The Italian dream that turned into a nightmare | Forensic Files

[Music] our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents if you feel at any
time you need support please contact your local crisis center for suggested phone numbers for confidential support
and for a more detailed list of content warnings please the show notes for this episode on your app or on our
website the Russian poet Anna akava once said Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your
life for British born Meredith ker this rang true from a young age Meredith first visited Italy on a family holiday
when she was just 18 months old and again at the age of eight she loved the way the weight staff at restaurants
treated her and her three siblings like young adults rather than children handing them the menus before anyone
else in her childish eyes everything just seemed so sophisticated so fond were these early
memories that in year n of high school Meredith began studying Italian her teacher noticed she had a natural flare
for the language which was bolstered further by a two-e Exchange program to southern Italy later that
year the experience was transformative and Meredith became enamored with Italian culture on the last day of the
trip as her classmates wept with sadness over having to say goodbye their teacher
noticed that Meredith was the only one who was smiling I'm not sad because someday when
I'm older I know that I'm going to live here Meredith remarked I know that Italy
is going to be a part of my life forever true to her word when Meredith turned 18
she enrolled to study Italian and European politics at leed's University not entirely sure what she
wanted to do with her life she contemplated working at the European Parliament in Brussels or following in
her Father's Footsteps to become a journalist although Leeds was over 200 km from her home in South London and she
didn't know anyone there this 4-year course was particularly enticing to Meredith as it the option of spending
the third year studying abroad she spent the first two years knuckling down on her studies and
working part-time to fund her upcoming travels until August 2007 when at the age of 21 the time finally came to pack
her bags for Italy spoiled for Choice when it came to picking a beautiful location Meredith
chose peruja a Cosmopolitan City located in the heart of central Italy's Umbria region
known for its large international student population and medieval Town Center Meredith felt that staying in a
smaller city with the just 160,000 residents would give her a better opportunity to interact with others than
if she stayed in a major city like Rome or Florence it also had good airport links
and an annual Chocolate Festival and Meredith adored chocolate she promised her sister
Stephanie whom she was particularly close to that she'd make plenty of friends so the two would have places to
stay when they traveled the country together once Meredith's studies were complete although the move was daunting
Meredith's easygoing and enthusiastic personality ensured she made friends easily within 4 days of arriving in
peruja she'd already secured a place to live number seven via Dela perala was a two-story whitewashed Cottage purged on
a steep Hillside below the city on one side it overlooked a lush sweeping Valley dotted with cypress trees and
Olive Groves on the other was a Ring Road that bordered the city's medieval walls and a multi-level car park
overseen by a row of weathered Department buildings just a few minutes walk from
Peru's University for foreigners it was a popular neighborhood for students the cottage had been subdivided
into two separate dwellings the lower floor was occupied by four young Italian men while the upper story housed Two
Italian law students fil Mena and Laura both aged in their late 20s the young women welcomed Meredith
with open arms assigning her a small room at the back corner of the cottage the room next to Meredith's was
vacant but it wouldn't be for long vill Mena and Aura informed Meredith that a 22 year-old American
student would be arriving in a few weeks time and had already paid her deposit her name was Amanda
[Music] [Music] Knox Meredith ker fully embra raced her new life in peruja through her language
studies at the University for foreigners she befriended a group of British students who became a support network
for one another as they navigated their new surroundings Meredith helped put her
fellow Brits at ease not only were her Italian skills the strongest of the bunch her quick wit and infectious laugh
made others feel welcome and included Meredith spent her days studying exploring the city and hunting
down lowcost meal meals with her new friends always Keen to snag a bargain in the evenings they often met
for dinner or drinks at one of the local bars where they share stories about their day-to-day experiences and laugh
over linguistic mishaps by the time Halloween rolled around on Wednesday October 31 2007
Meredith had been living in peruja for almost 3 months and was settling in nicely to celebrate Halloween she
dressed up as a vampire and joined a group of her friends for a dinner party followed by a night on the town they
stayed out until the crack of dawn dancing the night away the next day Thursday November 1
was All Saints Day a national public holiday in Italy that honors the Saints of the Catholic
Church an exhausted Meredith dragged herself out of bed after midday the fake blood from her vampire costume still
staining her chin Laura and fil Mena were away for the holiday so the house was quiet only Meredith's American
housemate Amanda KNX was home she and her Italian boyfriend Raphael solito were sitting in the common room eating
pasta when Meredith arose the trio chattered briefly before Meredith had jumped in the shower threw a load of
laundry into the washing machine and then headed to a friend's place it was a mellow night for Meredith
and her British girlfriends the group ate pizza and watched The Notebook pausing the film halfway through to eat
homemade apple crumble for dessert by 8:30 p.m. Meredith was tired she borrowed a textbook from one of her
friends and made plans to meet her for a class at 10:00 a.m. the following morning Meredith then light-heartedly
said that 10:30 was more realistic it was a running joke among Meredith's loved ones that she was
notoriously l late for everything and terrible at keeping time Meredith and her friend Sophie said
goodbye to the others and began the short walk to their respective homes when they reached the turnoff for
Sophie's Place they made plans to catch up the following evening before hugging each other goodbye and going their
separate ways the following morning of Friday November 2 peruja Resident of elizabetha
Lana braved the bitterly cold air to step outside it had been a strange evening for
elizabetha overnight she'd received a phone call warning that someone had placed a bomb in her
toilet although the bomb threat turned out to be a prank elizabetha was left feeling
shaken as she tended to her roses she heard a ringing sound coming from a bush in her garden and followed it it was a
mobile phone still on edge from the prank call elizabeta contacted the postal police a
special division of the State Police dedicated to crimes involving communication
devices at their request elizabetha brought the discarded phone to the nearby police
station it didn't take long for officers to identify its owner the Italian SIM card was
registered to Fila romanelli who lived at number seven via DEA pergola roughly half a kilometer from Elizabeth's
home V Mena no longer used the SIM card in question she'd given it to her housemate Meredith ker so that Meredith
could make cheap local calls during her time in Italy filena had spent the previous
evening out of town with her boyfriend but was back on the outskirts of peruja attending a festival for All Souls
day the annual celebration was a day to commemorate and pray for love ones who had passed
away oblivious to the fact that Meredith's phone had been found Thea's own mobile phone rang just after
midday it was her American housemate Amanda Knox Amanda told Fila that she'd spent
the night at her boyfriend's house and had just returned to Via Dela pergola to find some strange
occurrences Amanda said that when she arrived home at around 11:00 a.m. the front door was open open but nobody
appeared to be home she went to take a shower in the small bathroom she shared with Meredith only to find what looked
like some drops of blood in the sink and smeared on the bath mat Amanda showered
regardless she then went to dry her hair in the larger bathroom at the other side
of the house she glanced into the toilet and saw it contained unflushed feces knowing that no one in the house
would forget to flush after themselves Amanda told Fila she was scared Fila asked where Meredith was
Amanda said she didn't know she was currently walking back to her boyfriend Raphael's place and fil Mena was the
first person she'd called Fila told Amanda to go back to the house and check that everything else
was in order they then ended the call Fila was worried that Meredith might have cut herself and gone out to
seek medical care accidentally leaving the front door open behind her she tried calling both of Meredith's mobile phone
numbers her local Italian one and her British one Meredith always kept both phones
with her using the Italian SIM for local Communications and the British one to stay in contact with friends and family
back home both numbers rang out this set off alarm bells for filamenta she knew that Meredith was incredibly
close to her mother arene who was battling a serious illness back in England the two spoke numerous times
every day and Meredith always kept her phones close in case she received an urgent call regarding her mother's
health in fact she never turned her British one off Fila called Amanda back panicked
Amanda said she'd just reached Raphael's house and the two were going to go check
on the cottage together filam Mena waited roughly 10 minutes before calling Amanda
again this time Amanda told her someone's been in your room they smashed your window but it's bizarre it doesn't
look like they've taken anything meanwhile half a kilometer away a second mobile phone was found at the
bottom of Elizabeth Alana's Garden this one contained a British SIM [Music] card at 1235 p.m. two officers from the
postal police arrived at number seven via Dela pergola to ask about the discarded
phones they found Amanda Knox and raphaela solito standing outside the couple told the officers
there had been a break-in and they couldn't get hold of Amanda's housemate Meredith they tried her room but the
door was locked and there was no response when they bashed on it or called her name Raphael said they'd
contacted the caribiner Italy's National military police force and were waiting for someone to
arrive the postal police officers told them about the two mobile phones that had been found nearby one of which was
registered to a resident of this address Amanda said it couldn't be fila's phone because the pair had just
spoken she led them into the house and showed them fila's bedroom her window had been smashed and shattered glass
littered the room clothing was scattered across the floor in what looked like a ransacking but strangely valuable items
such as a laptop gold jewelry a digital camera and designer sunglasses sat untouched out in the
open everything else in the cottage aside from the mysterious drops of blood and un flushed toilet appeared to be
completely normal at that moment fil Mena arrived home with her boyfriend and two of their
friends she rushed into her room and confirmed that nothing appeared to be missing she also identified this second
mobile phone found at Elizabeth Alana's house as belonging to Meredith ker during this entire Fiasco there had
been no noise or movement from inside Meredith's room Amanda told the police that Meredith
sometimes locked her door if she was going away or getting changed but fil Mena disputed this saying Meredith
always kept her door unlocked becoming increasingly panicked Fila ordered break down the
door the postal police didn't have authority to do so without a warrant and were concerned about causing any damage
to private property fila's friend Luca didn't hesitate he backed up raised his leg and
kicked the door several times before it finally flew open with the door off its hinges filena
began screaming hysterically the officers shouted everyone out of the house [Music]
now Meredith's bedroom was in disarray with splashes of blood streaking the walls and blood pulled on the tile
floor a beige quilt had been taken off the single bed and thrown onto the floor to cover something up but there was
little doubt as to what at the end of the quilt closest to the door a bare foot protruded out from
underneath homicide investigators quickly arrived and qued off the scene under the quilt was the body of
21-year-old Meredith ker naked aside from a long-sleeved top which had been pulled up to reveal her bare
torso her jeans and underwear had been removed and sat crumpled by her feet along with her Blood Stained bra which
had been cut off from her body postmortem a pile of blood soaked towels sat nearby dozens of cuts and bruises
covered Meredith's body a majority of them on her face and neck her hyoid bone the small u-shaped bone at the base of
her neck was fractured indicating either an attempted strangulation or a hard blow bruising to Meredith's nose
nostrils and lips suggested someone had attempted to suffocate her by clamping their hands over her nose and mouth
other bruising on her face and body indicated that she'd been forced to kneel down while her arms were pinned
behind her back and her face forcefully crushed into the floor small cuts to Meredith's neck
suggested she'd been threatened with a knife while forced into this submissive position and sexually
assaulted her throat was then slit twice before her body was dragged closer to the
bed the smaller of the slashings was 4 cm deep followed by a final 8 cm deep wound which severed Meredith's right
thyroid artery although this final injury was fatal it wasn't an instant death the
condition of Meredith's lungs indicated that she'd likely survived for several minutes before finally suffocating on
her own blood back in England Meredith's mother arene was watching the news when she saw
a bulletin reporting that a yet to be identified young British woman had been killed in
Perugia Arlene told herself there was no way it could be her daughter the two had
just spoken the previous afternoon and nothing about their conversation was out of the
ordinary arene tried calling Meredith's phone there was no answer she then called Meredith's father
her ex-husband JN and told him what she'd heard although JN was alarmed he assured his ex-wife that there were lots
of British students in peruja and Meredith would surely be fine but when John tried calling
Meredith himself his anxieties peaked every time her phone clicked to her automated message
Bank John was a journalist and he decided to use his contacts to see if he could dig up any more information he
dialed the number of the foreign desk for the Daily Mirror newspaper the person he spoke to said
that they'd call back when they had any more information the wait seemed like a lifetime for John although meridith
hadn't lived with him since his divorce from Arlene the two remained close speaking on the phone most
days before she moved away for University Meredith visited her father every Friday night for dinner and the
weekly screening of her favorite TV show The American sitcom Friends John had just seen Meredith a
few weeks earlier when she'd made a quick return trip to England to buy some winter clothes and a warmer quilt she'd
been her normal happy self and talked excitedly about her time in peria after an agony organizing half an
hour John's phone rang his contact at the Daily Mirror said they had a name of the
victim with great hesitation they said the name going around Italy is [Music] Meredith within hours of Meredith's body
being discovered via Dela pergola was teeming with reporters although perua had its Fair sh
of crime particularly when it came to drugs murders of this magnitude were entirely unheard of a foreign student
being brutally killed in their own home was Major news and everyone wanted to be
the first to break the story with all eyes on the investigation and the student population needing
reassurance they were safe the pressure was on to solve the case fast there was no doubt that Meredith
