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iquitos
 Posted:
Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:41 am |
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press clips
Times as of 21 Nov.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2913150.ece?token=null&offset=12
how do i do a sticky?
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beady eyed rat
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 14107
Location: nowhere man
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| gwen
Posted:
Fri Nov 23, 2007 2:27 am |
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Roommate of victim says she can't recall night of slaying
PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox has told police she's not sure what happened the night her roommate was killed in the Italian villa they shared -- but that she did not kill Meredith Kercher.
Knox, who is still in custody, wrote a four-page statement for police the day she was questioned about Kercher's death, saying she was confused about the events of that night, but wanted "to tell the truth as best I can."
Authorities said Knox, 20, who is from Seattle, Washington, has given investigators at least three different stories about what happened on November 1, when police say 21-year-old Kercher, an exchange student from Britain, was killed.
Kercher's body was found the next day, half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck. Watch more of what Knox's statement says »
Knox wrote in her statement, a copy of which has been obtained by CNN, that she's not sure whether she was at the villa that night and that she remembers "flashes of blurred images," but doesn't know if they are reality or dreams.
Knox said she believes she spent the night at the home of her boyfriend, 23-year-old Raffaele Sollecito, who is also in custody in the case.
She said she and Sollecito smoked marijuana at his home and watched a movie. She also said she got a message from her boss, bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, telling her she didn't need to work that night. She says she told Sollecito she could remain at his home all night.
Lumumba was also arrested in connection with the case but later released due to lack of evidence.
In her statement, Knox said she saw Lumumba in "flashes of blurred images."
"I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my head I could hear Meredith screaming," she wrote.
"But I've said this many times so as to make myself clear: These things seem unreal to me, like a dream, and I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my head 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."
She cites what the police have said is evidence against her, including what she said was hard evidence that she was at the villa she shared with Kercher and two Italians on the night of the slaying.
"I don't know what proof they are talking about, but if this is true, it means I am very confused and my dreams must be real."
"I know I didn't kill Meredith. That's all I know for sure," Knox wrote. "In these flashbacks that I'm having, I see Patrik [sic] as the murderer, but the way the truth feels in my mind, there is no way for me to have known because I don't remember FOR SURE if I was at my house that night."
Knox also writes about Sollecito telling authorities she asked him to lie for her.
"I also NEVER asked him to lie for me. This is absolutely a lie.
"What I don't understand is why Raffaele, who has always been so caring and gentle with me, would lie about this. What does he have to hide? I don't think he killed Meredith, but I do think he is scared, like me. He walked into a situation that he has never had to be in, and perhaps he is trying to find a way out by disassociating himself with me."
Authorities found a knife in Sollecito's kitchen with Kercher's DNA on it as well as Knox's. Police discovered that the knife had been washed, authorities said, but in-depth testing was able to recover the DNA.
Knox said the changes in her stories were due to shock and stress, as well as being hit by police.
"In regards to this 'confession' that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion," she wrote. "Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly.
"I understand that the police are under a lot of stress, so I understand the treatment I received. However, it was under this pressure and after many hours of confusion that my mind came up with these answers."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/22/italy.suspect.statement/index.html
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14301
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| George
Posted:
Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:27 am |
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The American student and her Italian boyfriend suspected of involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia bought "sexy underwear" and talked about having "wild sex" the day after her body was discovered, according to an Italian shopkeeper.
More here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2929831.ece
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 78
Location: Europe
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:47 am |
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BBC News
Meredith suspect seeks top officer
The Italian student held in connection with the murder of Meredith Kercher, from south London, has asked to be interviewed by the lead investigator in the case.
Lawyers for Raffaele Sollecito, 23, visited Giuliano Mignini at his offices in Perugia to present the request. Sollecito could be interviewed next Thursday, a day before a planned court appearance which will re-examine the evidence against him and fellow suspect Amanda Knox.
His lawyers did not make any comment in connection with the request. Three people - Sollecito, Knox, 20, and 20-year-old Rudy Hermann Guede - are being held on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing the Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey on the night of November 1. They deny any involvement in the killing.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| George
Posted:
Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:23 am |
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At a hearing in Koblenz to establish his identity, Guede reportedly said he had gone with Kercher to her house. As soon as he got there, he had suffered from a stomach ache and was in the bathroom when he heard her scream.
He was said to have told the judge that the British student was killed by "an Italian guy I don't know", who then fled. Guede said he had tried unsuccessfully to save Kercher before panicking and running away himself.
His lawyer stressed that his reported statements were given in the absence of legal representation and would carry no weight in a court of law.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2215918,00.html
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 78
Location: Europe
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:53 am |
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Knox 'only lives for pleasure'
By Malcolm Moore in Perugia
Last Updated: 1:50pm GMT 24/11/2007
The American girl accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, a British student in Italy, cannot tell dreams from reality and lives only for pleasure, her boyfriend has said.
Knox says police hit her
Transcript of Amanda Knox's statement
Suspect admits being at Meredith house
Amanda Knox, 20, from Seattle, had “an almost inexistent contact with reality” according to Raffaele Sollecito, 23.
Amanda Knox (left) and Meredith Kercher
Both Knox and Sollecito are in custody on suspicion of murder and sexual assault.
Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was found with her throat cut in the house she shared with Knox in Perugia.
Police believe she was forced to take part in an “extreme” sex game before being stabbed.
Knox and Sollecito both claim to be innocent.
Sollecito’s statements about Knox came in a letter he wrote from prison to his father.
He dictated the note to his lawyers after reading a hand-written testimony from Knox in which she expressed surprise at his behaviour and accused him of trying to “distance himself” from her.
He said: “The time we spent together flew by. I thought she was out of this world. She lived life like a dream, reality didn’t enter, and she could not distinguish dreams from reality. Her life seemed pure pleasure, and she had an almost inexistent contact with reality. Her only goal was the search for pleasure at all times.”
Knox confessed in her own statement that the events around the death of Miss Kercher seemed “unreal” to her, and that she could not be sure of the truth.
However, Sollecito added that Knox was not the killer. He said “Even from here, it is impossible to even imagine that she is an assassin”.
Sollecito has volunteered to give new evidence to the chief prosecutor in order to “clarify” some new aspects of the investigation.
