Saturday, October 26, 2013
John Kercher’s Excellent Book “Meredith” On Meredith’s Employer And Her Circle Of Friends
Posted by Hopeful
Robyn Butterworth who had also been at Leeds University with Meredith, went to Perugia and roomed with Amy Frost. Often Meredith would go to their flat for lunch. She “often brought a kebab with her, which we found amusing; she loved them.”
(p. 77) “Occasionally, we would go to see a British film at the cinema, and the one in Perugia was like an old theatre, a lovely place.” Robyn Butterworth was in some of the same Perugia University classes with Meredith.
Only a few days before her death, Robyn said that “Meredith had been talking to me during our evening phone call about a university trip to Turin, and we discussed the possibility that she might be able to see the famous Turin Shroud. Unfortunately, she discovered that the trip was fully booked, and so she was hoping to get on the next one. Meanwhile, I was urging her to go to Venice…”
(p. 78) On the first night Robyn met Meredith in Perugia, she and Meredith and Amy who already knew Meredith went out for pizza. Robyn said, “I instantly warmed to Meredith and she was really amusing…She and Amy were the witty ones….In the evenings we would sometimes go to the Merlin Bar in Via del Forno, a place which was a cross between a pizzeria and a bar.”
“Pasquale Alessi, a co-owner of Merlin’s, has said: ‘Meredith was a really nice girl. She liked to go out with her friends. But I never saw her with any problems; never saw her drunk. She always liked to go out with Sophie and Robyn, but she would watch out for them.
“She was the careful one. ‘Now we have to go home,’ she would say, ‘as we have to get up tomorrow and go to class.’”
(p.78) Sophie recalled going to the main street cafes to have a coffee or chocolate with Meredith. “Meredith loved her chocolate,” Sophie said. “There was also a kind of refectory at the University for Foreigners where you could get cheap lunches.”
Mr. Kercher begins Chapter 4 of his book with the heading “The Investigation”. He outlines how difficult it was due to the language barrier and the far distance in England to get news of what was really happening in Perugia.
Their lawyer Maresca spoke on the phone to Stephanie Kercher who understood Italian, or the family had to talk to him using his interpreter. (p.81) We were also getting fragmented details on the Internet of events as they unfolded, but these were difficult to trust and we did not know where the truth lay. At this stage, most of the web information we could find came through translations of the Italian media, particularly the newspaper “La Repubblica”.
(p. 82) “How had Meredith died? How had she been discovered? Who was responsible?” These were the questions that our family was debating. Though we lived apart, we spoke to each other every day, if not to keep abreast of new developments, then only so that we could share our utter disbelief that this had happened. At this stage, we didn’t realize that Meredith’s housemate Amanda Knox and her boyfriend were becoming the police’s prime suspects. All we could think of was, who would have done this terrible crime and why? Meredith was the last person in the world that anyone would want to harm. Everyone loved her.”
...“Perugia…had not seen a killing for more than twenty years,” so the small town of Perugia was equally in shock.
(p.88) Sophie Purton and Robyn got a call from the police and were told to meet the police at the university. In the early confusion and aftermath of finding Meredith’s body, the police were saying the murdered girl was Welsh. Sophie, Amy, and Robyn then were driven to the police station in a plain police car. “We still didn’t know where we were going and still didn’t know what had happened to Meredith. This was about 6 o’clock in the evening. When we arrived at the police station we were put into a waiting room. That was Robyn, Sophie, and me (Amy). Then Meredith’s housemate, Laura, walked in. She was crying.” They then realized it was their friend Meredith Kercher who had been murdered.
Monica Napoleone (p.89) testified of Amanda’s behavior at the police station, ‘Amanda had complained that she was feeling tired…I told her that she could go if she wanted to, but she said that she wanted to stay and wait for Raffaele. A few minutes later, I walked past a room…and I saw Amanda doing the splits and a cartwheel.’
Monica Napoleone continued, ‘She and Sollecito had had a bizarre attitude throughout the whole time. They seemed completely indifferent to everything. They were lying down, laughing, kissing, pulling faces at each other, and writing notes to each other. They were talking to each other in low voices for the whole time. It was impossible that they were behaving like this when a dead body was in Amanda’s house.” (p.89)
(p.90) Robyn said, “I remember how Amanda kept going on about how she had found the body. It was as if she was proud to have been the one who found it….When I went into the waiting room, Amanda was talking at the top of her voice in English to everyone there.”
Later (p.92) Mr. Kercher describes how Amanda changed her stories and kept embellishing them with Patrick being the culprit and herself cowering in the kitchen. She said, “I coud hear Meredith screaming” in her written statement to police.
Amanda also said (p.92) about this scenario of her with ears covered in the kitchen: “These things seem unreal to me, like a dream. The truth is that I am unaware of the truth.” Then she goes on to say that she didn’t kill Meredith and adds, “In these flashbacks I’m having, I see Patrick as the murderer, but I do not remember for sure if I was at my house that night.”