had been a victim of sexual violence but it also appeared that robbery could have
been a motive two of Meredith's purses had been rifled through and her wallet house keys and both of her mobile phones
had been stolen the keys had then been used to lock her bedroom door a check of Meredith's bank account
revealed that 2 days prior to her death she'd withdrawn €250 from an ATM this coincided with her rent payment
which was due at the start of the month but Meredith hadn't yet paid her landlord nor was there any sign of the
cash anywhere on the property leading to the suspicion that this too was likely stolen during the attack the state of
her room indicated that someone had been looking under her bed after the murder had
occurred at first glance the broken window in fil Mena's bedroom appeared to have been the perpetrator's point of
entry but for the first officers of on the scene this immediately raised some red
flags for starters some clothing had been removed from one of filament's cupets and haphazardly scattered around
in an apparent ransacking however the broken glass from the window lay on top of the clothing
not under it as one would expect this implied that the clothes had been scattered around first and the
window broken afterwards Not only was nothing of value stolen from fila's bedroom other
cupboards drawers and boxes of hers hadn't even been touched if someone was ransacking the room looking for
valuables why hadn't they searched the whole room a 4 kg Rock roughly the size of a
human head was found underneath fila's desk having seemingly been used to smash the window from the
outside fila's window on the second floor was fitted with wooden shutters which she insisted she'd left
closed yet the shutters were found only slightly a jar and perfectly intact for the rock to have shuted the
glass but not the shutters the shutters would have had to be opened but the only way to open them
from the outside was to pry them open this meant the Intruder would have had to scale the wall once to open the
shutters go back down to throw the Rock and then scale the wall again the problem with this scenario was
that filan's window was roughly 3 and 1/2 M off the ground and there was nothing underneath to climb on scaling
the wall would require what one investigator described as a superhuman effort and not just once but
twice the ground outside was damp and muddy yet there was no evidence on the outside wall such as shoe marks or
traces of Earth to indicate such a climb had occurred about halfway up an old nail
could have theoretically been used as a foothold had it been used as such investigators were sure the nail would
have fallen out or at the very least become bent but the nail showed no such damage furthermore there were no
Footprints or signs of disturbance in the vegetation underneath the window the rocket itself also raised
questions at 4 kg it would have been incredibly difficult for someone to heave it so high into the air when a
smaller lighter Rock could have just as easily done the trick the top portion of filament's
window pane was still intact indicating the rock had been thrown at low speed from a short distance away broken glass
lay on the internal window sill but strangely there was none on the floor directly underneath
if the Intruder had pulled themselves in via the window investigators believed at
least some of the glass would have fallen down if not naturally the Intruder would have had to move some of
it out of the way to avoid being cut as they pulled themselves in it also didn't make sense that an
intruder would Target fila's bedroom over one of the others in addition to being difficult to reach it was in full
view of the Main Street and lit up by the headlights of any passing cars the rear windows were not only out of
sight but one had a table and chair underneath it which could have been climbed upon to scale the broiler and
reach the window with all these inconsistencies and no other signs of forced entry
investigators quickly became convinced that the window had actually been broken from the
inside the brake and enter was completely staged whoever killed Meredith had likely attempted to derail the
investigation when the truth was much more simple they had come in through the front
door this meant that either Meredith knew her killer and to let them inside or they had a
key bolstering this theory was the belief that a random Intruder would have been desperate to flee the scene as
quickly as possible they wouldn't stick around to lock Meredith in her bedroom and fake a robbery it also seemed
unlikely that they go to the effort of stealing both of her mobile phones only to dispose of them a short distance
away blood marks on the quilt covering Meredith's body indicated it had been placed there after she was already
dead in criminology this is typically known to indicate remorse and is usually done when a killer knows the
[Music] victim investigators immed immediately honed in on those in Meredith's Social
Circle her friends told the police there was a young Moroccan man named ham who had a bit of a crush on Meredith in the
weeks leading up to the murder they'd all been out dancing together when heam started acting inappropriately pulling
his pants down in front of Meredith police tracked Hisham down but could find nothing to tie him to the
crime they started Gathering all the photos that had been taken from the Halloween party Meredith had attended
the night before she was killed scrutinizing each one for potential Persons of Interest the police learned that
Meredith had been casually dating one of the downstairs tenants 22-year-old jaamal
cenzi although the relationship was still very new Meredith had agreed to do a favor for jamoo while he was out of
town for the public holiday he'd been growing a couple of cannabis plants in his room and Meredith
agreed to water them for him even though she was nervous about doing so investigators forced their way into
the lower floor of the cottage inside nothing appeared to be out of place but there was something of Interest several
small drops of blood jakamo and his housemates were quickly tracked down each claimed to
have been out of town visiting family at the time of Meredith's murder these iers
were confirmed ruling all of them out as suspects the blood in their apartment was determined to have come from a stray
cat they'd been caring for who had injured a te Meredith's Italian housemates Fila
and Laura also had airtight aliis having been out of town on the night in question this left just one resident of
number7 via Dela pergalo who was in peruja at the time Meredith was killed Amanda
Knox the postal police officers who had first arrived at the crime scene had been suspicious of Amanda from the
moment they arrived for starters they thought that Amanda and her boyfriend Rafael solito
had seemed startled nervous and embarrassed by the police presence secondly Amanda's story that
she'd showered despite finding the front door open and blood in the bathroom just
seemed bizarre Amanda told one detective she thought one of her housemates might have
simply left the door open while they went to put the bins outside the detective noted this as odd
the bins were clearly visible from the front porch and Amanda would have been able to see this wasn't the case as for
the drops of blood in the bathroom sink Amanda said she'd recently had her ears pierced and had been taking her earrings
out over the sink to clean them she assumed that's what caused the blood Amanda said she'd been more
concerned about the smear of Blood on the bath mat but thought it might have been menstrual blood that Meredith had
forgotten to clean up it was only when she noticed the unflushed feces in the other bathroom that she started to get
the feeling that something wasn't right when she returned to the house with raphaela she looked in the bathroom
again and saw that the faces had since been Flushed Away according to a this led her to believe that the killer
might still be in the house detectives checked the toilet for themselves the feces were still
there but it wasn't just the investigators who were dubious about amander nox's Behavior within hours of
Meredith's body being discovered Meredith's Italian housemates and British friends had gathered on the
property to help with the investigation they stood outside waiting for their next next
instructions as reporters milled around the police Cordon camera Crews honed in on Amanda and
Raphael they didn't look like two people who had just discovered a horrific murder instead they appeared perfectly
composed embracing one another warmly and often leaning in to kiss each other on the
mouth unsure what to make of Amanda's claims police summoned Meredith's friends and housemates to the station
for questioning there raphaela and Amanda's odd behavior continued while Meredith's friends were
visibly distraught investigators noted that Amanda and raphaela seemed indifferent to the entire
situation while they waited for their turn to be questioned they were witnessed laughing kissing and pulling
faces at one another numerous times Amanda complained about being tired yet an officer saw her
doing what they described as stretches the split and a cartwheel the officer wondered how she
could be behaving like this when a dead body had just been found in her house and told her
off Meredith's friends were asking themselves the same question it seemed to them like Amanda was boasting about
being the one who found Meredith's body as though it was something to be proud of they resented the fact that she
complained about being tired and hungry when she was lucky to be alive Raphael seemed equally nonchalant
to the seriousness of the situation at one point he was overheard on the phone bluntly saying they've slit
her throat as though it was a normal occurrence one of Meredith's friends remarked that she hoped Meredith hadn't
suffered Amanda responded harshly what do you think she had her [ __ ] throat slit
for investigators there was no doubt that Amanda knox's Behavior was out of the ordinary but there were no immediate
reasons to suspect her of the crime on paper Meredith kircher and Amanda Knox were quite similar the Seattle born and
bred Amanda had grown up in a middleclass family with divorced parents and was particularly close with her
sister she was a keen and athletic student at her Catholic High School with a particular love for soccer and rock
climbing as a teenager her family tripped to Italy sparked Amanda's love for Italian culture and she eventually
enrolled to study Italian German and creative writing at University when Amanda told her parents
she intended to spend one year studying abroad they weren't entirely pleased they considered Amanda to be book smart
but not necessarily street smart she was also two trusting of people and could be
incred incredibly naive regardless they supported the decision recognizing it as an
opportunity for growth and maturity Amanda saved for her trip by working multiple jobs and arrived in
peria a few weeks after Meredith had already settled in Meredith took Amanda under her Wing
showing her around town and introducing her to her friends while they got along fine
Meredith confided in her friends and family that she found some of Amanda's Behavior off
pudding in comparison to her British friends Amanda was very extroverted and energetic mid conversation she'd
sometimes jump up and start doing yoga poses or play her guitar Meredith thought Amanda liked to
show off to get attention one night when Amanda joined Meredith and her friends at a restaurant
the Brits were taken aback when Amanda suddenly stood up and started singing loudly at the top of her voice
voice as Amanda described on her Facebook page I don't get embarrassed and therefore have very few social
inhibitions I love new situations and I love to meet new people the bigger and scarier the roller coaster the
better Meredith told her friends and family that Amanda's quirks irritated her as did her hygiene habits she
complained that Amanda didn't do her fair share of the housework and some times forgot to flush the
toilet Amanda had also left a cosmetic case in the bathroom with an adult toy and condoms out on display and had
brought some strange men back to the house which made Meredith uncomfortable while the two maintained
an amicable relationship and sometimes hung out together around the house they mostly did their own
thing as Amanda told Meredith she was more interested in spending time with Italians so she could immerse her
herself in their language Amanda had an American boyfriend back home but the two had
decided to open their relationship while they both studied abroad Amanda didn't consider herself to be particularly
experienced with the opposite sex and she viewed Italy as a chance to be a bit more
adventurous in her first few weeks in Italy she had a few casual dates before meeting rapael
solito one week prior to Merida murder Amanda was attending a concert at the University when she locked eyes with the
23-year-old a bespectacled computer science student originally from Southern Italy Raphael's father was a prominent
urologist and his mother had recently passed away described by France as quiet and studious Raphael had a somewhat
different take on himself on social media he wrote that he was honest peaceful and sweet but some times
absolutely crazy Raphael also kept an online blog in which he wrote about his disappointing college experience and his
desire to find bigger Thrills although Raphael was shy and not used to getting much attention from the
opposite sex when he saw Amanda Knox smiling at him at the concert he struck up the courage to approach her the two
immediately HIIT it off speaking in a blend of broken English and Italian they spent almost every night together from
that point on with Amanda returning to Via DEA pergola intermittently to fetch clean clothes and check in with her
housemates anyone who spent time around the couple could tell that Raphael was completely smitten with
Amanda his father noted that Raphael had never spoken about a woman the way he spoke about her when Raphael visited via
Dela pergola to cook Amanda dinner her housemates noticed that raphaela followed her around like a Shadow
kissing and cuddling her even while she did the dishes Meredith's friends told investigators that there had been some
friction between Meredith and Amanda but Amanda denied this while they hadn't been extraordinarily close she had
nothing but fond memories of Meredith the two did the grocery shopping together some bathed on the
Terrace while sipping espressos and borrowed clothes from one another Amanda claimed she'd last seen
Meredith on the afternoon before her body was discovered Amanda and raphaela had been hanging out in the cottage's
common area smoking a joint when Meredith woke late after her big night out for Halloween she'd been her normal
self before leaving for her friend's place at around 400 p.m. an hour or two later Amanda said
that she and raphaela walked back to his apartment a one-bedroom bedset a 10-minute walk from via Dela
pergola Amanda had recently gotten a job working at a bar called leik and she'd been rosted on to work later that
evening to her Delight she received a text message from her boss saying she was no longer
needed the couple stayed in for the night watching the French movie Amal on Raphael's computer and having a late
dinner before going to bed sometime after midnight the next morning Amanda said they both slept in she decided to walk
back to Via Dela pergola to shower at home and get a fresh change of clothes she also needed to grab a mop because
the pipes under Raphael's kitchen sink had sprung a leak and he didn't have a mop of his own to clean it
up when Amanda noticed all the strange occurrences of the cottage she walked back to Raphael's apartment and he then
accompanied her back home to see what was going on Rafael's version of events was more
or less the same but investigators obtained the couple's phone records and discovered a strange
discrepancy when the postal police arrived at Via Dela pergola at around 12:35 p.m. rafhael told them he did just
called the Carabiner his phone records revealed he hadn't actually made this call until
12:51 16 minutes after the postal police were already on the scene he had however called his police
officer sister to tell her about the situation at the cottage and ask for her advice Amanda told the police that when
