RUDY GUEDE: KERCHER KILLER CAUGHT IN A WEB OF LIES

This article was originally published on GroundReport.

Just over eight years ago Rudy Hermann Guede told of his involvement in the death of Meredith Kercher. His testimony, to this day, is the only first person account with exact details that match evidence left at the scene. He relates enough insight throughout his narrative to give one a sense of what really happened in the Perugian villa on that windswept Italian hillside.

But his narrative is full of holes and he remains protected from any challenge.

For a fuller understanding of the sequence of events please read “Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito: The Calm Before The Storm,” the definitive timeline of the Meredith Kercher Murder.

This snippet is from October 31 to November 3, 2007, a reminder of the time when Guede, under the guidance of the Perugian prosecution team, was still explaining how his DNA was found in Meredith Kercher’s bedroom, on her body and personal effects.

For your convenience, I have included a juxtaposition of the

DEFENSE Arguments and PROSECUTION Arguments.

2007
OCTOBER 31, WEDNESDAY, HALLOWEEN
5:00pm
Guede plays a pick-up game of basketball with several other young men at Piazza Grimana, then visits his Spanish friends, Carlos and Thomas, at Via Camp di Battaglia. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“I can explain why I have a stolen laptop

and phones,

I didn’t really break into the nursery…”

8:30pm
Rudy Guede calls his friends, Carlos and Thomas, to make a plan for Halloween. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

About 9:00pm
Amanda is at Le Chic dressed as a kitty cat, Juve is working the front door dressed as a vampire and the bar is packed. Raffaele is working on his thesis, Laura is at her parent’s house, Filomena is at the movies, Meredith is at a Halloween party and Guede is eating pizza and watching a football game with Carlos and Thomas. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Amanda Knox testimony) (2009 Patrick Lumumba testimony) (2009 Filomena Romanelli testimony)

About 9:30pm
In about 24 hours Meredith Kercher’s life will come to a violent end. (2007 November 1, Via della Pergola 7, Perugia, Italy)

10:30pm
Marta Nieto and Carolina Martin, who live in the flat above Rudy Guede in Via del Canerino, meet him at their friend Adriana Molina’s place in Via Campo di Battaglia. There are “about 30 people” attending a party until midnight. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2008 Marta Nieto testimony) (2008 Carolina Martin testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

10:30pm
Meredith Kercher is club hopping with her British girlfriends, they laughed, danced and took dozens of pictures. Early morning pictures of Meredith posing with friends at the Domus disco were the last memories captured of this sweet and friendly young woman. During the entire affair, none of her friends saw Meredith talking to a man who looked like Rudy Guede. (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (2009 Natalie Hayward testimony) (2009 Jade Bidwell testimony) (2009 Helen Powell testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

NOVEMBER 1, 2007, THURSDAY, ALL SAINTS DAY
Midnight
Guede leaves Via Campo di Battaglia with Carlos and Thomas, they move on to another party. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

2:00am
Merlin’s closes down and the British Girls move on to Domus Disco. Guede, Carlos and Thomas leave the party and move on to Domus disco. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Samantha Rodenhurst testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (2009 Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 2:10am
Guede says Meredith approached him dressed as a vampire, he says he didn’t recognize her at first. As soon as he realized it was her; he teased, “Do you want to suck my blood because you lost the match?” referring to the championship game of October 20. He says he “talked to her for about ten minutes, kissed her and made a date for the next evening at 8:30pm then he wandered around the club talking to other friends.” None of the British girls saw Meredith talking to a man who looks like Rudy Guede, though she is with one or more of her group all night. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Samantha Rodenhurst testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (2009 Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 5:30am
Guede’s friends Marta and Carolina see him dancing with a girl who had “long, straight blonde hair.” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Carolina Martin testimony) (2009 Micheli Motivation) (2010 MII)

6:00am until 6:00pm
Rudy Guede is sleeping. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

6:45am
Sunrise on All Soul’s Day. Meredith is sound asleep as the cold dawn lights the sky, the wild night at the clubs had given way into a solemn holiday weekend. (2007 Sunrise in Perugia, Italy)

About 5:30pm
Amy is directing the pizza and apple crumble assembly, while the British girls look at Halloween photos on Robyn’s computer, Rudy Guede does not appear in a single picture taken by the group while at Domus Disco. Guede will later claim that on Halloween Meredith “approached him, they flirted, kissed and made a date for November 1.” During the entire night of Halloween and up to this moment on All Saints Day, Meredith never mentions Guede by name, description or tells of the alleged “date” he says they made.

