Monday, December 18, 2017
Knox & Sollecito: How From Their Very First Questionings The Cracks & Fissures Start To Appear
Posted by KrissyG
“Now I say… and then you say… and then I say… and then you say”
Reference the caption above: that’s the last time they talked before their first questionings.
Each day the cracks and fissures got worse. Would any cop not get suspicious?! Three days later, Sollecito separates with a bang and proclaims that Knox had made him lie.
That sure went well. Next murder Knox may do alone… A good primer for this post is this guide on how to read lies.
Here’s my take on the Recorded Statement taken from Amanda Knox 2 Nov 2007 in Part 4 of our previous post below. It is timed at 3:30pm. Mignini arrived about 3:00.
It could be the Squadra Mobila (the Flying Squad attached to the Carabinieri) took statements at the scene as Knox had to wait at the Questura quite a while before she was spoken to and got home late.
I have only processed three or four paragraphs so far (so this could turn into a whole series). What jumps out at me is the following statement:
Around 5 pm I left my house together with Raffaele to go to his house where we stayed the whole evening and the night.
In Sollecito’s own statement of 2 Nov 2007, in Part 5 of the previous post, he states:
At about 4:00 pm, Meredith left without saying where she was going, while we stayed at home until about 17.30. After that hour, Amanda and I took a little trip to the center to go to my house where we stayed until this morning.
So, from having been at Via della Pergola for lunch, during which time, Sollecito joined her and Meredith had got out of bed after arriving home in the early hours, and according to Knox and Sollecito, still had the remains of vampire makeup on her chin, was wearing her ex-boyfriend’s jeans, and had gone out at four, “˜without saying where she was going’, the pair claim to have gone straight to Raff’s apartment in Via Garibaldi, “˜at about five’. In Sollecito’s earliest account, it was to go to his house via the centre.
The next written record we have comes from Knox email home to 25 people in her address book on Sunday 4 Nov 2007, in the early hours circa 36 hours or so after Meredith’s body was found.
meredith came out of the shower and grabbed some laundry or put some laundry in, one or the other and returned into her room after saying hi to raffael. after lunch i began to play guitar with raffael and meredith came out of her room and went to the door. she said bye and left for the day. it was the last time i saw her alive. after a little while of playing guitar me and raffael went to his house to watch movies and after to eat dinner and generally spend the evening and night indoors. [sic]
Many believe this was Amanda writing out a “˜script’ to “˜get her story straight’. One thing about liars, is that they stick rigidly to a set chronology to make it easier to remember their lies.
The next written record is Sollecito’s first written statement to the police:
Raffale Sollecito: November 5th 2007 at 22:40 in the offices of the Flying Squad of the Perugia Police Headquarters
QA Around 16:00 Meredith left in a hurry without saying where she was going. Amanda and I stayed home until about 17:30-18:00.
QA We left the house, we went into town, but I don’t remember what we did.
QA We stayed there from 18:00 until 20:30/21:00. At 21:00 I went home alone because Amanda told me that she was going to go to the pub Le Chic because she wanted to meet some friends.
For the first time we are made aware that the pair went somewhere after leaving Via della Pergola at between “˜5:30 and 6:00’ according to Raffaele’s statement, this glides neatly into Popovic’s visit at 6:00pm at Raff’s abode. No visible gaps in the timeline here.
Next comes Knox’ handwritten statement to the police:
Amanda Knox Handwritten Statement to the police 6 Nov 2007
“˜Thursday, November 1st I saw Meredith the last time at my house when she left around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Raffaele was with me at the time. We, Raffaele and I, stayed at my house for a little while longer and around 5 in the evening we left to watch the movie Amelie at his house.’
So Knox says they left at 5:00 ““ sticking to her scripted story as she set out in the email home, whilst Raff makes it an hour later. So, we are led to believe, they didn’t stay in town long at all, and in any case, ”˜I don’t remember what we did’.
This is a big flag. When people say, “˜I don’t remember’, they are telling you they recall an event, but are unable to retrieve it from their memory. In fact, they do not even try, not even when elite detectives are carrying out a crucial murder investigation of your girlfriend’s own roommate. A person who was not involved will say, “˜I don’t know’ when asked a straight question, not “˜I don’t recall’.
