This story initially aired on April 10, 2008. It was up to date on Sept. 13, 2025.
Amanda Knox, a 20-year-old honors pupil from the College of Washington, adopted her dream when she moved to Perugia, Italy, to review overseas and study Italian. However that dream was a nightmare when simply weeks after Amanda’s arrival her roommate was discovered murdered.
Inside days of the November 2007 homicide, Amanda and her boyfriend have been arrested as suspects within the killing and located themselves on the heart of a media frenzy.
Do Italian investigators have a stable case towards Amanda, as they declare? Or is she being “railroaded,” as one American personal investigator put it, in a blind pursuit of justice?
A homicide in Perugia
Rising up in Seattle, Washington, Amanda Knox was an all-American lady. She excelled in athletics and lecturers, as her father Curt remembers: “Dean’s record in highschool, dean’s record in school, soccer participant since she’s been 5 … all the best way to the premiere stage.”
Amanda’s dad and mom, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, divorced when she was three, however household bonds remained tight. “She loves her household. She talks about that in her blogs, and in her MySpace. That what’s most essential to her is her household, her shut associates,” Edda tells “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.
After graduating with honors from an elite Jesuit highschool, Amanda went on to the College of Washington the place she found her ardour. “She liked going to different cultures and studying about them. And she or he’s actually drawn to languages. She actually knew she wished to review overseas,” Edda explains.
Amanda labored three jobs to get to Perugia, a medieval hill city north of Rome. She rented a room in a home and started taking lessons.
Amanda’s years of devoted research and onerous work have been paying off. Just some weeks after arriving in Perugia, she emailed a few of her associates again residence, writing “I am truly at considered one of my happiest locations proper now.”
Amanda’s success additionally included a brand new romance. She’d met a younger, good-looking Italian engineering pupil named Raffaele Sollecito, the 23-year-old son of a physician from Southern Italy.
Amanda had three roommates: two Italian women and Meredith Kercher, a 20-year-old pupil from England.
Amanda even bought a job in a neighborhood bar. “She informed me she should work as a result of she want the cash,” says bar proprietor Patrick Lumumba, who employed her. Lumumba is well-known round city for his music and beneficiant spirit.
Requested what he thought when he first noticed Amanda, Lumumba tells Van Sant, “Good particular person … and pleasant.”
However simply six weeks into Amanda’s Italian journey, every little thing modified. It was Nov. 2, 2007.
“I bought a telephone name early within the morning and it was Amanda. And the very first thing she stated was, ‘I am at residence and I am all proper. However, I believe someone’s been in my home,” Edda remembers.
Amanda informed her mom she had spent the evening with Raffaele. That morning, when she got here residence to take a bathe and alter garments, she discovered the entrance door was open. Nobody was residence.
“When she bought out of the bathe she observed some blood. She thought perhaps someone had gotten injured and left rapidly and that is why the door was open,” Edda explains.
Amanda began phoning her roommates; she discovered the Italian women, however in accordance with Edda could not observe down Meredith, even after calling her a number of instances.
Requested how she realized that one thing horrible had occurred in that home, Edda says, “She known as me again and informed me that the police had come. As a result of one of many issues she stated was ‘We won’t discover Meredith and her door is locked.'”
Two officers arrived on the home to analyze and located Amanda and Raffaele standing outdoors.
“Police enter the home, begin looking it,” explains Paolo Sfriso, an Italian investigator who “48 Hours” employed to look at this case. “Meredith’s door is locked. They knock on the door, no one solutions. No person is aware of the place she is. They resolve to interrupt in her door.”
Inside, there was blood in all places. And on the ground, coated by the blanket from her mattress, was Meredith’s physique.
The final time anybody had seen Meredith alive was 9 p.m. the evening earlier than, when she walked residence alone after leaving associates.
Requested what he believes —based mostly on his investigation —occurred after Meredith bought residence, Sfriso tells Van Sant, “That’s the million-dollar query. Meredith arrives residence. Perhaps someone was already inside the home ready for her. Perhaps someone arrived after. There are indicators of what seems to be a break-in.”