she returned to the cottage to find the strange occurrences she tried calling Meredith but both of her phones kept a
ringing out her phone records confirmed that she did try calling both of mar 's mobiles
but they only rang for a couple of seconds before she ended the calls while the hunt for evidence ramped
up covert intercepts were placed on both Amanda and Raphael's phones nothing incriminating was
captured yet the couple continued to seem oddly unaffected by the gruesome tragedy this too was noted by the owner
of a local clothing store Carlos D Renaldi who contacted the police to voice concerns on Saturday November 3 the day
after Meredith's body was discovered Carlos noticed Amanda and Raphael walking the aisles of his store he
recalled they were all over each other kissing and embracing their behavior was so exhibitionist that the other
customers were looking at them Amanda picked out some lingerie and brought it to the cash register Carlos
overheard Raphael say you can put these on at home and we can have wild sex the police had given Amanda and
rafella strict instructions not to speak with anyone about the case but on Sunday
November 4 Amanda sent a lengthy group email to her friends back home in Seattle in it she detailed her version
of events on the night of Meredith's murder and the day her body was found Amanda
explained I have to get this off my chest because it's pressing down on me and it helps to know that someone
besides me knows something she then wrote casually about her future plans saying she was looking
for a new place to live but quote it kind of sucks that we have to pay the next month's rant she continued I guess
I'll go back to class on Monday although I'm not sure what I'm going to do about
people asking me questions because I really don't want to talk again about what happened I've been talking an awful
lot lately and I'm pretty tired of it anyway that's the update feeling okay hope you all are
well one friend was so taken aback by the email that they forwarded it straight to the
police in an attempt to ascertain Meredith's time of death police looked at her phone records at 8:56 p.m. she to
tried calling her family in England presumably to check in before calling at a night but the call had gone
unanswered an hour later at around 10: the phone was used to dial Meredith's voicemail service but the call was
cancelled before it connected shortly after another call was made to Meredith's Bank in England but this
failed to connect because the mandatory foreign prefix hadn't been entered at 10:13 p.m. a 9-second
internet connection was recorded which was possibly related to an incoming multimedia message investigators
therefore concluded that Meredith was still alive at this time an elderly woman named Nara kazali
lived in an apartment overlooking the cottage at 7 via DEA pergola Nara told the police that she
went to bed early on the night of November 1 but woke up sometime at around 11: or 11:30 p.m. to use the
bathroom although she didn't look at the clock she assumed this to be the time because she was in the habit of waking
up at around the same time each night as Nara passed her dining room window she heard what she described as
an agonizing woman's scream coming from the direction of the cottage it made her skin crawl but what
Nara found most unsettling was that it didn't seem like a cry for help she recall it was just a scream and then
nothing Nara said she looked out the window but couldn't see anything a few seconds later she heard the sound of
gravel and leaves crunching under someone's feet as they ran up the cottage's driveway this was followed by the sound
of footsteps as they ran up the iron stairway leading from the car park across the
street there was only one set of footsteps but moments later Nara heard another person Scurry up the driveway
and run in the opposite direction CCTV footage was obtained from the car park but the only detail of
Interest was an unidentifiable shadowy figure that was captured around 8:41 p.m. nothing was captured during the key
time period where screams were heard between 11: and 11:30 p.m. regardless nar's statement LED
investigators to believe that this was an accurate window for Meredith K's time of
death they were particularly interested in nar's claims of having heard two sets
of footsteps given that the two major wounds on Meredith K's neck varied in size it had been concluded that two
different knives had been used during the attack the bloody outline of one was visible on the bed sheet this led to the
question of how one person could have wielded two separate weapons while also maintaining control over Meredith and
inflicting the other injuries the evidence indicated that mer had struggled for her life yet there
were no skin cells or foreign DNA underneath her fingernails to suggest that she'd scratched or clawed at her
attacker for investigators this was a sure sign of a multi- perpetrator attack Amanda and raphaela both claimed
they hadn't left raphaela's apartment at any point their phone records revealed that they both typically kept their
mobile phones switched on until late at night night on the night that Meredith was killed however Amanda turned her
phone off at 8:35 Raphael turned his off 7 minutes later the couple claimed they' slept in
late the following morning Amanda's phone supported this remaining off until around midday but Raphael's was turned
back on at 6:02 a.m. a time he claimed to have been asleep with these inconsistencies in Raphael's
story he was summoned back to the police station to repeat his version of events
for the evening of November 1 Amanda arrived with him but was told to wait outside the two had barely left one
another's side since Meredith's body was discovered which prompted the question of whether they were staying close in a
bid to keep their stories straight investigators hoped that separated them might elicit some new
information and they were right rafhael told police that his earlier statement was
incorrect the truth was that he and Amanda had parted ways at around 9900 p.m. according to raphaela Amanda told
him she was going to leik the bar where she worked to meet up with some friends Raphael spent the evening in his
apartment alone where he smoked a joint spent the next few hours surfing the internet during this time he watched the
film amale and spoke to his father Amanda returned sometime around 1:00 a.m. Raphael couldn't recall anything
about their interaction only that they woke at around 10:00 a.m. the next morning and Amanda said she had to
return to her house to have a shower and change her clothes when asked why this version of
events differed from his original one Raphael replied I told you a lot of [ __ ] in
my earlier statement because Amanda had convinced me that her version of what happened was right and I didn't think of
the inconsistencies police checked Raphael's claims against Amanda's phone records
Amanda had previously told them that she never responded to her Boss's text message saying she didn't need to come
into to work on the night of November 1 but phone records revealed that she'd actually written back straight away
acknowledging the message and signing off with the Italian words Chi VOR in English this translates to we
will see each other later Amanda's boss was Dia Patrick lumba a congales immigrant who'd been
living in peruja since 1988 although his bar leik wasn't very successful Patrick himself was an
upstanding respected member of of the community involved in the local music scene he played in a reggae ban and
organized for other musicians to perform at the University although he had no prior
criminal record Amanda's text message combined with Raphael's updated story had investigators
wondering was it possible that Amanda had taken Patrick lumba back to Via Dela pergola from the waiting room Amanda was
called in for formal questioning but only as a witness under Italian law thism an attorney wasn't required to be
present over several hours Amanda maintained that she never left raphaela's apartment on the night of
Meredith's murder she explained that the text message to Patrick lumba was simply
being Lost in Translation Chi Vio was her way of telling Patrick goodbye like an American
would say see you later she didn't realize that the translation could be taken literally but as the police pressed on
they could tell that Amanda was beginning to crack one officer told her I want to
help you but you need to tell me who the murderer is you know who the murderer is
you know who killed Meredith Amanda began to sob uncontrollably Patrick she said it's
Patrick Amanda Knox signed a statement in Italian confirming that on Thursday November 1 2007 she left Raphael's
apartment at around 9:00 p.m. and walked to the basketball courts at Piaza Gana a
Town Square just around the corner from via DEA perala there she met her boss Patrick
lumba and the two walked back to Amanda's house Meredith ker had just returned from her friend's
place at some point Meredith and Patrick disappeared into Meredith's bedroom while Amanda stayed in the kitchen she
wasn't sure how long the two were in there but she eventually heard Meredith screaming Amanda was so scared that she
covered her ears after that she couldn't remember a single thing that happened explaining I have a lot of conf conf
usion in my head I do not remember if Meredith screamed or if I heard any thuds because I was in shock but I could
imagine what was going on the police didn't believe Amanda's claim of memory loss although they
weren't sure whether Amanda was directly involved with Meredith's death they were
convinced she'd helped Patrick lumba in some way they also remained convinced that raphaela solito had played a
role by attracting Amanda's Alibi raphaela had essentially removed himself from the piter but his new version of
events had raised some new inconsistencies it also didn't Explain why both he and Amanda had turned their
mobile phones off at almost the exact same time on the night of Meredith's murder rafhael claimed that he'd watched
the film Amal alone after Amanda had left the apartment but her forensic examination
of his computer determined that the film had actually been watched at 6:30 p.m. after that the computer wasn't accessed
again until 5:32 a.m. at a time Raphael claimed to have been asleep Raphael also said he spoke to his
father and his mobile phone at around 11:00 p.m. phone records revealed they'd actually spoken on Raphael's landline at
8:42 p.m. his father had sent him a goodn night text message at 11 114 p.m. but Raphael's phone was already switched off
at this point and he only received the message when he turned his phone back on at 602 the next
day the suspicion against raphaela only intensified when a search of his pockets
turned up a jack knife with a 3-in blade Raphael explained he'd carried a knife with him since he was a kid as he liked
to make carvings in trees a search warrant was issued for Raphael's apartment opening the door
investigators immediately noted the smell of bleach several bottles of bleach were
found in his kitchen along with a receipt dated the morning of Sunday November 4 2 days after Meredith's body
was discovered in Raphael's Cutlery drawer one item in particular caught investigator's attention a black-handled
marietti brand knife with a 6 and 1/2 in Blade although this was a typical knife
of any Italian Kitchen it looked as though it had been recently cleaned the knife was subject to
forensic examination no traces of blood were found but there were several scratches on the side of the blade
consistent with what one investigator described as intense scrubbing on the handle were traces of
Amanda nox's DNA this was and unexpected Amanda had spent a lot of time at Raphael's place
and the two often cooked together but something significant was found on the blade Trace elements of Meredith K's
DNA given that Meredith had never visited Raphael's apartment before this raised the question how could her DNA
have gotten on it unless it was used during the attack in Raphael's bedroom police found
a collection of Japanese Manga comics they described as a mix of pornography and
horror some of them depicted extreme acts of violence with the storyline of one comic revolving around the killing
of female vampires on Halloween not only did this strike investigators as noteworthy given
Meredith had just dressed as a vampire for Halloween herself they also noticed similarities between some of the images
in the comics and the crime scene in Meredith's bedroom while these finds were all compelling
police still didn't have anything that linked Raphael to the crime scene they turned to the forensic
evidence in Meredith's bedroom a partial bloody Sho print had been found underneath the quilt that had been used
to cover her body it was determined to be a men's size nine with a pattern made up of numerous concentric
circles the print was compared to a pair of Raphael sneakers a pair of size 9 Nike Air Force
1es although the results weren't conclusive the initial analysis indicated a potential
match with all these details coming to light investigators theorized that Patrick lumba likely had a crush on
maredith and had asked for Amanda's help in getting the two together after being told she didn't
need to come to work Amanda texted Patrick to let him know she'd see him later she and Raphael then went to meet
him at the basketball courts at Piaza Gana before walking him back to the cottage on Via DEA
pergola there Patrick joined Meredith in her bedroom investigators couldn't be sure
exactly what unfolded next but they viewed amander as a seductress who had raphaela completely under her
spell both seeking excitement and adventure raphaela and Amanda likely intervened and the group tried to force
Meredith to do something sexual that she didn't want to do they likely threatened
her with one of the knives that Raphael admittedly always carried around forcing
her face into the floor and sexually assaulting her when Meredith screamed one of them panicked and slit her
throat the trio then desperately tried to clean up after themselves before staging a Breakin and fleeing the
scene but there was just one problem the bloody shoe print wasn't a definite match to Raphael and the police still
hadn't uncovered any physical evidence putting Amanda or Patrick at the crime scene nervous that Amanda might flee the
country they decided it was time to make their move regardless a cautionary arrest warrant
was issued for all three suspects at Patrick lum's home investigators found him warming milk for
his 18-month-old son appearing completely L shocked by the police presence he asked what was going on to
which one officer responded you know what you did but Patrick claims he had nothing to
do with Meredith K's death he said he'd only met Meredith a handful of times the
last being on Halloween when she'd showed up at leik in her vampire costume Patrick said he wasn't attracted
to Meredith nor had he flirted with her in any way as for the night she was killed
Patrick said he worked until closing time which was sometime after midnight and then went straight home at no point
did he see or speak to Amanda Knox following her arrest Amanda retracted her previous statement in its
place she submitted a handwritten statement of her own valtion claiming that her previous version of events had
been made under the pressure of stress shock and extreme exhaustion Amanda claimed it was the police who
suggested that Patrick lumba could have been involved she only went along with it after they told her they had evidence
proving she was at the cottage on the night of the murder and threatened to put her in jail for 30
years according to Amanda an officer had also hit her over the head when she didn't remember a fact
correctly Amanda wanted to set the record straight As she was worried that details were being lost in
translation she said her recollection of the night of Thursday November 1 was hazy because she'd been smoking cannabis
she and Raphael had also been doing a different version of the same thing every night that week and the days
blurred into one all she was sure of was that she and Raphael had eaten a late dinner after which Raphael washed the
dishes and his kitchen pipes began to leak the next thing she remembered with certainty was waking up the foll
following morning at around 10:00 after very little sleep and many hours of intense pressure from the
police Amanda said she started Imagining the scenario in which Patrick lumba had
come back to her house she wrote I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my mind has