Sollecito sticks to his script: “˜We left via della Pergola, five-thirty to six’:
Raffaele Sollecito 7 Nov 2007 PRISON DIARY
“˜An amusing thing I remember is that Meredith was wearing a pair of men’s jeans which belonged to her ex”boyfriend in England. She left quickly around 4 pm, not saying where she was going. Meanwhile, Amanda and I stayed there until around 6 pm and we began to smoke cannabis.
My problems start from this moment because I have confused memories. Firstly, Amanda and I went to the centre going from Piazza Grimana to Corso Vannucci passing behind the University for Foreigners and ending up in Piazza Morlacchi (we always take that road). Then I do not remember but presumably we went shopping for groceries. We returned to my house at around 8 “ 8:30 pm and there I made another joint and, since it was a holiday, I took everything with extreme tranquillity, without the slightest intention of going out since it was cold outside.
Note the signifier, informing the reader, “˜it was cold outside’ embellishing the lie, “˜therefore we could not have gone out that night’.
So, whilst Raff on 7 Nov 2007 has jotted in his PRISON DIARY (which of course he is aware the authorities will be reading avidly), they were out between “˜six and eight’, Amanda writes to her lawyers a couple of days later adhering firmly to her script.
Amanda Knox Letter to her Lawyers 9 Nov 2007
Around 3 or 4 Meredith left the house wearing light-colored clothing, and all she said was “Ciao”. She didn’t say where she was going. I continued playing guitar and after a while Raffaele and I left my house, probably around 5pm.
We went to his house and the first thing we did was get comfortable. I took off my shoes etc. I used his computer for a little while to write down songs I wanted to learn for the guitar, I listened to some of Raffaele’s music at this time.
Note the inclusion of irrelevant and trivial detail, “˜I took off my shoes’. A liar loves to gild the lily.
click image for larger version
Then comes Knox’ next written affirmation of what she did the day of the murder:
Page 1223 PRISON DIARY ““ AMANDA KNOX 27 Nov 2007
Here is what I did that night:
5pm: Left my house with Raffaele and walked to his apartment.
5:05pm - ???:
(1) Used the computer to look up songs to play on the guitar.
(2) Read Harry Potter in German w/Raffaele.
(3) Watched Amelie.
(4) Prepared and ate dinner ““ Fish.
(5) While cleaning the dishes a bunch of water spilled on the floor.
(6) We tried to soak up a little with small towels but there was too much.
(7) Raffaele rolled a joint.
(8) We smoked the joint together and talked.
(9) We had sex.
(10) We fell asleep.It’s that simple.’
Did you spot, she remembers her lines, despite her problems with amnesia? Still no mention of going into the old town. When people use qualifies such as, “˜That’s about it’, or “˜It’s as simple as that’, there’s another flag they have just told you a lie. Note the triple question mark as if she is unsure it took half an hour to arrive at Raff’s, in case anyone pulls her up on it sometime in the future. Again bells and whistles, the liar’s toolkit.
Raffaele helpfully offers us an insight in his book several years later as to why he revealed ““ even if Amanda never does ““ they went into town in his police statement of 5 Nov 2007.
From Honor Bound 2012 Andrew Gumbel and Raffaele Sollecito write:
(P 17) It was the last time I ever saw [Meredith Kercher].
Amanda and I smoked a joint before leaving the house on Via della Pergola, wandered into town for shopping before remembering we had enough for dinner already, and headed back to my place.
P53 (in the Questura 5 Nov 2007)
I mentioned [to police] Amanda and I had gone out shopping, something I had apparently omitted in my previous statements. [note the plural].
So, we see, Raffaele has not voluntarily offered the information “˜we went into town’ either, on the afternoon of 1 Nov 2007. He concedes he only proffered it, because the police brought it up. When asked the purpose of the trip, he claims they went “˜shopping’, but on not being able to prove they bought anything nor state which shops the pair frequented, he had to retract this half-lie, by now adding to his 6 Nov 2007 official police statement, later, that once there, they suddenly realised ”˜we had enough for dinner already’.
So, we are led by this to conclude the purpose of the expedition into the old town was “˜shopping for dinner’, when before, it was to “˜to go to my house where we stayed until this morning.’