“Meredith approached me, we flirted, kissed and made a date for November 1.”

As her friends and family testified, Giacomo Silenzi (Meredith’s downstairs neighbor) is the only man in her life.

Meredith is in the company of one or more of her friends all night. None of them personally know Guede and none of them recall seeing Meredith with him on Halloween. None of Guede’s friends know Meredith personally or recall seeing him with a girl who looked like her. None of the witnesses who testified about their contact with Meredith on Halloween night remember seeing her with Guede. None of Meredith’s family or friends know of Guede, he is a stranger to everyone. Meredith, herself, only knows Guede as a passing acquaintance, someone Giacomo knows. (2007 Amanda’s email home) (2007 Raffaele Sollecito deposition) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Amanda Knox testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Giacomo Silenzi testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation) (2012 HB) (2013 WTBH)

About 6:00pm
Rudy Guede wakes up. Filomena, Marco, Paola and Luca leave for the carnival Pian di Massiano. Amanda and Raffaele are about to watch Amelie. Laura is with her parents. Meredith, Robin, Amy and Sophie eat pizza and start watching The Notebook on DVD (2hr, 4min). The Wee Hours are catching up with them as they gossip about the Halloween parties, everyone is tired. (2007 Raffaele Sollecito deposition) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Filomena Romanelli testimony) (2009 Paola Grande testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Amanda Knox testimony) (2012 HB) (2013 WTBH)

6:27pm
Raffaele and Amanda, sitting on his bed, download and play Amelie (2hr, 3min). (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 7:30pm
Meredith, Amy, Robyn and Sophie stop The Notebook to eat apple crumble with ice cream. (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 7:35pm
Rudy Guede leaves his apartment just after the beginning of the TG3 News program. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

About 7:40pm
Guede arrives at the villa for his “date with Meredith,” she is not there so he checks to see if the guys are home; they are not there either. He leaves to go to Alex Crudo’s apartment. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2008 Alex Crudo testimony)

About 7:45pm
Guede passes through Piazza Grimana on his way to Via Bartolo. He sees a light on in the bedroom and knocks, Alex answers the door about five minutes later. Crudo denies seeing Guede on November 1st. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2008 Alex Crudo testimony)

7:51pm
Guede is caught on the parking garage’s CCTV camera 7, the angle captures the garage gate and villa gate across the street. He walks toward the villa, back to the camera and is recognized by his jacket and shoes; then disappears. Independent crime scene professionals determined that shortly after this video was taken Guede used the grate under the window to gain access. He flipped open the shutter and threw a rock through Filomena’s window then left the immediate area. It is a common burglary ploy to break a window and then wait at a safe distance see if the noise attracts attention. The ravine offers cover/escape, as well as access/escape to the corner of Viale Sant’Antonio and Via Della Pergola. Piazza Grimana is a half block uphill from the corner and there is a peek-a-view of the villa gate from one side of the basketball court. (2009 Massei Motivation) (Retired FBI: 2010 Steve Moore, 2011 John Douglas and 2013 Jim Clemente)

About 8:15pm
Guede leaves Alex Crudo’s apartment and goes to the “kebob place near Turreno” for a bite to eat. Crudo denies seeing Guede on November 1st. (2008 Rudy Guede Deposition) (2008 Alex Crudo testimony)

8:22pm
Guede is captured on CCTV camera 7 for a second time, he is recognized by his shoes walking left to right downhill toward the villa gate. Law enforcement professionals conclude that Guede may have been scouting the villa for any commotion from just up the street, perhaps near the corner of Viale Sant’Antonio and Via Della Pergola. Guede, having “seen no activity around the villa,” entered through Filomena’s room just after this sighting. (2009 Massei Motivation) (Retired FBI: 2010 Steve Moore, 2011 John Douglas and 2013 Jim Clemente)

About 8:30pm
Guede hefted himself onto the window grate under Filomena’s bedroom window and climbed in, exactly like he had done at Brocchi’s office five days prior and Tremontano’s apartment before that. Glass is scattered across the floor all the way to her bed and he knocks clothing from a closet near the window onto the floor as he clambers up, then scatters more glass on top of her clothing as he enters the room. He looks at Filomena’s laptop, then drops it on the floor, “moves into the kitchen for a drink” and to scout the premises. (2009 Paolo Brocchi testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation) (Retired FBI: 2010 Steve Moore, 2011 John Douglas and 2013 Jim Clemente)

