A number of new questions have recently been raised in connection with the sensational Italian police investigation of the Meredith Kercher murder case, some of which have raised doubts in official circles about what really happened the night Meredith died. Although American honors student Amanda Knox, along with her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede were arrested as suspects for Meredith's murder last autumn and have been languishing in jail ever since, prosecutors in the case haven't leveled formal charges against any of them - yet. The latest information to come out of the medieval Italian city of Perugia, where the murder occurred, suggests that the prosecution’s case may have been seriously compromised by careless police work.
Among the new questions that were raised during an all-day closed-door hearing conducted by judge Claudia Matteini on Saturday, April 19, 2008, were whether officials had been able to accurately determine Meredith's time of death, whether Meredith had been drinking alcohol the night she died, and whether or not she had been sexually assaulted as had been originally believed. Because delays had occurred in conducting the autopsy on Meredith's body, official reports that were recently leaked to the Italian press suggest that Meredith died "sometime between 8:30 p.m." on November 2, 2007 to shortly past midnight. The timely examination of a blood sample from Meredith’'s body was also apparently botched, making it difficult for the crime lab to determine whether the alcohol level found in her blood was the result of drinking or whether it was caused by the body's decomposition processes. Making matters even worse was the fact that the autopsy report did not conclusively say that Meredith had been raped or sexually assaulted, but only concluded that she'd had sex a short time before she was slain.
The integrity of the crime scene was also compromised, according to Saturday's hearing. Amanda Knox's American attorney, Joseph Tacopina, recently told Newsweek magazine that Meredith's body had been moved before the police took measurements, only to be later moved back to its original position. Similarly, the mattress on which Meredith's body had lain had been moved before the crime scene had been fully processed and released.
"They collected evidence, then they went back and collected more evidence," Tacopina said to a Newsweek reporter. "They moved her bed into the other room. They moved clothes. Once that happens, it's over from an evidentiary standpoint."
There is also the question of 250 euros that Meredith withdrew shortly before she was killed. The money was not found during a search of her room, nor did the police find any evidence that she had spent the cash. Although 200 euros was found in Amanda Knox's possession when she was arrested, and even though police determined that Guede had purchased a train ticket to Germany using cash, there was no way that the investigators could prove that any of the money had belonged to Meredith.
Because Italy's highest criminal court, the Court of Cassation, had issued a ruling earlier this month stating that all three suspects were considered a flight risk, each remains jailed despite the fact that they have denied having anything to do with Meredith's death and have explained away their differing statements to police by declaring that they were in a state of confusion because they had smoked hashish the night Meredith was killed.
The lead investigator, Giacinto Profazio, succinctly summed up the case as it stands at this point by saying: "There are so many elements that just don't add up. This crime may only be solved with a confession."
Investigation Discovery has been following this case closely, and will continue to provide updates as they occur.
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