Today, his lawyers submitted evidence to the prosecutor which they say shows that Sollecito was at his computer from 6.26pm on the night of the murder until 3.33am.
Meanwhile, Rudy Hermann Guede, the fourth suspect who fled to Germany, may not be extradited until mid December.
German authorities are seeking assurances from their Italian counterparts that any punishment Guede may be sentenced to in the future is compatible with German law.
Guede is the only suspect who has confessed that he was in the house on the night of the killing.
He told the German court that he had tried to save Miss Kercher, that he had fought with an anonymous “brown-haired Italian” and that Miss Kercher had tried to whisper “AF” to him as she died, which he left written behind at the scene.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| gwen
Posted:
Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:50 pm |
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Ex-Boyfriend: American Suspect in British Roommate Murder 'Out of Touch With Reality'
Saturday, November 24, 2007
ROME — An American student jailed in Italy for the slaying of her British roommate is out of touch with reality but is not a murderer, her former boyfriend and fellow suspect said.
Amanda Marie Knox, 20, a University of Washington student from Seattle, and Italian Raffaele Sollecito were jailed on Nov. 6. The two are suspected of involvement in the slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, found dead in her Perugia apartment on Nov. 2.
"She lives life as if it is a dream, she's out of touch with reality, she is not able to tell dream from reality," Sollecito said of Knox in statements to his father that were published Saturday in leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, confirmed the contents of the report, saying that Sollecito had dictated the letter Friday to his lawyers, who then relayed it to the suspect's father. Sollecito is banned from writing letters in prison, Maori said.
"In the period we were together she was elusive," said Sollecito, a student also living in Perugia.
The two had been together for about two weeks at the time of their arrest, the lawyer said. Sollecito no longer considers himself Knox's boyfriend.
"The Amanda I knew is an Amanda who takes life lightheartedly. Her only thought is a quest for pleasure at any moment," Sollecito said. "But from here to even just imagining that she is a murderer, it becomes impossible."
Kercher died from a stab wound to her neck, according to the autopsy, and prosecutors said she was killed resisting a sexual assault. She was found half-naked on the floor of her blood-splattered bedroom.
Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, another suspect in the case, was apprehended this week.
The 20-year-old Guede was picked up Tuesday in Germany on an international arrest warrant issued by Italian authorities. DNA testing has confirmed that Guede had sex with Kercher the night of the murder. He denies being involved in the crime.
According to court documents and lawyers, Knox has given contradictory versions about what happened the night that Kercher was killed. She has always denied being involved.
In a jailhouse statement, Knox wrote that police hit her on the head during questioning and that her sometimes-conflicting statements were prompted by stress and exhaustion, Italian media reported this week. Police have declined comment on the reports.
Sollecito said in his remarks to his father that the experience has been like "taking a stroll in hell," but that he is confident he will be cleared given his "absolute certainty of having committed no wrongdoing."
"I was not in that room when poor Meredith was killed," he said. Sollecito has said that he was at his own Perugia apartment the night of the murder, working at his computer.
This week, Italian authorities released from jail another suspect, 38-year-old Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who had been arrested with Knox and Sollecito.
Lumumba, a Congolese who owns a bar and popular student hangout in Perugia, has denied any wrongdoing. No physical evidence has emerged tying Lumumba to the crime scene, and witnesses have placed him at his bar the night of the murder.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312731,00.html
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14301
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| gwen
Posted:
Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:14 pm |
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Suspect in Italian murder saw killer, lawyer says
PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- The latest suspect in the case of murdered British student Meredith Kercher was in the victim's apartment when she was killed and tried to confront the assailant after the attack, his lawyer told CNN Sunday.
Rudy Hermann Guede was in the victim's apartment when when she was stabbed, his lawyer says.
Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, was in Kercher's apartment the night the 21-year-old woman was stabbed in her bed, although the two did not have sex and he did not kill her, said Guede's lawyer, Walter Biscotti. They "kissed and flirted and touched the way 20-year-olds do," Biscotti said.
Last week, investigators said DNA on a vaginal swab taken from Kercher matched Guede's DNA, indicating the two had sex.
At some point during the night, Guede felt sick, Biscotti said, and left to use the bathroom. While outside the bedroom, Guede heard Kercher scream and ran into the room to help her, Biscotti said. The lawyer would not say in what condition Guede said he found Kercher.
Kercher whispered "A.F.," into Guede's ear, Biscotti said without elaboration.
Guede panicked and fled the bedroom, Biscotti said. The lawyer did not say whether Guede says Kercher was alive or dead when he last saw her.
Guede has said he saw a person, whom he describes as the killer, outside the bedroom door, Biscotti said.
Guede tried to confront the person, but the person ran away, Biscotti said. Biscotti would not describe the person or elaborate on the subsequent timeline of events other than to say that Guede left the apartment that night.
Italian police say that they have connected Guede to a bloody fingerprint on a pillow at the crime scene, and that DNA tests on skin cells found on toilet paper there have linked him to the villa.
An arrest warrant issued by an Italian judge cites fears that Guede may kill again as among the reasons he needs to be in custody, according to the prosecutor's office in Perugia.
Guede has maintained his innocence.
Kercher, an exchange student at Perugia's university, was killed late on November 1 in the villa where she lived, according to police.
Investigators found her the next day, half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck. A report issued more than a week ago by an Italian judge suggested she may have been sexually assaulted at knife point before she was killed in her bed.
In addition to holding Guede, who was arrested last week in Germany, police are holding two other suspects in the slaying: Amanda Knox, 20, Kercher's roommate, and Knox's boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23.
Last week, the prosecutor's office said no DNA from Kercher was found on Sollecito's shoes -- he wears the same size and type of shoe as one that made a bloody print on the duvet under which her body was found.
Knox, an American, has given police contradictory statements about the night, which she explains by saying she recalls various scenarios of what happened but is not sure which is correct.
Last week, Knox wrote a three-and-a-half-page statement in English when she learned she was going to prison. In the statement, first published in Italian by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Knox said she did not kill Kercher but finds it hard to remember the events of the night because she and Sollecito had smoked marijuana.
Meanwhile, Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, said investigators issued findings from an examination of his client's computer, which Sollecito maintains he was using at home when Kercher was killed.