Guede arrives at the villa a second time, the gate is open so he walks up to the door and knocks, but no one is home. He “notes the traffic is light and not many people are about.” He sees a “Moroccan,” standing next to a car with two people inside and its headlights on. Then Meredith arrives and Guede notes that she “took her keys out of her bag and opened the door.” The “apartment is dark” as Meredith calls out, “Is anybody home?” They enter and he asks for a drink, she invites him to grab something from fridge as she “walks directly back to her room.” He “drinks some juice out of the bottle,” not knowing where the glasses are, and notes that “the other bedroom doors are closed.” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“I noted that the traffic was light and

not many people are about.”

8:35pm
The Notebook ends and Meredith decides to call it an evening, she borrows “Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789” from Robyn to catch up on some homework and they plan to meet in class the next day. Sophie is tired as well and wants to see a favorite TV program, she says she will walk Meredith part way home. (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

Meredith suddenly becomes angry with Amanda for stealing her rent money, shows Guede the “lingerie drawer next to her bed where her money had been” and calls Amanda a “druggie whore.” Guede suggests that it was a thief, so they look in the other rooms to see if anything else was stolen. Then they “walk around the apartment” to check for signs of a break-in, finding nothing, they “walk outside” to do the same and find no sign of forced entry. Meredith decides it has to be one of the other women who is the thief, but Guede notes that since Meredith wasn’t complaining about the other roommates, that Amanda must be the culprit. Meredith “goes into Amanda’s room and looks in her drawer for the money.” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

About 8:45pm
Meredith and Sophie leave Robyn and Amy’s apartment. They say good night to Robyn and Amy, it’s the last time the ladies see Meredith alive. Sophie and Meredith chatter happily as they walk through the dark streets. (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

Guede calms Meredith down, they begin “kissing and heavy petting, partially disrobing while standing in the living room area.” (2007 Rudy Guede Skype) (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“We were kissing and heavy petting, partially disrobing while standing in the living room area.

8:50pm
The last time Sophie saw Meredith alive was just uphill from the villa as they part company. (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

8:55pm
Sophie arrives at her apartment on Via del Lupo, her program starts at 9:00pm. (2007 Sophie Purton deposition) (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

Guede’s kebob needs to be evacuated, so he uses Filomena’s and Laura’s bathroom, next to the kitchen. He was sitting on the commode when Meredith arrived and did not flush, so Meredith was not alerted to his presence. His DNA is found in fecal matter on toilet paper lying on the floor, next to the commode. (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2010 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Massei Motivation)

8:56pm
Meredith calls her mother Arline using her English Sony Ericsson cellphone, but the call is interrupted; she may have lost reception in the narrow streets. (2009 Massei Motivation)

9:01pm
Meredith’s last few steps to her doom were captured on CCTV camera 7, she is identified by her shoes as she walks left to right downhill toward the villa gate. The villa is dark and quiet as she approaches and she has the apartment all to herself. Amanda and Filomena are spending the night with their respective boyfriends and Laura has left for Viterbo to spend the holiday weekend with her parents. Meredith is pleased to have some private time, she’ll finish laundry and then get some rest. But instead of peace and solitude, Meredith Kercher walked into a nightmare. (2009 Massei Motivation)

Defense investigators believe the attack occurred shortly after Meredith arrived home. As she unlocked the door and flipped on the light Rudy Guede froze in the bathroom just off the kitchen where he is sitting on the commode. Meredith locked the door behind her and walked through the kitchen “to her bedroom,” flipping on lights and calling out, “Is anyone home? It’s Meredith.” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“I was sitting on the toilet…”

Guede and Meredith are “kissing and heavy petting, partially disrobed while standing in the living room area, their pants down.” (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

9:03pm
The CCTV camera 7 video is scrutinized by police in 2007 and most footage is discarded; except for Guede and Meredith’s sections. It shows a parade of ordinary citizens walking past the gate, as well as cars coming and going. (2009 Massei Motivation)