made to try to answer the questions in my head and the questions I am being asked but the truth is I am unsure about
the truth Amanda acknowledged that her confusion must be frustrating for the police but
stated I also want to tell the truth the best I can I know I didn't kill Meredith
that's all I know for sure the police firmly denied the allegations that Amanda had been
mistreated or coerced in any way but because she'd only been questioned as a witness her interrogation hadn't been
recorded therefore it was a case of Amanda's word against to theirs during Raphael Solo's arrest
hearing he distanced himself from Amanda but said that he too had cracked under pressure from
police he claimed the truth was Amanda had spent the entire night of Thursday November 1 with him at his apartment he
flat out denied that the shoe print found in Meredith's bedroom was his saying he'd had never entered her
bedroom and even if he had he wasn't wearing his Nikes on the day she was killed
Patrick lumba stuck by his story that he'd worked at Lasik all evening it had been a quiet night with only about a
dozen customers hence why he' texted Amanda not to bother coming in Patrick claimed there was at least
one person who could vouch for his Alibi a Swiss Professor whom he'd chatter to briefly while serving
drinks the only problem was he couldn't remember the professor's name Patrick claimed he'd opened to the
the bar sometime around 5:00 p.m. but a search of leiks Records revealed that the first receipt of the night was timed
10:29 p.m. Patrick explained this was because he'd only build the customers when they
left he stated I didn't go to Amanda's house I didn't kill Meredith I'm innocent and
God knows it it had been an incredibly difficult week for Meredith K's family not only
did they have to come to terms with the news of Meredith's murder and the subsequent arrests there were additional
hurdles to navigate given that the crime occurred in a foreign country they were
left feeling completely helpless the people of England rallied behind them leaving floral tributes and
notes for Meredith outside of her mother's home her former high school and online when granted permission to do so
Meredith's mother asked her Father John and sister Stephanie arrived in peria to formally identify
Meredith's body John couldn't bring himself to enter the morg he wanted his last memory
of his daughter to be the vibrant and happy young woman he'd had lunch with just weeks earlier her whole life ahead
of her arene and Stephanie made the identification instead to spare them the sight of
Meredith's injuries a crisp white sheet had been pulled up to her chin arene asked for permission to kiss her
daughter on the head the lead prosecutor present was so moved by this he had to remove himself from the
room Stephanie thought her sister looked peaceful but determined as though she was trying to express how hard she'd
fought to survive Stephanie said for that I am eternally grateful and love her more than she could ever
know it was from that moment that we knew we had to fight for her too Meredith's family agreed that more
than one person had to be involved with the slay Meredith had started studying karate at the age of 17 and had earned
three belts they'd seen her take on grown male opponents if she was attacked by just one person her family felt
confident that Meredith could have held her own Meredith's murder and the subsequent
arrests were major worldwide news at a press conference following the identification members of the media
gathered from Italy the UK and us as Stephanie described her little sister as one of the most beautiful intelligent
witty and caring people you could ever meet her family took comfort in knowing that Meredith died while pursuing her
dreams and during one of the happiest periods of her life Stephanie stated we love her then we love her
still and and she's still very much a part of our family forever with the three suspects Behind
Bars investigators had to build their case against them before any official charges could be made they turned their
focus onto the forensic evidence given that Amanda lived at the cottage and Raphael had visited several
times before it stood to reason that their fingerprints Footprints and a DNA would already be present therefore
investig s needed to find something indisputably tying them to the crime scene numerous bloody fingerprints had
been found in Meredith's bedroom but many of them were smeared to a point of being
unidentifiable of the bloody fingerprints that were found none were a matched to Amanda noox Raphael solito or
Patrick lumba no blood from anyone other than Meredith was found anywhere in the
cottage the blood in the bathroom was determined to be merediths indicating that someone had used the bathroom after
committing the crime the stain on the bath mat was determined to be a bloody footprint although it lacked the
characteristics needed to make a definitive match it was compared to the three suspects and provided a probable
match to Raphael solito luminol a chemical that reacts to traces of blood invisible to the naked
eye was sprayed throughout the cottage several areas lit up revealing partial bare Footprints in Amanda's room
the bathroom and the hallway outside of Meredith's bedroom testing determined them to be a
probable match to both Amanda and Raphael luminol testing of fila's bedroom also revealed two drops of blood
which carried the DNA profiles of two individuals Amanda noox and Meredith Kar while this was deeply incriminating
evidence against both Amanda and Raphael investigators couldn't find a single piece of physical evidence to suggest
that Patrick lumba had ever visited the property at all but there was an even more troubling
detail when Meredith's body was found a blood soaked pillow had been placed underneath her body on it was a bloody
handprint that didn't match either of the three suspects police ran the fingerprints
through their database there was a match 20-year-old Rudy guer was known to be a bit of a hanger on of Peru's
student scene having immigrated to Italy from the Ivory Coast at the age of five
Rudy's father eventually returned to Africa leaving a teenaged Rudy in the care of a wealthy perian family who put
him into school studying hotel management but Rudy was a habitual liar with no drive when it came to work or
study disappointed with his behavior the family kicked him out Rudy worked odd jobs to get by but also started dabbling
in petty theft and selling cannabis the week before Meredith K's murder the owner of a preschool arrived
at her workplace out of hours to find Rudy guer on the premises she called the police who
discovered that Rudy had stolen a knife from the school's kitchen a search of his backpack also
revealed a laptop and cell phone that had recently been stolen after a break-in at a local LW office along with
a gold watch that had been stolen during a break-in four days prior when the tenants of s via Dela
pergola had been questioned after Meredith's death they'd each been asked to provide a list of all the recent
visitors to the property the young men who lived downstairs had mentioned an African man
with whom they sometimes played basketball they knew him from around town but only by his nickname the
baron Amanda Knox had mentioned him too she and Meredith had met him when they joined the downstairs neighbors to smoke
a joint one night according to the downstairs tenants the baron had asked them whether
Amanda had a boyfriend and mentioned he wanted to sleep with her later on he fell asleep on their toilet drunk when
he woke up he left the house without Flushing able to ignore the similarity between the unflushed toilet at the
crime scene detectives had been eager to track of the baron down but had so far been
unsuccessful little did they know that Rudy guer and the baron were one and the same with the bloody handprint on
Meredith's pillow confirmed to belong to Rudy gader investigators raided his apartment there was no sign of him there
or anywhere across town an international arrest warrant was issued and his name and face were splashed across the
news witnesses came forward to report that they' seen Rudy dancing at a perian nightclub at around 2:30 on the night of
Meredith K's murder no one had noticed any blood on his clothing but they did recall he was
acting strange and smelled terrible he'd also mentioned to some friends that he was thinking of going to
Milan as efforts to locate Rudy guer ramped up a friend of his contacted the police to let them know that they just
received an email from Rudy in which he claimed to be in Germany the friend agreed to work with
police to lower Rudy back to Italy he contacted Rudy via instant messaging on the Telecommunications app Skype asking
where he was and what was going on Rudy claimed he was in the city of dorf flat broke and sleeping on trains
he said he'd seen the news and and the police had it all wrong he wasn't involved with Meredith's death but he
had been there on the night she was killed he also said Amanda doesn't have anything to do with
it Rudy agreed to speak to his friend over the phone he explained that he'd run into Meredith at a Halloween party
on October 31 and the two had arranged to meet at her house the following night when he got there Meredith was the only
one at home the two talked for a while during which Meredith mentioned that some money was missing from her
underwear drawer and she suspected Amanda might have taken it Meredith was fired up accusing Amanda of being a drug
addict she apparently said when Amanda comes back I have to talk to her Rudy claimed that after Meredith
calmed down the two of them began making out they engaged in oral sex but stopped
things there after realizing neither th of them had a condom at around 9:30 Rudy went to the
bathroom to use the toilet his stomach feeling upset from a bad Kebab he put his iPod on and over the
sound of the music he heard the doorbell ring after listening to about 2 and a half songs he heard Meredith
screaming Rudy Clint he rushed out with his pants down only to find a man he didn't recognize standing over Meredith
with a bloody knife it was too dark to see much of the man's appearance but he was shorter than
Rudy and had chestnut colored hair the man tried to stab Rudy swearing at him in what sounded like a local Italian
accent before faying the scene realizing that Meredith had been stabbed Rudy claimed he ran to the
bathroom to grab some towels he packed them into the wounds in Meredith's neck to try and stop the bleeding but it was
too late she died in front of him terrified of being wrongly implicated he too fled the
scene Rudy's friend offered to wire him some money for a train ticket back to Italy where they could get him a good
lawyer and figure everything out Rudy agreed but before he could collect the money a ticket inspector caught him for
fair evasion and he admitted he was wanted for questioning in Italy detectives were sent to extradite
him back to peruja meanwhile the Swiss Professor who Patrick lumba claimed to have served on
the night of Meredith's murder came forward he confirmed that he was indeed at luik on the night in question eating
dinner and chatting to Patrick lumba from around 8:30 to 9:55 p.m. with this hair tied Alibi and no
physical evidence tying him to the crime scene Patrick was released after almost
3 weeks behind bars he told reporters that Amanda Knox had thrown him under the bus to derail the investigation when
quote Amanda hated Meredith because people loved her more than Amanda she was insanely jealous that Meredith was
taking over her position as Queen B with Patrick no longer a suspect investigators maintained their theory
about a group sex attack gone wrong they simply replaced Patrick's role with Rudy
guer what rud didn't know was that investigators had already obtained his DNA from a hairbrush found in his
apartment testing confirmed traces of Rudy's DNA were inside of Meredith's body in blood stains on her underwear
and clothing on her purse that had been rifled through and in the unflushed toilet furthermore the partial bloody
shoe print Under Meredith's quilt that had been attributed to Raphael solito was compared to a pair of Nike outbreak
2 owned by Rudy guer while the treads on both Rudy and Raphael's Nikes shared remarkable
similarities the number of concentric circles differed while testing had only revealed a probable match to Raphael's
shoes it revealed a conclusive match to Rudy's back in Italy Rudy added some more details to his version of
evance he maintained that the window in fil Mena's bedroom hadn't been smashed while he was there and claimed that just
before the attacker fled the scene he'd warned you are a black man you will get the
blame as Rudy tended to Meredith's wounds she apparently tried to tell him something but he couldn't quite make it
out it sounded like f Rudy said he wanted to stay in help or call an ambulance but he didn't have his
mobile and also feared that he'd get the blame instead he ran home and changed his clothes but the smell of Meredith's
blood was nauseating and he needed to get away from it he went to a friend's house and out clubbing trying to act as
normal as possible while inside he was feeling extremely confused and traumatized Rudy said if I had been a
man I would have stayed and tried to save Meredith according to Rudy's lawyer this
story explained why his client's DNA was found throughout the the crime scene but
quote it does not mean that he is the killer investigators begged to differ in their view the forensic evidence didn't
just prove that Rudy guer was at the crime scene it proved that he was involved with the crime
itself furthermore they already knew that Rudy was lying about having pre-arranged plans to meet up with
Meredith in contradiction to his claim that the two had met at a Halloween party Meredith's friends confirmed they
had been at a completely different party and that at no point did they cross paths with Rudy guer Meredith had never
mentioned Rudy to anyone nor had anyone ever seen her with him outside of the one time they shared a joint at the
downstairs flat friends of Rudy's also T police he had a habit of acting inappropriately
towards women when he was under the influence and that he'd been accused of moles girls
before as the story continued to dominate headlines the media showed little interest in Rudy gader they were
much more interested in Amanda Knox as daily maale journalist Nick paer later explained to
Netflix Meredith was a terribly attractive woman and now we've got Amanda Knox involved as well a pretty
blonde girl 20s something it had that sexual Intrigue girl on girl crime if you like day after day new headlines came
out about Amanda in which she was portrayed as quote sex obsessed a she devil and a witch of
deception viewed by many as the Puppet Master behind Meredith's murder some Outlets labeled her Amanda the
Maneater but it was when Amanda's online Myspace page surfaced that things really
heated up there Amanda had listed her nickname as Foxy noxy this was a childhood nickname given
to her by her soccer teammates who deemed her quick like a fox the English-speaking media took it
as a sign of Amanda's opinion of herself as some kind of seductive Vixen and the
nickname quickly sought to infamy it didn't help that Amanda had recently posted a photo of herself on
MySpace from a visit to a Nazi History Museum where she posed behind a giant machine gun with a maniacal laugh on her
face this picture was quickly spread by the media as was a photo Raphael solito had shared on his own blog in which he
was dressed like a mummy brandishing a giant meat cleaver and holding a bottle of
bleach videos of Rudy guer also surfaced of him dressed as Dracula and looking into the camera as he said I want to
suck your blood tabloid headlines accompanying these provocative images screamed orgy of
death and Amanda was a drugged up [ __ ] Amanda's reputation as an immoral sex crazed temptress only got worse when
CCTV footage was published of her buying underwear with raphaela the day after Meredith's body was found tabloids
printed the photos alongside headlines like one from the standard which read pictures of the moment foxy kn went
shopping for sexy lingerie the day after Meredith's murder these along with the images of
Amanda and rafhael hugging and kissing outside of the crime scene were viewed as not only indifference to Meredith's
murder but possible arousal what the tabloids didn't mention was that Amanda and her housemates had
