MEREDITH KERCHER: CRIME SCENE INSTIGATION

“To say that Amanda embraced the experience as a growing up exercise is a step too far. In my judgement Amanda is loyal, principled, honest, trusting and inherently a private person. It took her (and all of us) a long time to understand that this prosecution was not a cock-up; it was a conspiracy from the start. How deep and wide it goes are the only unknowns now.”—Nigel Scott 2013.

November 2, 2007, Friday, Perugia, Italy, Via Della Pergola 7.  Dawn on All Soul’s Day would find a lovely young Briton dead on her cold bedroom floor, the victim of a violent home invasion the night before.  Meredith Kercher lay in a pool of her own blood, stabbed in the throat, with her bedspread covering her body; her struggle for life recorded on the walls and floor of her bedroom.  Meredith’s murder would be unlike any the medieval hilltop town had ever witnessed, although Satanism, lies and deceit had been used as a tactic its courtrooms before, never had the world come to watch the proceedings.

Meredith Kercher’s murder would pit Italy and Britain against the United States in a tug of war for the truth.

Even now the circumstances of her murder are hotly contested; all that is certain is that her family has never had justice.  From the beginning the Perugian Public Prosecutor’s office and the police instigated a smoke screen that covered up, withheld and/or influenced evidence. The Prosecutor’s office stonewalled the Defense, denied them access to evidence and, therefore, denied the defendants due process.  The Perugians leaked cherry-picked information and incited the tabloids with a sordid fable of Satanism and murder; they titillated media jackals with a violent woman on woman sexual fantasy.  They abetted a court case that destroyed two innocent lives and cost the Italian taxpayers millions.

And they have left a grieving family waiting for a simple answer.  What happened to Meredith?

As the case winds its way through the Italian court system, one can clearly see the legendary cronyism that exists in the upper levels, the public prosecutor’s office to the Prosecutor General to the Supreme Court.  Unless some semblance of Fair Play can be assured, the system will never put an end to the torment of three innocent families.  This murder was a burglary gone wrong, a simple, tragic event and one that happens to women worldwide everyday.  It’s appalling that this debacle is still allowed in a courtroom.

The evidentiary samples unquestionably point to Rudy Guede, a local thief, as the person who killed promising young Meredith. Bloody finger, palm, foot and shoe prints left at the crime scene are his, the DNA samples all point to Guede and no one else.  But in a twist of fate Meredith’s innocent friends, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and Amanda’s employer, Patrick Lumumba, would be framed for her death compounding the tragedy and dragging blameless people into a legal and tabloid nightmare.

History bears witness to the destruction a corrupt official can accomplish and Perugia has provided a textbook example.

Giuliano Mignini, the then Public Prosecutor, would portray Amanda as a Sexy Satanist, Raffaele and Patrick/Rudy would be her Lap Dogs.  Guede would be substituted for Lumumba after his capture in Germany, but that was inconsequential in Mignini’s mind; all that really mattered was Amanda and Meredith, each had an important role in his sexual fantasy. Amanda played the part of femme fatale; masterminding an erotically violent sex game and the men would play the parts of mindless drones that did her bidding. Meredith played the part of the helpless virgin.

“All that was missing was a video camera,” Mignini testified during the 2009 First Instance’s closing statements.

The “video camera” is his filthy mind.  The real Meredith, Amanda, Raffaele and Patrick had never shown any inkling of a violent side or interest in orgies; all four were known to be good-natured.  Rudy Guede, although personable, was a known incorrigible who annoyed the university women in the clubs around town, police only knew him as a petty thief and drug dealer until he murdered Meredith.  Speculation is rife that Guede is being protected because of his past association with the wealthy and powerful Caporali family, how else could he afford his high-priced and well-connected lawyer, Walter Biscotti?

Mignini’s reason for the corruption of a very simple investigation is murky, but his own public record sheds light on the fact that he was in a legal battle with an American at the time of Meredith’s death and the Perugian tongues were wagging.  Couple that with the embarrassment of pandering to Guede six days before her murder and you have a career-ending disaster.

It was well known that the Public Prosecutor was angry with Douglas Preston, an American author.  Mignini had come under official scrutiny directly because of Preston defending himself and his Italian colleague, Mario Spezi, from Mignini’s false accusations while the two were finishing their book, “The Monster of Florence.”  Mignini abused the power of his office by trying to prevent the publishing so that a colleague’s book, on the same subject, could be published first.  Preston’s efforts uncovered Mignini’s widespread duplicity that included wiretapping peers in Florence and several local reporters.  The result was an Abuse of Office charge against Mignini and his colleague, the head of the Monster of Florence investigative squad, Michele Giuttari.  Giuttari is now a cop-turned-author and both are angry with Preston and Spezi.

Now a foreign student is murdered and bloody fingerprints discovered point to Rudy Guede, his prints are easily obtained in the Italian database and there are indications that the police knew he was involved within in a day of the discovery of Meredith’s body.

Police begin to mention a “black man’s involvement” within two days of Meredith’s death.

Imagine the realization of the Perugian officials?  Knowing that someone had given the order to set a burglar free only to have him kill an innocent young woman less than a week later?  As Public Prosecutor, Mignini was between the proverbial Rock and A Hard Place.  But what to do?  Past behavior predicts future behavior, as they say in law enforcement, and so he used the Public Prosecutor’s office to fix the problem.  Just as he always had.  The fantasy Amanda was the perfect distraction, with a little revenge on the side against that pesky American.  Mignini knew he could keep the wagging tongues busy with a sexy story about a slutty American College girl. It was the perfect set up.

Far more sinister is this guardianship of Meredith’s true killer, Rudy Guede.  He was whisked away and hidden, then the Perugians incited the public to think an innocent girl killed her friend.  In the spotlight’s glare on Amanda, no one even remembered Guede.  Among the suppressed information is that the police in Milan, on the advice of the Perugians, failed to arrest Guede for a burglary five days before he killed Meredith.  In fact, Guede had been on a crime spree the entire time Meredith and Amanda were in Perugia.  And how about the bombshell that Perugians had made Guede apologize to one of the robbery victims, Perugian lawyer Paolo Brocchi, three days before he killed Meredith.

Now what would the public think if they knew that the Perugians have been protecting a killer all these years?  Lying to the victim’s grieving family?  Wasting millions of taxpayer dollars pursuing the victim’s innocent friends?

Mignini’s actions, now under a microscope, show a pattern of provocation and manipulation where the evidence and the media are used to foster his agendas, a pattern repeated many times over during the twenty years he was in office as Perugia’s Public Prosecutor.  An Italian Public Prosecutor is a powerful position that answers only to the regional Prosecutor General and the Italian Supreme Court, this position is able to micro-manage every case in their jurisdiction, including crime scenes.  If such a person instigated dishonesty in his subordinates and incited false legal actions it would be a terrible situation for the public.  And so it has been for Umbria according to Mignini’s public record.