Meredith may have alerted to a noise in the hall and called out, “Who is it?” Guede may have said, “We need to talk,” in an agitated voice. She may have tried to fight him off. However it happened, the defense argues that just after she arrived home was the moment she was attacked. The fatal injury is 3 stab wounds on the left side of her neck, in the same place, in quick succession, from a short bladed knife whose hilt bruised her skin. Similar in size to the pocketknife Guede used to keep Christian Tremontano at bay while he escaped from the man’s apartment just over a month earlier. The wounds match a knife (3.149 inches) half the size of the infamous Double DNA Knife (6.89 inches) used by the prosecution. If the Double DNA knife had gone in hilt deep, three times, it would have nearly decapitated Meredith. Defense expert, Professor Carlo Torre, testified that “it is impossible in a moment of homicidal frenzy, that a large knife could be driven to precisely the same depth, measurable to a thousandth of an inch, three times in a row.” (2009 Carlo Torre testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation) (2013 WTBH)

About ten minutes later Meredith asked Guede if he had a condom, he did not and neither did she, so they stopped making out and got dressed. Guede needed use the bathroom anyway as the “kebob had given him a stomach ache” and Meredith told him to use the front bathroom. Guede left Meredith in the lounge “fully dressed” and while sitting on the commode he hears the doorbell ring and Meredith saying, “Who is it?” Then she says in an agitated voice, “We need to talk!” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“Meredith said, “Who is it?”

About 9:20pm
Meredith is bleeding out and Guede tries to unsuccessfully mop up the mess using the bathroom towels. He sits the knife down on the bed, where it leaves a bloody imprint. He tries to wipe blood off his hands, pants and shoes. Guede takes his right shoe off and goes into the back bathroom to clean it off, leaving drops of Meredith’s blood on the bidet and his bloody right footprint on the blue bath mat. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About ten minutes later Guede is sitting on the toilet listening to his IPod with the volume on Loud when he hears “very loud screams.” The IPod was never recovered. First he says that it is dark in the kitchen with “only the dim light from Meredith’s room,” then he says the lights are on in the kitchen, though they “were off” when he went into the bathroom. He “goes toward Meredith’s room with his pants down,” as he didn’t have time to pull them up, and sees a “male figure” at the front door who “attacks him” and “cuts his hand with a sharp knife like a scalpel.” He notes that the man was wearing a black Napapijri jacket, just like one Guede owed, and a white cap with red stripe. Guede falls between the fridge and table, pants around his ankles, and uses a chair to defend himself like he did at the Tremontano robbery. The Mystery Man runs away yelling that Guede would be “blamed.” He yanks his pants up and goes to Filomena’s room to look out the window. It is “too dark to see clearly,” but he sees a “girl running away.” (2007 Rudy Guede Skype call) (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Borsini Motivation)

About 9:30pm
Guede strips Meredith from the “waist down” to simulate his Date Alibi. She is unconscious as he roughly pulls her clothing off and throwing items around the room. He repositions her to put a pillow under her butt, then molests her and masturbates onto the pillowcase. When he is finished, Guede covers Meredith’s body with her bedspread, then rifles through her “lingerie drawer next to the bed” and her purse “taking money,” keys and credit cards while leaving behind bloody fingerprints. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 9:45pm
Guede locks Meredith’s bedroom door after robbing her, turns off the lights in the apartment but doesn’t lock the tricky front door as he flees into the cold night. He has tracked faint, bloody, left shoe prints all the way down the hall to the front door, but during the windy night the faulty door will swing open. The fresh, cold air will eliminate any smell of blood, as well as dry the bloody footprints by morning. Guede flees into the Fosse del Bulagaio ravine below Meredith’s house to avoid people in the street. He later testifies, “There is blood on my hands and my pants are wet so I covered them with a sweatshirt.” Guede avoids detection by following the ravine down to Via Bulagaio, across the road, up a driveway and into a line of trees at the edge of a field that leads directly to the Lana house. The cover provided would have also give him time to calm down and think about what to do next. On November 21, 2007, Raffaele’s lawyer witnessed a search of Rudy Guede’s apartment. On the floor were shoe prints with the same pattern of concentric circles as the ones at the crime scene. They were made in dirt, as if the wearer had been walking through the fields. (2008 Rudy Guede testimony) (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation) (2009 Massei Motivation) (2012 HB)

“There is blood on my hands and

my pants are wet

so I covered them with a sweatshirt.”