The police then arrested Patrick Lumumba.
(p. 93) “Back in England, this was the first big piece of news we had heard concerning the investigation…Pictures of Lumumba were being shown on television, and at our separate family homes we looked on in disbelief, not knowing whether to believe that we were seeing images of the man who killed our daughter. I spoke with Arline on the phone and neither of us could believe that we were looking at the killer. He did not look like a violent man…had short hair, ...a slightly plump face. I have never before had to question if I was looking into the eyes of a killer, and it struck me how normal he looked. He appeared to look confused when we saw film footage….I felt anger. ...Was this really the man who had taken Meredith’s life away?”
(p. 94) Lumumba told police he had never been to the house where Meredith lived. “I only saw Meredith about four times…” he said. “I had told her to come to the bar on the Friday where we could make her special mojitos”. It seems Meredith had spoken about making mojitos for the bar owner in an evening phone call to her dad. She had some bar experience and Mr. Kercher says “she could make wonderful mojitos. In fact, she knew how to make about twenty different cocktails.”
Lumumba pled with police that he was not the killer, that “It’s not true what Amanda says, that I wanted to be with (Meredith).... I shut the bar… I went home.”
“Suspicious of the conflicting stories being told to them by Sollecito and Knox, requests for their arrests…were made. Until this point, Knox and Sollecito had been regarded as ‘witnesses’....Five days after the horrific killing, Judge Claudia Matteini granted the request for their arrests…” (although they were not yet officially charged with murder but held as flight risks, while Lumumba was already being held.
The Kerchers were now being made aware that not only had Meredith been killed, but subjected to a sexual assault. (p.95) “It felt as if, with every news report or detail that was coming out of Italy, things were becoming more and more terrible. That Meredith was gone was tragedy enough…”
Two weeks later Lumumba was released by Mignini for lack of evidence. Lumumba said, (p. 97) “I believe that Ms Knox had the idea of implicating me when we had met outside the University for Foreigners…. I had been discussing with one of the university teachers whether I woud be a suitable person to act as a translator for reporters from Britain, who did not speak Italian. At this moment, I saw Amanda arriving and I asked her if she liked the idea. She said, “No” and went off smiling. Perhaps that was the moment when she decided to land me in it.”
(p. 97) “I think that Amanda wanted to derail the investigation. That’s what I think, ” said Lumumba. “she must have realised that the investigation was leading to her and thoguht that, if she mentioned me, then the investigators’ attention would shift to me.”
“I can tell you that she wants to be the centre of attention. I think that she is a person capable of doing anything to be in the spotlight.”
Lumumba said, “Amanda hated Meredith because people loved her more than Amanda. She was insanely jealous that Meredith was taking over her position as Queen Bee.” (p. 98)
(p. 99) The Kerchers begin to learn about Amanda Knox’s “double life”. Clint Van Zandt, who had been a long-serving employee of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, told NBC News’s Dennis Murphy: ‘Realise that this is a woman wearing two masks. One mask is Amanda the good girl, in a Catholic school, an athlete, does what her mother says. And then you’ve got the other mask that, when she gets to Italy, it’s “I’m going wild. I’m having fun. This is where i sow my wild oats.”
(p. 100) The double life of Raffaele Sollecito begins to reveal itself. Not only is he the quiet bespectacled student with a privileged background and prominent family with medical doctor father, but he describes himself as “sweet but sometimes absolutely crazy” on social networking sites, and posts photos of himself holding a meat cleaver. Police later find a collection of Japanese manga comics, some of which depicted acts of extreme violence. “One, which attracted particular attention, was concerned with the killing of female vampires on Halloween. It was not lost on police that Meredith had been dressed as a vampire to celebrate Halloween only one night before she was murdered, and they later went on to say that the scene they discovered at the cottage was reminiscent of the scenes depicted in Sollecito’s comics. Upon learning this, we could not help but wonder if Meredith’s murder had been premeditated….”
(p. 102) The Kerchers learn of a fourth suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede. He had arrived in Italy from the Ivory Coast in 1992 at age 5. His father had left him alone in Italy and returned to Africa when Rudy was 15. Mr. Kercher quotes the wealthy Italian, Paolo Caporali, who had taken Rudy in like an adopted son and tried to help him for years. “I thought that I could help him build a future, but I realised that I had made a mistake. He was a tremendous liar…”
Rudy fled toward Mainz, Germany when police detained him and extradited him back to Italy. It seems Rudy’s German stay along with Amanda’s German visit and Raffaele’s time in Germany as student were all scenes of foolishness and curtailed.
” All these events had been unfolding as we waited in England for the return of Meredith’s body.” (p. 107)
Posted by Hopeful on 10/26/13 at 03:28 AM in Concerning Meredith, The officially involved, Victims family
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What an utter nightmare to find yourself in. For the Kercher family so far from events, and the friends in Perugia ‘in’ the midst of the questioning and post-murder fall out, watching in disbelief the behaviour from AK.