Maori said the Italian Postal Police concluded the computer was switched on that night but was not necessarily being used. Maori contested their findings, saying the police's instruments weren't sophisticated enough to make a proper finding.
Maori said the defense team had examined a clone of Sollecito's hard drive that showed he was in his house and using the computer from 8:30 p.m. on November 1 to 1:33 a.m. on November 2. Police have said Kercher died between 10 p.m. and midnight on November 1.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/25/italy.student.murder/index.html
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14301
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:04 pm |
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From The TimesNovember 26, 2007
Two more sought over ‘sex and drugs’ party on night Meredith Kercher died
Richard Owen
Police investigating the murder of Meredith Kercher are hunting a man and a woman whom they believe may also have been involved in the killing, it was claimed yesterday.
Italian newspapers reported that blood and “organic substances” on tissues found in Ms Kercher’s bedroom and in the street outside are not from any of the three suspects currently being detained.
The DNA on the tissues belongs to “a male and a female”, reports said, implying that five people were suspected of involvement in killing Ms Kercher, who was found seminaked with her throat cut on the morning of November 2.
Amanda Knox, 20, an American student, her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Rudy Hermann Guede, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast and a petty drug dealer, are all being held over the killing.
Sources close to the investigation have suggested all along that there may have been “a group” at the cottage for an evening of sex and drugs which “took a nasty and tragic turn”.
Police also believe that two knives and not one may have been used in the assault on Ms Kercher. The initial report by Claudia Matteini, the investigating judge, confirmed a finding by Dr Luca Lalli, the pathologist in the case, that the wounds on Ms Kercher’s throat were “compatible” with flick knives owned by Mr Sollecito. However a kitchen knife was subsequently found at Mr Sollecito’s flat bearing traces of Ms Kercher’s DNA at the tip and of Ms Knox’s DNA nearer the handle. One theory is that a flick knife or similar weapon was used to inflict two minor wounds while the kitchen knife was used to cause the third, much deeper wound from which she slowly bled to death.
It was also revealed that someone had tried to strangle her or break her neck, since her jawbone was fractured, as if the killer or killers had forced back her head before plunging in the knife. Further reports said that police who went to the cottage that Ms Kercher shared with Ms Knox and two Italian women, found the English student’s clothes in the washing machine. They also found that the cottage - apart from Ms Kercher’s bedroom and the shared bathroom - had been “thoroughly cleaned with bleach”. Tests for fingerprints will be carried out this week on Ms Kercher’s bloodstained bra - one of the garments not put in the washing machine by the time police arrived.
Mr Guede, who is being held in prison in Koblenz, has added further details to his testimony to German police. He said that he had met Ms Kercher, 21, “with some Spanish friends” in a pub in Perugia on Hallowe’en night, and that they had made a date for the following evening at the cottage.Mr Guede said: “We kissed each other a bit, we touched each other a bit, but I didn’t rape her.”
He went to the lavatory because of stomach pains and because he had iPod earphones on he did not hear the killer enter, though he did hear Ms Kercher scream. He emerged from the bathroom to see “an Italian I didn’t know” stabbing her. The unknown man had said as he fled: “You’re in trouble, you black bastard.”Investigators said that Mr Guede’s version was “a highly improbable fantasy”.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:34 pm |
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Kercher whispered killer's name: accused
Monday Nov 26 09:00 AEDT
By ninemsn staff
One of the prime suspects in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher claims that she whispered the name of her killer as she lay dying.
Rudy Guede, the Ivory Coast basketball player who was arrested on a German train almost three weeks after fleeing the murder scene, claims he was in the bathroom when the killing took place.
The Daily Mail reports that Guede claims to have scuffled with the killer, before trying to help Kercher, who was dying from a throat wound.
Guede then says Kercher whispered the name of her killer in her final moments. He then panicked and fled the country.
The 20-year-old's legal team told the Mail that the stunning revelation would be "at the heart of the defence case".
Guede says he could identify the killer if he saw him again.
The suspect, who described himself as a "vampire" in a crazed internet video, has admitted to having sex with Kercher but claimed it was consensual.
Kercher's American housemate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are also being held in connection with the killing.
Congolese bar owner Diya Patrick Lumumba, 38, was released from prison after Guede's arrest.
Lumumba told the Mail Knox was bitterly jealousy of her housemate.
He also said Knox had framed him for the murder after he sacked her from his bar for flirting with customers.
"She was angry I was firing her and wanted revenge," Lumumba said.
"By the end, she hated me.
"But I don't even think she's evil. To be evil you have to have a soul."
"Everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie. But those lies have stained me forever."
NEWSWATCH
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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Location: United Kingdom
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| Seraph
Posted:
Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:07 am |
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HomeNewsWorld NewsEurope NewsMy ProfileOffersSitemapFrom Times OnlineNovember 26, 2007
Meredith suspect went dancing after killing
Rudy Hermann Guede was arrested nearly three weeks after leaving Perugia (The Time/ FaceBook)
Image :1 of 2
Richard Owen, in Rome
Rudy Hermann Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant suspected of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher in Perugia, went dancing at a disco after her murder until 4.30 in the morning,
Witnesses have testified to police that they saw Mr Guede at the "Domus" disco from two in the morning onwards on Friday November 2.
Ms Kercher was assaulted and murdered on the evening of November 1 at the whitewashed hillside cottage she shared with Amanda Knox, an American student, and two female Italian students.
Mr Guede, who has admitted he had sex with Ms Kercher but claims he is not the "real killer", is being held in Germany awaiting extradition to Italy on suspicion of the murder.
In testimony to German police and his Italian defence lawyers. Mr Guede has claimed that he met Ms Kercher shortly after 8.30 pm at the cottage on the night of the murder for consensual sex, but that "an Italian man" he did not know followed them in and killed her while he was in the bathroom.
In his latest account to his lawyers, reported in Italian newspapers today, Mr Guede - the only one of three suspects to admit unconditionally that he was at the house on the evening of the murder - said he and Ms Kercher had "flirted", but she had said they could not have sex because he did not have a condom. He then went to the toilet because he had eaten a "spicy kebab" which had given him stomach pains.
He says he failed to hear an intruder come into the house because he had iPod earphones in his ears playing at full volume. He had listened to three songs while in the bathroom - lasting about twelve minutes - and only at the end of the third song had he heard Ms Kercher scream, he is reported to have told police.