As a result of Amanda and Meredith had been roommates, Amanda rapidly turned a key witness. “She stated they’d numerous questions for her as a result of she was the primary one which had come again to the home. And she or he wished to assist,” Edda says.
4 days after the homicide, there have been nonetheless no arrests. The scholars of Perugia organized a memorial service for Meredith. Noticeably absent have been Amanda and Raffaele: they’d been summoned to police headquarters.
“When the 2 them went down there they separated them into totally different interrogation rooms. And commenced a questioning course of that lasted for a really very long time over evening,” Amanda’s father Curt says.
Police have been questioning the 2 as a result of they suspected they have been hiding one thing.
After 14 hours of intense police interrogation, with no sleep, no meals, and no lawyer, Amanda dramatically modified her story. “She says that she thinks she was right here, that she hears Meredith scream,” Sfriso says.
When she signed a press release, Amanda was not a witness – she was underneath arrest.
Three arrests and a police concept
4 days after Meredith’s homicide, Amanda was paraded in entrance of the press on her strategy to jail. Police consider Amanda took half within the homicide of her roommate. Raffaele was additionally arrested, and surprisingly Amanda’s employer, Patrick Lumumba, was additionally picked up after she named him as Meredith’s assassin.
The arrests got here after Amanda dramatically modified her story. “48 Hours” obtained Amanda’s gorgeous assertion. “I met Patrick on the basketball courts and we went to my condominium … Patrick had intercourse with Meredith … I confusedly do not forget that he killed her.”
Amanda’s assertion got here after that all-night, 14-hour interrogation.
Subsequent, Italian police developed a concept: that Meredith was murdered after refusing to affix Amanda, Raffaele and Patrick in kinky four-way intercourse.
Just like the Italian police, journalist Nick Pisa started looking the Web to study concerning the suspects. “They’d entries on Fb …and we have been getting an unimaginable quantity of details about these folks,” he says.
Like most school college students nowadays, Amanda and Raffaele shared their lives by means of the Net; Amanda boasted about alcohol use and informal intercourse.
“She even posted footage of herself outdoors a dope store in Amsterdam. We found how she’d been on a practice and he or she’d admitted having intercourse with a man she’d met on the practice. We found that she’d written some very weird essays on her Web page which talked about rape,” Pisa says.
“They jumped on that. They noticed the phrase rape and they’re like, ‘Yeah, that is an excellent headline,'” says Madison, a good friend of Amanda’s from Seattle.
On Raffaele’s pages, they realized he collected knives.
“His expression of admiration for a serial killer,” Van Sant remarks.
“Precisely. After which we now have him with the meat cleaver. Then, we now have Amanda behind the machine gun as effectively,” Pisa says, describing footage of Raffaele posing with a cleaver and Amanda posing behind a machine gun. “It was all simply grist for the mill. It was extra info than you’ll be able to ever think about on a narrative.”
And the “mill” was the Italian and British press corps that was all around the story.
Maybe what damned Amanda most was the title she gave herself on her MySpace account: “Cunning Knoxy.” Among the headlines within the British press included “The Twisted World of Cunning Knoxy,” “The Darkish Angel of Seattle,” “Orgy Of Dying,” and “Amanda Was A Drugged-Up Tart.”
“You realize, I’ve not learn the British press simply because I knew that was on the market,” Edda reacts, crying. “And that is not my daughter. And that is not, I imply in … they by no means met her.”
Requested why Amanda known as herself “Cunning Knoxy,” Madison explains, “She bought that title from different folks. She did not make that up herself. She was a soccer participant. And when she ran on the sphere, her teammates stated that she appeared like a fox.”
However the Italian police aren’t basing their case on a nickname. They have been Amanda and Raffaele’s public conduct after the homicide; police introduced Amanda and her boyfriend again to the crime scene the day after the homicide to see how they might react.
Nick Pisa was there. “They each have been form of stroking one another and petting one another. After which they have been kissing one another. And so they appear to be whispering to one another.”
What some see as easy comforting was interpreted by Italian police as one thing sinister.
Why is it important?
“The police are extra pointing to the truth that it is simply very odd and strange conduct. There did not appear to be any disappointment,” Pisa says.