been forbidden from returning to their Cottage while it was an active crime scene and therefore had no access to
their clothes a wasn't shopping for sexy lingerie but the Bare Basics nor had she been doing cartwheels
and the splits at the police station as one officer reported but yoga according to Amanda she had got up to stretch
after sitting hunched over for so long and another officer had asked her to show him how flexible she
was adding further fuel to the fire diary entries Amanda made whilst in prison were leaked to the
Press tblo reported that Amanda kept the details of her many lovers and expressed
her fears that she might have contracted HIV her entire stay in Italy was portrayed as one drug fueled sexual
encounter after the other bolstered by photos that surfaced of her partying back home in
America journalist Nick paer said that as these photos and tidbits emerged members of the press were
thinking wow great she's a complete turned out a nut job you just couldn't ask for any better material to
illustrate a story with I don't think I've ever had so many front pages just story after
Story for Meredith K's family the focus on Amanda Knox added insult to injury as
she became the center point of the tragedy in which Meredith was often pushed to the
sidelines Meredith's Father John resented the foxy noxy nickname saying it would quote
come to define the case and shift its focus entirely from Meredith and the other
suspects 4 weeks after the crime more than 500 people crammed into the cuden Parish Church on the grounds of
Meredith's former high school for a memorial service a floral tribute had been made
to spell out her nickname MZ Meredith soer brother Lyle light-heartedly told the congregation
that Meredith would prob be looking down at the flowers happy that her family had
used her nickname as it was cheaper than spelling her name in full Lyle reminded those gathered that
it was important to remember Meredith for her endearing qualities such as her quick wit and fantastic sense of
humor 46 days after Meredith K's murder on Tuesday December 18 investigators were doing another sweep for evidence in
Meredith's bedroom when they lifted up a rug about 5 ft from where her body had been
found underneath was the broken clasp from Meredith's bra the clasp was tested and revealed
some faint traces of male DNA although weak there was no denying who it came from Raphael
solito given that it had already been determined that the bra had been cut from Meredith's body postmortem this
placed Rafa in Meredith's bedroom with her dead body Raphael's lawyers acknowledged that
this finding wouldn't help Raphael's case but they argued that it wasn't definitive the DNA Trace was weak and it
could have gotten there prior to the murder investigators stuck to their initial theory that this was a sexually
motivated crime involving all three suspects they just couldn't be sure whether it was spontaneous or
premeditated or how exactly it spiraled so far out of control they considered multiple
scenarios before concluding it was most likely that Amanda and raphaela had met Rudy at the basketball courts in Piaza
ganana all three of them were under the influence of cannabis and possibly alcohol and decided to go back to seven
via DEA pergola Rudy had already admitted to friends that he wanted to sleep with
Amanda so he might have seen this as his opportunity either that or she might have promised
to help him hook up with Meredith Amanda and Raphael both turned off their mobile phones and the trio
then returned to the cottage sometime after 9:00 p.m. once inside Meredith confronted
Amanda about her missing rent money and her discomfort over Amanda bringing yet another strange man into their home an
argument broke out between them igniting a rage that Amanda had been harboring towards merid for some
time tired of her serious and prudish nature Amanda saw this as her opportunity to teach Meredith a
lesson while Rudy excused himself to use the toilet Amanda and raphaela confronted Meredith in her
bedroom their argument escalated until Amanda finally reached out and smacked Meredith's head into the wall rafela
eager to impress Amanda joined in on the physical altercation Rudy heard the commotion and
ran into the bedroom feeling a level of competitiveness against raphaela and wanting to earn Amanda's approval he too
joined in as the violence escalated things took a sexual turn when Meredith refused to
cooperate Amanda and raphaela each threatened her with a knife while Rudy started to sexually assault her the more
Meredith struggled the harder the knives were held to her throat until she began
screaming and one of the trio panicked and administered the fatal wound Amanda and raphaela then fled with
Meredith's mobile phones and ditch to them so she wouldn't be able to call for help Rudy momentarily tried to stop the
bleeding before fleeing himself and then going out clubbing in a bid to create an
alibi Amanda and Raphael returned to the cottage to clean up the scene and Stage
the Breakin in late January 2008 a new witness came forward with the startling Revelation 33-year-old huran kokani told
the police that on the night of Thursday November 1 2007 he was driving down via
Dela pergola when he noticed something sitting in the middle of the road it looked like a black garbage bag
huran beeped his horn but the object didn't move he got out only to realiz realiz it wasn't a bag at all but a man
and woman both of them appeared to be quote off their heads the woman took a knife out of a
bag and approached her Kuran with it threatening for him to leave a young black man then
emerged the woman told the two men to hide their faces but it was too late huran recognized the black man from
around town as Rudy guer he kept a driving and it was only when he saw the news about Meredith's
murder that he recognized the man and woman to be Raphael solito and Amanda noox huran claimed he'd been too scared
to come forward until he realized how significant this sighting could be huran kokani wasn't the only one
who'd been withholding important information in early February 2008 homeless man Antonio Kuro came forward
to report that at around 9:30 on the night of November 1 he was in Piaza Gana when he saw Amanda noox and Raphael
solito hanging out and chatting animatedly Antonio knew the area and its people well as he spent his days
loitering around and sleeping rough in a nearby park Antonio claimed he saw them in the
Square again at around midnight just before he left to sleep in the park for the
night this was a major breakthrough for investigators combined with huran kokam mani's reported sighting of the three
suspects it not only placed Amanda and Raphael near the crime scene but also debunked the couple Alibi that they
hadn't left Raphael's apartment the entire evening a local shop owner also came forward claiming that an exhausted
looking Amanda had come into his shop at 7:45 on the morning that Meredith's body
was discovered at a time time she claimed to have been asleep prosecutors now had DNA evidence
and witness statements linking all three suspects to the crime scene in early July 2008 after 8 months of gathering
evidence they finally felt they had enough to formally press charges Amanda Knox Raphael solito and
Rudy guer were each charged with Meredith K's sexual assault and murder back in the United States the Knox
family hired a public relations advisor and began their own media campaign in Amanda's
defense they alleged that Amanda had been treated unfairly by the Italian police who had interrogated her
unlawfully and used physical abuse to coerce untrue statements and a bid to solve the case quickly in total she had
been interrogated for a total of 53 hours over 5 days in a language she only had a beginner's grasp
of for the investigators Amanda's Behavior might have been typical but it had also been completely misinterpreted
and then regurgitated as fact comments made by one of the lead investigators also raised some eyebrows
he said we were able to establish guilt by closely observing the suspect's psychological and behavioral reaction
during the interrogation we don't need to rely on other kinds of Investigation the diary entries Amanda
had written about Contracting HIV had only been made after prison guards told her that her blood tests had come back
positive for the disease in response Amanda had written a list of all the men she'd ever slept with seven in total
trying to determine who she could have contracted the disease from a second blood test confirmed she
didn't have HIV at all the HIV threat was seen as a ploy to get Amanda to provide information about
her sexual history so that prosecutors could leak it to the Press thus supporting their portrayal of her as
morally loose prominent names in legal circles started jumping on the bandwagon in
support of Amanda vocalizing their opinion that Amanda and raphaela were simply scapegoats in a case where all
fingers pointed to Rudy many believed the prosecutors were only continuing to go after the couple because they'd
publicly displayed them as killers for so long that it would look bad to admit that officials had it
wrong as private investigator Paul calino told CBS News we know one thing for certain in
life that when you're dead the last guy who was with you is usually responsible for you being dead and the last person
that was with Meredith from the horse's mouth is Rudy the Italian justice system offers
defendants the option of what's known as a FastTrack trial this essentially means
that instead of going to trial before a jury the defendant can have their case decided by a judge alone during the
pre-trial proceedings given that this saves a considerable amount of time and money
the incentive for the defendant is that if they're found guilty they're typically given a shorter
sentence given the overwhelming evidence against Rudy guer including his own admissions that he was present at the
time Meredith ker was killed it came as no surprise when he chose to have a FastTrack
trial while the judge decided whether or not there was enough evidence to put Amanda and Raphael a to trial he'd also
be coming to a verdict regarding Rudy's involvement the pre-trial hearing commenced in September 2008 l ERS for
Amanda and raphaela argued that Rudy had acted in a lone wolf killing it should have been a fairly open and shock case
he'd likely broken in intending to rob the place thinking it was empty but came across Meredith
instead he sexually assaulted and killed her before fleeing with her rent money credit card and
phones knowing what he'd done he fled the country to evade detection Amanda and Raphael on the
other hand had no association with Rudy and were nowhere near the cottage on the
night of the murder any DNA evidence suggesting otherwise had likely been contaminated was inconclusive or
incorrectly tested the prosecution disputed this stating all three left traces of their
presence at the scene of the crime and were involved we are convinced of that after 12 hours of deliberation the
the judge concluded that several perpetrators had agreed to satisfy their sexual desires by launching some kind of
sex game on Meredith cure it quickly escalated in violence to the point that the only way to silence
Meredith's scream was to Slit her throat while the judge couldn't determine which of the attackers
administered the fatal wound the fact that none of them had stopped the attack or called for help meant they shared
equal responsibility the judge declared Rudy guer guilty and sentenced him to 30 years prison as for
Amanda nox and Raphael solito they would proceed to a full trial Meredith's family had mixed
feelings about the decision her Father John said we were not elated but we were at least satisfied that Justice was
progressing in the right direction it was difficult to say what you feel at a time like this it was
certainly not relief because I knew that this was in effect only the beginning The Joint trial of Amanda noox
and Raphael solito was one of the most highly anticipated events in Peru's recent history with several metor
Outlets touting it as the trial of the century it was expected that the forensic evidence would be sharply
contested while the prosecution would have to convince the jury of their circumstantial
evidence with the case continuing to make international news headlines and attract heated debate everyone had an
opinion as to whether or not the two defendants were guilty but they'd have to wait a while
for a verdict Amanda and Raphael's trial was scheduled to take place twice a week
3 weeks a month over several months Meredith K's family couldn't afford to stay in peruja for that long
so they made the decision to only attend when it came time to testify the proceedings were also held
entirely in Italian a language they didn't speak as the trial got underway the prosecution remained loyal to their
ongoing theory about sexual misadventure the defense argued that the prosecution
had put forward several different theories over the course of the investigation but not a single one had
produced evidence of any motive for murder Amanda and Meredith might not have been close friends but there was no
deep hatred or animosity between them Amanda might have been seeking adventure and Casual romance during her time in
Italy but she was far from the sex crazed party animal that the media made her out to
be similarly Raphael solito didn't have a perverse obsession with the occult and
neither of them had a history of violence they were simply two young people whose Behavior had been
misinterpreted by a prosecution team who refused to back down after vocalizing their Theory so early on in the
investigation no matter how hard the prosecutors tried to put the puzzle together the defense believed the pieces
simply didn't fit over the course of them investigation not a single piece of evidence had been found to prove their
clients ever had any interaction with Rudy guer beyond the one time Amanda had met him downstairs of the
cottage phone records didn't link them in any way and there was nothing to suggest Raphael and Rudy had ever
crossed paths at all as far as the prosecution was concerned there was physical evidence
that indisputably placed amander and Raphael at the crime scene such as their bare Footprints which had been tied to
the crime scene via luminol testing but as the defense pointed out luminol doesn't just react to blood it
can also react to certain acidic substances including some household cleaners certain types of soil rust and
even fruit juice in what has been described as a serious procedural oversight the
footprints were never tested to conclusively confirm that they had been made using Meredith K's blood even if
they had the fact that Amanda's DNA was also present didn't mean both samples were deposited at the same
time the two women had also shared a house for 6 weeks walking barefoot on the same floors it was only natural that
their DNA would be mingled over time prosecutors had determined that the bloody bare footprint on the bath mat
was a probable match to Raphael solito and that it was too small to have been made by Rudy
when experts for the defense inspected the print they found that it had been incorrectly measured and that it was
indeed compatible with the shape and size of Rudy's foot Raphael also had a distinctive
feature on his second toe known as a hammer toe which didn't match the prince the knife found in Raphael's
apartment which had been labeled the double DNA knife was put forward by the prosecution as being the murder weapon
yet this knife didn't fit the bloody outline of the knife that had been found on Meredith's bed sheets nor did it
match the size of either wound inflicted to Meredith's throat Meredith's autopsy
had determined that the murder weapon had been forcefully thrust into her neck as deep as the blade would
go according to experts for the defense the knife from Raphael as apartment would have caused a much deeper wound if
this had been the case prosecutors beli believed the knife had been cleaned which explained why
none of Meredith's blood was found on it this would also explain the smell of bleach in Raphael's
apartment but no traces of bleach were found on the knife nor did aluminol testing reveal any evidence of a cleanup
in Raphael's apartment as the defense pointed out if the knife had been cleaned so
extensively how had Meredith's DNA profile been retained not only didn't the so-called
double DNA knife match evidence found at the crime scene one expert testified that the traces of Meredith's DNA on the