And Mignini received a promotion in 2013, as Prosecutor General he has even more power now.

As Perugia’s Public Prosecutor for two decades, Mignini would have a working knowledge of crime scene mechanics; it is part of the job description.  His office demonstrated a superb competency for twisting without quite breaking the law, so there is really no question that he knows exactly what he is doing.  Mignini, the police and the judiciary have repeatedly shown a symbiotic cohesion during all of the trials and what we have before us is the epitome of a corrupt justice system.  One that has no qualms whatsoever in using innocent people, be they hapless university students or the grieving family of a murder victim.  A toxic mix of nepotism, cronyism, distraction and revenge that began on the day that…

MEREDITH IS DISCOVERED, THE CRITICAL FIRST HOURS

About 6am

Dawn on All Soul’s Day was cold and crisp; Meredith had been dead on her bedroom floor for some eight hours and the front door of Via Della Pergola 7 had been open during the night exposing the interior of the apartment to the November chill. The faulty lock would only close with a key and Guede, frantic from killing her, could not manage it; Meredith’s keys were never found. The night was mostly clear with a half moon to light the dark streets below, scudding clouds punctuated the strength of the gusty tramontana winds that heralded winter, so even if Guede had closed the front door it could easily be blown open if it was not locked.

As Meredith’s soul poured out the open door and into the night, winging its way home, her mortal shell was left to the story of her death, but she was ignored.  She would be found under her bedspread, eyes turned toward her bedroom window; no doubt looking to escape the horror as her life seeped away.  No doubt thinking of her family.  No doubt wishing someone could save her from the brutal end.

The cold air and breeze coming through the front door kept the smell of decomposing blood from being noticeable.  It was deathly still and dark, not a sound emanated from the usually lively villa and any one on the street that morning would not have noticed anything amiss.  In the bathroom that Meredith shared with Amanda a few drops of her blood were spattered here and there, barely noticeable.  A partial bare footprint, also in her blood, was on the blue rug in front of the sink. A trail of faint shoeprints in her blood on the linoleum floor of the hallway led from her locked bedroom door to the front door.

In the front bathroom shared by Filomena and Laura, Guede left feces in the toilet and on a scrap of toilet paper found on the floor.  Although he was on the toilet when Meredith arrived unexpectedly, evidence shows the attack took place in her bedroom; she only had time to hang her purse on the chair before she was assaulted.  Had she taken a few steps into the kitchen, she would have seen him sitting on the toilet.  Guede did not flush to alert her to his presence and did not notice the toilet paper fall to the floor as he hastily wiped himself.  He was looking in the direction of the sounds of her arrival, heart pounding and planning his next move.

But even with hard evidence pointing directly to Guede, the Perugians insisted their “feelings” guided them to Amanda and Raffaele.

The next five hours, 10:30am until 3:30pm, are where the prosecution would build their case based on “feelings”.  Here is where il caso becomes il casino.  The case becomes the mess.

Prosecutor Mignini put Amanda under a microscope from the moment he learned of her presence; he will use each minor action, from not understanding the language to not behaving bella figura, to paint Amanda as a killer.  There are indications that Mignini had taken control of the scene before he arrived, Officer Napoleoni, Officer Stephanoni and Coroner Lalli’s behavior are all indicative of getting orders from a higher up.  Strangely all have masked who gave them certain orders, but the most likely higher up is Mignini.  According to him, he accidentally landed the case, “I was next in the queue,” Mignini said, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Perugia top prosecutor “acquires” whatever caseload he wants.  And it’s doubtful that Mignini would have allowed this important case to go to a subordinate.

At 9am

Meredith’s roommates were still gone, it was All Soul’s Day, a holiday weekend and Laura Mezzetti was in Viterbo with her parents; Filomena Romanelli and Amanda Knox had spent the night at their boyfriend’s homes.  All three would later wish that they had been home in hopes of preventing the robbery and murder that took the life of their friend.  All three also knew that they could have been the one who died.

And Guede?  Did he asleep peacefully?  Did he drink enough alcohol to pass out in a dreamless sleep?  Or is he exhausted from nightmares filled with an innocent girl’s blood on his hands?

Alessandro Biscarini found one of Meredith’s cell phones in his mother’s garden; it was the Italian phone that Filomena had lent to her.  Meredith carried two phones, one for England and one for Italy, as cell coverage in the EU sometimes required.

Alessandro had spent the night with his parents after they had received a bomb threat about 10pm the night before.  Elisabetta Lana and her husband had received several prank calls in the past weeks and were robbed as well, but this call had upset them because the prankster had instructed them to “not to sit on the toilet because it would explode.”  Mrs. Lana called the police and asked Alessandro to come over.  The police had arrived by 10:30pm to investigate but couldn’t find anything, so it was deemed another prank call, and they left about 11pm.

Think about it for a moment, a bomb scare about an hour after Meredith’s murder at the very house where her phones would be found some twelve hours later, such an odd coincidence even if it was a prank call.

Elisabetta Lana would testify in the trial of the First Instance that she and her husband were on their way to give a statement to the Postal Police (who deal with phones and mail related crime) when Alessandro found the cellphone at the edge of the lawn.   Mrs. Lana checked with police before leaving, thinking that the phone had been “lost by one of the officers who had come the evening before,” she was advised to bring it along and the arrived at the police station about 10:15am.

About 9:30am

Raffaele’s father called to see if he and Amanda had left for a drive and found that they were still asleep, but a little while later Amanda set off for her apartment to shower and change while Raffaele started breakfast.  All of her Girl Stuff was at home, shampoo, clean clothing and other necessities, as well as the mop that Raffaele was borrowing to clean up a leaky sink pipe in his kitchen.  He didn’t have a mop and his maid would not be back for a week, Amanda did not mind helping her boyfriend out.

About 10:00am
Guede goes to Alex Crudo’s house in the morning because he “couldn’t stand to be alone.” He has told no one about the murder.  I wonder if he is still checking his hands for blood.

At 10:15am

At nearly the same time that the Lana’s were arriving at the police station, Amanda was on her way home.  Raffaele lived about a half-mile away, an easy walk downhill on a narrow street that opened up into a beautiful vista just beyond the city walls, the sun was out on this crisp morning and the wind whipped at her clothing. Raffaele and Amanda were planning a sightseeing trip that morning to the nearby city of Gubbio, the young Italian enjoyed playing host to the exuberant American who was delighted by everything Italian; they had an entire romantic weekend planned.  They wanted to be on the road by noon and Amanda was contemplating which clothes to pack as she walked home, she would definitely be taking her hiking boots and a warm jacket.

