I posted the following on the Computer Forensic's thread almost two months ago, but thought it would be worth bringing over here as food for thought.
Many have ascribed a great deal of significance to KC's mid-March computer searches that seemed to scream premeditation. I think there is a more practical explanation.
First, let me start by saying I think LE and the prosecution got lucky when they found a search for chloroform on the computer
and they found elevated levels of chloroform in the trunk. I think they used this
coincidence to apply pressure to the defense and, more importantly, the parents. It may not have worked, but it was a good strategy.
It is important to look closely at what the prosecution did and did not release in the document dump in late November. What they did release were the clicks on websites with "google" in the name during mid-March. This gave us search terms and syndicated click-throughs. What it did not give us were the
non-syndicated clicks that KC visited after searching. Those are the websites that are not paying $$$ for a high Google search result. That information, however, is in the data the prosecution retrieved from the hard drive and, I believe, the defense retrieved as well. The clicks KC made after searching should be quite informative.
Before I get into the details then, it is my opinion that the searches are not useful in making the prosecution's case, which may explain why of all the "Dream Team" members, the computer forensics expert is essentially a "newbie."
They did not need to spend a lot of money debunking the computer searches because they are easy to debunk.
Here is the gist of my speculation:
Ricardo and KC started dating in early February 2008 and ended in mid-April 2008 (evidence page 2417).
Sometime in early to mid-March Ricardo puts the "Win her over with chloroform" image (chloroform.jpg) on his myspace. This image was created by someone around 2004 but appeared on a number of myspace pages in March 2008. I cannot confirm this is when it appeared on Ricardo's page, so anyone with a screen shot of that page may be able to help solve a mystery.
KC sees the image and wonders what the deal is with chloroform. Old people like me know what it is, but ask a senior in high school (such as my honors-student daughter) what it is, and most will have heard of it but not know what it is. I am betting KC fell into that category.
Here are the clicks from March 17:
17-Mar 9:36:12 Clicked a Google-hosted ad from a myspace page
13:43:41 Search chloraform
13:43:41 Search chloroform (Google automatically suggested correct spelling)
13:54:26 Search alcohol
13:54:42 Search acetone
13:55:34 Search peroxide
13:53:25 to 13:58:38 Wikipedia searches for inhalation, chloroform, alcohol, acetone, peroxide, hydrogen peroxide, death
One should note that KC uses the default 10 results per page, and only once does she look at results 11 - 20. Using such generic terms and spending so little time between term, I believe she is doing nothing more than
very high-level information gathering. This is what I got when putting the above into Google searches (adding -anthony).
Now let's look at the clicks on March 21:
21-Mar 14:16:30 Search how to make chloraform
14:16:30 Search how to make chloroform (Google automatically suggested correct spelling)
14:19:16 Clicked a Google syndicated ad
14:20:32 Search self defense
14:21:14 Clicked a Google syndicated ad
14:21:58 Search household weapons
14:22:01 Clicked a Google syndicated ad
14:23:08 Clicked a blog poll hosted by Google http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/...kclr=%235588aa
14:25:12 Clicked a Google syndicated ad
14:25:33 Search household weapons
14:25:54 Clicks http://books.google.com/books?id=_QMJNJIOKPEC&pg=PA79
14:26:18 Clicks http://books.google.com/books?id=_QMJNJIOKPEC&pg=PA79
14:26:24 Search neck breaking
14:28:18 Search shovel
Notice that one of the links is a women's self-defense book (visited twice) and the other is a zombie poll. All of this "research" was done in the span of 12 short minutes and we do not know what other non-Google websites were visited.
Rumor has it that Ricardo may have had a bit of a temper. So...KC finds the image on his myspace....researches chloroform...decides he might be capable of using it on her...researches self-defense...runs across suggestions of how some useful household items might be used in self-defense...such as a shovel...eventually "breaks up" with him in mid-April.
IMHO, the searches are unrelated to Caylee, but coincidentally helped the prosecution when no body was available.
Thank God little Caylee showed up when she did.