Caption: Amanda Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito (L) are suspected of involvement in the murder of Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher (R).
“48 HOURS MYSTERY” LAUNCHES ITS OWN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CASE AGAINST AMANDA KNOX FOR THE MURDER OF HER PERUGIA ROOMMATE MEREDITH KERCHER
“THIS IS A RAILROAD JOB FROM HELL. THERE’S NOT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE PUTTING THIS GIRL AT THAT MURDER SCENE…[BUT] THEY’VE GOTTA CONVICT HER NOW OR THEY LOOK LIKE FOOLS,” SAYS PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR ON “48 HOURS MYSTERY” – SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2008
Although she has not officially been charged, 20 year-old Amanda Knox sits in a maximum security Italian prison, a suspect at the center of an Italian murder and sex mystery. Knox was enrolled for a year of study at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, a picturesque town north of Rome. Now, the University of Washington honor student, along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and former student Rudy Guede, is being held for the slaying of her English roommate, Meredith Kercher.
But a 48 HOURS MYSTERY investigation raises serious doubts about Knox’s involvement. “This is a railroad job from hell. There’s not a shred of evidence putting this girl at the murder scene,” says Chicago private investigator Paul Ciolino, who 48 HOURS MYSTERY took to Italy.
On November 2, 2007 Kercher was found in her bedroom, semi-naked with her throat slashed. Knox initially told police that she arrived home that morning to find the front door open, blood on the floor and no answer from Kercher’s locked room. But within days Knox went from being a witness to a murder suspect. At the end of a 14-hour police interrogation Knox said that she and a local bar owner went to the apartment that night. The bar owner had sex with Kercher and then murdered her, a story that later proved false.
Knox’s story has spread around the world, first dubbed a tale of kinky sex and drugs and now a case of robbery gone wrong. Ciolino and 48 HOURS unearthed a number of inconsistencies that raise questions about the accuracy of the police theory of what happened that night. Ciolino even goes so far as to call it “a police generated fairy tale.”
“They’re so desperate to make a case against this kid that they’ll do anything,” says Ciolino. “They’ve put so much into Amanda Knox, they’ve gotta convict her now or they look like fools.”
While Meredith Kercher’s death was a violent tragedy, skepticism surrounds the case against Amanda Knox, who may also be an innocent victim in this crime.
Peter Van Sant reports on 48 HOURS MYSTERY: “A Long Way From Home,” on Saturday, April 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. This broadcast is produced by Joe Halderman Douglas Longhini and Chris Young. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer and Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the executive producer
Editors’ Note: Click here to watch a preview of the broadcast. CBS News 48 HOURS MYSTERY broadcasts are now available on iTunes.com.
April 14, 2008 at 4:32 am
This is a horrible case of injustice. It was unfortunate that
48 Hours didn’t give Paul Ciolino’s credentials so that the viewers would better appreciate his professional opinion.
It should be noted that Ciolino is lead investigative advisor to North University Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, the Medill School of Journalism, and DePaul University Center for Justice in Capital Cases. In 2003, when former Illinois governor George Ryan granted clemency and pardons to 167 death row inmates, he cited Ciolino’s investigative work, which helped free five innocent men, as one of the reasons for the en masse commutations.
Ciolino is also working on another case of an honor student that was wrongfully convicted named Efren Paredes, Jr. He was arrested at the age of 15 in St. Joseph, Michigan (USA) and charged with a murder and robbery he did not commit. Others pleaded guilty to the case and testified against Efren in exchange for lenient sentences.
Efren had no criminal background and was a high school honor student at Lakeshore High School in Stevensville, Michigan.
According to Ciolino, “There is not one shred of credible evidence to suggest that Efren was involved in the murder. No weapon, no eyewitnesses, no physical evidence, no motive, no prior conduct to suggest that a 15-year-old student athlete, and honor role student with zero criminal background, would have planned, participated or committed this murder. The community and jury were sold a bill of goods based on the words of drug dealers and thieves.”
To learn more about this terrible case of injustice as well you are invited to visit http://www.4Efren.com. The wrongful conviction of our young people is unacceptable and something must be done to end this deplorable practice.
We are praying for Amanda Knox and her family that justice will be done. Efren has been in prison now for 19 years for a crime he did not commit. Hopefully she doesn’t have to endure that experience as well.
December 23, 2008 at 7:49 pm
There are two excellent websites about the Meredith Kercher case:
True Justice For Meredith Kercher:
http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php
Perugia Murder File:
http://perugiamurderfile.freeforums.org/index.php
ALL the judges who have been involved in the case: Judge Claudia Matteini, the judges at the Italian Supreme Court, judge Massimo Riccarelli, and judge Paolo Micheli all thought there were serious indications of Amanda Knox’s and Raffaele Sollecito’s guilt and refused to grant them bail on the grounds that they are mentally unstable, dangerous and could reoffend.
The case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is formidable.
There are 13 pieces of forensic evidence that link Amanda and Raffaele to the crime, including Amanda’s DNA on the handle of the knife found at Raffaele’s apartment and Meredith’s DNA on the blade, and Amanda’s bare footprints set in Meredith’s blood and Raffaele’s DNA on Meredith’s bloodied and cut bra.
Amanda and Raffaele knew precise details about Meredith’s body which they could only have known if they had been present when Meredith was murdered. Amanda herself admitted she was present when Meredith was murdered in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November.
Amanda and Raffaele not only gave conflicting witness statements, but also gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they were doing on the night of the murder.
Respected NBC crime analyst Clint Van Zandt made the following comments:
“…there is a difficult road ahead for the two remaining suspects. I too believe that the forensic evidence and, in my case, especially the indicated behavior of the two suspects was highly telling.”
In the light of the judges’ decisions so far and the forensic evidence which was independently confirmed as accurate and reliable, it looks extremely unlikely that Amanda and Raffaele will be found not guilty.
June 18, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Honor studen in highschool, but suspended in Jr. High for suspicion of drugs. Hmmm