Mr Guede allegedly says he emerged to find a man "with brown hair and shorter than me" holding a knife. They briefly fought, and Mr Guede suffered a cut to the palm of his right hand "as I was trying to protect myself". The assailant had uttered "racist" insults as he left, including "A black man found is a black man condemned".
Mr Guede reportedly said that his efforts to save Mrs Kercher failed, but he heard her dying words, which were either the initials "AF" or the sound "af".
La Stampa said the latter version could be an attempt to point the finger of blame at Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox's Italian boyfriend. Both are in prison on suspicion of involvement in her death. The paper said however that even if Mr Guede was telling the truth and had not killed Ms Kercher, it was still "very strange behaviour" to go dancing at a disco and leave her to bleed to death instead of calling the police or emergency services.
La Repubblica said police pathologists had found the "deeeply imprinted" marks of three fingers and a thumb in Ms Kercher's throat, confirming the theory that an attempt was made to strangle her before she was killed with a knife. Her jaw bone was fractured. A witness has told police that a "coloured man" running from the direction of the cottage at about 10.30pm barged so violently into her boyfriend that he nearly knocked him over.
Mr Guede's lawyers have disgreed over whether he had sex with Ms Kercher, even though Mr Guede admitted that he had, both in his initial statements and in Internet conversations intercepted by police. Investigators say his DNA was found "inside" Ms Kercher's body and on her tampon, and that his fingerprints were on her blood-stained pillow.
However Nicodemo Gentile, one of his lawyers, said that the defence would provide an alternative theory of how Mr Guede's DNA came to be on Ms Kercher's body. He claimed there had been "great affection between them", though has been denied by Ms Kercher's friends and fellow students in Perugia.
Mr Gentile said that according to Mr Guede Ms Kercher had managed to say more than "AF" or "af" as she lay dying, "and this will form the heart of our defence." He said Mr Guede had been in a state of "extreme confusion and psychological trauma" and had fled "instinctively". Mr Guede is expected to be extradited to Italy in mid December.
According to Mr Guede's account, Ms Knox was not in the house, though in at least one of her many confused and contradictory statements she has admitted that she was. Police say mobile phone records show that Mr Guede and Ms Knox talked to each other "several times" before the murder and after it.
In interviews at the weekend Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, the Congolese bar owner and musician whom Ms Knox initially accused of the murder and who has since been released from prison, said she had acted out of "revenge" because he had sacked her from his bar, where she worked part time two evenings a week. He said he had offered the job to Ms Kercher instead, and Ms Knox had been "jealous. She wanted to be the queen bee......She hated anyone stealing her limelight".
© Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| Seraph
Posted:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:17 am |
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Related News
Second Meredith autopsy ruled out
Reports: American's Blood in Apartment
47 minutes ago
ROME (AP) — A single fingerprint and a trace of blood belonging to American student Amanda Knox were found in the Perugia apartment where her British roommate was slain, but the apartment was otherwise cleaned, news reports said Wednesday.
Investigators have concluded that the blood was left on the bathroom faucet sometime between Nov. 1 and 2, the ANSA news agency reported, placing Knox in the apartment either the night her roommate died or the next morning.
Knox has acknowledged she was home the night Meredith Kercher, 21, was killed by a knife wound to the neck but has denied any wrongdoing.
Calls to Knox's attorney were not answered Wednesday.
"The visibility of the stain is such to exclude that it could have been left in the days before the crime since it would surely have been cleaned," investigating magistrate Giuliano Mignini wrote in a summary of his probe so far, ANSA reported.
Knox, 20, a University of Washington student from Seattle, has said in one of her several conflicting statements to prosecutors that she was in the apartment the night of the slaying, saying at one point she had to cover her ears to drown out Kercher's screams and returned the next day.
ANSA quoted the summary as saying that the apartment was otherwise cleaned, such that the only fingerprint of Knox found in the apartment, which she shared with Kercher, was on a glass.
Police have said both Knox and Kercher's DNA was found on a knife that they believe may have been the murder weapon; the knife was found at the home of Knox's then-boyfriend Italian Raffaele Sollecito.
In addition to Knox, Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native, have been detained in the slaying. Guede is awaiting extradition to Italy after his arrest in Germany.
A fourth suspect was recently released from jail for lack of evidence.
All four suspects deny any role in Kercher's slaying.
Guede has acknowledged that he was in Kercher's room the night she died, but said he didn't kill her and that an Italian who is trying to frame him did. DNA testing has confirmed that Guede had sex with Kercher the night of the murder.
Prosecutors have said Kercher was killed while resisting a sexual attack. Guede also has denied he attacked Kercher sexually.
Kercher family attorney Francesco Maresca said Wednesday he believed that investigators had determined that a second autopsy would not be necessary on Kercher, allowing her family to bury her in Britain, where her body was flown Nov. 11. Defense lawyers had pushed for new tests to better determine how and when Kercher died.
On Friday, a hearing is scheduled in a Perugia tribunal to determine if Knox and Sollecito should continue to be held. The judge who originally ordered them held said there was sufficient evidence to warrant their detention and that they represented flight risks.
Hosted by Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:29 am |
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American Student's Blood Found in Apartment Where British Roommate Meredith Kercher Slain
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
ROME —
A trace of blood belonging to American student Amanda Knox was found in her Perugia apartment that investigators believe dates back to the night her British flatmate was slain, news reports said Wednesday.
Investigators found the blood on a bathroom faucet and one of Knox's fingerprint on a glass, but the apartment was otherwise cleaned after Meredith Kercher, 21, was killed, according to a summary report by investigating magistrate Giuliano Mignini quoted by the ANSA news agency.
Investigators concluded that the blood was left on the faucet sometime between Nov. 1 and 2, when Kercher was killed with a knife wound to the neck. Investigators have concluded that Knox was in the apartment during that period although Knox herself hasn't disputed that.
"The visibility of the stain is such to exclude that it could have been left in the days before the crime since it would surely have been cleaned," investigating magistrate Giuliano Mignini wrote in the summary of his probe so far, ANSA reported.
