Murder of Meredith Kercher

, where the murder of Meredith Kercher happened in November 2007]]
The **murder of Meredith Kercher** happened on the night of 1 November 2007. Meredith Kercher was born in London on 28 December 1985 and was 21 years old at the time of her death. She was a student at Leeds University in England but moved to Italy in August 2007. Meredith went to a university in Perugia, Italy as part of her course of study. She lived in a house, upstairs, with three other female students.

Police investigators concluded that Kercher had been killed by striking her neck with a knife, undressed, and locked in her bedroom. Missing from her bedroom were credit cards, 300 euros (~US$450) as rent money due, and her house keys, all never found. Also missing were her 2 mobile phones (one international and one for local calls) which were found in bushes several blocks away when they rang as friends called on the next day.

A local unemployed man from Ivory Coast, found on the run north of Switzerland, without a rail pass on a train in Germany, was taken by police when his bloody fingerprints and DNA matched on the girl's body and handbag. The court judge found him guilty of the crime when his statements claimed he had seen a man with a knife and left the stabbed girl bleeding in her clothes on her bed with a white pillow, but that pillow was later found under her naked body with his bloody shoeprint and fingerprints on the pillow. Then she called another roommate, Filomena R., and said that there were drops of blood in the house and that Kercher did not answer her phone. Knox then tried calling Kercher again two times, but there was still no answer on either her local Italian phone or her UK phone. Immediately, Filomena called back to Knox to say she was coming home, and Knox then announced that Filomena's bedroom window had been broken, with glass all over her clothes and the computer on the floor.

After Filomena had called Knox again, two police officers came to the house because two mobile phones had been found in gardens about one kilometer (0.6 mile) from the house. When Knox had called Kercher (at 12:07&nbsp;pm), her phone was found ringing in some garden bushes. It was found by a neighbour who then called the communications police.

Entering the house, the police noted all the drops of blood that Knox showed them, and they confirmed that Kercher's bedroom door was locked. A friend of Filomena's broke the door to open it. The police looked in the bedroom and found Kercher's body under a duvet (quilt). She was naked except for her T-shirts pulled up to her shoulders. There was a lot of blood on her body and around the room. Someone had stabbed her neck with a knife. Her clothes were laying scattered towards the door. Two credit cards, 300 euros (about US$420), and her house keys were missing.

## Arrests
The next day, the police arrested three people. They arrested Knox, her 2-week boyfriend (an Italian student) Raffaele Sollecito. They also arrested Knox's boss at a local pub where she worked but later released him. Sollecito was Knox's new boyfriend, and she had met him just eight days before the murder. Weeks later, police arrested another person called Rudy Guede.  Originally from the Ivory Coast, Guede later acquired dual citizenship in Italy. After the murder, he went by train to Germany. Police in Germany caught him and took him back to Italy.

## Trials
Guede was put on trial in Italy in October 2008. He was found guilty and sent to prison for 30 years.

Knox and Sollecito were also put on trial. Sollecito was sent to prison for 25 years, and Knox for 26 years. They both appealed their sentences. While in her house, he claimed he became sick, and while in the bathroom, he heard a loud scream. In his story, Guede claimed that he saw a brown-haired Italian man holding a knife, over Kercher on the floor of her room.
:* Knox had written a statement, during police interrogation, in which she vaguely remembered going to the house with her boss from work, but thought it was a false memory, suggested under police pressure.
:* Knox testified that the police, on the 4th day of questions, had kept her awake all night, without food, then shouted, hit her, and threatened to put her in prison for 30 years unless she named someone. However, the police testified they did not bully her, and instead that Knox started crying and confessed to being in the house.
:* Sollecito, when calling the police, said that there had been a burglary break-in with nothing taken, even though the other housemates had not returned to count their belongings.

Because no other witnesses could confirm the couple stayed in his house, during the murder at Knox's house, they were both sent to trial. The evidence against them was very limited: but the knife was too large to have made two of the three stab wounds, and tested negative for any blood residue anywhere.
When Knox was convicted in the first trial, the verdict was questioned by some as "anti-Americanism", but Sollecito was also convicted at the same time.

## Appeals
Guede appealed against his sentence, and it was changed from 30 to 16 years in prison. He still says that he did not kill Kercher. His second appeal trial ended in December 2010 with upholding the verdict of guilty.

Knox and Sollecito filed the proper legal documents to appeal their convictions, and they were still considered "presumed innocent" as if the previous trial verdicts were suspended. Their appeal trial began in November 2010, with a new judge who ruled to re-examine DNA evidence against them. The judge also granted a re-questioning of witness Antonio C. about which days he saw what.

On 3 October 2011, murder convictions against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were overturned and they were both set free that same night.

Italy's supreme court ordered a re-trial. The case was heard in Florence, and ended on 30 January 2014. Both Knox and Sollecito were found not-guilty of murder. They were originally sentenced to 28 (Knox) and 26 (Sollecito) years in prison.

## References