9:54pm
CCTV camera 7 captures two people walking into the parking garage, backs to the villa. They turn and look behind them into the street. No one knows what they are looking at, they have never been interviewed. (2014 Oggi)

9:58pm
Meredith’s answering machine, # 901, is dialed but the call ends before the welcome message finishes and immediately locks. The call is picked up by cell tower Ponte Rio, Montelaguardia across the valley and not the cell tower that serves the villa, leading investigators to believe that the phone has been removed from the Via della Pergola premises. The phone could be located in the area of a ridge to the north of Meredith’s home that would block the signal to the cell tower that serves her apartment. The ridge is between the Bulagaio del Fosso ravine below the villa and the Lana home. (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 10:00pm
Guede returns to Meredith’s room and notes the “light from her lamp is dim,” but he sees her on the floor bleeding. He uses towels from the bathroom to try and stop the flow, but is unsuccessful. He notes that there is “so much blood flowing that the wound wasn’t even visible.” He asked her what happened but all she could do was repeat the sound “AF, AF, AF.” His hands are covered in blood as he tried to “write on the wall” what she was saying. “She told me not to leave her alone. I knew it because she was wailing with her arms stretched out at me. But I was shocked. I left the house in shock. I was outside, but didn’t know where to go, seeing still all that blood. It was all so red. I thought of going home. I had wet trousers and tried to cover it with the sweatshirt.” (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

Meredith’s English phone calls “Abbey,” the first name in her contact list is also her bank in the UK. The prefix +44 is not used and the call did not connect. The call is picked up by the cell tower Ponte Rio, Montelaguardia across the valley and not the cell tower that serves the villa, leading investigators to believe that the phone had been removed from the premises. The phone could be located in the area of a ridge to the north of Meredith’s home that would block the signal to the cell tower that serves her apartment. The ridge is in between the Bulagaio del Fosso ravine below the villa and the Lana home. (2009 Massei Motivation)

10:02pm
CCTV camera 7 captures two people walking into the parking garage, backs to the villa. They turn and look behind them into the street. No one knows what they are looking at, they have never been interviewed. (2014 Oggi)

10:13pm
Meredith’s British cell phone receives a picture message from the cell tower that services Ponte Rio, Montelaguardia; a picture that she will never see. The phone could be located in the area of a ridge to the north of Meredith’s home that would block the signal to the cell tower that serves her apartment. The ridge is in between the Bulagaio del Fosso ravine below the villa and the Lana home. (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 10:15pm
The police arrive at the home of Elisabetta Lana after she called in a “bomb scare.”  It turned out to be a prank phone call that warned her of a bomb in her toilet.  She testified that it took “about ten minutes. They were pretty quick” after her initial phone call. This is significant as both of Meredith’s phones will be found in her yard the following morning. (2009 Elisabetta Lana testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

10:25pm
Police arrive at the Lana home. (2009 Elisabetta Lana testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

Guede is scared and runs away, but doesn’t call police because the mysterious strangers said, “The black man will be blamed!” He returns to his apartment to get cleaned up, he “disposes his bloody pants and shoes in Germany” two days later. (2007 Rudy Guede diary)

“I disposed of my bloody pants and shoes in Germany”

10:30pm
A black man running up the street near the cottage nearly knocks over Alessandra Formica’s boyfriend as they were descending the stairs on Via della Pergola that lead to Viale Sant’Antonio where their car is parked. Monacchia Antonella, nearby, hears a couple arguing, followed by a loud scream. It could be that Antonella heard Formica and her boyfriend telling the running man to watch where he was going. (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Alessandra Formica testimony) (2009 Monacchia Antonella testimony)

Pasqualino Coletta calls Gianfranco Lombardo for a tow between 10:30pm and 10:40pm, he notes that “nothing out of the ordinary” happened while he waited. He notes the villa is dark and that he heard no screams. (2009 Pasqualino Coletta testimony) (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony)

About 10:40pm
The police leave the Lana home after taking a report and walking around the property with a flashlight. They do not enter the house. (2009 Elisabetta Lana testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

About 10:50pm
Gianfranco Lombardo arrived within 15 to 20 minutes to tow Pasqualino Coletta’s car. (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony)

