TV station says search for "fool-proof suffication" was made from within home of mother Casey Anthony on 16 June 2008

Police investigating the death of the toddler Caylee Anthony overlooked a computer search for "fool-proof suffication" (sic) that was made from within the girl's home on the day she was last seen alive, it was confirmed on Sunday. Captain Angelo Nieves of Orange County, Florida, said that a forensic computer expert missed the 16 June 2008 Google enquiry. The instigator of the search is not known.

The oversight was brought to light by Orlando television station WKMG. A report by the station suggested that the search was carried out on a browser primarily used by the two-year-old's mother, Casey Anthony – who was acquitted of her daughter's murder following a high-profile trial in 2011.

Despite the not-guilty verdict, Anthony emerged from the courtroom to a barrage of verbal abuse, including shouts of of "baby killer" from a 100-strong pack of onlookers. Such scenes followed the media vilification of the mother, after the discovery of her daughter's skeletal remains in December 2008.

Caylee Anthony was last seen alive on 16 June 2008, but Anthony failed to report her missing for a month. In the intervening period the 25-year-old was seen partying in clubs and flat-hunting with her boyfriend. She eventually alerted the police after being confronted by her parents, but at first blamed a non-existent babysitter of kidnapping Caylee.

A police investigation led to a charge of first-degree murder. The resulting trial became compelling viewing for much of America, in much the same way as the OJ Simpson case some 16 years earlier.

Anthony's lawyers claimed that the young girl had accidentally drowned in a family pool and that Anthony had been panicked into making it look like murder. Prosecutors said Anthony suffocated her daughter using duct tape, because the young girl got in the way of her partying lifestyle.

Throughout the trial, Anthony's defence team waited for prosecutors to bring up evidence that they would claim linked the suspect to a search for "fool-proof suffication" on a computer at her home.

"We were waiting for the state to bring it up. And when they didn't, we were kind of shocked," defence attorney Jose Baez told WKMG's Local 6.

Trial prosecutor Jeff Ashton told the station: "It's just a shame we didn't have it. This certainly would have put the accidental death claim in serious question."