Murder in ancient Perugia

Kercher appears to have died from a massive loss of blood and probably choked on her own blood.  Her bedroom had grotesque smears of blood on the walls, suggesting that Kercher may have grabbed her throat in defense of her mortal wound, and then struggled to support herself as she slowly bled out, with more blood on her furniture and on the floor.  When found by police, her body lay a few feet from her bed, with only her left foot protruding from under her bedspread, which someone had apparently wrapped around her body.  Under her head was a pillow bearing a full bloody handprint.  It was Kercher’s blood, but the handprint belonged to 20-year-old former Ivory Coast resident and local part-time drug dealer Rudy Hermann Guede.        

Guede, who had the reputation of putting his hands on women too quickly, was identified by his DNA, which was found on Kercher’s lifeless body. There was no doubt, said investigators, that Guede had been in that room and had had contact with Kercher’s body, but he was nowhere to be found.  Acting on Knox’s statement that Patrick Lumumba had been with Kercher the night she died, Lumumba was quickly arrested while police continued to investigate Knox and Sollecito’s possible role in Kercher’s death. But now they needed to find the person whose forensic signature was all over the crime scene.

Once again cell phones and the Internet would play a major role in this case.  Investigators learned that Guede had contacted a friend, indicating that he had fled to Germany and needed some money.  Police traced these communications and German authorities apprehended Guede as he awaited the arrival of the money.  Guede then told authorities that he had been with Kercher the night of her death, that they had had consensual relations and that after becoming ill, he had left Kercher alone in her bedroom while he went to the bathroom, where he sat and listened to music on his iPod. 

As Guede’s story continued, he heard a scream, and when he walked out of the bathroom he encountered a young Italian man, someone shorter than himself, who was carrying a knife.  He says the man stabbed him in the right hand and stated that because he was black, people would believe that Guede was responsible for Kercher’s death.  The mystery man, and perhaps a second, yet to be identified person, then quickly ran from the house, jumped into a car and drove away. 

Guede says he made a valiant effort to aid Kercher and as he knelt next to her she uttered the initials of her killer, “AF,” much like the character played by Orson Wells did in the 1941 movie "Citizen Kane," when he uttered the word “rosebud” and died.  But if Kercher knew her killer by his initials, why, police asked, didn’t she just say her murder’s full name?  Guede said he feared arrest so he fled the house, wandered through the community and eventually hopped a train to Germany. He has since been extradited to Perugia, where he told authorities that he will identify one, and perhaps both people he believes murdered Kercher.

As the police investigation goes forward, the forensic evidence continues to mount.  The suspected murder weapon, an eight-inch kitchen knife, was found in Sollecito’s apartment.  Although the knife had been cleaned with bleach, CSI investigators found Knox’s DNA on the blade near the handle and Kercher’s DNA on the tip of the knife.  Kercher, it seems, had never been in Sollecito’s apartment. 

Knox and Sollecito, now both now in jail, have drifted apart in their relationship and in their stories, with Sollecito suggesting that Knox could have gone to her own residence the night of the murder without him.  Knox, for her part, has suggested that Sollecito could have raped and murdered Kercher and then brought the suspected murder weapon back to his apartment where he placed it in Knox’s hand while she slept, thus accounting for her DNA on the knife.

As the forensic investigation continues, we know that the blood of both Knox and Kercher was found in a bathroom of their residence.  Near Kercher’s limp body was a shoe print in blood, evidence that someone had stepped in the victim’s pooling blood before it dried.  It was a size 42 Nike shoe, smaller than shoes worn by Guede, but exactly the same size and type of shoe worn by Sollecito. 

Examination of Sollecito’s shoes continues as well as that of other potential physical evidence that could link one or more of the three suspects to the murder scene, evidence like a fingerprint of Knox on a glass.  But as both Knox and Sollecito had access to the house, police need to separate evidence related to the murder and evidence totally unrelated to Kercher’s death. 

Police, for their part, have been unable to find any evidence to support Knox’s claim that Lumumba was the likely killer; and in fact, he has established that he was in his bar at the believed time of Kercher’s death; therefore he was released from jail.  Lumumba, who some say has been paid thousands of dollars by various media outlets for interviews related to this case, has said he forgives Knox for lying about him.  The three current suspects, Guede, Sollecito and Knox, can be held in jail for up to a year before being charged by the prosecutor.  There is no bail for such a crime.