At times one has to pause and think, when facing difficulties day to day, of what Meredith’s family has been through so far. It really adds perspective to daily irritations.
At the moment I am reading other blogs, particularly the comments on this excellent piece:
I am staggered, utterly blown away that with all the evidence that places AK and RS at the scene and implicate them in Meredith’s untimely vicious death, that there are people who swear that RG acted alone.
They may as well swear that the Earth is flat…
Thank you for this thought-provoking piece.
Posted by TruthWillOut on 10/26/13 at 12:03 PM | #
@ TruhthWillOut that is an excellent article thank you. This kind of publication together with the Mc Call Wiki The Murder of Meredith Kercher are excellent for anyone new to the case.
I am looking forward to returning to Florence for the 6th Nov., process and better prepared this time. Perhaps Judge Nencini will announce the results of the knife test on 31st Oct., as once the lawyers from the defense have the report it will not remain confidential.
Not that the case depends on the result but Hellman refused to do it and it should be carried out.
I like your nom de plume and the truth will come out thanks again.
Posted by Mason2. on 10/26/13 at 03:12 PM | #
@Mason2
Thankyou for going all the way to Florence again. I will look forward to your authentic reports and observations.
Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 10/26/13 at 03:15 PM | #
@Mason2 - echoing SU’s thanks for reporting from Florence - and thanks too for the compliment.
I honestly first came to this case not wanting to believe that AK was anything other than a victim too. Initially, not following the original trial closely, but hearing the verdict, I accepted her guilt. The first Appeal and all that was “proven” around the apparent sloppy investigation, he-said-she-said claims and the words being used to describe AK, I really and truely thought she had been wrongly convicted. It happens.
The more I read, the reality dawned that AK was involved and was responsible for organising the scene afterwards. why would she do that if she had nothing to hide?
The press courting now, I feel, are all about attracting massive interest in December. Getting AK to be analysed post conviction (if we believe that the Supreme Court will judge on the evidence and are not open to a bribe as the first Appeal judges clearly were) will fill much air time and why not pay her to give them hours of footage to play with later?
I have added McCalls excellent Wiki site as my website on Twitter. My ‘handle’ is @RIPMeredithTWO (TWO being a rather nice abbreviation for TruthWillOut).
Anyone else tweeting about this, I highly recommend linking to McCalls site (or this one actually - or indeed both).
Mostly I retweet others’ excellent comments on the case. Trying to keep up with posts on all the sites is a full time job and I already have one of those, so skim reading is my inadequate best offering.
I am in awe at the number of people who have educated themselves on this case and are advocating for the truth to be the mainstream reporting. A real testament to Meredith’s life is that everyone involved since her death want her murderers to be held accountable for their actions and for Meredith’s life to be recognised for all the promise it had.
TJMK has been a massive boon in my life - I hope it is for others and I believe that McCall’s site will be the determining source for those wanting actual basic facts, not fantasy, not opinion.
If Amanda (or her family/representatives) reads here - I trust you realise now the gravity of your actions. You weren’t a little innocent girl; you were manipulative, vicious and cowardly.
Posted by TruthWillOut on 10/26/13 at 05:51 PM | #
As always this is wonderful and heart felt and yes of course Knox is all of the above. Upon reading the Amanda Knox site though it is irrefutable that any comment regarding guilt as opposed to innocence is met with a barrage of name calling. That’s OK because it does not mean or change the eventual outcome but you will notice that these shills do not offer facts (unlike here) they just offer opinion. Thank you once more for this excellent site and in depth insight.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 10/26/13 at 11:29 PM | #
why did Meredith not room with Robin, did they not know each other in Leeds ?
Posted by mollythecat on 10/27/13 at 08:03 PM | #
I’m having some concerns regarding the murder weapon. I’m seeing two different versions. It would not surprise me if the forces of evil have posted another one in it’s place to confuse the unsuspecting. Could someone post an actual police photo of the weapon itself since there are pictures of a butchers knife that are different.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 10/27/13 at 08:32 PM | #
Thanks, TruthWillOut, for your above link to the AllThingsCrimeBlog article. I thought this comment underneath by McCall was extremely astute: “The discussion of RFU levels is also incorrect. You are try to apply guidelines from the analysis of non-LCN samples to a LCN sample. The DNA from 36b is a 16 loci match to Meredith Kercher. The claim that 32 stutters happened to present themselves randomly exactly where genuine peaks would be if Kercher’s DNA was on the knife and nowhere else is not something you are going to convince anyone of. Meredith’s DNA is on that knife.”
And thank you, Hopeful, for this wonderful summary and excerpts from John Kercher’s book. AK and RS were not arrested for “behaving suspiciously.” AK was arrested for placing herself at the crime scene; RS had no alibi and placed himself solidly in the company of AK at the time of the murder.
Posted by Earthling on 10/28/13 at 10:26 PM | #
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Or to previous entry More About Meredith With Thanks To John Kercher and Stephanie