Knox, 20, a University of Washington student from Seattle, has admitted in one of her several conflicting statements to prosecutors that she was in the apartment the night of the slaying, saying at one point she had to cover her ears to drown out Kercher's screams. She has denied any wrongdoing, however.
Knox and Kercher's DNA was found on a knife that investigators believe may have been the murder weapon; the knife was found at the home of Knox's then-boyfriend Italian Raffaele Sollecito.
Calls to Knox's attorney were not answered Wednesday.
Knox, Sollecito, and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native, have been detained in the slaying. Guede is awaiting extradition to Italy after his arrest in Germany.
A fourth suspect, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a Congolese who runs a bar in Perugia, was released from jail for lack of evidence.
All four suspects deny any role in Kercher's slaying.
Guede has admitted that he was in Kercher's room the night she died, but said he didn't kill her and that an Italian who is trying to frame him did. DNA testing has confirmed that Guede had sex with Kercher the night of the murder.
Prosecutors have said Kercher was killed while resisting a sexual attack. Guede has denied he attacked Kercher sexually.
Kercher family attorney Francesco Maresca said Wednesday he believed that investigators had determined that a second autopsy would not be necessary on Kercher, letting her family in Britain bury her.
A hearing is scheduled Friday in Perugia to determine if Knox and Sollecito should continue being held. The judge who originally ordered them held after their Nov. 6 detentions said there was sufficient evidence to warrant their detention and that they represented flight risks.
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 20775
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| Seraph
Posted:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:55 am |
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Meredith 'shared meal with her killers
Times Online - 3 hours ago
Meredith 'may have dined with her killers'
By NICOLE WINFIELD –
ROME (AP) — A single fingerprint and a trace of blood belonging to American student Amanda Knox were found in the Perugia apartment where her British roommate was slain, but the apartment had otherwise been thoroughly cleaned after the killing, Italian news reports said Wednesday.
The ANSA news agency, quoting from a summary of an inquiry by investigating magistrate Giuliano Mignini, said investigators have concluded that the blood was left on the bathroom faucet sometime between Nov. 1 and 2, placing Knox in the apartment either the night her roommate Meredith Kercher died or the next morning.
Knox, a 20-year-old University of Washington student from Seattle, has acknowledged she was home the night Kercher, 21, was killed by a knife wound to the neck. But she has denied any wrongdoing. Calls to her attorney were not answered Wednesday.
"The visibility of the stain is such to exclude that it could have been left in the days before the crime since it would surely have been cleaned," ANSA said, quoting from Mignini's summary.
Lawyers in the case have previously said both Knox and Kercher's DNA were found on a knife that they believe may have been used to kill the woman. The knife was found at the home of Knox's then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian.
Knox has said in one of her several conflicting statements to prosecutors that she was in the apartment the night of the slaying, saying at one point she had to cover her ears to drown out Kercher's screams.
The magistrate's summary said the apartment had otherwise been cleaned thoroughly after the killing but investigators found a fingerprint of Knox on a glass, ANSA reported.
"It's evident that after the crime, the effort was made to remove everything possible, also staging a burglary which wasn't credible since there were no traces of a break-in on the door and the broken window appears to have been probably broken from the inside," Mignini wrote, according to ANSA.
In Sollecito's home where the knife was found, there were also two bottles of bleach — which Mignini's summary noted was used to remove blood stains. Sollecito's maid told investigators the bleach had not been there before and that she used other products to clean the house, ANSA reported.
Sollecito has said he was home the night of the killing, on his computer. Mignini disputed defense claims that Sollecito had been logged on, saying police had proven that the computer was not connected.
In addition to Knox, Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native, have been detained. Guede is awaiting extradition to Italy after his arrest in Germany.
A fourth suspect was recently released for lack of evidence. All four deny any role in Kercher's killing.
Guede has acknowledged that he was in Kercher's room the night she died, but said he did not kill her and that an Italian who is trying to frame him did. DNA testing has confirmed that Guede had sex with Kercher the night of the slaying.
Investigators have said she died of the knife wound while fending off a sexual attack. Guede has denied he attacked Kercher sexually.
ANSA said Mignini's summary had been submitted to a Perugia court ahead of a hearing scheduled for Friday to determine whether Knox and Sollecito should continue to be held. The judge who originally ordered them held said there was sufficient evidence to warrant their detention and that they represented flight risks.
On Wednesday, investigators told a judge that a second autopsy on Kercher was not necessary, meaning she can be buried in Britain, where her body was flown Nov. 11, Kercher family attorney Francesco Maresca said. Defense lawyers had pushed for new tests to better determine how and when Kercher died.
Hosted by Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| Seraph
Posted:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:59 am |
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From Times OnlineNovember 28, 2007
Meredith 'shared meal with her killers' on night of her death
The body of Meredith Kercher can now be released for burial
Image :1 of 4
Richard Owen, of The Times, in Rome
A judge in Perugia has concluded that a second post-mortem examination on the body of Meredith Kercher is not necessary, Italian media reports have said, as it emerged that the murdered British student shared a meal with her killers before she died.
The decision, by investigating Judge Claudia Matteini, should clear the way for Ms Kercher’s body to be released to her family for burial, though it is not clear if they have yet been officially notified that the funeral can go ahead.
On Monday and Tuesday forensic scientists and lawyers presented evidence to Judge Matteini, the investigating judge, on whether the results from the initial post-mortem were sufficient to establish the time and cause of Ms Kercher’s death.
The judge has brought in new forensic scientists to decide the time of the death, the length of time that it took Ms Kercher to die after her throat was cut, the nature of the sexual violence committed and the compatibility of the wounds with knives owned by Raffaele Sollecito, one of the suspects being held.
Related Links
Meredith suspect went dancing
More sought over ‘sex and drugs’ party
Their conclusions will be reached, however, on the basis of the post-mortem conducted soon after Ms Kercher’s death by Dr Luca Lalli, the official pathologist.
Ms Kercher, a Leeds University exchange student from Coulsdon, South London, studying at the Perugia University for Foreigners, was murdered at her home in Perugia on the night of November 1-2.
Three people are in custody in connection with the killing: Amanda Knox, 20, Ms Kercher’s American flatmate, Mr Sollecito, 23, Ms Knox’s Italian boyfriend, and Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, an Ivorian with joint Italian nationality who is awaiting extradition from Germany.
