Murder of Meredith Kercher

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (28 December 1985 – 1 November 2007) was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy.

Kercher was found dead on the floor of her bedroom.

By the time the bloodstained fingerprints at the scene were identified as belonging to Rudy Guede, an Ivorian migrant, police had charged Kercher's American roommate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.

The subsequent prosecutions of Knox and Sollecito received international publicity, with forensic experts and jurists taking a critical view of the evidence supporting the initial guilty verdicts.

Knox and Sollecito were released after almost four years following their acquittal at a second-level trial.

Knox immediately returned to the United States.

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (born 28 December 1985 in Southwark, South London), known to her friends as "Mez", lived in Coulsdon, South London.

Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon.

She was enthusiastic about the language and culture of Italy, and after a school exchange trip, she returned at age 15 to spend her summer vacation with a family in Sessa Aurunca.

Kercher studied European politics and Italian at the University of Leeds.

Working as a barmaid, tour guide, and in promotions to support herself, she made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" in 2004.

She aspired to work for the European Union or as a journalist.

In October 2007, she attended the University of Perugia, where she began courses in modern history, political theory, and the history of cinema.

Fellow students later described her as caring, intelligent, witty, and popular.

Perugia, a well-known cultural and artistic centre, is a city of 150,000 people.

More than a quarter of the population are students, many from abroad, giving it a vibrant social scene.

In Perugia, Kercher shared a four-bedroom, ground-floor flat in a house at Via della Pergola 7 (43.1148°N, 12.3914°W).

Her flatmates were two Italian women in their late 20s, Filomena Romanelli and Laura Mezzetti, and a 20-year-old American student from the University of Washington, Amanda Knox, who was attending the University for Foreigners in Perugia on an exchange year.

Kercher and Knox moved in on 10 and 20 September 2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time.

Kercher typically called her mother daily on a mobile phone; a second mobile phone she used was registered to her flatmate, Romanelli.

The lower level of the house was occupied by four young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly.

Late one night in mid-October, Kercher and Knox met Rudy Guede when they returned home at 2:00 am.

Guede had been invited into the lower-level flat by some of the Italian tenants, to whom he had attached himself.

At 4:30 am, Kercher and Knox left.

Also in mid-October, Kercher and Knox attended the EuroChocolate festival.

On 25 October 2007, Kercher and Knox attended a classical music concert, where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old computer-science student, at the University of Perugia.

The first of November was a public holiday in Italy.

Kercher's Italian flatmates were out of town, as were the occupants of the downstairs flat.

That evening, Kercher had dinner with three English women at one of their homes.

She parted company with a friend around 8:45 pm, about 500 yd from Via della Pergola 7.

Guede was tried separately in a fast-track procedure, and in October 2008 was found guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher.

He subsequently exhausted the appeals process and began serving a 16-year sentence.

The appeals verdicts of acquittal were declared null for "manifest illogicalities" by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy in 2013.

The appeals trials had to be repeated; they took place in Florence, where the two were convicted again in 2014.

The convictions of Knox and Sollecito were eventually annulled by the Supreme Court on 27 March 2015.

The Supreme Court of Cassation invoked the provision of art.

530 § 2. of Italian Procedure Code ("reasonable doubt") and ordered that no further trial should be held, which resulted in their acquittal and the end of the case.

The verdict pointed out that as scientific evidence was "central" to the case, there were "sensational investigative failures", "amnesia", and "culpable omissions" on the part of the investigating authorities.

On 4 December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Guede could complete his term doing community service.

Guede was released from prison on November 24, 2021.