About 10:30am

Amanda arrived home to find the front door standing open and as she entered the silent apartment she had no way of knowing that her life had just changed in unimaginable ways.

Thinking one of her roommates had left the door open while taking out the trash, Amanda called out but no one answered.  It was cold outside so she closed, without locking, the door thinking whoever it was would return shortly.  A few minutes later she decided that none of her roommates were home since no one had answered her calls and Meredith did not answer to a knock on her bedroom door.  The front door lock was broken it was not uncommon for the roommates to leave it open if they stepped out for a few minutes.  Filomena, the leaseholder, had already complained to the landlord that “if it was not latched it would swing open.” Amanda mused that Meredith could have left for the morning and not locked the door properly; perhaps it had blown open in the wind.

As Amanda walked down the hall and knocked on Meredith’s door she did not notice that she walked on Guede’s faint, and now dried, bloody shoe prints.  So faint that they did not catch her attention and so dry that there was no sheen of wetness to be noticed. 

Amanda is now the first person, of many, to walk through the prints in the hall and unknowingly compromise the crime scene.

While preparing for her shower Amanda immediately notices two tiny drops of blood on the sink, she wonders if her newly pierced ears had bled or if Meredith had nicked herself.  Amanda recently had multiple piercings done.  She could see that the spots of blood were dry, but thought it was weird that Meredith would leave a mess in the sink; she was normally very neat and would have cleaned up.  However Amanda was in a hurry and did not take the time to clean a couple of drops of blood in the sink, they were a curiosity only.  Police later found a dried drop of her own blood on the faucet from her piercings, the reason she so easily explained away the other drops.

Imagine if Amanda had not been in a hurry and stopped to clean up her bathroom?

She showered and afterward discovered the towels were missing and a “reddish brown splotch about the size of an orange” on the blue rug between the sink and the bidet. “More blood?  Could Meredith have started her period and dripped?” she wondered.  Again the mess perplexed Amanda; again she explained it away and again pushed her confusion aside because she was distracted by her trip.

As she dashed dripping wet to her bedroom and a spare towel, she inadvertently got portions of the bloody footprints wet, making transfer extremely likely.

About 11:30am
The Lana’s found out that Filomena owned the phone; they had no idea who she was.  Amanda showered and afterward discovered the towels were missing and “reddish brown splotch about the size of an orange” on the blue rug between the sink and the bidet. “More blood?  Could Meredith have started her period and dripped?” she wondered.  Again the mess perplexed Amanda; again she explained it away and again pushed her confusion aside because she was distracted by her trip.

As she dashed dripping wet to her bedroom and a spare towel, she inadvertently got portions of the bloody footprints wet, making transfer extremely likely.

About Noon

Once dressed, Amanda used the hair dryer in the front bathroom that Laura and Filomena shared and it was there that she felt her first “lurch of panic” when she noticed Rudy Guede’s poo in the toilet.  Laura and Filomena were also very neat and would have flushed, so Amanda wondered if a stranger had been in the apartment when she was in the shower and had the odd sensation that she was “being watched.”  Amanda remembers that this was the moment when she truly became creeped out, there was something going on that she couldn’t quite put her finger on and she began to panic, so she grabbed her purse and quickly left.  Amanda somehow remembered to grab the mop for Raffaele; she would marvel later that she even thought to retrieve it as rattled as she was when she left the villa locking the door behind her.  Unusually anxious as she ran up the driveway, she clutched the mop ready to use it in her defense.  She had been home about an hour and a half.

Imagine if Amanda would have flushed the toilet?  Ironically, by not cleaning up after the mysterious messy person, she preserved evidence.

Part way back to Raffaele’s Amanda calmed down and chided herself for being scared, then she began second-guessing what she had seen; all of it was easily explained away and she never would have dreamed that, taken altogether, the oddities added up to murder.

12:07pm

Elisabetta Lana’s daughter, Fiametta Biscarini, called to say that she had found a second cellphone in the same garden a short distance from where the first phone had been found, she had heard it ringing and a call from “Amanda” was noted.

12:08pm

But Amanda called Filomena anyway, just to tell someone what she had seen.  Filomena was instantly concerned and wanted Amanda to go check the apartment thoroughly and asked if she had talked to Meredith.  Amanda said no and called their roommate next, but, oddly, Meredith’s British phone was out of service and the call lasted a few seconds.  Now that was really strange, Amanda thought, Meredith always answered her British phone in case her mother needed her.  Amanda hung up and mulled over what to do as she arrived at Raffaele’s.

About 12:15pm

Raffaele mopped up the spill while Amanda silently contemplated if she was being an alarmist; she didn’t know what to think and didn’t say anything to Raffaele for fear that she would sound silly.  She was the youngest of her peer group in Perugia and sensitive of being thought of as immature, she considered that there was most likely an ordinary explanation for everything.

Raffaele could tell something was bothering her, but didn’t ask what was wrong.  Amanda saw that he was in total vacation mode, while she had all but forgotten about the trip as she brooded over the strange occurrences in her apartment.   They sat down to breakfast and when they were nearly finished Amanda finally confided to Raffaele about the open front door, drops of blood in her bathroom, unflushed toilet in the other bathroom, the dropped call on the English phone and Filomena’s concern.  They mused that Meredith could have been in a hurry to run out to the pharmacist for feminine products or that the toilet might be broken.

But what could it all mean? Were the oddities something to worry about?  Raffaele agreed to take a closer look before leaving for Gubbio plus they could drop the mop off while there.  On their way out Filomena called back, still distressed, and asked what they had found.  Amanda told her that they were on their way back at that moment and would let her know shortly, she also said that Meredith had not answered her British phone.  Filomena’s obvious panic retriggered Amanda’s own and a lump formed in her throat as she and Raffaele hurried back to the villa.  She hoped Meredith was alright.

Filomena was adamant that Meredith should have been at the villa, so Amanda called both of her phones as they made the short walk back to the apartment, toting the mop with them. They set mop down on the front porch and entered the still silent cottage; Amanda called out “Anyone here?” with a knot in her stomach.

About 12:30pm

Within minutes, they discovered that a rock has been thrown through Filomena’s bedroom window, the window that is closest to the street.  Glass was strewn all over the room, but Filomena’s laptop was still there.  Laura’s room was untouched, as was Amanda’s.  All of the bedroom doors had been closed and so she was unaware of the burglary when she had been home taking her shower just an hour before.  Amanda showed Raffaele the feces in the toilet of the front bathroom.  They also discover that Meredith’s bedroom door is still locked and she doesn’t answer to calls or knocking; Raffaele tries to force the door open while Amanda tries to see into the room using the balcony, both are unsuccessful.

Both did not realize that they were walking back and forth across the faint bloody shoeprints left by Guede and Raffaele becomes the second person to compromise the crime scene.