blade was so low that they hadn't even been detected during initial testing the sample had to be Amplified
to a degree much higher than usual just to get the positive result given that the tests were done in
a lab where large amounts of Meredith's DNA was present it was suggested that the DNA could have been accidentally
transferred not only had this knife seemingly been picked at random from a drawer
containing many others control testing was never conducted on any other pieces of Cutlery from the drawer to compare
for background contamination furthermore the D samples attributed to Rudy gader were consistent
with him being the perpetrator of a violent crime yet the samples attributed to Amanda and Raphael were so minor and
none were present in the murder room itself except for the almost indecipherable trace on Meredith's bra
clasp Meredith's room was only small if all three suspects had participated in the frenzied crime why was Rudy's DNA
all over the place but Amanda and Raphael was not prosecutors posited that Amanda and
Raphael had cleaned up afterwards to the defense it seemed ludicrous to think that they could have cleaned away their
own prints and DNA while miraculously leaving only Rudy guz behind the scarce DNA samples linking
Amanda and Raphael to the crime could be explained by one thing contamination their strongest argument
in favor of contamination was the bra clas but that supposedly had Raphael's DNA on it when Meredith's body was first
discovered the clasp was found underneath her pillow but accidentally wasn't bagged as evidence instead it was
unknowingly moved around the room for 46 days before it was rediscovered during that time dust had
gathered and many people had trampled around the house moving from room to room Meredith's mattress had even been
dragged around in the search for her missing belongings Rudy gu's DNA was found on
the fabric of the strap while Raphael was only found on the small metal clasp one of Raphael lawyers
asked how can you touch the hook without touching the cloth the defense suggested that
Raphael's DNA could have got honored in a number of ways Not only was he a regular visitor at the house he'd also
admitted to trying to break Meredith's door down before her body was discovered it was possible that his DNA had been
trans erred from the door to the room as more people came and went one expert testified that with each
visit by investigators to the crime scene the possibility of contamination increased another said that incorrect
procedures had been followed and weren't up to International standards the prosecution strongly
disputed this with several experts testifying that strict protocols were followed and contamination would have
been impossible the most important testimony came from Patricia stefanoni the lead
forensic expert who oversaw the collection and testing of DNA evidence in Meredith K's
case she testified that everything had been done to the highest possible standard and there was no chance that
any of the samples had been mixed according to stefanoni there hadn't been a single instance of
contamination in her lab in at least 7 years the defense team argued they hadn't been given enough documentation
to fully interpret the DNA data they requested specific information about certain procedures such as how often the
forensic team had changed their protective gear and exactly how the samples had been
collected these requests were denied but the judge did agree to a review the task was assigned to the head
of the scientific police the person who worked above Patria stefanoni they confirmed that everything
had been handled to the highest standard the defense requested an independent review of the DNA evidence
and forensic findings the lead prosecutor rejected the request arguing there is no need for a review as
the evidence was gathered in a very professional Way by qualified persons the judge
agreed in addition to the DNA evidence some questions were raised about the validity
of key witness testimony her Kuran kokani the only person who claimed to have seen Amanda
rafhaela and Rudy outside the crime scene on the night of the murder was put on the
stand over time his version of events had differed slightly he also testified that it had been raining on the night he
drove by it hadn't been raining on the night that Meredith was killed but it had been the night
before when pressed huran couldn't be certain whether this alleged incident had occurred on October 31 or November 1
2007 the defense argued that he was an unreliable witness and therefore there was nothing to prove Raphael solito had
ever come into contact with Rudy guer as one lawyer commented the only link between them is the charge sheet
Nara kazali the elderly woman who claimed to hear screams coming from via DEA pergola was also put on the
stand her account of hearing the screams around 11: and 11:30 on the night of Meredith's murder had been the key to
prosecutors believing this to be Meredith's time of death however the defense pointed out
that Nara never actually looked at a clock she had merely guessed the time based on her own personal
habits Rudy guer himself had timed the attack as happening at around 9:30 the activity on Meredith's phone at
around 1: p.m. didn't prove she was still alive at this time this activity could be explained by
someone unfamiliar with the phone trying to either use it or turn it off after all why would Meredith call her own voic
mail only to hang up before it connected and why would she call her British bank
so late at night but forget to add the foreign prefix the bank was the first number
listed in her phone it was therefore entirely possible that someone unfamiliar with the device had called it
by accident the prosecution's answer for this was that Meredith was likely just relaxing on her bed playing
absentmindedly with her phone but as the defense pointed out Meredith had been exhausted from her night out the
previous evening why would she just lie around fully clothed if she was preparing to go to
sleep they deemed it much more likely that Meredith had been killed around 9:30 at a time that the prosecution's
witness homeless man Antonio Kuro had put Amanda and Raphael at Piaza Gana the screams heard by Nara kazali
either didn't happen between 11: and 11:30 or didn't come from the cottage at all but one of the many other young
people or drug addicts who frequented the busy area around via Dela pergola the defense argued that it
didn't matter if there was no evidence to conclusively prove that Amanda and raphaela had spent the entire night at
raphaela's apartment because there was no evidence to prove otherwise their hazy memories and
conflicting time stamps were not proof of guilt as had been the case throughout the
entire investigation all lies were on Amanda Knox for the duration of the trial the Press reported on her every
move including the outfit she wore and the way she styled her hair when she first entered the courtroom the Press
reported that she was beaming with a reporter for the Daily Mail describing her as making an entrance like a
Hollywood Diva saching along the red carpet Amanda later explained that she'd only smiled because she saw her aunt and
uncle in the room and she was so grateful to see familiar faces Amanda caused a stir on
Valentine's Day when she wore an oversized t-shirt printed with the words all you need is
love many members of the media interpreted this to be a sign of disrespect and the fact that Amanda
wasn't taking the trial seriously some even believed it was a secret message to Raphael but according to Amanda it was
simply a line from her favorite Beetles song and she thought it would be appropriate given the
holiday in summing up the prosecutors called Amanda Knox an aggressive narcissist who manipulated others and
had a little empathy they claimed she dominated relationships and strongly disliked people who didn't share her
opinions as for Raphael solito the prosecution concluded he was cold emotionally unattached and dependent on
others they told the jury that this was a sexually violent murder carried out for futile motives and quote Meredith
will never go home again to hug her loved ones she was killed in a horrifying way and now her relatives can
only go to the cemetery and stand quietly in front of her grave you must give the accused what
they deserve a life sentence the defense reminded the jury that they were sealing the fate of two young
people when there was absolutely no motive and no reliable DNA evidence to connect either of them to Meredith's
murder they urged the prosecution to explain to them how the bra clasp came to be moved and if they couldn't do that
then they should quote have the courage to throw it away after 11 months of test testimony
the jury was finally left to deliberate at midnight on Saturday December 5th 2009 they reached their
verdict Court resumed despite the late hour with hordes of reporters and curious members of the public gathering
on the streets outside the verdict for both Amanda Knox and Raphael solito was the same for the
murder and sexual assault of Meredith ker both were declared guil guilty Raphael was sentenced to 25 years
in prison while Amanda was sentenced to 26 one additional year for also being found guilty of slandering her former
boss Patrick lumba the man she'd wrongly accused the verdict triggered mixed reactions Amanda collapsed forward and
began to sob her parents looking on in disbelief the blood drained from Raphael's face while his stepmother
collapsed some members of the press began to cry the cches weren't sure how to feel
at a press conference held immediately after the verdict Meredith's older brother Lyle told
reporters ultimately we are pleased with the decision and that we got a decision
but at the end of the day it is not a time for Triumph or celebration we are satisfied but we are
gathered here because our sister was murdered and brutally taken away from us arene said we are the ones who have
been given a life sentence we have to live with what's happened for the rest of our lives people say that time
heals but it doesn't news of the convictions sparked anger in the United States with many
believing that Amanda and raphaela had been victims of a miscarriage of Justice the senator of Amanda's home
state Maria kwell told the Press I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian
justice system and whether an anti-americanism tainted the trial the prosecution did not present enough
evidence for an impartial jury to conclude Beyond reasonable doubt that Ms Knox was
guilty Donald Trump called for Americans to boycott Italy one Washington Superior
Court judge told the Seattle Post intelligence that Amanda's conviction quote borders on the
Diabolical to me it just proves that they didn't care whether she is guilty or innocent they just believe that
Amanda needs to be convicted I haven't been too sure of too much in my life but I'm totally
convinced that she is innocent another Washington lawyer accused the Italian prosecutors of
turning a straightforward murder into quote a fable with no precedent in the annals of
crime she called the evidence against amander and raphaela so ambiguous and compromised that it should have no place
in a fair [Music] trial in the Italian legal system those convicted of murder are automatically
given two rights of appeal with each appeal hearing similar to a retrial two weeks after Amanda and
Raphael's guilty verdicts Rudy gu's first appeal was held this time he directly identified
Raphael solito was being the man who killed Meredith he also claimed that when Raphael fled the scene another
person was standing outside he didn't see them but he heard their voice and recognized it as being Amanda
Knox both of Rudy gu's appeals were unsuccessful but his decision to undergo a far track trial was
rewarded his 30-year sentence was reduced to just 16 years almost half of his original sentence and 10 years less
than his co- accused Amanda and Raphael's first appeal began in late November 2010 by
which point they'd already spent 3 years behind bars addressing the cord in Italian
Amanda's voice shook as she said I am innocent ra f is innocent we did not kill Meredith I ask you to recognize that an
enormous mistake was made and that no justice is rendered to Meredith or her loved ones by taking our lives away from
us I am not the person the accusers say I am they say I am dangerous devilish jealous uncaring and
violent their theories depend on this but I was never that girl she offered an apology to Meredith's
family saying I can never know how you feel but I have little sisters and the idea of their suffering and loss
terrifies me Raphael told the court he did never hurt anyone in his life removing a
bracelet from around his wrist he said my bracelet says free Amanda and Raphael I think the time has come to
take it off their defense teams submitted another request for an independent review to be
done of the DNA evidence specifically the double DNA knife and Meredith's bra clasp this time their request was
granted two independent forensic experts were tasked with reviewing the footage of the crime
scene they couldn't believe what they were seeing various people came and went without wearing protective clothing or
changing their booties while key evidence including the bra clasp was handled without investigators changing
their gloves one expert described it as total chaos disorganization in every respect the independent experts
concluded that the bra clasp had been incorrectly collected handled and transported presenting numerous
opportunities for contamination in regards to the double DNA knife they disc discovered that when
this was collected from Raphael's apartment it was placed into an envelope that had been used to store new
gloves it was then handled by an officer who had been in Meredith's bedroom earlier that day and in a lab that
contained more than 50 items of merediths another officer later noticed the envelope wasn't properly sealed and
closed it up with tape while another then transferred the knife to a non-sterile
box there was no doubt that the DNA on the handle belonged to Amanda noox but the
sample attributed to Meredith was deemed to be so scarce that one expert concluded the likelihood of
contamination being so high that it should be rendered inconclusive the independent experts
found that anti-contamination procedures weren't documented basic errors had been
made and international DNA protocols ignored they rendered the evidence on both both the bra clasp and double DNA
knife as unreliable given the high likelihood of contamination key witness homeless man
Antonio Kuro was once again put on the stand having since been incarcerated for an unrelated
incident asked if he saw Amanda and Raphael at Piaza gamman Antonio responded yeah it was Halloween when I
saw them I know this because I saw the kids getting on the Disco buses all dressed up in costumes that's how I also
know what time it was in peruja shuttle buses were used to transport partygoers to different
nightclubs around town but barely any were running on the night Meredith was killed with Antonio now saying this
sighting occurred the night before Meredith was killed on Halloween he'd essentially cast doubt on the only
sighting that disproved Amanda and Raphael as alibi the prosecution suggested that Antonio
might be getting confused with any number of tourist buses or public transport operating on Thursday November
1 they also said this discrepancy was irrelevant given that Amanda had been at work on hallow KN and therefore couldn't
have been in Piaza Gano but when Antonio also admitted to being a heroin addict who was high at
the time of the sighting the judge ordered him out of the courtroom saying take him away I'm
done it was almost a year before the appeal verdict was announced on the evening of Monday October 3 2011 a crowd
of 4,000 people gathered outside the courthouse the air thick with anticipation inside judge cladio Helman
declared that the key evidence against Amanda Knox and Raphael solito was unreliable
and the first trial did not establish the appropriate standard of proof Helman agreed with the independent findings
that the DNA on the knife and Meredith's bra clasp was invalid thus there was nothing to conclusively place Amanda and
rapael at the crime scene he discredited witness testimony from Antonio Kuro and said that any
discrepancies in Amanda and Raphael's accounts of how they spent the night of Thursday November 1