It is bizarre and a symptom of lying for someone to say they did something, but then didn’t do it, when asked to elaborate. Raff omits to even mention to police going into the old town, and Knox persistently does not mention it at all. He only mentions it when detectives ask him why he omitted to. He then “˜suddenly remembers’ this “˜unimportant detail’ and tells them they were there to shop. But wait. They suddenly do not do any shopping at all, whilst in the old town, because once there, they realise they ”˜already had’ provisions for the evening meal. Amanda Knox makes clear this evening meal was FISH. Yet she claims she couldn’t remember exactly what she did at Raff’s, for at least three weeks. Fishy indeed.
I don’t know about you, but if I head into town to buy food or clothes, once there, I don’t suddenly think, “˜Hang on a minute, what am I doing here, I already have bread/a dress at home!’
Surely, I would buy something anyway, or at least browse around, perhaps use my John Lewis voucher and go for a coffee and cake.
Astonishingly, years later, Knox still deceives us in this matter:
In Waiting to be Heard 2013 Amanda Knox resolutely omits the detail of “˜going into the old town’:
(P61) Sometime between 4:00pm and 5pm we left to go to his place.’
There then follows filler sentences about how “˜we wanted a quiet cozy night in’.
Then comes the type of deception liars love to use: they pad out their tall tales with irrelevant guff.
“˜As we walked along, I was telling Raffaele that Amélie was my all time favourite movie.
“˜Really?’ he asked. “˜I’ve never seen it’
[Forgetting completely, forensic police discovered he’d downloaded the movie way back on 28 Oct 2007 {by coincidence, no doubt}].
“˜Oh my God,’ I said, unbelieving. “˜You have to see it right this second. You’ll love it’
The narrative then completely jumps to:
Not long after we got back to Raffaele’s place, his doorbell rang. [Enter first alibi Jovanna Popovic, whom Raff states appeared at 6:00pm].
A whole hour is omitted. One whole hour to get back to Raff’s, just around the corner, four to ten minutes away at the outside.
From all the embellishments, fabrications and outright lies, we see that what happened between 4:00pm and 9:00pm and where the pair went, is significant. Some say, they obviously went to score drugs. However, they openly admit to smoking a joint. In fact, they go to pains to emphasise it. They have no inhibitions talking about having sex. Therefore, the trip into the old town which took up to two to five hours of their time is rather more sinister than some kind of coyness or embarrassment about buying some dope.
In his statement to police on 5 Nov 2007, Sollecito changes his story and claims he came home alone at ‘20:30/21:00’. As we now know, the pair both switched off their phones together, between 20:45 and 21:00, so we can be sure this time is supremely salient. Meredith was on her way back around then. From Knox not ever mentioning the trip into town, it could be she indeed never did go into town, and that Raff went alone.
Raffaele Sollecito complains in his book “˜the police were out to get me’ by catching out his anomalies. However, I was watching a tv programme a few days ago, about a murder case, and detectives had to puzzle out from scratch who was the culprit. The detectives explained to the viewer, when someone comes in for questioning, all they have is that person’s face value account. They then check out the details, and then, if they discover falsehood and deception in the interviewee’s story, that is what makes them suspicious. So Raff and Amanda have only themselves to blame police suspected them.
I believe the pair followed Meredith and stalked her movements that night, hence the concealment of their true motive for being out between 4:00 and 9:00.
Popovic has a story that she had to pick up a suitcase from the station, and then didn’t have to after all, so either she really did see Knox at home at six, as claimed, or it was “˜a friend helping out with the alibi’. See “˜the event that is a non-event’ -type of lie, as above. Who knows what that was about. Popovic claims to have spoken to the pair at between 5:30 and 5:45 and again at about 8:40. I personally remain sceptical of her testimony, as I do of his father’s, Francesco, whose claimed account of the 8:42 telephone conversation directly contradicts Knox’ and Sollecito’ with regard to dinner and the pipes flooding, supposedly happening before the murder.
We do know, as James Raper points out, as per Massei - “at 18:27:15 [6.27 pm] on the 1/11/07, there was human interaction via the “VLC” application, software used to play a multimedia file for a film “Il Favolso Mondo Di Amelie.avi”, already downloaded onto Sollecito’s computer laptop via P2P (peer to peer) some days earlier.”
