Google searches become evidence in murder case
Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
Remember the e-mails that ended up being used in court as part of Microsoft's antitrust trial? Well, now Google search histories are making an appearance in court. According to a story on the Web site of television station WRAL, prosecutors in a North Carolina murder trial introduced searches allegedly made on Google from the computer of a man shortly before his wife's body was discovered floating in a lake. The keywords? "Neck," "snap" and "break," along with searches related to lake levels, water currents and boat ramps.
For the record, any odd or suspect Web searches I may conduct are purely related to research I'm doing on stories, present and future. Just so you know.