Prosecutors and investigators in the murder case against Casey Anthony admitted they overlooked a smoking gun that could spelled doom for the acquitted tot mom, according to broadcast reports last night.
Someone inside the Anthony family home used the house computer — with Casey Anthony’s password — to Google search for “fool-proof suffication” on June 16, 2008, independent investigators told WKMG-TV in Orlando.
Google automatically corrected the misspelled “suffication” and linked pages describing ways to die by poisoning and suffocation.
WKMG’s findings seem to back up claims by Anthony’s own defense lawyer, Jose Baez, who first dropped the Internet-search bombshell this past summer, in his book “Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story.”
But now for the first time, Florida authorities are confirming the remarkable blunder.
“There was an oversight,” said Orange County [Fla.] Sheriff’s Capt. Angelo Nieves. “This has been a learning experience for investigators as well.”
Anthony’s daughter Caylee was last seen on June 16, 2008 before her body was found on Dec. 11, 2008. A jury acquitted Casey Anthony of murder on July 5, 2011.
Trial prosecutor Jeff Ashton said proof of the macabre web search could have been a crucial weapon. The defense had claimed Caylee accidentally drowned and Casey Anthony’s dad George Anthony ditched the body.
“It’s just a shame we didn’t have it,” Ashton said. “This certainly would have put the accidental death claim in serious question.”
Baez told the TV station that his side had already set up its defense for the damning Google evidence.
Baez said he would have argued that George Anthony, so devastated by Caylee’s drowning, was looking for ways to commit suicide.
“We were waiting for the state to bring it up,” Baez said. “And when they didn’t, we were kind of shocked.”