We also know there was human interaction when the film “˜crashed’ (as it was finished?) at 9:10 because someone clicked on the error message to close it. I do not think this starting and finishing the film proves anything. I have always viewed Amélie as a contrived alibi.
Lies can work both ways. I don’t believe either Francesco or Popovic. The supposed testimony of these two “˜alibi witnesses’ were used directly against Sollecito when his compensation claim was thrown out.
Comments
This sure gets interesting. KrissyG quotes some of Sollecito’s parallel testimony which is now Part 5 of our previous post.
Heavey, Douglas and Moore wrote a seriously foolish book. It’s called The Forgotten Killer. They meant Guede, but the AK/RS trial referred daily to Guede. Demonization full bore.
it’s Sollecito that Heavey, Douglas and Moore, and Burleigh and all the others forget. Or tried hard. Knox too these days.
Sollecito is about as useful as a fifth wheel to them in explaining the sexism or mysoginy or anti-Americanism they just know was rained down on Knox.
The addled Atlanta professor Duncan we examined the other day mentioned Sollecito’s name in her paper ONCE and it was really easy to miss. She names Knox several hundred times.
They all do something like that. To make you laugh: Sollecito himself once complained he was the non-guy.
Sollecito showed real signs on American TV that he did not know what was in his book. It seems the Italy-hater Andrew Gumbel wrote it, with Steve Moore and Fischer’s gang.
So one of the claims they made sure to put in the book? That the prosecutors told his team they were not after him at all - it was only Knox they aimed to take down.
Guess what? Sollecito has now been forced in front of a Florence court to admit that this was all made up.
There was never the slightest difference between how prosecutors regarded Sollecito and how they regarded Knox.
Who DID demonize Knox and repeatedly attempt to throw her under the bus? Actually, Sollecito and his team. Again and again.
Heh, in the caption you forgot to add:
RS: Whatever you do look studiously ahead. Don’t look at the cameras. Try to look innocent.
AK: We gave her what for, eh?
RS: Remember, we didn’t do it, we weren’t there.
Raff likes to come across as the harmless buffoon, doesn’t he?
Haven’t seen that photo before. Anyone figure she’s just washed and blow dried her hair?
Problemo #1. The climb to the town center is not something one does lightly. At a guess it is an elevation change equivalent to 50 stories.
There are three pretty direct routes from Piazza Grimana up to the town center.
A. Through the arch; the nightclubs are up that street; its an okay steepness.
B. Up the steep cobbled road a few yards to its left; not first choice for most, far fewer pedestrians.
C. Up the steps opposite the corner of the basketball court; very steep, arrives via Perugia’s highpoint.
(There was a long-lift escalator planned all the way from the parking facility above the house to the top. No news on what progress.)
Now see this.
Firstly, Amanda and I went to the centre going from Piazza Grimana to Corso Vannucci passing behind the University for Foreigners and ending up in Piazza Morlacchi (we always take that road).
This is the D route. I doubt if 1 in 100 would take that route on foot, because it heads out to the west, and adds maybe a kilometer.
Only if Sollecito was DRIVING would it make sense to take that route. There are several hints in his descriptions that he was driving.
Problemo #2.
There is better food shopping on Sollecito’s own street (eg the Conad) than there is at the town center, where the shopping is essentially clothing boutiques and south of the square (away from the house) one or two high-end delis.
Problemo #3.
There are two routes to Patrick’s bar from the houses of Knox & Sollecito.
One is up and over the hill and down again (A, B and C) and the other is clockwise round the side of the massif at the same level (now E - on that route is the lawyers’ office where Guede did or did not break in, and the house of the English girls).
Animated maps here are courtesy of the amazing Kermit.
http://truejustice.org/perugia/powerpoints/Kermit02PerugiaLocations.pps
http://truejustice.org/perugia/powerpoints/Kermit03PerugiaPossSequenceOfEvents.pps
Meredith and Sophie used that second route, the E route, that was Meredith’s last walk home. It is the much easier and much quicker walk, though it might be slightly longer.