The subsequent day, the couple was caught on a safety digital camera shopping for underwear for Amanda. “The store proprietor distinctly remembers them being fairly excited and aroused by the acquisition. And promising one another an evening of frenzied intercourse with this new G-string,” Paolo Sfriso says.
“Based mostly in your expertise, what do you consider that?” Van Sant asks.
“Not solely is there insensitivity and inappropriateness, it might be seen as arousal. As in getting your kicks out of this,” Sfriso says.
However the police concept that Meredith was killed throughout a intercourse frenzy has an issue, in accordance with personal investigator Paul Ciolino. “That is an excellent concept till the science comes rolling in, till the fingerprints present up, and so they go, ‘Oops, oops, we made a mistake.'”
A take a look at the proof
With a British lady murdered, her throat slashed, and an American lady held as a suspect, Italian investigators spared no expense, bringing within the nation’s greatest forensic groups to Perugia. Police say they’ve recovered onerous proof linking Amanda to the homicide.
“There are traces of her blood blended with Meredith’s blood within the lavatory. In the home the place Meredith was murdered,” Sfriso explains.
And the boyfriend?
“Now we have Raffaele’s shoeprint in her blood, within the room the place she was murdered,” Sfriso says.
Police do intensive testing on a knife present in Raffaele’s kitchen drawer. Amanda’s DNA is on the deal with, no shock. However investigators are surprised when Meredith’s DNA is detected on the blade. Police suppose it might be the homicide weapon.
“And from their viewpoint, Amanda and Raffaele staged the crime,” Sfriso says. “Patrick bodily dedicated it, perhaps with some bodily help, both from Raffaele or from each Raffaele and Amanda.”
However there’s a downside: Patrick Lumumba, the person Amanda named because the killer, had an hermetic alibi for the evening of the homicide. He was at his bar.
After an exhaustive search, police might discover no proof linking Lumumba to the homicide and in a surprising reversal launched him.
“We could not perceive why Amanda Knox would accuse her boss. We do not know why she pulled out Patrick’s title,” says Nathan Abraham, an American and a former pupil who now works in Perugia.
Abraham says Amanda’s lie about Lumumba shocked everybody. “He has a lovely spouse and child. He is probably the most well-known man in Perugia, and all people loves him … all people from the mayor down.”
Police consider Amanda implicated Lumumba as a part of a well-planned, calculated transfer to cover the identification of the actual killer. Inside days of Lumumba’s launch, the case took one other dramatic twist.
“They’d discovered a fingerprint. It did not match with Raffaele, with Amanda or with Patrick,” Pisa explains.
The fingerprint belonged to 20-year-old Rudy Guede, who was a fixture-and typically a nuisance-on the native bar scene.
A dropout, Rudy had no common job. He performed basketball on the courts close to Amanda and Meredith’s home. And he smoked dope with the boys who lived one flooring beneath the ladies.
“We all know that Rudy was fairly pleasant with the fellows downstairs,” Pisa says.
The day after the homicide, Rudy ran. He hopped a practice out of Perugia, heading north. Two weeks later, after a European-wide manhunt, Rudy was tracked down in central Germany, arrested, and returned to Perugia.
“Now we have his fingerprint on the pillow. Now we have his DNA within the lavatory. Now we have his admission that he was there on the time,” Pisa says.
Rudy informed police Meredith invited him over for a date and so they had intercourse. “Though his story does appear slightly fanciful – that he was within the lavatory and that he got here out and he discovered Meredith, noticed Meredith had been stabbed. And that some man was operating out of the room,” Pisa remarks.
Rudy stated he could not determine the killer. However he admitted he left a dying Meredith mendacity in a pool of blood. He stated he went residence, modified his garments, and went dancing at a disco till 4 within the morning.
“48 Hours” introduced Chicago personal detective Paul Ciolino to Italy to look into the case towards Amanda.
“She’s been getting railroaded because the day they took her into custody, since November fifth, 2007. The railroad began and it continues immediately as we sit right here proper now,” says Ciolino, who reviewed police stories, Meredith’s post-mortem, crime scene pictures, and talked to witnesses.
