly would have put the accidental death claim in serious question," the trial prosecutor says. A sheriff's captain calls the lapse "an oversight" and says it's been "a learning experience." Click for the complete investigation. (More Casey Anthony stories.)

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