A fourth man, Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, 38, a Congolese bar owner, was released from custody last week but remains under investigation. All four deny sexually assaulting and murdering Ms Kercher.
Investigators said that Ms Kercher almost certainly shared a meal with her killers on the night that she was murdered. Giuliano Mignini, the investigating magistrate in the case, said that the post-mortem on Ms Kercher had revealed a mushroom in her oesophagus.
He said that Ms Kercher was known to have eaten an early supper of pizza and ice cream with two British women friends, both fellow students, at six o’clock on the evening of her death. But Sophie Purton, one of the friends, had testified that the meal contained no mushrooms.
Mr Mignini said that Ms Kercher and Ms Knox were fond of mushrooms. He found it very probable that mushrooms had been part of a late-evening snack in which Ms Kercher joined, perhaps before or during a sex and drugs party that “went wrong” and ended in her death.
He said that champignon mushrooms of the kind found in Ms Kercher’s oesophagus had been found in the fridge at Mr Sollecito’s flat, where the kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon was also found.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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Location: United Kingdom
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| Seraph
Posted:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:03 pm |
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Page 2
The scenario that Ms Kercher had a snack or late supper after returning to the cottage that she shared with Ms Knox is contained in a 35-page report by Mr Mignini to Judge Matteini in which he outlines his reasons for opposing an appeal for the release of Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito lodged by their defence lawyers. Judge Matteini will hear the appeal on Friday.
In his report, excerpts from which were published in Italian newspapers today, Mr Mignini said that the two should continue to be held because there were “grave indications” of their guilt that had increased rather than decreased as the investigation continued.
In the same report Mr Mignini said that Ms Knox had definitely been at the crime scene and even left a bloody fingerprint. He said that Ms Knox’s blood had been found on a tap in the bathroom despite her alleged attempts to clean up all traces of herself.
Mr Mignini said that it was possible that Ms Knox had been injured during a struggle or suffered a nosebleed. In any case “a very serious indication that Amanda Knox was at the scene of the murder between 1 and 2 November is a very visible blood stain on the tap of the sink in the bathroom attached to the room where the crime was committed. The stain, visible to the naked eye, belonged to Amanda Knox.”
Related Links
Meredith suspect went dancing
More sought over ‘sex and drugs’ party
Police said that tests on Ms Kercher’s bloodstained bra had produced no traces of male DNA, only her own, and that the DNA on chewing gum stuck to her wardrobe was also her own. They said that blood from Ms Knox and Ms Kercher — possibly menstrual — had been found in the bidet of the bathroom that they shared.
Luca Maori, one of Mr Sollecito’s lawyers, said that police experts were wrong to claim that Mr Sollecito had not used his computer at his flat on the night of the murder as he claimed. The defence would produce outside experts to prove that he had.
Mr Maori also accused the postal police of falsifying facts by saying that they had arrived at the cottage at 12.35 the day after the murder to investigate the discovery of Ms Kercher’s mobile phones in a nearby garden and found Mr Sollecito and Ms Knox at the scene.
He said that the defence would show that the police had arrived half an hour later. Their claim that Mr Sollecito had not called the Carabinieri to report “a break-in” until after the postal police arrived was therefore false. Mr Sollecito had made the call before the postal police turned up at the cottage to investigate the lost phones, found Ms Kercher’s door locked and broke it down, discovering her body, Mr Maori maintained.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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Location: United Kingdom
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| George
Posted:
Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:50 am |
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Amanda Knox, the American student suspected of involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher, has described her life in prison, saying she thought initially that she would "go mad" but is now "serene" after being allowed contact with fellow inmates.
Tomorrow, Claudia Matteini, the investigating judge, will hold a closed hearing at which defence lawyers for Ms Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian boyfriend, will argue that they should be released from prison and placed under house arrest instead. Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito are expected to appear before the judge in person to plead their innocence.
However Giuliano Mignini, the Perugia prosecutor, has told the judge that there are "grave indications of guilt" in both cases, and that they must be kept in prison. In Ms Knox's case, these include her DNA close to the handle of the presumed murder weapon, a kitchen knife and her blood on a tap in the bathroom of the cottage that she shared with Ms Kercher.
Both Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito can be held for up to a year before charges are brought. Ms Knox, who at one stage of the investigation admitted she was at the cottage on the night Ms Kercher was sexually assaulted and killed, will revert to her original account at tomorrow's hearing and insist that she was not, her lawyers said.
Osvaldo Napoli, a Forza Italia deputy who visited Ms Knox in her cell at the modern prison complex at Capanne, just outside Perugia yesterday, said she had told him she felt "serene".
She told him: "I have great faith in your legal system. I don't feel abandoned, I don't feel afraid. I have great faith in Italy. I'm waiting. Eveything will be cleared up."
She said that she had written a lengthy memorandum to the investigating judge in which she had stated: "I was not in that house and I am not a murderer." Mr Napoli told Italian newspapers that Ms Knox was allowed newspapers and television but switched channels when the news or programmes about the Perugia murder were broadcast.
Ms Knox has been in prison since her arrest on November 6 and was at first held in isolation with one other prisoner, an Italian woman also accused of murder. This week however she was moved to a larger cell that she shares with three other women, two Italian and one Bolivian. She has described one of the Italian women as "my second mother".
The cell, which measures 4m x 5m (13ft x16 ft), contains four single beds, "side by side as in a dormitory", whitewashed walls, a desk and a wall-mounted television. One inner door leads off to a long, narrow bathroom, and the other to a small but well-equipped kitchen. Visitors are announced by the prison guard banging on the metal door of the cell with his keys.
Ms Knox is allowed out of the cell for an hour a day to do her laundry, go to the prison canteen or chat to other prisoners. She exercises, however, in her cell, often hanging from the bars with bare hands "because it reminds me of rock climbing". On the day of Mr Napoli's visit she wore a long-sleeved, green, polo-neck sweater, navy-blue tracksuit bottoms and slippers, though she also wears jeans and trainers, according to other visitors.
La Stampa said that she emerged from Mr Napoli's description as "a pretty girl with educated manners and a little dimpled smile". This was "an image light years away from the picture painted of her by police."