Amanda and Raffaele are also not entirely sure that it would be OK to force open Meredith’s door, what if she was simply on an errand? It would be an invasion of privacy to break down her door, so Amanda tries to call her on the British phone again, the one she always answers.  Again it goes to voice mail; again Meredith does not pick up.

At 12:46pm

The British cellphone is turned into the Postal Police and the Lana family is later shocked to find out that both cellphones belong to a murder victim.

12:47pm (4:47am Seattle time)

Amanda calls her mother and tells her about the broken window, Edda Mellas becomes fully awake when Amanda tells her, “We can’t find Meredith!”  She says, “Call the police,” and Chris, Amanda’s stepfather, yells, “Get the hell out of the house, this instant!”

About 12:50pm

Raffaele is on the phone with Vanessa and after hearing of the broken window she tells them, “Leave!  Leave right away and don’t touch anything!” and instructs him to call 112.  They both leave the villa and wait for the police on the front porch, both are spooked and Amanda is shivering with nerves and cold, she has left her coat in the apartment but thankfully remembered to grab her purse.  They look at each other in concern and surprise, “what in the world is going on?”

“Why is Meredith not picking up her calls?  Where is she?”

At 12:51pm and 12:54pm

Raffaele makes two calls to the Carabinieri; an officer answering the first call tells him to “call back later” and hangs up.  Frustrated, he calls back and tells the second officer about the bloodstains and broken window, the officer taking the message becomes fixated that the prowler cut himself as he climbed through the window.  Note that this officer immediately accepts a thief scaling a second story without a second thought.

12:54pm, CONSTANTLY CHANGING ALIBI MYTH

This is the opening salvo of the Constantly Changing Alibis Myth, the moment in time where Amanda’s poor command of Italian became her enemy.  Statements made to the Carabinieri during Raffaele’s call for assistance, as well as everything Amanda said until she received an accredited interpreter more than a week later, and after her arrest, were skewed to present both students as liars.  IN CONTEXT Raffaele’s command of English is only a little better than Amanda’s Italian is, the cops didn’t speak very English well either, if at all, and so linguistic confusion was inevitable, even expected.

Consider that the prosecutor and the police would shortly begin to deliberately twist statements made by both students as you go back to Raffaele’s call for help.

He is translating for Amanda and tells the Carabinieri that “nothing is missing.”  Amanda meant that Filomena’s laptop was still on her desk and she couldn’t tell if anything else was missing until Filomena arrived.  The prosecutors used Raffaele’s “nothing is missing” as foreknowledge of the robbery, meaning Raffaele knew “nothing was missing” because he had staged the break-in.  Raffaele also tells that Meredith’s “door is locked,” later statements to the Postal Police about the locked door will also be skewed.

The Carabinieri dispatch a car to the scene and the prosecution skews an important moment in time.

Raffaele’s call to 112 occurred BEFORE the arrival of the Postal Police.  This fact will become key when the prosecution attempts to tinker with the timeline using the CCTV camera timestamp from the parking garage across the street, that timestamp is 12 minutes slow.  The prosecution tried to use the discrepancy to their advantage by claiming that Raffaele had “tried to sneak away” and call 112 to “cover their involvement” in the crime while Postal Police were on scene.

The prosecution used the mop on the porch when they introduced the Levitating DNA Myth, in which Amanda and Raffaele were able to clean up their DNA from the scene while leaving Guede’s, impossible for anyone but God himself to accomplish.

In reality, Amanda and Raffaele, as concerned citizens, were the first to raise the alarm that something was wrong at Via Della Pergola 7 and after calling roommates, parents and the police to help search for Meredith, the innocent students went to prison for four years.  Payback for doing their civic duty.

At 12:58pm

The Postal Police arrive, officers Michele Battistelli and Fabio Marzi are looking for Filomena.  Amanda and Raffaele both think “that was fast” and assume that the officers are the Carabinieri responding to Raffaele’s call.  Amanda, still on the phone to Seattle, hangs up when the police arrive, leaving her mother and her stepfather feeling helpless and full of dread, Amanda is 6000 miles away and all they can do is wait for that next phone call. They pray that Meredith will be found safe.  Back in Perugia, both students found it odd that the Police were looking for Filomena abut assume that they must have received the information from headquarters.  They tell them about the mess inside the villa and invite them to take a look.

Battistelli and Marzi become the third and forth persons to compromise the bloody footprints on the hall floor.  Battistelli, looking at the mess in Filomena’s bedroom, immediately formulates a theory that the break-in was staged for insurance money.  This Postal Police officer has minimal experience in crime scene investigation and is not qualified to make such an assumption.

Please note, in the photo to the left, that the red dots are shoe and foot prints in Meredith’s blood.  The blue dots are stains detected by luminol, including the infamous Mixed DNA sample.

The blue dot in Filomena’s room is Meredith’s blood mixed with Amanda’s cellular DNA, at some point either a civilian or an officer tracked Meredith’s blood into Filomena’s room.  There is no way to know where Amanda’s DNA was located when it was mixed with the blood, in the hall or in Filomena’s room.

An often overlooked fact is that none of the other roommates DNA was introduced to court mixed with Meredith’s blood.  Surely in such a chaotic scene DNA traces of Filomena and Laura would be present, as well as Amanda’s.

How can Filomena not be present in that smeared sample from her own room?  Notably absent, in fact, from court documents are samples of ALL of the women who lived at Della Pergola 7 and the friends who visited there.

It stands to reason that multiple samples would have been found, so why are the police withholding evidence?

Both officers observe the broken window, feces in the toilet and blood in the bathroom. Amanda asks them to break down Meredith’s door, by now very concerned, and they refuse citing legalities and concern for Meredith’s privacy. Amanda explains that Meredith is not answering her cellphones and that is very unusual.  She explains that Meredith’s mother, Arline Kercher, is ill and her faithful daughter would never fail to answer the British cellphone. Still the Postal Police refuse.

Amanda, frustrated, turned back to Raffaele as a car drives up.  Filomena had called her boyfriend Marco Zaroli and asked him to go to the apartment since he was closer; she was en route with her girlfriend, Paola Grande.  Marco’s friend Luca Alteri accompanied him and they arrived just after the Postal Police followed by Filomena and her friend.  The police, Amanda, Raffaele, Marco and Luca are all looking at the mess in Filomena’s bedroom as she arrives; she confirms that nothing is missing from her bedroom and was glad to see that her laptop is still there.

About 1:05pm

Marco, Luca, Filomena and Paola become the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth persons to compromise the bloody footprints on the hall floor.  Filomena lifts a few articles of clothing and shakes the glass off before an officer shooed her out of the room.  She has disturbed the crime scene in her bedroom while the postal police look on.

