Ms Anthony says a babysitter kidnapped her daughter The trial has opened in Florida of a young US woman accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2008.
Prosecutors base their case on forensic evidence they say shows Casey Anthony, 25, kept Caylee Anthony’s dead body in the boot of her car.
But they have no witnesses or confession linking Ms Anthony to the 2008 death, and forensic experts are unable to say how the child died.
Ms Anthony has pleaded not guilty, and says a babysitter kidnapped the child.
The trial is being held in Orlando in the US state of Florida, though jurors are being selected elsewhere due to the intense media scrutiny the case has garnered there.
Her lawyers are expected to argue she was in jail when the child’s body was left in a wood.
If she is found guilty of first-degree murder, she could face the death penalty.
Ms Anthony is also charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement.
Ms Anthony drew investigators’ attention when it was learned she waited weeks to tell her mother the child was missing.
Caylee’s decomposed body was found in December 2008 in a patch of woods near her house.
Ms Anthony’s mother reported smelling something like a dead body emanating from the boot of Ms Anthony’s car. And there, prosecutors say forensic experts found traces of chloroform.
Ms Anthony’s lawyers will say the foul smell came from a bag of rotting rubbish, but prosecutors plan to offer a novel form of forensic science they say shows chemical compounds from decomposition were present in the boot.
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