Piazza Moriachi (see Problemo 1 above) is a long way west of either of those routes. Again suggesting they were driving.
Okay. One attempt at moving this further.
I’ve always thought Knox’s notorious jealousy and growing financial insecurities should not be discounted.
AK already knew her prize job at Patrick’s bar was at risk, and lacking a work permit she may never get another. At risk to MEREDITH.
Knox had been involved in hazing for what she thought was fun back in Seattle. Hazing Meredith could be where her angry imagination was driving her.
If you accept this and where Krissy is taking us (and I am tempted) it could imply that RS and AK were swanning around looking for Meredith.
They’d check the bar and of course no Meredith. Because she was at the English girls’ house eating pizza.
So they move to the darkness of the trees at the edge of the basketball court looking down on the entrance to the Knox/Meredith house.
If they were there in the dark, Meredith would have walked down the steps by the basketball court just a few feet away from them, having just said goodnight to Sophie Purton.
Guede is pretty well there daily. There’s your team, headed for the house for some angry chat and some hazing not long after 9:00 pm.
This may or may not be in our scenarios; seems worth checking. Scroll down here.
http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/C306/
Nice article, Krissy. Looking forward to any followup. This is an iInteresting quote of yours:
Raffaele Sollecito complains in his book ‘the police were out to get me’ by catching out his anomalies. However, I was watching a tv programme a few days ago, about a murder case, and detectives had to puzzle out from scratch who was the culprit. The detectives explained to the viewer, when someone comes in for questioning, all they have is that person’s face value account. They then check out the details, and then, if they discover falsehood and deception in the interviewee’s story, that is what makes them suspicious. So Raff and Amanda have only themselves to blame police suspected them.
You are right of course. Since there was no videotape, and no apparent witness, the police ‘‘would’’ have to sift through everyone’s account. RS called to come in to clear just such a discrepancy, but no real cause for alarm.
That is of course until Raffy told them Mandy made him lie.
And then Mandy claimed to be an actual eye/earwitness.
That sure went well. Next murder Knox may do alone…
Priceless comment, and great link
Now for what the cellphone pinging might tell us. Cardiol’s two posts nearly five years ago on the precise locations of the cellphones are highly worth reading.
In Cardiol’s 2nd post, scroll down to AKP 20:18:12 and read those three paragraphs.
Before both phones are turned off there are two calls locating Knox in the “right” places to fit my attempt above at a scenario.
1) One is in the odd location off to the west in my Problemo 1 post above suggesting they may have been driving. That is Patrick’s incoming saying no need to come to work.
2) The other is in an area which includes the basketball court and those trees. That is Knox replying to Patrick.
Then the phones were turned off. One good reason? Hiding among the trees. Cardiol even says in his third paragraph:
Knox may also have been LESS than happy that Lumumba preferred Meredith instead of Knox as an employee. This was humiliating-enough to Knox for Knox to decide that the time to cut Meredith down-to-size was now.
And on the night previously Knox had experienced a humiliating Halloween.
Were they both out hunting for Meredith from say 6:00 to say 8:30 pm (and Popovic having been got to and lying) and on watch in the trees thereafter with their cellphones off?
But all these dots all suggest that. They suggest that the hazing of Meredith was premeditated.
Pete points-out a particular part of Post #2 of “Updating Our Scenarios And Timelinesâ€, but the Comments also were most interesting.
So First, read both Posts #1 & #2, but Second, also read the corresponding Comments (20 & 51 Comments respectively).
There was a Comment questioning whether C.U.T. was actually in Italian usage in 2007; it definitely was in Italian usage, as the Posts showed.
Thanks, Pete, for recommending those 2 Posts.
Because, 4 years later, we now know much more than we did back-then, I hope readers will be stimulated to make new Comments re those Scenarios And Timelines.
Pete, fascinating maps of the roads around Perugia. You would think the pair would simply say, ‘went out for a drive’. Then again, it is impossible to believe a word Sollecito says. If he says he went Route D then how likely it wasn’t by car?
But neither of them mention it, so either (a) it’s another lie (with Raff it is compulsive, rather than strategic, as with Knox) (b) they really did do that walk and still managed to get to 110 Corso Garibaldi within five minutes, as claimed by Knox, (c) they wanted to keep the car out of the investigation so omitted to mention it.