Eight people inside Via Della Pergola 7 walking on the bloody shoe prints.  In fact, trace amounts of blood are later discovered in Filomena’s room, though there is no proof which of these eight people might have tracked blood into the room.  Or if the police that followed them did the deed, the forensic team wore one-piece white protection suits and never changed booties while walking in and out of the crime scene as evidenced in photos and videos.   One was photographed standing in Meredith’s blood, could that officer have been the one who tracked Meredith’s blood into Filomena’s room?

Amanda and Filomena are very concerned for Meredith; she is supposed to be home, and as soon as the police alert Filomena that the phones have turned up she insists on breaking down Meredith’s door.  Up to that point, the police are not taking them seriously as Battistelli asks if it is normal for Meredith to lock her door and Filomena says, “No, unless she was in England.”  Amanda concurs but is mistranslated by Raffaele as “Yes, she sometimes locks it when she is in town.”

Battistelli does not speak English and relied on Raffaele and Filomena, but Police still use this and many other translation errors as “proof” Amanda is “lying.”  Until Amanda appears in court, she will not have a proper accredited interpreter with her.  Raffaele’s English is a shade less rudimentary than Amanda’s Italian and so translations took some time with each listening intently to the other.

Absolutely correct translations were not even being considered as important at this point in time since no one realizes yet that absolutely correct translations are so critical.

Amanda does not yet understand that the officers are not the Carabinieri that Raffaele called and is mystified why they are not concerned about Meredith’s locked door.  Everyone is talking rapid-fire Italian and she can’t understand the conversations even with Raffaele’s help, they are standing in the front room intently trying to follow what is going on.  Filomena insists that they bring in someone who can open the door and Battistelli responds, “Okay, clam down, there’s no need to call anyone, it’s not like we’re going to find a body under the couch.”

He didn’t know then how prophetic those words would be a few minutes later.

Filomena glared at Battistelli for his flippancy and, as leaseholder, gave Marco and Luca permission to break down Meredith’s door.  The group moves down the narrow hallway, once again walking on the bloody footprints.  Luca, Marco, Filomena and the Postal Police followed by Paola.  Raffaele and Amanda are behind the group waiting nervously in the living room.  Raffaele is still quietly translating and Amanda’s stomach is in knots, she is talking once again to her mother in Seattle.

Just after Luca breaks down the door, Paola screams, “Blood!” and Filomena begins screaming “A foot! A foot!”

I often wonder what Rudy Guede was doing at this instant?  Smoke and mirrors currently protect his actions, but I expect one day we will know what he was doing the exact moment that poor Meredith was discovered.  Where was he when Meredith’s friends were crying with grief and rage over her death?  Was he having lunch while Via Della Pergola 7 became the House of Horrors?  Was he lounging over coffee with a pal?  Perhaps enjoying good food while Meredith lay in a pool of blood? 

Was he still looking at his hands to see if there was any blood on them?

Filomena is screaming and hysterical, Amanda thinks that they have just found a severed foot and tells her terrified mother that she needs to get off the phone to give the police her full attention.  She hears someone say “armoire” and thinks a foot was found in the armoire in Meredith’s room, then she thinks that Meredith has been stuffed into her armoire.  Raffaele finally helps her understand that Meredith is lying on her floor, in front of her armoire, with her foot was sticking out from under her bedspread.

Luca, Filomena, Paola, Marco and the police are the only ones to see inside the bedroom, but no one yet realizes that Meredith has been stabbed in the throat.  Luca sees Battistelli lift the blood-soaked bedspread covering Meredith’s body so that he can confirm she is dead.  Battistelli has now contaminated the murder scene but would later deny entering the room until Luca confirmed it.

About 1:15pm

Meredith had been dead for some 16 hours.  Battistelli and Marzi push everyone one out, Via Della Pergola 7 is now a crime scene and they call for back up.

Amanda is confused, numb and in shock, trying to grasp what had just happened, she was alternately sobbing and staring into space, paralyzed.  When she is not crying she is intently focused on listening to what Raffaele and others are saying.  Amanda realizes Meredith is dead in her room and is terrorized by the realization that she had been in the apartment with her friend’s body just feet away.  She is trying to hold herself together while processing what was happening and her rudimentary grasp of Italian is being put to the test.  Amanda is literally struck dumb with grief and Raffaele wraps his arms around his shivering girlfriend trying to comfort her as she was slowly “absorbing and rejecting the fractured news that Meredith was dead.”

Filomena, in contrast, had seen inside the room and a vivid picture was burned into her brain, she knew exactly what was going on and was beside herself in the moment crying hysterically.  The other young adults are all visibly upset, crying and hugging each other; everyone was shocked and terrified by the tragic death. Filomena and Amanda’s reactions illustrate that the response to tragedy is personal and must be in context with the circumstance and normal demeanor of any given person.  Prosecutors judged Amanda with no regard for herself or her circumstances, they wanted Amanda to wail and heap ashes on her head but she was struck dumb, frozen like a deer in the headlights.  In reality there is no right or wrong way to act when you discover your friend has been murdered and Amanda should never have been expected to act like Filomena.

Now the young women knew why Meredith never answered her phones, they are both horrified and grieving; both later realize it could have been them dead on the floor adding to their terror and loss of security.

Everyone is in shock, who could have done such a thing?

About 1:30pm

Mignini would be notified about the dead foreign student, her murder would be a very big deal and it had just fallen into his lap.  Mignini would be placing calls to the appropriate officials and he would learn almost immediately there was an American at the scene.  Is this the moment when the first seeds of revenge were sown?  Mignini prepares to leave for the crime scene, he needs to give this investigation his personal touch.

1:30pm to 3:30pm

The young adults are held at the scene, it’s very cold and they walk around to keep warm.  Curious bystanders are gathering to watch the commotion and within an hour the reporters and videographers appear.  One cameraman took about an hour of film before the young adults left the scene, he has the proof that the Amanda Didn’t Cry Myth never happened and is also the one that caught the Infamous Kiss on tape.

Ironically, Filomena is allowed back in her bedroom to retrieve her laptop, evidently before the arrival of the Perugian authorities.  No one seems to be concerned that Filomena has now compromised the crime scene in her bedroom twice, Did she sneak in before more officers arrived? Or did an officer retrieve and clear Filomena’s laptop for her?  If so, why was Amanda denied a warm coat?  Any warm coat, it didn’t need to be the one they wanted to test.

About 1:30pm

The Carabinieri arrive to find a yard full of grief-stricken and crying people. Since the Postal Police had arrived first, the murder investigation belongs to Perugia and Public Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini is in charge assisted by Police Chief Arturo De Felice, Homicide Chief Monica Napoleani and Coroner Dr. Luca Lalli. The Perugian police had far less experience than the Carabinieri conducting murder investigations so Inspector Edgardo Giobbi was dispatched from Rome to oversee the operation; the forensics would be gathered and processed by the Scientific Police.

