Anthony trial focuses on searches on family computer

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

Internet searches for how to make chloroform and neck-breaking were done on a computer that a Florida mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter had access to, an expert who analyzed the machine testified Wednesday at the mother’s trial.

The queries were done several weeks before Caylee Anthony was last seen, though the expert could not say exactly who performed the searches.

Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death, and prosecutors say she used duct tape to suffocate her daughter in the summer of 2008. The child’s remains were found about six months later.

Casey Anthony was born in Warren in 1986 to George and Cindy Anthony, who lived in Howland before moving the family to Florida in 1989.

Anthony’s attorney says the toddler accidently drowned in her grandparents’ swimming pool.

John Dennis Bradley, a former Canadian law- enforcement officer who now develops software for computer investigations, analyzed a data file from a desktop seized from the home of her parents, where Casey lived sometimes.

Bradley said he was able to use a program to recover deleted searches from March 17 and March 21, 2008. On March 21, someone searched the website Sci-spot.com for “chloroform” 84 times, he said.

Under cross-examination, though, Bradley acknowledged there were two accounts on the desktop, and there was no way to know who actually performed the searches.

The 13th day of the trial also included testimony from an officer whose K-9 signaled a scent of human composition in the Anthonys’ backyard.