On 1 November 2007, Meredith Kercher, a university student from England, was murdered in Perugia, Italy. Rudy Hermann Guede, a resident of Perugia, was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher and received a reduced sentence of 16 years after an appeal. Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student, and Amanda Knox, an American student who shared a flat with Kercher, were convicted of sexual assault and murder. Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Knox was sentenced to 26 years. At 8:40 pm on the night of the murder, witness testimony placed Knox at Sollecito's flat. Kercher spent the early evening with two friends and set off for home at about 8:45 pm, accompanied by a friend. They parted company near the friend's flat shortly before 9 pm. Kercher then walked the remaining 500 yards (460 m) to her flat. At 12:08 pm the following day, Knox called a flatmate, telling her that she had returned to the flat and found the front door open, a broken window, some blood, and that Meredith was missing. She also called Kercher's two mobile phones. At 12:51 pm and 12:54 pm, Sollecito made calls to 112, the Italian emergency number. Before the Carabinieri arrived in response to these calls, two officers of the Italian Post and Communications Police came to investigate the discovery of the mobile phones carried by Kercher in a nearby garden. Knox and Sollecito were standing outside and told the police that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were bloodstains in the bathroom.
At some point during the evening, a neighbour heard a "chilling scream" and, soon after, the footsteps of "at least two people" running from the flat. According to investigators, Kercher died in the flat at around 11 pm. The communications police found blood in several rooms of the flat and near Kercher's locked bedroom. The window in one of the bedrooms had been smashed and there was broken glass and a large stone in a bag on the floor. The police were informed that nothing had been taken from the room. The door to Kercher's room was forced open and the police found Kercher lying beneath a duvet, soaked in blood, with pools and smears of blood around the room. The area was secured for investigation.
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12 years, 10 month(s) ago