Hey Krissy
No easy excuse for using the car. Either they were cruising for Meredith or… what?
At trial both sides decided to keep the drugs aspect out, prosecution because they thought it could represent a break for the two, defense because it meant admitting to the crime.
But cops think they were coming off a drug high the night after the murder and Knox seemed to show signs of an extended drug high or renewed high through to her weird behavior and conniption at the police station.
Skunk cannabis (which can make users behave weird and even kill) or cocaine. Probably cocaine. Possibly Knox’s first use.
We could have them staying on at the house for several hours after Meredith left, getting doped up to the eyeballs and enraging themselves, and still have time to cruise up and down via Patrick’s bar hunting for Meredith, parking, and setting up watch in the forest above the house.
(Click for larger) two more images below that might help.
This shows the oddness of the route RS says they took which suggests a car: two sides of a triangle instead of one. Patrick’s bar was off to the right and down.
This shows the steps referred to in Problemo 1 as possible but unlikely route C. The top end is close to the English girls house which is off to the left.
Amazing arial views. Worth an article in itself.
Yes Krissy. Killer details As Finn McCool posted so long ago, the devil (or smoking gun) is in the details. We are now seeing more & more & more.
Mass failure on the details is what is turning the few remaining Knox people into deer in the headlights, Knox increasingly too.
Okay. Sollecito did not have to indicate which route he took, or to tell the truth, but AKs phone was triangulated right on route D there when Patrick texted.
Gee thanks Patrick, nice work, so happy you win one at last.
Actually you win two because Knox was almost certainly in the trees above the house when she replied to you and then turned her phone off.
I don’t see why one should doubt Popovic’s testimony. She was, after all, a prosecution witness whose evidence made it clear that as of Meredith’s return to the cottage at 9 pm Sollecito had no alibi via her.
As to the 8.18 text from Lumumba to Knox, Massei says -
“At the time of reception the phone connected to the cell on Via dell’Aquila 5-Torre dell’Acquedotto sector 3, whose signal does not reach Raffaele Sollecito’s house. The young woman was therefore far [i.e. absent] from Corso Garibaldi 30 when the SMS reached her, as she was walking in an area which was shown to be served by the Via dell’Aquila 5-Torre dell’Acquedotto sector 3 cell. This point of her route could correspond to Via U. Rocchi, to Piazza Cavallotti, to Piazza IV Novembre, bearing in mind that Lumumba’s pub is located in Via Alessi, and that Amanda Knox would have had to travel along the above-mentioned roads and the piazza in order to reach the pub”
Nencini refers to this as the first crack in Knox’s account.
The problem with that is that Massei then goes on to contradict himself, twice saying - referring to two of the phone calls after midday on the 2nd (the first between Knox and Filomena and the 2nd to Meredith’s english phone, others at the time pinging off different cells also covering Sollecito’s) -that the Via dell’Aquila 5-Torre dell’Acquedotto sector 3 cell does cover Sollecito’s house, all these placing Knox there.
The original technical testimony is a bit confusing but surely the above makes it more likely that the sector 3 cell can cover both Sollecito’s and the the route of a walk to the pub?
However there was no dispute that when Knox texted her reply it was via a cell which covered Sollecito’s house. This was a different cell. It was at 8.35 with Popovic arriving there and talking to Knox at 8.40 pm.
Thanks for the checking James. Somewhat okay for me on 8:35 & 8:40 pm, Krissy may differ.
Krissy’s point in the post is that this trip to the town center comes and goes and varies somewhat. To me possibly explained by them really getting high at one house or the other - I suggested the girls’ house.
The route Sollecito describes in his diary if it happened is an odd triangular one suggesting a car. It remains odd to me and its where Knox was triangulated. Patricks bar was away from there quite far down Alessi on an elevation fairly similar to the girls’ house. See map below.
Re Massei: “Amanda Knox would have had to travel along the above-mentioned roads and the piazza in order to reach the pub”. But that’s Knox taking the triangular route for the 2nd time that night if RS is to be believed. And also Massei did actually know of a more direct route from Knox’s house with little elevation change that probably saves 10 or so minutes. Its the one Meredith took home, the E route.