He says every little thing factors to Rudy Guede: “We all know one factor for sure in life that if you’re useless, the final man who was with you is normally liable for you being useless. And the final person who was with Meredith, from the horse’s mouth, is Rudy.”
Ciolino would not purchase Rudy’s story that he was relationship Meredith. Rudy informed police he met Meredith the evening earlier than the homicide at a Halloween social gathering on the bar Merlin’s. Meredith was there, dressed as a vampire. However nobody noticed Rudy.
Did Meredith hang around in any respect with Rudy on the Halloween social gathering?
“Meredith didn’t hang around with Rudy Guede. Meredith and Rudy should not contemporaries. They don’t seem to be buddies,” Ciolino says. “They did not have a relationship of any variety on any stage.”
Ciolino, speaking to the proprietor of the bar, realized that Rudy had even been banned from Merlin’s as a result of he tried to rob a bartender at knifepoint. “We all know that Rudy has no seen technique of assist and is ready to pay lease, go to golf equipment, and do every kind of issues,” he says.
“Why would Rudy have focused that home, of all locations, to search for cash? These are a bunch of school pupil,” Van Sant asks.
“Lease is due at the moment of the month. It was the first. And lease’s due. So all people is aware of school college students are gathering up the lease at the moment,” Ciolino theorizes.
Police informed Ciolino Meredith took out 250 euros the day she was murdered and the cash is lacking. Rudy’s fingerprints have been discovered on her purse. “It is actually that straightforward. There was no Raffaele. There was no Amanda, OK? Jesuit educated highschool women who’re excessive honors college students 18 months in the past do not take part in orgies and homicides. They do not do it, and if you happen to might inform me one which does, I certain wish to see her,” Ciolino says.
Was Amanda’s confession coerced?
Ciolino desires justice for Meredith as effectively, however not on the expense of Amanda. “She’s a 20-year-old child who has been ripped out of every little thing that she is aware of and positioned in jail. Amanda Knox is sitting in a most safety jail in Italy questioning when she’s gonna get out,” he says.
Amanda and her boyfriend have been in jail since early November, now greater than 5 months. But Ciolino believes police don’t have any convincing proof they’d something to do with Meredith’s homicide.
“The police chief of Perugia appeared me within the eye and stated, ‘Now we have proof,'” Van Sant remarks.
“He is aware of there’s not a shred of proof placing this lady at that homicide scene,” Ciolino says.
Edgardo Giobbi is the lead investigator. He informed “48 Hours” that the case towards all three suspects is stable. The DNA discovered on the sufferer’s bra, he says, DNA which belongs to Rudy and Raffaele, proves Rudy did not act alone. And if Raffaele was concerned, so was Amanda, as a result of they each declare they have been collectively that evening.
“I do not consider it is there. I do not consider Raffaele’s DNA is on Meredith’s bra,” Ciolino says.
Why? As a result of Ciolino says proof leaked on this case has typically turned out to be fallacious. A major instance: the witness police say heard three folks operating from the home that evening.
“Peter, excessive police officers informed you they’d a witness who heard stuff that evening, indicating they’d interviewed her and so they owned her. Now, we go interview the witness, and what occurred?” Ciolino wonders.
The witness, Nara Capezzali, stated she heard a scream within the evening, then the sound of operating, from her condominium throughout the road from the crime scene on the evening of the homicide. She informed her story in an Italian tv interview.
“I heard an enormous scream, a chilling scream,” she informed an Italian reporter.
TV and tabloids had already been reporting the police concept that three folks, together with Amanda, have been all concerned within the crime.
Requested by the reporter if she had heard three totally different actions, Nara stated, “Sure. Three various things. One went up, one went that means.”
Ciolino wished to speak to this key witness himself. He took “48 Hours”‘ translator, Julia Alagna, to the girl’s door.
“She heard a scream and someone run away,” the translator stated after talking with Nara.
The home windows, Nara informed the translator, have been closed on the time.
Ciolino wished to see-or hear-for himself. Nara’s upstairs neighbor let Ciolino into her condominium to search out out what he might hear.
