The Continuing Story of Foxy Knoxy: Honor Student to Violent Sex Killer?

Although the suspected murder weapon, a kitchen knife, had not immediately been found, it eventually surfaced at the apartment of Knox’s boyfriend, Sollecito, according to Times Online. So why were the police spending so much time focusing on an alleged drug dealer, a young man known as Rudy Guede who purportedly supplied Amanda and her friends with hashish and marijuana, after his name came up through repeated interrogations with the three suspects and others? Although Amanda purportedly had changed her story several times, she had not mentioned Guede’s name. Why? The police believe that Amanda did not want the police to know about Guede because it would establish his presence in the apartment on the night of the murder and that she had not mentioned him merely to save herself. He was there, the cops believed, and had seen what had happened—he could implicate Amanda. The knife, police say, had Amanda’s and Meredith’s DNA on it. But wouldn’t it be likely that the knife, if it could be shown that it had originally came from their apartment, would contain their DNA because they had used it during the course of cooking some of their meals?

Guede, later arrested on a train in Germany for traveling without a ticket and extradited to Italy when German police realized that he was wanted there, wrote in letters to his father and to his lawyers that he could have saved Meredith if he had "been a man," according to the Italian press reports. "When I shut my eyes, all I can see is red," Guede wrote. "I’d never seen so much blood. All that blood on her pretty face."

Making matters worse for Guede was the fact that his fingerprints were found on Meredith’s blood-soaked pillow, as well as on toilet paper inside the apartment, firmly establishing his presence at the murder scene. Police later determined that his DNA was present on Meredith’s body. Making matters even more confusing, the police had matched a bloody footprint found in Meredith’s bedroom to Sallecito’s shoes, a pair of Nike trainers, that had been washed with bleach, according to Times Online. It was enough to leave everyone wondering what Sallecito’s role had been, while the police continued to focus much of their attention on Guede. But had Guede actually killed Meredith? Or had he merely been a participant in an episode of violent, kinky sex that involved rape against the unwilling young exchange student, only to later witness her murder at the hands of one or more of the others?

When police failed to find any evidence inside the apartment linking Patrick Lumumba to Meredith’s murder, including the absence of his DNA, they realized that they had made a huge mistake and released him, according to The Daily Mail. After his release, Lumumba told European newspapers that he was completely innocent of the crimes and had been implicated by Amanda when she attempted to frame him for Meredith’s murder. According to Lumumba’s account, Amanda had become angry with him after he fired her from his bar for not doing any work and constantly coming on to his male customers. She had wanted revenge against him for her dismissal. Lumumba said that Amanda had portrayed him as a violent sexual predator, and had told the police that he had raped Meredith prior to slitting her throat. Lumumba also stated that Amanda was insanely jealous of Meredith, which could provide a motive for the young woman’s grisly slaying.

"By the end, she hated me," Lumumba told The Daily Mail. "But I don’t think she’s evil. To be evil, you have to have a soul. Amanda doesn’t. She’s empty, dead inside. She’s the ultimate actress, able to switch her emotions on and off in an instant. I don’t believe a word she says. Everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie. But those lies have stained me forever."

So who really murdered Meredith Kercher? The police have three suspects that they’ve been considering after Lumumba’s release: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede. Although Amanda has allegedly confessed her involvement in Meredith’s slaying to the police, she has also recanted and changed her story several times over the past few months. It will likely take a trial to sort out all of the details and bring justice to Meredith and her family. An update will be provided as more is learned about this sordid, bizarre case.