2007 didn't mean that they'd provided false aliis in helman's view the evidence pointed to just one person being
responsible and that person was Rudy guer he concluded that the break-in hadn't been staged at all but was
genuine both Amanda and raphaela were declared not guilty of Merith K's murder and cleared of all related
charges Amanda sland conviction against Patrick lumba was upheld with her sentence increased from 1 year to three
with this time already served the judge ordered the pair's immediate release from
prison Amanda immediately began to sob she managed to hug her lawyers and sister before being whisked from the
courtroom Raphael gave a slight smile before his lawyer swept him into a warm embrace while the C's resp Ed the
decision they couldn't understand how something that had been so certain 2 years prior could suddenly be so
emphatically overturned to them it felt like they were straight back to square one England's Prime Minister David
Cameron commented we should be thinking of the family of Meredith ker those parents had
an explanation for what happened to their wonderful daughter and that explanation is there no
more Patrick lumba the man Amanda falsely accused had struggled to find work in the wake of the allegation and
had since relocated to Poland he told reporters the only reason Amanda was acquitted was because she was American
and Rich commenting what Amanda did I don't know but I think she knows why Meredith
died newspapers accused judge Helman of cracking under pressure from the United States in response Helman admitted it
was still possible that Amanda and Raphael were guilty but the evidence simply didn't exist to prove it he told
the corer deera newspaper no one has been able to say exactly what happened the truth will
probably remain hidden for the people of peruja the news came as a great relief for 4 years their
city had been plunged into Global headlines sullying its reput reputation as a Charming Town filled with art
history and chocolate and instead portraying it as a notorious Party Town RI with sex and
drugs this reputation as a dangerous place impacted the student population the mayor of peruja said he
didn't care what the outcome was he just wanted it to be over commenting all of us have felt the hit
from this meteor attack against us 30 hours after her acquittal Amanda Knox returned to the United States at the
Seattle Tacoma International Airport a throng of reporters gathered to capture her
arrival a teor Manda told them she was feeling overwhelmed and unable to grasp the reality of the situation
commenting thank you to everyone who's believed in me who's defended me who supported my family my family's the the
most important thing to me so I just want to go and be with them Amanda's lawyer said that the KNX
family had endured a grueling 4-year nightmarish Marathon but above all they wanted the public to remember Meredith
and keep the CER family in their prayers Meredith's Father John said that while his family would never want to see
innocent people imprisoned quote we are left thinking the world cared about Justice for Amanda Knox and Raphael
solito but what about Justice for poor Meredith she was the kindest and most caring person you could imagine so why
was her life taken from her so cruy what was the reason will we ever know despite the findings of the appeal
Corp the controversy regarding the forensic findings continued the prosecution team believed
the entire process had been done under unacceptable media pressure and appealed the acquittals to Italy's highest
Criminal Court the case was reviewed by the Supreme Court of cation where it was
concluded that judge Helman had Ed in his acquittal by not ordering any new DNA testing to be conducted on the
disputed evidence the court also found that he'd failed to give waight to any of the
circumstantial evidence against amander and Raphael and that too many questions remained
unanswered in March 2013 the court of cassation set aside the acquittals and ordered another
retrial this went ahead in September the same year to much less Fanfare and media
attention than the previous proceedings especially given that amander and raphaela weren't required to
attend after several months of reexamining the available evidence and testimony in January 2014 presiding
judge alesandro nanini reinstated the convictions once again both Amanda noox and Raphael solito were declared guilty
of Meredith K's murder this didn't mean the two were automatically sent back to prison once
again the verdict needed to be confirmed by the court of cassation before it became
absolute Amanda was free to remain in the United States for the time being while raphaela had his passport taken
away to prevent him from leaving the country if the high court confirmed their convictions Italy could request
that Amanda be extradited and the two could be ordered to complete the remaining 25 years of their
sentences defense teams for both Amanda and Raphael argued that judge nini's findings were filled with clamorous
mistakes in an opinion piece for for the guardian British journalist Andrew Gumble wrote to read the new conviction
report in detail is to enter a kind of alternate reality where concrete facts appear ignored and Alternate facts are
seemingly plucked from the air K's murder is reduced to a par game and all roads lead to the inevitable if not also
forone conclusion that nox and solito are guilty by this point Meredith murder case had received three trials and two
high court hearings over the course of 7 years nini's verdict was sent to the Supreme Court of cation in Rome where a
panel had several options they could overturn the convictions for a second time in which case they could either
dismiss the case entirely or have the errors in judge nini's findings fixed alternatively given that Italy has no
Double Jeopardy rules they could order yet another another trial in March 2015 a supreme court
panel of Five deliberated for 10 hours before concluding that there was insufficient evidence to convict either
Amanda Knox or Raphael solito they ruled that the case against the two defendants had no foundation and
that the entire process had been marred by glaring errors and investigative Amnesia the court blamed flaws in the
investigation and the overwhelming media attention for creating a frantic search for
suspects it concluded that there were no biological traces linking Amanda or Raphael to the crime and that sloppy
police work and contaminated evidence made it impossible to do an unbiased review of The
Evidence the case was thrown out with the court definitively ruling that the pair be fully
exonerated Amanda was at home with her family when the news came through a shriek of excitement rang throughout
their home as Amanda immediately jumped on the phone with Raphael and congratulated him on their Mutual
Freedom speaking to reporters outside her home Amanda said right now I'm still absorbing what
all this means and what comes to mind is my gratitude for the life that's been given to
me Amanda knox's claims of police mistreatment went before the Europe Court of human rights in
France the Court ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to support her claims of
degrading police Behavior but agreed that her defense rights had been violated given she wasn't provided with
adequate legal representation or a professional interpreter during her initial interrogations the court declared that
these failures effectively derailed the fairness of the entire proceedings and ordered the Italian government to pay
amander 18 ,400 in Damages the equivalent of around $21,000 Amanda used this ruling to
challenge her slander conviction against Patrick lumba in an Instagram post she explained we are both victims of the
violation of my human rights during my interrogation without which I was helpless against the coercive pressure
of the police the outcome of that interrogation derailed the invest tigation into
Meredith K's murder and led to the wrongful imprisonment of three innocent people Patrick lumba suffered 10 days of
wrongful imprisonment and raphaela and I nearly 4 years in October 2023 the court of
cation in Rome accepted Amanda's appeal and ordered a new trial for the slander conviction as of February 2024 a trial
date has yet to be set Amanda shared the news on social media writing I am no longer a convicted
person and I will fight with my lawyers to prove my innocence once and for all 4 years after her release from
prison the paparazzi followed Amanda as she went about her life in the United States both her and Raphael have written
books about their experiences with Amanda's Memoir reportedly earning her around4 million us
do some have accused her of cashing in on the tragedy while her stepfather told the press that a majority of this money
went to paying off the exuberant legal fees and multiple mortgages her family had to take out to pay for her
defense in a letter to Guardian journalist Simon hattenstone Amanda discussed how the media helped shape her
into a villain by using decontextualized images She Wrote some people have made claims that I am
histrionic or autistic because it might explain strange Behavior I think people have exaggerated
how Strangely I reacted I was not concerned with what people were thinking I wasn't remotely concerned with how
people were looking at me now I take it more into consideration because I've had
people dissect everything I do in a way that makes me pause as for the kisses she and Raphael
shared out inside the crime scene Amanda told Simon that was a single 5sec moment
taken from hours of footage the media made it sound like I had no feeling whatsoever for what was
happening in the house she said I was actually sitting there devastated and traumatized and
shocked Amanda explained that any courtroom photos that captured her smiling were misconstrued into something
sinister when those smiles were only ever directed at her her family she said I didn't want them to see me scared I
wanted them to know I'm okay because they can't do anything about it they don't speak Italian they're just sitting
there worrying about me looking at the back of my head that was turned into Amanda makes the cat walk across the
courtroom because she loves all the attention I never made eye contact with those journalists they were just a bunch
of lenses yelling out or making comments about what I looked like Amanda is now a journalist
podcaster and activist for the wrongly accused who lives in Seattle with her husband and two young
children she has described herself as flipping between wanting to be invisible and wanting to clear her name in a
controversial move she returned to Italy in 2019 to speak at the country's criminal justice Festival where she
addressed the role the media played in the case against her through tears Amanda said on the world scene I wasn't
a defendant innocent until proven guilty I was a clever psychopath dirty and drug
addicted [ __ ] guilty until proven innocent it was a false and unfounded history that lit up people's imagination
because it fed fears and Fantasies despite this she continues to acknowledge that the media can also be a
force for good and if used those who prose uted her with empathy Amanda explained the real Justice happens when
we see the other people with compassion when we judge with moderation and when we come back to each other after the
pain with the courage of an open heart many believe the case only ever attracted the level of attention it did
because both Meredith and Amanda were considered to be conventionally attractive women who sat on different
sides of the good versus evil scale as journalist Jessica Bennett wrote In The New York Times M Knox became a kind
of vessel onto which society could project its fears and judgments as well as its pornographic
fantasies Ms Knox was perceived as an unsophisticated American loud and flamboyant ignorant of Italian culture
an exhibitionist and slob who brought strange men to the house she was a sexual deviant a Karen who had accused
an innocent black man of the crime despite Amanda and Raphael's official exonerations the case continues
to attract speculation and public interest with some still believing that the pair are
guilty journalist barie lanau wrote in her book angel face nothing in this case ever made
sense and no one it seems played by the rules Amanda Knox will always be remembered as someone who hung in the
balance between Sinner and Saint good and evil and Meredith's murder will always be a mystery that was blurred by
the headlines and Lost in [Music] Translation one CBS reporter noted that the irony of this case is that the
Italian authorities actually did a great job in that within 3 weeks of Meredith's
murder Rudy Gua was identified and Court it was when they refused to drop amander
and Raphael as suspects that the problems began private investigator Bob Graham agreed
responding the prosecution dug a hole so deep that they couldn't get out of it and pride vanity whatever it was ensured
they just kept digging Rudy guer was released from prison in November 2021 having served 13
years of his 16year sentence for Meredith K's brutal sexual assault and murder his lawyer told the press that Rudy had
been adequately re-educated while a lawyer for the ker family said the early release would renew the family's
unspeakable suffering Amanda voiced her opinion on Twitter writing guer holds a tremendous
power to heal others harmed by his actions he has the power to tell the truth to take responsibility to stop
blaming me for the rape and murder of Meredith ker which a wealth of evidence shows he committed
aan Rudy was free for just over 2 years when in December 2023 his 23-year-old girlfriend accused him of personal
injury ill treatment and violence he was charged with domestic assault given a restraining order and fitted with an
electronic tag Rafael solito who now works as a software engineer in Milan and has never
been compensated for his wrongful conviction commented to the Press I don't follow
gu's life but in light of what has happened it seems like he hasn't changed very
much in the Years following Amanda and Raphael's exonerations Meredith K's family mostly remained
silent throughout the lengthy legal proceedings they continued to feel that Meredith was being written out of her
own story testifying at the first trial Meredith's mother arene described her daughter's
death as quote unbelievable unreal in many ways it still is I still look for her it's not just her death but it is
the nature of it the brutality of it the violence of it and the great sorrow which brought
everyone it is such a shock to send your child to school and for them not to come
back we will never never get over it their frustrations over the medeor attention given to Amanda increased upon
finding out that a movie was being made about the case titled Amanda Knox murder
on trial in Italy at the time arene told the Press I don't understand why it was
called Amanda Knox when my daughter was the victim the CCH is focused on keeping
Meredith's memory alive no matter what leaving her room exactly as she'd left it her table stacked with books and
makeup every year they gathered on her birthday to raise a glass in Meredith's honor and share some of their favorite
memories prior to Meredith's death her Father John had bought the box set of friends so that the two could watch it
together on Meredith's weekly visit he watched it gather dust on the Shelf a constant reminder of their happy
evenings together as John explained to the Daily male it was easier for him to pretend that
Meredith had just gone away for a while he liked to imagine that quote someday soon she will ring me her voice bubbling
with laughter and enthusiasm to tell me about her latest [Music] Adventure in January 2020 John was found
lying on the road near his home with two fractured legs a broken arm and a head injury after a suspected hidden run he
died from his injuries shortly after 4 months later Meredith's mother arene passed away from natural
causes the couple's three surviving Children released a statement saying that losing both of their parents so
quickly brought its own tragedy but quote we can take some solace in knowing that they are now United with Meredith
and no longer have to live with the grief which consumed them a poem Stephanie had written for her
sister held more power than ever before delivered at Meredith's funeral it read remember you are never alone I am
always with you when you roam So Close Your Eyes I'm with you still I haven't left you I never
[Music] will [Music]