Exterior, “48 Hours” bought some native youngsters to do some operating to see if the sounds have been audible contained in the neighbor’s condominium, with the window’s closed.
The consequence: Ciolino says he heard one thing however could not inform if it was footsteps; the neighbor, Christine, says she did not hear something.
On the very least, the unscientific check raises critical questions on what Nara actually heard that evening, and even she is not as sure as police have steered.
“She did not know what it … she could not inform if it was one or two or three,” Nara informed Ciolino by means of the translator.
Nara additionally did not know what time it was that she heard the sounds. However she could be very clear about one factor: she says she was by no means interviewed by the police.
As onerous as it’s to consider, police solely noticed the witness on tv. “That is fascinating to me as a result of not one cop on this city has ever knocked on this lady’s door, not one time,” Ciolino says.
Ciolino says if Amanda had truly been concerned in Meredith’s homicide, police ought to have much more proof to show it. “If you or I stroll right into a room and we mess it up with blood and DNA and sweat we will deliver an entire lot of stuff residence with us. And we will go away much more there. However we now have an issue on this case. As a result of they cannot put Amanda and Raffaele in that crime scene,” Ciolino says.
“However you realize who put Amanda on the crime scene? Amanda put Amanda on the crime scene. Who indicators a press release that implicates them and their associates to homicide? Who does that? Why would Amanda signal that?” Van Sant asks.
“Let me inform you, Peter, a confused 20-year-old lady, 6,000 miles from residence, and hastily they’re telling her she’s a major suspect in a homicide, that they are gonna put her in jail for the remainder of her life in an Italian jail, except you pony up child, and signal this,” Ciolino says.
That is what the case towards Amanda boils all the way down to, says Ciolino: a police concept that shaped the premise for a coerced confession.
How does this work?
“That is actual simple, OK? ‘Amanda, you realize what occurred and I do know what occurred. And also you higher signal this assertion as a result of if you happen to do not, younger woman, you are by no means gonna see your mother once more. You are by no means gonna see your daddy once more.’ ‘Sir, it did not actually occur like that.’ ‘Bip, sure, it did occur like that, Amanda. And that is the way it occurred. You have been with Patrick. And also you and him went over there and he murdered your roommate. Now, perhaps, perhaps you did not know that was gonna occur. However you actually have been there and also you helped make it occur. Now, you higher get writing or signal this or unhealthy issues are gonna occur like we’re gonna cost you with the homicide.’ That is why there is no video. There isn’t a audio. There isn’t a impartial social gathering. There’s Amanda and there is the cops. That is it. And who’s gonna consider Amanda?” Ciolino says.
Amanda’s signed assertion helped kind the spine of the unique police concept of the crime: that Amanda and Raffaele assisted Patrick Lumumba when he killed Meredith.
“And that is an excellent concept till the science comes rolling in, till the fingerprints present up,” Ciolino says.
When Lumumba proved he had an alibi, and police matched DNA to Rudy Guede, the unique concept did not work anymore.
“However now we now have one other downside, as a result of Amanda did not know him. And Raffaele do not know him,” Ciolino explains.
Ciolino realized that police don’t have any telephone information linking Amanda and Raffaele to Rudy. “There is no connection. So, we now have an enormous downside. That is all a police generated fairy story,” Ciolino says.
The police have been revising that “fairy story,” says Ciolino, however they appear decided to not let Amanda reside fortunately ever after. “They’ve put a lot into Amanda, they’ve gotta convict her now or they appear like fools. Of their minds they appear like fools,” he says.
Seeking justice
Each Tuesday and Saturday morning, members of the family are allowed a quick go to with Amanda at a jail simply outdoors Perugia the place she has been held since final November.
On a Tuesday in February, Curt joined his ex-wife in Italy; “48 Hours” introduced Curt to Europe so as to interview each dad and mom collectively.
Requested what Amanda’s life is like proper now in jail, Curt says, “Effectively, she is set free of her cell for one hour a day. She principally spends an hour a day, you realize, making an attempt to train within the yard.”