Police reports based on evidence from witnesses and on statements by Mr Sollecito and Ms Knox herself have portrayed her as a cold, emotionless killer and chronic liar who habitually used drugs and brought a different man back each night from pubs and clubs to the cottage she shared with Ms Kercher.
Ms Knox told her visitor she was "trying to rebuild my life". She said although her parents were separated she was "happy about it, because it means I have two mothers, two fathers and three sisters". She has read and re-read a Bible given to her by the prison chaplain, underlining many passages, and has asked the priest to "explain the Catholic concept of forgiveness" to her.
Ms Knox, who was educated in the US at a Jesuit school, "prays every night before going to sleep". Reports said she spoke to Mr Napoli "in Italian with a an American accent". She told him not to ask her about "that night." adding: "I don't want to be influenced by things I find out from outside. The things I want to say I will say only to the judges and to my lawyer. I get on with him, he makes me feel secure."
She said her first days in isolation had been "very tough, I wasn't allowed to see anyone. My God, those were terrible days. No one spoke a word to me. I thought I'd go mad, and I prayed someone would come and put me somewhere different." She felt "serene" however now that she had been transferred to a different block and allowed more freedom and contact.
"Everything has changed, here they treat me with great dignity, and that's important," she was quoted as saying.
"My cellmates are marvellous, and the other detainees are very nice to me too. We have fraternised and we do a lot of things together. I would like to say what my plans for the future are, but that will have to wait till later".
Mr Napoli told reporters that she was dealing with a "mountain" of correspondence sent to her at the jail, including letters from old friends in the US. "If I'm not desperate, it's thanks to them too," she said." It helps me to know they care and support me. I want to see them again. Really soon, you know?"
Reports said that if Ms Knox were released into house arrest, a local religious insitute in Perugia run by nuns had offered to take her in. In letters to her mother, who has returned to the US, and her father, who is staying at a village near Perugia "to be close to her", she has reportedly said she wants to remain in Perugia "when this is all over".
She told Mr Napoli that she knew reporters and photographers would be "lying in wait" for her at tomorrow's hearing, but she would ignore them. "I don't want to talk to them. I only want to talk to the judge."
The Times
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 78
Location: Europe
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| George
Posted:
Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:55 am |
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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, two of the suspects in the murder of the British exchange student Meredith Kercher, will try to persuade an Italian judge that they should be released today.
Ms Knox, 20, who was Ms Kercher's American flatmate, and Raffaele Sollecito 23, her Italian boyfriend, have not seen each other since they were arrested shortly after Ms Kercher was found semi naked with her throat cut on 1 November.
But they will appear in the same Perugia courtroom today to appeal against their detention in front of Claudia Matteini, the investigating judge.
Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito arrived separately for the hearing, and were taken from police vans straight into the courthouse.
Ms Knox spoke first, court souces said, declaring" I am innocent" and swearing she was not at the cottage she shared with Ms Kercher on the night of the murder.
She also told the judge she was sorry for the trouble she had caused Diya "Patrick" Lumumba by falsely claiming that he had had sex with Ms Kercher and murdered her in her bedroom, and that she had heard her flatmate's screams from the kitchen.
Lawyers for both Ms Knox and Mr Raffaele have indicated that their defence strategy will be to challenge the forensic evidence gathered so far by police and to put the blame for the killing on Rudy Hermann Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality who is awaiting extradition from Germany.
Both Mr Raffaele and Ms Knox deny they were at the house when the murder took place, although their statements on their whereabouts in the evening and night of November 1-2 have been confused and contradictory. Neither has yet specifically mentioned Mr Guede as the killer.
Mr Guede has told German police and his lawyers he was at the house and had sex with Ms Kercher, but maintains it was consensual and that the "real killer" was an Italian he did not know. His description of the man and his claim that Ms Kercher tried to name her killer by uttering the sound "af" with her dying breath appear aimed at pointing the finger at Mr Sollecito.
Mr Guede claims that while he was in the house he saw Ms Kercher find that money was missing from her bedside table, and says she accused Ms Knox (who he did not say was present) of stealing cash to pay for drugs.
Luciano Ghirga, Ms Knox's lawyer, is expected to argue that a statement she made early in the inquiry admitting she was at the house was made under duress, without a lawyer present. He will also produce expert witnesses to try and prove that her DNA was not in the presumed murder weapon, a kitchen knife, as police claim.
Mr Sollecito's lawyers, Marco Brusco and Luca Maori, will also contest evidence against their client, saying the footprint found in Ms Kercher's blood does not match his Nike trainers as police allege. They will also produce computer experts in an attempt to disprove the police's contention that Mr Sollecitos computer was not connected to the web at his flat on the night of the murder as he maintains.
Italian newspapers today reported that police had confiscated as evidence a lengthy memorandum written by Mr Sollecito in his cell in an attempt at "self justification". It is not known what the memorandum contains. Mr Sollecito had asked to be questioned again by Giuliano Mignini, the chief investigating magistrate, berore today's hearing, but this request was refused.
The suspects can be held for up to a year before charges are brought. Mr Lumumba, 38, a Congolese bar owner, the fourth suspect, released from jail last week, but is still under investigation.
Mr Lumumba said after his release that he had fired Ms Knox from her job as part time assistant at his bar in Perugia, and she had been jealous because he had offered the job instead to Ms Kercher. He said Ms Knox wanted to be "queen bee" and was mentally unstable.
Mr Mignini is expected to tell the judge that Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito must on no account be freed since there was more than enough evidence to detain them and a risk that they would go on the run if released, even under house arrest.
The Times
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 78
Location: Europe
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:42 pm |
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Tape 'puts Knox at Meredith murder scene'
By Malcolm Moore in Perugia
Last Updated: 1:29pm GMT 01/12/2007
Dramatic new evidence has emerged that may help prove that Amanda Knox, the American girl accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, was present when the British student died.
Meredith suspects refused bail
Knox was secretly bugged by investigators while talking to her parents in prison, in a conversation which appears to contradict her previous insistences that she was not in the house on the night of the murder.
Miss Kercher, 21, was found with her throat cut
Police sources revealed that when the conversation turned to whether Knox, 20, was at the scene, she said: “It’s stupid, I can’t say anything else, I was there and I cannot lie about it.”
“It is clear to us that she was talking about being at the scene,” said the police source.
“There are several other moments when she alludes to it,” he added.