Rudy Guede “arrived back home, not knowing what to do. I remember having taken off my pants. I changed only those, because of the clothes I was wearing, only the trousers were dirty. I put on the “Pelle Pelle” ones, I remember because many of my friends said they looked like pajamas. I washed my hands, they were full of blood, in the sink, and I left.” (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

About 11:05
Gianfranco Lombardo loads up Coletta’s car and does his paperwork before leaving, they note nothing unusual. Traffic is light. (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony)

11:15pm
Gianfranco Lombardo prepares to leave the area. He notes the gate of Via della Pergola was open, but didn’t see any lights on in the villa, nor any movement. (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony)

11:20pm
Gianfranco Lombardo and Pasqualino Coletta leave with the car in tow. (2009 Gianfranco Lombardo testimony) (2009 Pasqualino Coletta testimony)

NOVEMBER 2, FRIDAY, ALL SAINT’S DAY
Midnight
Meredith is lying dead on her bedroom floor. Guede has returned to the streets after getting cleaned up, he will discard his bloody shoes and pants in Germany within two days. Amanda and Raffaele are asleep at his apartment. Filomena and Marco are still out with Luca and Paola. Laura is with her parents. The British Girls are asleep. (2007 Amanda Knox email) (2007 Raffaele Sollecito deposition) (2009 Filomena Romanelli testimony) (2009 Amy Frost testimony) (Robyn Butterworth testimony) (2009 Sophie Purton testimony) (2009 Massei Motivation)

12:10am
John Kercher calls Meredith’s English phone, as promised. There is no answer and it pings the cell tower that covers Via Sperandio near the Lana home. (2009 Massei Motivation) (2010 MII)

About 2:00am
Guede and his friends stop by Velvet so one of the group can talk to a restaurant employee. Guede “feels like a robot.” (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

“I feel like a robot”

About 2:30am
Guede and friends arrive at Domus disco. Paolo Farsi noted that Guede “smelled fairly strong.” Other witnesses said Guede was “acting strangely.” Guede is in shock, killers describe feelings after their first murder as being in a trance or dream state. Given the perverse and brutal act Guede had committed only five hours before, sweating and being in a daze would be expected. (2007 Rudy Guede diary) (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Paolo Farsi testimony) (1989 Ted Bundy interview)

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. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2009 Massei Motivation)

3:30pm
Rudy Guede is hanging out with friends, keeping a low profile, as the news of Meredith’s death sweeps though Perugia. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition)

NOVEMBER 3, SATURDAY
About 2:00am
Rudy Guede returns to Domus disco. (2008 Rudy Guede deposition) (2008 Micheli Motivation)

About 3:00am
Paolo Farsi and other witnesses at Domus disco are surprised to see “Guede dancing alone during a moment of silence for Meredith,” they think his behavior is disrespectful. (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Paolo Farsi testimony)

About 4:00am
Guede’s friends, Carlos and Thomas, arrive at Domus Disco and see him sitting with people they do not know. (2008 Micheli Motivation)

Early Afternoon
Guede flees Perugia traveling first to Florence, then on to Bologna, Milan and Dusseldorf. (2008 Micheli Motivation)

NOVEMBER 19, MONDAY
Fingerprints found in Meredith’s bedroom are identified are as Rudy Guede’s and a warrant for his arrest is signed by Prosecutor Mignini. Guede’s DNA will be identified on the victim, no other DNA will be linked to her body or her purse. Guede is an acquaintance of the villa residents and a stranger to Meredith’s family and friends, so it’s a shocking twist to the investigation that is unfolding before their eyes. (2007 Italian Fingerprint database) (2008 Micheli Motivation) (2009 Massei Motivation)

“I can explain about the DNA

on Meredith’s body

and the stolen money…”

One has to ask oneself, after seeing these facts from the case file, whether or not Guede’s story is to be believed. And to put his version ahead of evidence, forensics and all of Meredith Kercher’s family, friends and roommates without so much as a challenge is nothing short of an insult to her memory.

There is no justice for Meredith in Italy, at least not yet.

Jan. 28, 2016:
I would like to dedicate this article to my dear friend Joseph Bishop, gone too soon.  Joe is one of those humble and dedicated men who left a mark everywhere he went, be it advocating for an injustice or simply being a friend.  This unfailingly kind man will forever remain a kindred spirit of many. 

But most importantly, our Joe is a  reminder of how ‘one voice’ can make a difference.