Since Amanda’s arrest her dad and mom take turns staying in Italy, away from Seattle for weeks at a time. “It is numerous ready, it is simply numerous ready … it is onerous,” Edda says.
Throughout her months in jail Amanda has stored a diary. In it she wrote concerning the in a single day interrogation that led to her arrest and imprisonment.
“She stated, ‘The statements have been made underneath the pressures of stress, shock and excessive exhaustion. Not solely was I informed I’d be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, however I used to be additionally hit within the head once I did not bear in mind a truth appropriately.’ Is that true?” Van Sant asks.
“She wrote that and we consider that every little thing that she has stated is true,” Edda says.
However the lead investigator says not true – that nobody ever hit Amanda. He expects all three suspects shall be charged and tried for homicide.
Police say Raffaele’s bloody shoeprint shall be essential proof at trial. However protection attorneys and Ciolino say it is not conclusive. “Now, specialists have checked out that footprint and it is not Raffaele’s. They have Raffaele’s sneakers, there is no blood on ’em,” Ciolino says.
“They’ve blended blood, Amanda and Meredith’s blood within the lavatory,” Van Sant remarks.
“They’ve Amanda’s blood in a rest room that they shared generally. Meredith is killed within the bed room, not within the lavatory,” Ciolino says.
“There’s a report {that a} knife has been recovered at Raffaele’s home that has Amanda’s DNA on the deal with and reportedly, Meredith DNA on the blade, feels like a homicide weapon, would not it?” Van Sant asks.
“Nobody has decided that is the homicide weapon. Not the federal government or the protection. No person is aware of,” Ciolino says.
Police agree it will not be the homicide weapon however suppose it could have been used not directly in the course of the crime. And the motive? Police have modified their concept: they now consider Meredith was murdered by Rudy, Amanda and Raffaele throughout a theft, not an orgy.
“There’s by no means been a motive. They may by no means clarify a motive on this case. There isn’t a motive,” Ciolino says.
“What may occur now that would hurt Amanda Knox’s possibilities in a trial?” Van Sant asks.
“There’s quite a few threats. She’s bought two defendants, each of whom have stated she did not do something fallacious. The longer this factor goes on, the longer all people sits in jail, someone’s gonna determine eventually: my greatest probability escaping this nonsense is to hold Amanda out to dry,” Ciolino says.
And that is precisely what occurred simply two weeks in the past: after months of silence, Rudy requested to talk to the prosecutor. Earlier than, Rudy had stated he couldn’t determine Meredith’s killer. Now he says he noticed Raffaele with a knife within the condominium, and that Amanda was there, too.
Amanda’s dad and mom are frightened. They concern their daughter could quickly be on path for homicide in Italy. “However, we now have to consider within the system. It is the one selection that we now have,” Curt says.
“As a result of the opposite possibility is to consider that, you realize, she’s gonna be in jail for one thing that she did not do. And that is simply unimaginable,” Edda provides.
Meredith Kercher’s was buried by her household in southeast England in December. Amanda’s dad and mom sympathize with Meredith’s household and pray that their daughter would not grow to be one other harmless sufferer on this tragedy.
“Are there phrases to explain what that is like for a mum or dad?” Van Sant asks.
“I do not know that I might. It is actually intestine wrenching. It is a bodily, virtually sick response to the entire scenario … virtually continually,” Edda explains.
“It is nothing you ever want, even in your enemies,” Curt says.
Paul Ciolino says he is anxious about Amanda and anxious that the Italian justice system is out to get her.
“And if you happen to had the facility to do, to behave proper now, what would you do?” Van Sant asks.
“I’d hop in my automotive and I would go to that jail and I would get them two youngsters out of there, and I would take them residence to their dad and mom,” Ciolino says. “That is what I’d do. And that is what needs to be carried out. And till that is carried out, this case is gonna be a catastrophe.”
In October 2008, Rudy Guede was convicted of the homicide of Meredith Kercher. He was launched in 2021 after serving 13 years.
In December 2009, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been convicted of homicide. They have been launched in 2011 after an appeals courtroom overturned the conviction. Knox and Sollecito spent practically 4 years behind bars.
The pair have been exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court docket in 2015.
