Who is Meredith Kercher?

Ms Kercher was a 21-year-old student at the University of Leeds, who had travelled to Perugia, central Italy, to spend a year studying Italian at the city's University for Foreigners.

She was originally from Coulsdon, South London, and educated at a local private school for girls. She was found with her throat cut on the morning of Friday, November 2, in the bedroom of a house that she shared with three other women.

What happened to her?

New witness 'saw Meredith suspects together'

Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were see at the house in Perugia where the American student died

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• Murder in Perugia

BACKGROUND

• Meredith Kercher: Q&A

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

Postal police visited Ms Kercher's whitewashed cottage after tracing a lost mobile phone to the address. There they found Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox, who claimed to be awaiting the Carabinieri military police, as they believed that there had been a break-in.

After Ms Kercher's locked bedroom door was broken down, officers found “a chilling scene”, according to Judge Claudia Matteini, of the Civil and Penal Tribunal of Perugia. She wrote: “The room was found in disorder with blood stains everywhere, on the ground and on the walls. A foot could be seen under the duvet of the bed.”

Who are the suspects?

Prosecutors have requested that three suspects be formally charged with Ms Kercher's murder. They are Amanda Knox, 20, Ms Kercher's American flatmate; Raffaele Sollecito, 24, Ms Knox's Italian boyfriend; and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede. All have been held in prison since their arrests shortly after the killing; a judge will now decide whether there is sufficient to try them.

What do we know about them?

Ms Knox has been variously described as promiscuous, party-loving and self-obsessed. Educated at an exclusive Jesuit college in her hometown of Seattle, Washington, she is a language student at the University of Washington, and, like Ms Kercher, was in Perugia to study Italian.

Dubbed "Foxy Knoxy", after the name she used on the MySpace website, Ms Knox also wrote two short stories on the site, one of which involved a woman being drugged and raped.

Mr Sollecito is from Bari, in the south of the country. The son of a prominent urologist, he is a computer science student with a collection of knives and swords. He describes himself as "an anxious person" who smokes cannabis "on every day off and every time I need to".

Mr Guede arrived in Italy from the Ivory Coast with his father, aged five. After his father returned to Africa, Mr Guede, who is also known as The Baron, was “adopted” by a local family with a view to his being taken on in their agricultural business, police say. However they eventually fell out with him over his “rebellious” behaviour. He has a history of violent behaviour and was once stabbed in the stomach during a fight in Perugia’s main piazza. Foreign students in the town knew him as a drug dealer and he is alleged to have been sexually involved with Ms Knox.

In a video posted on the YouTube website under the name rudyhermann, Mr Guede is seen, seemingly drunk or under the influence of drugs, ranting to the camera. He says: “Oh My God. I’m an extra-terra. I’m from alien earth who must be called human people. Oh Mamma. I’m a vampire, I’m Dracula. I’m gonna suck your blood.”

What have they told police?

Ms Knox has changed her story several times, first saying that she spent the evening and night with her boyfriend Mr Sollecito, then admitting she was at the cottage but only heard Meredith screaming from her bedroom, then reverting to her original account and claiming that she was not at the cottage at all until the next morning.

A CCTV camera at the parking area above the cottage recorded the image of a female figure in a light coloured skirt, said to be Ms Knox (who owned such a skirt, now being analysed), entering the driveway of the cottage at 8.43pm. If the image is that of Ms Knox, and if the timing of Ms Kercher's movements is correct, Ms Knox would have been inside the cottage for about half an hour by the time Ms Kercher arrived. It is not yet clear whether the surveillance cameras captured the image of any other figures arriving at the cottage.

Mr Sollecito also allegedly changed his story, originally claiming that he had spent the evening with Ms Knox, but more recently saying that he was at home alone.

Police believe that a bloody footprint in the house matches Mr Sollecito's and that a flick knife found in his possession is "compatible" with the murder weapon. Police have also found DNA from both Meredith and Ms Knox on a kitchen knife.

Why is the time at which Meredith died of such importance to the investigation?

A post-mortem examination originally put the time of Ms Kercher's death at between midnight and 2am on Friday, November 2, but detectives are now focusing on a theory that she was killed several hours earlier, after analysis of food in her stomach suggested that she had died between 8.30pm and 11pm.

Sophie Purton and Robyn Butterworth, two friends of Meredith, told police that they had an early supper of pizza, ice cream and coffee with Ms Kercher at friend's flat "at about 6pm". They drank only water (forensic tests on Meredith's body have confirmed this). They then watched a film on DVD, "The Notebook", until "about 9pm".

Sophie has testified that she then walked home with Meredith, but their ways parted and she went to her own home, leaving Meredith to walk the 500 yards to the cottage in Viale Sant' Antonio. This would put Meredith's return to the cottage at about 9.15pm.

Pathologists at first put the time of Meredith's death at between midnight and 2am. They later revised this, however, because an analysis of the food in her stomach, which was only partly digested, suggesting she was killed sooner after eating her meal. Investigators are reportedly to re-question Sophie and Robyn to double check the time they had supper. The provisional time of death, meanwhile, is between 9pm and 11pm, although the fatal blow could have been struck earlier since Meredith bled to death slowly.

Is anyone else thought to be involved?

A fingerprint found on Ms Kercher's bloodstained pillow is not that of any of the three known suspects, police say. Italian newspapers have reported that another man, a North African musician, was seen with Ms Knox the day after the murder, at a launderette washing clothes and a pair of Nike trainers.

The man was caught on video surveillance cameras installed at a car park overlooking Ms Kercher's cottage, according to La Stampa, which gave no name but claimed that he had been identified.

What about the text message claiming that Meredith “dies tonight”?

The widely reported message, which read “For me, Meredith dies tonight”, was sent in error to a man in Rome the day before the murder. However, that was also the day that Italian television was due to broadcast an episode of the medical soap opera Grey's Anatomy in which the heavily advertised plot twist revolved around the possible impending death of Dr Meredith Grey, the main character.

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