As they await the teams to arrive the Carabinieri walk through the apartment, two more police officers step in the faint bloody shoe prints on the floor of the villa.  Ten people have now compromised the scene.  Four police officers from two jurisdictions and six civilians.

About 1:40pm

Napoleoni and her team arrive, the police continue to walk through or otherwise disturb the crime scene.

More than thirteen people including Deputy Napoleoni, Coroner Lalli and Mignini (who will shortly arrive) will walk on the bloody shoe prints before the Scientific Police from Rome take over.  Even though several officers don blue paper booties, they continue to walk between rooms, as well as outside and the apartment downstairs, without changing or removing their booties.  Others are wearing one piece white suits and there is no way to even change the booties on these.

The crime scene will be contaminated by upwards of 20 people before Meredith had been dead 24 hours.

From the time that Monica Napoleoni arrives she garners attention from Amanda and Raffaele, both are unnerved by her piecing stare and notice that she does not seem to be watching the other young adults with the same intensity.  Raffaele calls her “tightly wound” with “bulging eyes” and commented that she watched them while “covering her mouth” to talk to other police, as if they could her read lips.  Amanda noted that she “glared” and snarled at her for odd reasons.  Napoleoni’s body language all but screamed “I don’t like you” and the students could not comprehend why this stranger was treating them with such disrespect.

Monica Napoleoni, Chief of homicide and Mignini’s right hand ma’am, was clearly prejudiced against Amanda from the moment she walked onto the property at Via Della Pergola 7, her every word and action vividly aligned with the prosecution theories from that moment on.  There is no dispute about that fact, what is in dispute is when Napoleoni’s became prejudiced.  Perhaps after a phone call from Mignini?  Before she arrived on scene?

“Prejudice” by authorities, btw, is against Italian law, one of many national and international statutes the Perugian officials will break before the week is over.

Just before 2pm, (6am Seattle time)

Amanda calls her parents and they hear the phone call no one wants to get, your child sobbing on the other end, the rush of adrenaline ignited Edda’s inner Mother Bear, she wished that she could reach across the distance and hold her baby.  If only she knew the danger Amanda was in, Edda would have insisted that her daughter leave Perugia.

But Edda trusted the Perugian police with her daughter’s safety; she had no reason not to.

Amanda tells them between sobs that Meredith is dead, murdered. Edda’s uneasiness gives way to fear for her daughter, 6000 miles away, and grief for Meredith’s family.  Who could have done such a thing?  Edda later describes Amanda’s demeanor during that terrifying phone call as “freaked out, crying uncontrollably.”  She and Chris start a chain reaction to help Amanda; she informs her cousin in Germany a few hours north, tells Curt, Amanda’s father, and makes the decision to go to Perugia.

After conferring with the whole family, putting her job in order and securing airline tickets, Edda will arrive in Italy less than four days later.  She is in constant contact with Amanda but had no idea that Mignini had tapped her daughter’s cellphone and was monitoring her unsuspecting family.

Mignini knew when Edda would arrive so he, Napoleoni and Giobbi began scheduling the interrogation of her oldest daughter before she could get to Perugia; they knew that Amanda’s family did not suspected a trap.  The Perugians should have notified the American embassy that Amanda was under surveillance as soon as they tapped her phone, they broke an international treaty by not doing so.

So perfectly timed was the plan that Amanda would be trapped in the Italian legal system, and in prison, less than 12 hours before Edda set foot in Perugia.

Raffaele also calls his family; his sister Vanessa is very concerned, but confident that her fellow officers will monitor the scene.  She hears the crying and commotion in the background, and thinks of the poor girl; it’s such a tragedy.  She is very concerned for her younger brother.  Raffaele’s father, Francesco, wants him to come home immediately, but accepts that his son wants to stay and help Amanda.  He says a prayer for the dead girl’s family and is sorrowful that his son has to deal with the horror.  With Vanessa informed he feels confident that his son is safe, surely the Perugians will contact her if any issues arise.  Although Francesco thought that Raffaele would be home in a few days, he would drive to Perugia in a New York Minute if needed.

Filomena calls Laura and tells her that the police want to talk to her as well.  Laura makes plans to return home; the young Italian women, Luca, Marco, Paola and the British girls all retain lawyers, Amanda and Raffaele naively do not.  A mistake that haunts them to this day as the prosecution will take full advantage of their vulnerability.  The Italians are quite aware of the need for legal council, for protection, in Perugia.  Filomena and Laura both work for law firms so there would be gossip about the inner workings of the local judiciary, who could help you and who could hurt you.

Who chases Justice and who chases Devils.

Amanda and Raffaele’s parents are worried for their children and want them to leave Perugia, but both refuse.  At 20 and 23, these two sheltered university students want to show their parents that they are competent, so they cling to their independence.  Edda will arrive in a few days and Amanda is an emotional wreck, Raffaele couldn’t imagine leaving her alone in such a situation, it would be brutta figura to abandon her.  Raffaele’s integrity and concern for his new girlfriend is admired by both sets of parents, but his father Francesco Sollecito, and sister Vanessa want him to stay in close touch until Edda arrives.  While not the primary investigators, Vanessa (a Lieutenant) is confidant that the Carabinieri will inform her if there is something that needs her attention and Raffaele feels a sense of security that his sister is involved and aware.  Vanessa, the fighter pilot turned Carabinieri, is a competent officer with decades of experience.  These few hours also affected her life and she paid a heavy price because…

Neither family sees Evil rearing its ugly head.

Between 2pm and 3pm

The Perugian Flying Squad, Coroner Lalli, PM Mignini and Inspector Giobbi all arrive at the crime scene.  Coroner Luca Lalli arrives about 2:20pm, Inspector Gioia Brocci and her forensic team about 2:30pm and Mignini about 2:45pm. Roman Inspector Edgardo Giobbi, head of the Serious Crimes Unit, arrives about 3pm, later, in his infamous video, he tells the public that “we didn’t need science” to know that Amanda was “guilty of murder.”  By “observation” he could tell she was a murderer because she was “acting silly one moment and crying the next” while at the crime scene, she “not cry enough” during the week after the murder, she was “eating pizza” three days after the murder.  Eating pizza is a crime?  Really?  Amanda’s crying, hugging and kissing would be measured and compared with what the police thought bella figura.  Really?

It’s as if Giobbi had already decided that Amanda was guilty after he met her once.  Why would he do that?

He had only just arrived at the scene and had interacted briefly with Mignini and Napoleoni; his team hadn’t even set up, much less made any scientific observations about the crime.  Of course the commonality is that both Napoleoni and Giobbi interacted with Mignini before setting their sights on Amanda and Raffaele.  The job done by all three will amount to a perfect storm.