Theory of the crime. Did Raffaele use his car in the hours before the murder?
Popovic saw the lovebirds together at Raf’s apartment at 5:30 to 5:45pm. Then we know one or both of them turned on the film Amelie on Raf’s computer at 6:27pm shortly after Popovic left. They might have done that as a ruse, so the noise of the movie would be heard inside Raf’s apartment while they left town in his car to do some driving and thinking. Maybe they drove toward Gubbio (or the exact opposite, since they did mention gubbio, maybe it was a town in the opposite direction) to buy ski masks, hats, swim caps, Napapijri jacket, etc. and disguises to use in a prank against Meredith.
They wouldn’t want to be seen buying those items in Perugia. Maybe they wanted to find some pawn shops out of town that might pay them money for stolen items from the cottage. Maybe they wanted to scout out a location outside of Perugia to discard the items if they stole stuff from Meredith but didn’t want to risk selling it. Maybe they sensed deep down they would need a place to haul away bloodied items, if something drastic happened. Their first plan was to disguise themselves, frighten Meredith, maybe even cut her a bit, then flee and hide the weapon and any disguises out of town.
Maybe they drove out of town looking to find a place to hide her body, or set up an alibi about being out of town on the night of the hazing. They would frighten Meredith dressed in disguise so she couldn’t identify them, take her stuff and dump it and then come back the next day and pretend to be horrified at her ordeal.
But as Sollecito claimed they “didn’t do any shopping after all (in Perugia)” they did change their minds. Maybe they dropped the idea of using disguises as impractical so they drove back to Perugia irritated and depressed that their plan was stupid. Maybe they bought drugs out of town and they took the drugs to salve themselves perhaps right before seeing Popovic at 8:40pm. They turned off the movie shortly after that, then turned off both their phones shortly after the text from Patrick, became further irrational from the drugs and their disappointment at not daring to use disguises and haze Meredith in a really daring way, but decided on Plan B.
Plan B was to go to the cottage while Meredith was still out with her friends, rifle through Filomena’s closet and desk, steal her makeup, throw her clothes all around to fake a burglary and accuse Meredith of stealing lots of stuff from the girls. They would shout at her, pretend outrage, accuse her angrily and hold her at knifepoint to force her to confess her theft. As a clincher they would rip her off by insisting she restore the money they claimed she had “stolen” from Amanda. Maybe they even planned to plant drugs in Meredith’s room while she was away and accuse her of that, too.
What they hadn’t counted on was Meredith’s courage and indignation. Instead of being terrified by false accusations and crying and begging, despite a show of knives, Meredith fought them. Maybe she kicked Raf and hit Amanda in the nose and enraged both of them to the point they wanted to badly assault her and cut her. The pretense of anger had turned into the real thing. The words of Guede about the argument over money had some basis.
After the first hesitation pricks of the knife and telling Guede to assault this thief in his own coarse way, they realized they’d gone too far and decided to silence her forever with the fatal neck wound.
Maybe Guede had not been informed of the prank and thought the entire confrontation was sincere.
After the violence, the duo were too doped up, frightened and confused to transport the body in Raf’s car to the places they had found on their drive. Also maybe Raf refused to allow blood evidence into his vehicle. Then they had to content themselves with a cleanup and lies.
The lie was that they were in Perugia all evening doing harmless things, per Amanda’s list. The lie was that Raf had separated from Amanda from 9pm to around midnight or 1:00am? He said this to camouflage the fact they were out driving together in his car, neither was in Perugia. They returned from their drive in time to reply to Patrick’s text and to see Popovic.
The use of Raffaele’s car instead of his detailed talk of the walking routes they took to Via Morlacchi, etc. was suggested by Peter Quennell’s comment about Raf’s car.
Could there be any substance to these theories of the crime? Please weigh in and correct if they contradict any known facts or timelines. Thanks.
And thank you, Krissy G, for exposing more of Raffaele’s and Amanda’s lies in their alibi changes, Knox’s email, their red flag omissions of the roughly two hours after claiming they last saw Meredith leaving the cottage in light colored clothes around 4 or 5 pm on the fatal evening. After this, maybe the devious car ride to dream up plans or to buy stuff out of town?