Case 270: Meredith Kercher

*** Content warning: Sexual assault ***

For 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, spending a year studying in Italy was a dream come true. But within months of arriving in the medieval town of Perugia, that dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

What unravelled next was one of the most polarising murder cases in Italy’s history, with one young American woman at the centre of it all – 22-year-old Amanda Knox.

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn

SOCIAL LINKS

Website https://www.casefilepodcast.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/casefile Twitter https://twitter.com/case_file Instagram https://www.instagram.com/casefilepodcast Patreon https://www.patreon.com/casefile Casefile Presents https://casefilepresents.com

RESOURCES

For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-270-meredith-kercher

Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Meredith Kercher and the trials of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito amidst intense media scrutiny.

Key points

Meredith's Italian Dream. From a young age, Meredith was enchanted by Italy, leading her to study there.
A Distressing Discovery. The discovery of Meredith's body reveals the tragic outcome of her time in Italy.
Amanda's Odd Behavior. Amanda Knox's behavior after the murder raised suspicions among investigators and friends.
The Agonizing Scream. A neighbor reported hearing a woman's agonizing scream on the night of the murder.
Inconsistencies in Alibis. Investigators uncover discrepancies in Amanda and Raphael's stories, raising suspicions.
Meredith's Family's Heartbreak. Meredith's family faces the devastating reality of her murder and the ensuing investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I know that Italy is going to be a part of my life forever.

Meredith's determination about her future in Italy.

1:50WatchFeb 3, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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