However, Knox's lawyers have said she was referring to being at her boyfriend's house.
Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was found with her throat cut in the house she shared with Knox in Perugia. Police said she had been subjected to an “extreme” sex game before being killed.
Knox has denied that she was present, and broke down in tears yesterday as she pleaded her innocence before a court.
The police source said: “She denies everything, but we did submit the recordings as evidence at the court.”
It is believed that the evidence was sufficient for Judge Massimo Ricciarelli to deny a request from Knox’s lawyers that she be freed into house arrest.
Instead, Knox was driven back to Capanne prison outside Perugia in handcuffs.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Knox said she was “very worried” about the discovery of an eight-inch kitchen knife at the house of her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23.
Sollecito is also in custody at Capanne prison on suspicion of murder and sexual assault.
She told her parents that she “could not understand” how the knife “had been found at Raffaele’s house”.
William Knox and Edda Mellas, Knox’s parents, visited her again in prison this morning.
Mrs Mellas refused to comment on the bugged conversation, which dates from November 17.
Their daugher also revealed that her three cellmates were worried about her.
“They keep telling me that I shouldn’t lose weight, that I shouldn’t make myself sick and that I should eat,” she said.
She was, however, receiving “thousands of letters from admirers”.
Knox has been writing lengthy notes while in prison, and one purported extract appeared in the Italian press today.
In it, she wrote: “One thing that could have happened is that I smoked marijuana that night, and fell asleep at my boyfriend’s house. I do not remember anything, but maybe Raffaele went to Meredith’s house, raped and killed her, and then put my fingerprints on the knife back at his house while I was asleep. But I do not know why.”
The police dismissed her new accusation, saying that the suspects had started to accuse each other in their confusion.
Knox has also said she did not realise she was being interviewed as a suspect in the case.
She claimed she was told that having a lawyer present at the time would have "made things worse for her".
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 878
Location: United Kingdom
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| Cat
Posted:
Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:40 pm |
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Thank you, Seraph. It seems there isn't much that could make things worse for her. Very difficult to understand how a young girl could get involved in something like this unless she does have extreme mental problems.
ETA: I love your sig.
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Meow
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 1098
Location: Elysian Gardens
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| Seraph
Posted:
Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:47 am |
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| Cat wrote: | Thank you, Seraph. It seems there isn't much that could make things worse for her. Very difficult to understand how a young girl could get involved in something like this unless she does have extreme mental problems.
ETA: I love your sig. |
Thanks Cat, a very sad case, with each new bit of information it keeps getting worse. I dread to think what information the police are withholding. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest on this case yet. I do hope it is dealt with quickly, Meredith's family must be in a living hell, I can't think of anything more tragic for parents to deal with.
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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| George
Posted:
Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:51 am |
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THE American student suspected of killing her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia has suggested her Italian boyfriend may have raped the student and stabbed her in the throat.
In a prison diary, Amanda Knox, 20, claims she had been at her boyfriend’s apartment smoking cannabis and was asleep when 21-year-old Kercher was murdered in their cottage.
Turning on Raffaele Sollecito for the first time, Knox speculates that he may have used one of the knives he collected to kill Kercher, and then tried to frame her as the murderer.
Knox, from Seattle, and Sollecito, 23, are being held on suspicion of sexually abusing and killing Kercher at her whitewashed cottage in the Umbrian hilltown of Perugia on November 1.
The 125-page diary, entitled La Mia Prigione (My Prison), and handwritten mainly in English, also describes life in prison and includes songs and poems.
The diary, which Knox began three weeks ago, was seized on Thursday from her cell, which she shares with two other prisoners. It is now being translated.
Knox, going back on an earlier confession, denies being in the cottage on the night of the murder. She adds that if she had been there, “perhaps Meredith wouldn’t be dead”.
The American, who called herself “Foxy Knoxy” on her MySpace website, insists she was at Sollecito’s home. She had met the engineering student two weeks earlier at a concert.
In the flat, she smoked cannabis and fell asleep. “This could have happened: Raffaele went to Meredith’s house, raped her and killed her and then, having come back home, pressed my fingerprints — I was asleep — onto the knife,” she says. She speculates that he then washed off the blood. Investigators have found traces of Knox’s DNA near the handle of a knife found in Sollecito’s home, and of Kercher’s on the blade. “But if that’s how things went, I don’t understand why Raffaele did it,” Knox writes.
Knox makes no reference to the two other suspects, Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, from the Ivory Coast, who is awaiting extradition from Germany, and the Congolese bar owner Diya Lumumba, 44; the latter has been released from custody.
Knox describes Kercher as “a smart and elegant girl” who gave her advice, including on whom she should make friends with. Kercher’s friends have testified that she complained about the men Knox brought home.
Of her days in prison, Knox says: “I sing, I write and when I go out for a walk I sun myself and I’ve got a bit of a tan.”
A senior investigator said yesterday a conversation between Knox and her parents, recorded without their knowledge on November 17, indicated that Knox was at her home on the night of the killing.
According to the 11-page transcript, Knox said the previous day was “bad” — the television news called her a liar. Knox’s mother tries to reassure her. Knox replies: “It’s stupid; I can’t say anything else. I was there and I can’t lie about this.” Her lawyers, however, said she was referring to Sollecito’s flat.
Knox protests that other inmates stared at her as if she was “a horrible being”. She adds: “My cell is cold and I’ve got a headache. I feel better only during my walk, I can sing and even shout and that makes me feel good.”
A court hearing on Friday rejected pleas from both Knox and Sollecito for their release.
Knox’s accusation against Sollecito contrasts with his treatment of her. In a notebook he wrote in jail, he said he did not believe Knox could have murdered Kercher, but has also testified that he thinks Knox may not have spent the night at his flat.
The Times
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 78
Location: Europe
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| Cat
Posted:
Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:56 pm |
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| Seraph wrote: |
Thanks Cat, a very sad case, with each new bit of information it keeps getting worse. I dread to think what information the police are withholding. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest on this case yet. I do hope it is dealt with quickly, Meredith's family must be in a living hell, I can't think of anything more tragic for parents to deal with. |
I agree. Losing a child in any way would be horrible, but to senseless murder.....there are no words. I am so sorry for her family and pray for their strength.
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Meow
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