Like a rouge wave, the erroneous investigation would sweep away lives away and drown the truth.

As I plowed thought the material attached to this case, THIS was the fact that I saw repeated over and over as I chased down some bit of information: it all goes back to Mignini being involved in some fashion.  I began to say, “All Roads Lead To Mignini,” which would be a clever joke if it wasn’t for the destruction this man has wrought in so many lives.

PROTOCOL IS BROKEN

2:20pm

Coroner Lalli was told not to take the liver temperature almost as soon as he arrived on scene and Mignini hedges when asked directly if he gave the order and tries to blame others, but his position as prosecutor makes him ultimately responsible for decisions made on one of his cases.  A mysterious “someone” insisted that the crime scene remain “uncontaminated.”  Coincidentally Lalli was allowed in Meredith’s bedroom to perform the lividity test, but was not allowed to take the liver temperature when he was mere inches away.  These measurements, liver temperature and lividity, are used together with other observations to calculate the Time of Death. It’s imperative that they are noted as quickly as possible and it is the primary reason that a coroner is allowed at a crime scene. Generally all else waits until the coroner can take these pertinent measurements.

So stop right here and consider that an experienced prosecutor just told an experienced Coroner NOT to take a well-known and important measurement, a measurement that will shortly become hotly contested for not being completed in a timely manner.   Normally the police would simply take pictures and notes of the coroner’s actions and they were already setting up to photograph her bedroom, and documenting the coroner would not affect the investigation; only enhance it.  Also, as police photographed her bedroom, Meredith was left under her bedspread for a period of time; this action also affects the Time of Death measurement as the bedspread would hold her body heat.  The end result of Mignini’s apparent tinkering is that Meredith’s body is left on scene for some twelve hours, covered part of that time, and Lalli finally took the first liver temperature in his lab about 4am on November 3^rd, 13 hours after the initial call.

Skewing Meredith’s Time of Death highlighted that the public prosecutor knew manipulating this particular piece of evidence was very important and that it needed to be corrupted immediately.

For me personally this incident became the benchmark that demonstrated this prosecutor was far more interested in putting Amanda Knox in prison than solving Meredith Kercher’s murder. It’s here, in my humble opinion, that Meredith becomes a means to an end; clearly the prosecutor was not concerned about justice for the foreign student or for her family’s welfare.  I find that appalling and unconscionable.

Between 2:30pm and 3:30pm the video of the Infamous Kiss happens, all 2 seconds of it.

The six young adults are watched by an ever-increasing crowd of onlookers and news media, one camera followed the American everywhere she went. That cameraman captured what became the Infamous Kiss, a picture used to further smear Amanda’s reputation when the public was told that she and Raffaele were “making out” at the scene. Raffaele gives Amanda three quick pecks on the lips, literally two seconds of film, then he stokes her arm as she looks away hollow eyed and sad.  Amanda is in shock.  The public sees the kiss on a loop and hears the suggestion that they were “making out” at the scene while “Meredith’s dead body lies on the cold floor” begins to circulate.  Raffaele was merely comforting his clearly shell-shocked girlfriend.

In fact, according to some sources there is about an hour of film taken before Amanda and Raffaele leave, what happened to the rest of the 59 minutes and 58 seconds?

And I’m really shocked that Italy, terra di bacio romantico, thought that chaste peck was a lip-lock.  Sheesh.  And I thought that America was uptight.  

There is one other thing the camera catches, a single act of cruelty that underscores the beginning of the Perugians systematically stripping Amanda of her humanity, not a single senior officer at the scene would retrieve and clear a warm coat for her. So callous were the police that they left the young woman to freeze, however Raffaele, ever the gentleman, let her borrow his gray jacket and the two huddled together to keep warm.  Pictures from the scene show the twenty or so police all dressed for frigid weather and the videos taken show people keeping warm by walking around the yard.  There’s no reason why Amanda shouldn’t have had a jacket as long as it was documented correctly, the same with underwear and other essentials for heaven’s sake.  Those police were barbaric, in this mother’s opine, any senior officer should have had the humanity to make sure the residents of the villa has some of their personal essentials.

Just before 3pm

Amanda gets a call from her cousin asking for details and wanting her to return to her home in Germany, but she gently refuses.  She is insistent about helping police find her friend’s killer and she wants to personally give Meredith’s family her condolences.  The next day Amanda will find out her mother is coming, further anchoring her to Perugia.  Francesco still wants Raffaele home, but knows his son’s sense of responsibility will keep him with Amanda.  These polite and civic-minded young adults are both too naive to understand the adult’s concerns; they don’t see the web being woven around them.

Back in Seattle, Edda does not realize the danger and later laments, “If only I had insisted she leave.”  But at that point in time Edda was proud of her daughter’s concern for Meredith’s family and knew that she had friends helping her.  She expected the adults at the university and American Embassy to help Amanda as well.  Sadly, they did not.

About 3pm

Mignini uses Battistelli’s theory about the broken window to create the Staged Break In Myth, so Filomena’s room was not processed as a point of entry.  Instead, police decide that only someone with a key could have entered the residence and Filomena’s room is haphazardly processed.  The police turn their backs on a room with a broken window in a house with a dead body.  It makes no sense.  Unless you have a hidden agenda and, in hindsight, it is painfully clear that Giuliano Mignini did.  Here is the real dietrologia.

The “investigators” ignore that the glass spray pattern inside the room, although it follows the classic example of a rock thrown from the outside, and declare that the rock was thrown from the inside.  Mignini also decided that no one could have “climbed the wall” under the window, yet it was demonstrably easy for a Perugian rock climbing expert, proving that even someone with rudimentary skills could accomplish the feat.  Guede was an accomplished athlete and a documented second-story burglar.

In fact, over the next few weeks, the crime scene video will clarify that processing was routinely handled in a sloppy manner, as evident in the YouTube videos of the “scrubbing lady” (officer Brocci), Stephanoni “gift wrapping a mop,” and the collection of the infamous “bra clasp.”  The poignant “unceremoniously squashing Meredith’s belongings into suitcases” clearly shows that John Kercher was right to complain when all they received was a “few pieces of clothing in a battered suitcase.”

Just before 3:30pm, police have observed that Meredith was stripped nearly nude, her clothing strewn around her, soaked in her blood.  She has a pillow under her hips and it’s clear a sexual crime has occurred; to this day that pillowcase with suspected semen stains has never been tested.

Instead the police said they didn’t want to invade the privacy of Meredith’s boyfriend “just in case” it was his bodily fluids on the pillowcase.  Mignini would later make Amanda uncomfortable when he asked her if Meredith had anal sex, he was wondering if the stain was Vaseline and this line of questioning understandably grossed out Amanda.

