POLICE investigating the murer of Meredith Kercher, the British exchange
student who had her throat cut in Italy, believe that she new her killer and
were focusing their inquiries on a "narrow" field of suspects. As Kercher’s
father prepared to fly out to the medieval Umbrian city of Perugia,
detectives continued to search for a murder weapon, which they believe to be
a knife or possibly a shard of broken glass.
The 21-year-old’s semi-naked body was found in her bedroom on Friday after
police were called to her home by her flatmates. Police were yesterday
trying to trace Kercher’s “occasional” Italian boyfriend, but they have not
ruled out the possibility that her killer was a woman. Sources close to the
investigation said there was no evidence of a struggle and Kercher had had
“consensual sex” before her death. A full postmortem examination is due to
be conducted this morning.
Detectives believe the scene of the crime may have been “staged” and the
killer might have cleaned himself or herself up as they left Kercher’s home.
They also believe the killer might have been injured fleeing the scene,
leaving blood samples which can be DNA tested.
Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in the third year of a European studies
degree at Leeds University. She travelled to Perugia at the start of
September as part of a year-long Erasmus exchange programme.
Kercher was studying at Perugia’s University for Foreigners and shared a house
with three other female students: two Italians and an American.
This weekend police were trying to piece together her final moments. On
Thursday evening she is believed to have visited the home of Sophie Parton,
a fellow Erasmus student from Leeds, to watch a film. Kercher left alone to
return to her own accommodation at 9pm.
Her flatmates are thought to have gone to a party that night and did not
return until Friday lunchtime.
One flatmate, identified in the Italian press as Filomena R, a trainee lawyer,
was interviewed by police for five hours. She said that she was with her
boyfriend on Friday when she was called by the American flatmate, who told
her: “Come back. I’ve just arrived and I think there are thieves here.”
Arriving at the house in the Viale Sant’Antonio, near the city’s historic
centre, Filomena found traces of blood in the bath-room and on a window.
She and the American flatmate, who has also been questioned by detectives,
found the door to Kercher’s bedroom locked. When Kercher failed to respond
to their cries, they decided to call the police.
Meanwhile, an elderly woman who lives about 10 minutes away had also alerted
police after finding two mobile phones in her garden. A trace on at least
one of the phones led officers to Kercher’s house.
Italian news reports initially claimed that the woman had also reported
receiving “menacing” calls. But yesterday police sources claimed they had
traced the caller and had ruled that person out of their inquiries.
Carabinieri officers eventually forced open Kercher’s bedroom door and found
one of the room’s windows had been broken, with glass falling outwards.
A source close to the investigation said that Kercher’s body was partially
covered by a duvet.
“The mattress had been partly pulled from the bed,” said the source. “The girl
was lying on her back, half on the bed and half off. There were pools of
blood in the room.
“The only injury was to the throat. The wound was a single cut from the bottom
towards the top, cutting through the carotid artery. Death must have been
immediate.
“The weapon could have been a knife or a piece of glass from the broken
window.”
The source added: “It is strange that there is all this butchery in the
bedroom, but nothing in the rest of the house. With a crime like that you
would dirty yourself, so it is possible that the killer cleaned himself or
herself.”
Detectives are understood to have discovered footprints in the blood next to
Kercher’s body.
Blood-soaked pieces of paper were also found in the bedroom and a bloodstained
tissue or handkerchief was discovered near a wire fence backing onto
Kercher’s home. Initial reports suggested that Kercher’s bedroom had been
locked from the inside, prompting claims that her killer had escaped through
the first-floor window.
However, police now believe that the main door of the house was ajar when
Kercher’s flatmates arrived there. A senior source said: “The door of the
house was open. I believe the killer entered and exited through the front
door. Surely Meredith knew him or her.”
Not all the broken glass from Kercher’s window has been accounted for.
Forensics experts yesterday returned to the garden of the elderly woman who
had found the mobile phones to search for a murder weapon. The garden, near
the site of a former Etruscan temple, is about 10 minutes’ walk from
Kercher’s lodgings.
One theory that police are examining is that Kercher could have met her killer
at a Hallowe’en party last Wednesday. One of the final things she did was to
post photographs of the party on the Facebook social networking website.
Detectives are also due to speak to a Briton who had her face slashed last
Tuesday by a drunken Albanian man in a Perugian bar frequented by Kercher.
Lucy Rigby, 31, from Shrewsbury, was hit in the face by a ceramic vase at
the Tana dell’ Orso bar owned by her Argentine husband. It is about five
minutes away from Kercher’s home.
Yesterday Kercher’s father John, a freelance journalist, was preparing to fly
out to Italy.
Speaking from his family home, he described how he had tried to call his
daughter on her mobile phone when he heard on Friday evening that a British
girl had been murdered in Italy.
“I rang Meredith to make sure she was safe but her phone was switched off. I
must have tried 15 to 20 times,” he said.
“I’m just stunned, I can’t even cry I’m so in shock. I am flying out there as
soon as possible.”
Kercher is believed to have been a pupil at Old Palace School of John
Whitgift, in Croydon, south London, and is thought to have a brother, John,
and a sister, Stephanie.
She recently wrote on her Facebook website: “Hey, I’m back for a bit in nov
for my mum’s b’day . . . then back again for xmas . . . I am having a good
time . . . it’s starting to get cold now tho but the choc festival is on so
just a good excuse to drink a lot of hot chocolate.”
Additional reporting: Abul Taher, Chris Gourlay
Exchange life
- The EU’s Erasmus programme funds student exchanges across Europe. Those
taking part spend a year or a term at another European university, counting
towards their degree
- Since it was founded in 1987, 1.4m students have taken part in Erasmus
- In 2006-07 there were 8,000 British students in the programme. About 700 a
year go to Italy
- The University for Foreigners in Perugia, where Meredith Kercher was
studying, was founded in 1921. It counts the former Tory leader Iain Duncan
Smith among its alumni
- At least five other students from Leeds, Kercher’s university, are studying
in Perugia
When you read this story in reverse chronological order, the more solid evidence against Knox and Sollecito appears to reinforce itself: the cell phones switched off at the same time, Kerchner's bedroom window broken outward to fake a break-in (a break-out?), the house wiped clean...Why wipe down your own bedroom if you were the victim's flatmate? Knox wasn't worried about her own prints. Probably Guede's, the little trollip. And the pictures of the the little psycho couple on the day Kerchner's body was found? They looked ashen and bone tired. Busy frantic nights will do that to a person.
Greg Roth, Seattle, WA , USA
She "new" her killer?
Kirsten, Rochester, USA