|
|
June 9, 2011 Numerous searches for 'chloroform' found on Anthony family computerPosted: 10:43 AM ET
Orlando, FL – Forensic testimony continued Wednesday in the Casey Anthony first-degree murder trial – beginning in the morning with talk of a canine, and ending the day with tales of a computer. First, jurors learned that a second cadaver dog also alerted to the possible presence of human decomposition in the backyard of the defendant’s home. Then, the jury heard from a series of forensic computer experts who discovered a history of Internet searches on the Anthony family computer – searches that all concerned the subject of “chloroform.” Kristin Brewer, a sergeant with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, is the handler for Bones, a cadaver dog. On July 17, 2008, she and Bones were requested to report to the Anthony family home in Orlando. After sniffing the entire backyard, Bones alerted to the possible presence of human remains in an area near Caylee’s playhouse and play area – this was more or less the same area where Gerus, another cadaver dog, had previously alerted. The following day, after dirt in this area had been disturbed, Bones did not alert. Brewer acknowledged a cadaver dog could alert to decomposition of some substance from a still-living human, such as blood, “as long as it’s out of the body.” Next on the stand was Sandra Osborne, a computer forensics analyst with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Osborne examined several items of evidence in this case. She was given the defendant’s Nokia cell phone and was unable to find any reference to anyone named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. Osborne found video of Caylee Anthony on a Nikon camera; the video was time/date stamped June 15, 2008. Osborne also received the Casey Anthony’s Compaq laptop and the Anthony family’s HP desktop computers for examination. The HP computer had two user accounts, “owner” and “Casey.” Osborne was able to retrieve an Internet search history from one of the HP’s three browsers. Osborne was asked in late August 2008 to do a key word search for “chloroform.” She also identified photographs of Casey and Caylee Anthony that were recovered from a laptop computer belonging to Ricardo Morales. Those photos were time/date stamped January 28 and March 19, 2008. Osborne acknowledged that just because there are only two user profiles on the HP computer doesn’t mean that only two people could have used it. She also conceded that the “Win Her Over With Chloroform” photograph was present on Morales’ laptop, even though a key word search for “chloroform” had yielded no positive results. Kevin Stenger, a forensic computer analyst and head of the Orange County Sheriff’s computer crimes unit, supervised previous witness Sandra Osborne in her attempt to recover information from the HP desktop computer recovered from the Anthony home. Stenger located a history of Internet searches for “chloroform” on March 17 and March 21, 2008. The files he recovered had been deleted, and were in the “unallocated space” section of the computer’s hard drive. The day ended with John Bradley, the owner of a software development company and former Canadian law enforcement officer, on the stand. Bradley developed the Cache Back computer program which helps locate computer files and present that information “in a law enforcement-friendly way.” He was asked by previous witness Kevin Stenger to examine the Internet history files that had been recovered from the hard drive of the Anthony family’s HP desktop computer. Stenger found multiple search results (Google, Wikipedia, etc.) for “chloroform” on March 17 and March 21, 2008. Whoever initiated the searches often misspelled the word as “chloraform” – one search, from March 21, was the question “how to make chloroform?” Bradley also found searches on those same days relating to such subjects as “alcohol, inhalation, death, self-defense, hand-to-hand combat, head injury, ruptured spleen, chest trauma, and internal bleeding.” He acknowledged that many of the “chloroform” hits appeared to be fairly brief, often only a matter of seconds. However, because Bradley had access only to the history of searches and not to the full text of the search results themselves, it’s impossible for him to know exactly how long any of these results were monitored. In all, there were a total of 84 searches for the word “chloroform” on the Anthony computer through this particular browser. -Michael Christian, In Session Field Producer Filed under: Casey and Caylee Anthony • Trial Updates • Trials |
About this blog
This is your online home for In Session on truTV’s up-to-the minute, comprehensive coverage of legal issues, trials and news from America’s courtrooms. Our anchors, analysts and producers are teaming up here to give you updates on the stories that matter to you. Be sure to tune in to In Session on truTV from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET. 
On Twitter
Millionaire gets 16 years for DUI death… at home http://t.co/gwG63gdh John Goodman to be released from jail on $7M bond
RT @drdrewhln: Jose Baez: I was Casey’s harshest critic - Take a look at this - http://t.co/9rVf6vbR #CaseyAnthony
Deliberations in the #TammiSmith case has ended for the evening. They deliberated for 1-hour, 14 minutes, 53 seconds. They are set to...
@conniegail421 There are enough. Originally there were 9, but only 8 jurors can deliberate.
#TammiSmith: RT @bethkaras: The jury started to deliberate at 3:15 pm local time (6:15 pm ET). One of the four men was selected as the......
Recent Posts
HLN and In Session Team
              Categories
|
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Add a comment
| 