Casey Anthony Trial Update: Search for "How to make chloraform (sic)" on Anthony family computer, says witness
(CBS/WKMG/AP) ORLANDO, Fla. - The head of computer crimes at the Orange County Sheriff's Department testified at the Casey Anthony murder trial Wednesday that someone specifically searched for the word "chloroform" on the Anthony family computer, three months before her 2-year-old daughter Caylee went missing.
Pictures:
Casey and Caylee Anthony, Personal Photos
Sgt. Kevin Stenger said he used several tools to examine files from the computer, and found that someone specifically searched on Google for the words "chloroform," "alcohol," "inhalation," "death," "self-defense" and "head injury" within 15 minutes, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.
He said someone also searched the term "neck breaking," "making weapons" and "how to make chloraform (sic)," using Google four days after the first search for chloroform in March 2008, reports the station.
Sandra Osborne, another police computer forensics expert, testified
earlier saying she found searches for "chloroform" as well as searches
for "Zenaida-Fernandez Gonzalez " on July 16, 2008. Anthony told
investigators Caylee was taken by a nanny by that same
name, though the
defense has since admitted that the nanny never existed.
All of the information, according to Stenger, was found in the computer's unallocated space, which means it is not filed in the normal system, but still exists on the hard drive. He said the Internet history file had been manually deleted, but it was not possible to tell under which username, the station reports.
Stenger said that he gave a copy of the data he extracted from the computer to John Bradley, a computer forensics expert from Canada who owns a software development company.
Pictures: Casey and Caylee Anthony, Personal Photos
Bradley was called to the stand after Stenger. He said Stenger gave him the 3.2 MB data file. He said he was impressed that such a large file in unallocated space had been left intact, as it is often overwritten and segments are lost over time, leading him to believe that the deletion of the history had happened recently. He could not say when exactly the deletion had occurred.
During cross-examination, Anthony's attorney Jose Baez noted short time span, sometimes a matter of seconds, between these searches, according to the station.
Earlier this week, a forensics expert testified that the chloroform level in an air sample from Anthony's car was "shockingly high."
On Tuesday, an FBI chemist testified that traces of chloroform residue were found in the trunk, and although the levels were not high, he was surprised to find any trace of the chemical at all in the trunk.
Caylee's skeletal remains were found in the woods near the Anthony family home in December 2008. Anthony could be sentenced to death if convicted of first-degree murder. She has pleaded not guilty and the defense claims Caylee accidentally drowned in the family's swimming pool.
The Casey Anthony case was recently reported on by "48 Hours Mystery."