How could they not test a possible semen stain from a sexually oriented murder investigation?  In the past six years, a first instance court, two appeal courts and the Italian Supreme Court have blocked access to the pillow case and the hard drives from Meredith, Amanda and Raffaele’s laptops.  After six years you think the Defense access would be allowed access to whatever evidence they wanted to see, what are all of those judges afraid of anyway?  But then again, knowing the dishonesty of the prosecution, a sentient court would have to consider the chain of custody and tampering for every piece being evaluated.

Just after 3:30pm

All six young adults were sent to the police station to answer more questions, Amanda and Raffaele would ride with Marco and Luca. It’s then that she finds out from Luca that Meredith’s throat was cut; Amanda breaks down and cries all the way to the police station, Raffaele comforts her as best he can.

After the arrival of the medical emergency team, a paramedic tells Luca that Meredith’s throat was “slashed” and she “suffocated” on her own blood.  Luca provides this detail to everyone in the car when they are on their way to the Questra more than two hours after the discovery of Meredith’s body.  Amanda later repeats the detail to Meredith’s British girlfriends, about four hours after Meredith is discovered, a few days later the police spin the story that “Amanda only knew details a killer would know” fueling the Smear Campaign.

In reality, the court record demonstrates that all of the young adults present were clearly sharing information amongst themselves and at that point in time, due to the language barrier, Amanda knew far less than the five young Italians.

About 5pm

Meredith’s British girlfriends arrive for questioning and during their interviews Mignini begins to glean catty remarks about Amanda. The young women provide him with all manner of schoolgirl gossip; Amanda didn’t flush the toilet properly and had a bunny vibrator keychain.  She strummed the same chord on a guitar while trying to learn a new song.  She did Yoga.  She had sex.  They are critical when Amanda and Raffaele share a quite moment by giving quick pecks and cuddling; Raffaele tries to make Amanda smile by making faces at her.  Amanda and Raffaele had spent all day stressed out, hungry and cold and that did not seem to register with Meredith’s friends, neither did the terror of being present when Meredith was found, even this was unremarkable to them.

Not a single one of Meredith’s friends are concerned about Amanda’s condition, they didn’t care that she was exhausted, but they were quick to complain when they did not get the attention they wanted.  One of the ladies was quite upset that Amanda “didn’t hug” her in a correct manner.  In all of their statements, it is themselves who are put first and Amanda is treated like an interloper, while they remark upon her behavior with abject snobbery.  In Seattle, those who know Amanda well did not see anything out of the ordinary and the condescending comments from Meredith’s girlfriends are considered to be nothing more than childish tattletales. But Mignini honed in on every bit of negativity he could find and used Meredith’s friends to create the Fictional Catfight Myth.

By 6pm

The Perugians are the only ones left at the crime scene and it has been cross-contaminated by civilians, the Postal Police, the Carabinieri, the Flying Squad and the Scientific Police.  Meredith has been dead for less than a day and the story her body was telling investigators is being eroded and replaced with a sordid fantasy.

Amanda asks a couple of the officers if she should contact her embassy and they say, “No need to do that, we just want to ask questions.”  Naïve and compliant Amanda should have called her embassy and that is exactly advice she gives today, “Know your rights.”

9pm, November 2, 2007

Twenty-four hours after Guede entered Meredith’s home.  Where was he?  What was he thinking about?  Was he still looking at his hands to see if he had blood on them?

At 3am, November 3, 2007

On Saturday, nearly 12 hours after their arrival (and long after the British Girls have left) Filomena, Amanda and their friends are finally sent home.  Exhausted, the women go back to their boyfriend’s apartments for some much needed sleep, but Amanda will only have a few hours rest.  The police want her back at 11am; she will accumulate a total of 54 hours of questioning that ends on November 6^th with her illegal interrogation.  The Perugian authorities will use this time to soften up Raffaele and Amanda, breaking laws by depriving the students of adequate rest before the grilling begins.

None of the women can retrieve any of their belongings from the crime scene, adding to Amanda’s stress.  All of her belongings are locked up in the villa. Raffaele lends her a pair of sweatpants and a shirt and she is arrested in the borrowed clothing a few days later, hardly the sexy femme fatale that the Perugians theorized.   Filomena and Laura, fortunately, have family and friends nearby; they have access to clothing and permanent shelter.  They feel secure.  As the young adults stumble home, exhausted, Meredith’s killer is drinking and dancing just blocks away.

At 3am

In the Domus disco, Rudy Guede is undulating alone on the dance floor during a moment of silence for Meredith; he will flee to Germany within hours of that scene. Onlookers think Guede’s strange behavior inappropriate as they look on wondering why he was so indifferent to the solemn occasion.

No one knew that they were standing in the presence of her murderer.

Clearly these first few hours decided the fates of the Kercher, Knox Sollecito and Lumumba families.  Clearly these are all innocent victims of overt bullying by local thugs, but with a global twist.  Clearly these thugs abetted Rudy Guede, who is literally getting away with murder.  Clearly the Perugians instigated a Smear Campaign against innocent people.

If the Italian Supreme Court has the cojones they should be able to stop this casino from causing more damage to innocent people.  They only need to closely examine the behavior of the Perugians authorities in the first few hours of the investigation; they set the tone and then used the prejudice that followed to fan the flames of character assassination.   The day Meredith was killed none of these Perugians knew the defendants personally, yet they felt the right to deceive the public from the very beginning.

In reality the Perugian officials are asking the public to believe that they, a few strangers, know Amanda and Raffaele better than hundreds of their family members and friends.

Consider, in retrospect, that when a serial killer is publicly identified the media beats a path to the door of family and friends; their word is taken as fact since they knew the killer and may have seen “signs of trouble.”  Now consider that the family and friends of these innocent young adults “never saw signs of trouble” and repeatedly told the media that fact.  What did the media do?  They printed what the Perugians said and suppressed what the friends and family said.  The media summarily dismissed Nice Kids because they are boring; they don’t sell papers.

The tabloids wanted the girl-on-girl sexual fantasies of a stranger, so, in essence, the media made decisions for you, they decided that you, dear readers, would rather read a salacious fable than the truth.  That you support a dirty old man’s fantasies about college girls. They WANT you to hate innocent people for no other reason than to further their agenda.

The Perugians victimized innocent people that first day and they are still victimizing innocent people. Italy needs to demonstrate its bella figura, stop pandering to these out-of-control officials and give the real victims justice.  The Italian Supreme Court must put an end this farce of a trial, this Sleaze Circus, they can do so simply by following protocol. Do what is right.  The Kerchers deserve to know the whole story of how Meredith died.  They need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Amanda and Raffaele had nothing to do with the murder.  End the speculation.

Leave no stone unturned.