Foxy Knoxy’s Italian Murder Scandal
What started out as a supposed romantic movie-like abroad experience in Europe collapsed into a horror story.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito spent a total of seven years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Was it truly Rudy Guede, as they claim, or was it a sex game gone wrong, as the media says? With more characters in play than witnesses, the truth is never satisfactory.
So Much for a Cozy Cottage
Amanda Knox, a 20-year-old college student from Washington, ventured to Perugia, Italy on a study abroad trip. She worked part-time as a bartender at the bar Le Chic, where she met her Italian beau, 23-year-old Raffaele Sollecito. Their relationship quickly intensified, falling in love almost immediately and spending all hours together.
Knox shared a cottage with another study abroad student, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher from England. It was said that their neighborhood was ‘bad,’ with drug dealers and gangs on every block.
On November 2, 2007, Kercher’s body is discovered after Knox notified the police that she had come home that morning from Sollecito’s house to find Kercher’s bathroom door locked and no response from her when called. When the police arrived, they broke down the door and found Kercher’s naked body under a blanket, throat slashed, and an unflushed toilet amidst a bloody scene.
Knox and Sollecito are immediately questioned. Their stories didn’t add up- she said she was at Sollecito’s house all night, but then changed the story later that she was at the cottage. Or that Sollecito said they were together all night, but then switched the narrative and reported that they spent a few hours apart. Their stories weren’t plausible, which only added to the suspicions directed at the couple. Their behavior also appeared strange, with Knox performing cartwheels while the police investigated the murder scene, and going lingerie shopping with Sollecito immediately after the murder occurred.
Knox later stated that her boss at Le Chic, Patrick Lumumba, was the one who killed Kercher, while she was in the cottage in another room. Lumumba was arrested and the charges against him were later dismissed under false allegations. He is often considered another victim of the case, due to the Italian police’s history of racism, and Lumumba being a Congolese immigrant and black man, the police was quick to arrest him based on Knox’s word, without any concrete evidence that proves his involvement.
On November 6th, Knox and Sollectio were arrested for Kercher’s murder.
Incriminating Evidence
Knox and Sollecito’s trial began on January 16, 2009. After spending fourteen months in jail, the defendants were ready to prove their innocence. Since the case was so high-profile, the judge allowed the media to witness the trial but did not allow live television coverage.
DNA evidence released in 2008 revealed that Perugian student Rudy Guede was at the scene around the time of the murder, with authorities finding his DNA inside Kercher, and fingerprints in the bloody bathroom. Guede claimed he had consensual sex with Kercher that night, and he was in the bathroom when an unknown man entered the cottage and killed Kercher. His trial was separate from Knox and Sollecito’s, sentencing him to thirty years in prison for Kercher’s rape and murder. His sentence was later reduced to sixteen years when he testified that Knox was in the cottage at the time of the murder.
Some of Kercher’s blood was found on a knife in Sollecito’s home. He claimed that he accidentally cut Kercher’s finger during an evening of cooking one night. This knife was later identified as the murder weapon. Additionally, his fingerprints were found on the clasp of Kercher’s bra.
Knox and Sollecito’s trial focused on their intense, one-week relationship. The media painted the pair as a sex-crazed couple who liked to indulge in perverted, sometimes violent sex games. Her MySpace username, ‘Foxy Knoxy,’ became her persona to the world as the prosecution argued that Kercher’s murder was the result of a Hallowen-esque sex game that went horribly wrong.
On December 4, 2009, Knox and Sollecito are found guilty and sentenced to twenty-six and twenty-five years, respectfully, in prison. They were also ordered to pay a total of $7.4 million to Kercher’s family and $60,000 to Lumumba for defamation.
Back to America
In November of 2010, Knox and Sollecito’s appeals trial opens. It is proven that the DNA evidence against Knox and Sollecito is unreliable and they are cleared of all charges. In 2013, however, Italy’s highest court overturns the dismissal, (as there is no double jeopardy in Italy) and orders the pair to return for another trial. They are convicted of Kercher’s murder once again, and this time sentenced to twenty-eight and twenty-five years in prison. It wasn’t until 2015 that the charges were dropped, once again, and Knox and Sollecito were free.
It was also ruled that Knox had received unfair legal provisions and the court ordered Italy to pay her $21,000 in reimbursements. Since the annulment of her convictions, Knox resides in Seattle, Washington, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in creative writing. She now works with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions. Since her exoneration, she has since been trying to clear her name. To this day, most people think she is guilty. She remains a controversial figure in the criminal justice system, and we may never truly know or be satisified with the truth of Knox’s case.