Hi Hopeful
The big box stores are way down the hill beyond the station. Exactly the other direction from Gubbio! Which probably has none. So actually this is not impossible.
Knox walked through that area with her sister pulling their bags along on their very first night in Perugia, seeking an American chain hotel (Holiday Inn?) across the freeway to the west.
In the image immediately above, see the dark patch at the top-center? Its a deep valley. The School for Foreigners and main campus of the university both back onto that. There’s a high-speed road there, which would get anyone down to those stores in 5 minutes.
That might be how Sollecito got to the computer department, which is quite close to the questura.
My guess is that his apartment was rented back in his schooldays, though he started off in a dormitory. You might know? If he had been closer to his school he would have been away from Amanda, so Via San Antonio was a fateful choice.
@Peter Quennell, you say Amanda and Deanna towed their suitcases hotel hunting in the area near big box stores down the hill from the station. So Knox would have felt that her comfort zone, and possibly she and Raf drove in that direction to plan mischief.
When one thinks of the most significant outburst behavior known of Knox when she was at UW, the scary joke she pulled on a female student to terrify the girl then laugh at her, it seems reasonable Knox had a taste for this mildly sadistic “humor” as a way to control others or to get a reaction out of them, to instill fear.
Maybe she had been used to controlling her three sisters in a similar but milder way, practice makes perfect. Underneath the joke and the laughter after such a frightening trick, there is the need to assert power and to make others jump to one’s tune, or even in the final case of Meredith Kercher, to belittle and demean. She might have wanted to scare the daylights out of Meredith hoping to unseat her from what Knox perceived as Meredith’s superior performance in school and in society. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Patrick’s preference for Meredith perhaps as an employee. Maybe the Marche boys in the cottage and others at Merlin’s or other clubs had made too many compliments about Meredith and filled Knox with jealousy and fear of failure. Maybe she didn’t like Raffaele noticing that Meredith was wearing her boyfriend’s jeans. Maybe Knox was highly sensitive to comparisons and felt bested on every front: academics, charm and manners, social skills, money and Erasmus status, maybe even Laura and Filomena had begun to “like Meredith better than me”, to Knox’s oversensitive narcissism, and maybe Meredith’s earlier warmth and inclusiveness to Knox were fading so that Knox found fault with her and felt rejected and then Knox had a catastrophic response and felt justified in vindictive behavior. Maybe she wanted to show off to Raffaele as an example of (false) courage and derring-do, ever the showoff and unhinged leader of the pack, trying to best the males as well. False confidence and bravado, same thing she used in prison although the silent keep your mouth shut don’t make waves version while outnumbered by inmates, but writing it all down.
A Blood Problem:
Cutting the Right Superior Thyroid Artery would have “resulted in a bright red jet of arterial-blood, which would have sprayed Meredith, Meredith’s clothes, them, their clothes, the wall, and the floorâ€,
“them†being Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, & Rudy Guede.
We know about the blood on and near Meredith’s body, but how, when and where did the three others dispose of their blood-stained clothes, substitute clean clothes and leave no, or few, traces?
I’ve searched for answers, and my best clue so far is in Follain’s book:
“Filomena was asked whether the clothes still in the washing machine were hers; she glanced inside and said they weren’t. Later, she and Laura said that most of the clothes were Meredith’s, and the rest Amanda’s.â€
Could they have been the clothes Amanda wore during the murder?
Great insights, as usual, Hopeful.
Don’t forget Kokomani, poor witness that he was (and another prosecution witness, James, so they are not all reliable), was pinged in the area, did describe the tow car in remarkably accurate detail, and the dark car in front of the cottage, as collaborated by the independent car mechanic, the brief traffic hold up and a detailed extraordinarily spot-on description of the bins, gates and railings of the cottage, where he claimed to have seen Rudy below the railings and the three appearing to be lying in wait for ‘a friend’. He claims Knox waved a knife at him, Sollecito dropped his glasses, and Rudy offered him €250 for the use of his car.
See the picture of the gate here: http://truejustice.org/ee/images/perugia/50nearbystreets/5308.pdf
Hard to make it up if he wasn’t there.
Thanks Krissy.
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