The Murder of Meredith Kercher
Meredith Kercher, a British college student, was studying in Italy at the University of Perugia in 2007. A student of European politics and Italian, she jumped at the opportunity to study there in a city of about 150,000 people.
She was eager to immerse herself in the culture, language, and social life of the city. From what I understand too, Meredith really struggled to get to this opportunity to live abroad.
I read somewhere that she had been to the area before with her high school and had sworn she would be back. We all can relate to feeling that call to being in one specific place, right? I know that was how I felt when I visited the beach during a high school band trip (yes, I played the flute - tell your jokes!).
On November 1, 2007, Meredith, known as Mez to family and friends, ate dinner at a friend’s place - a mere 500 yards from her own flat. Around 9 pm that evening, she left her friend’s house and walked back to her flat - which was empty except for her. Meredith actually lived with three other women (two local Italian women and one American student, Amanda, who was also studying abroad). Amanda was supposed to be working, but in fact had been called by her boss and bar owner to say that she didn’t need to come in that night, to enjoy her night off, and they’d see each other later. Amanda excitedly went to hang out with her new Italian boyfriend, Raffaele, whom she had met at a classical music concert just a week or so prior, and quickly fell head over heels.
The following day, on November 2, 2007, Amanda returned home from Raffaele’s place and noticed the front door was slightly open. Thrown off, but still not necessarily afraid, she assumed Meredith had accidentally left it cracked the night before. She entered the apartment and went into the bathroom where she had noticed a few drops of blood in the sink. Seriously when I say a few, it wasn’t enough to look scary at all, you wouldn’t have thought anything of it either. After seeing the pictures - which you know are on Patreon - it didn’t look like anything noteworthy and could result from something so small as a paper cut or any small shaving cut. Amanda proceeded to take a quick shower, but according to her in the documentary, “Amanda Knox,” she felt like maybe she wasn’t alone in the flat, maybe Meredith wasn’t just sleeping - and she hurried up and went back to her boyfriend’s. It’s my understanding that these flats are all within minutes of each other and that it was completely normal for them to be kind of wandering back and forth between them. While there, she expressed to him she just wasn’t sure about what she had encountered back at her place and felt uncomfortable with the whole situation, so they headed back over to Amanda’s flat to check things out.
At this point, they notice a broken window in one of the Italian roommate's bedrooms. and inside, Meredith’s bedroom door was locked. Amanda had already tried calling Meredith a few times and Meredith was not answering. Since her bedroom door was locked and they couldn’t seem to wake her up, they called the Italian police as well as one of the Italian flatmates who was out of town.
When the police arrive, it’s actually what they call in Italy, the Postal Police, and they’re responsible for investigating crimes involving cell phones and/or computers and were already in the area to investigate two cell phones that were found in a garden nearby Amanda and Meredith’s flat. The Postal Police weren’t super helpful at all. Not long after they arrived, the Italian Military Police arrived on the scene as well. At this time, Meredith’s door was finally forced open (I believe still not by the police, but by a friend, and it was immediately clear that Meredith had been murdered. The scene was gruesome, to say the least. There was blood absolutely everywhere, and Meredith was laying on the floor with a blanket carelessly tossed over her leaving her left foot exposed.
It would later be determined that she had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and stabbed. While the stabbing is ultimately what killed her, she had also been strangled. She had over 40 wounds from this attack including bruises and knife wounds all over her body - her vaginal area, throat, face, legs, and torso. Her clothing had been ripped from her body and was strewn about her bedroom. Meredith’s two cell phones that were missing (one for international calls and one for local) were the two in question that the postal police had been nearby to investigate earlier, but nothing else seemed to be missing according to Amanda. Italian police instantly zeroed in on Amanda and her boyfriend, citing their “inappropriate behavior” at the scene. They had been caught on camera kissing near the flat while police investigated, however, information is later made available that whoever it was that took the footage, actually made it look like they were kissing over and over again, to insinuate the couple was being disrespectful rather than comforting each other in a tragic and terrifying situation.
This case quickly became all about American student, Amanda Knox and the supposed sex-fueled murder of her roommate, Meredith, but we’re going to stay away from Amanda’s story and focus on Meredith’s. I do believe wholeheartedly that countless lives were ruined aside from Meredith’s and her family’s, but the grim truth is that when you say the name, “Amanda Knox,” most everyone in the U.S. and likely abroad, know the name. When I read the name, “Meredith Kercher,” on my list of victims to investigate, her name jumped out as a, “YES DO THIS ONE,” but I had no idea that this was the name of the young lady who was supposedly murdered by Amanda Knox. Further, and spoiler alert, I believe that making this about Amanda further perpetuates the lies and slander that plagued her for over a decade and still likely continue to. I digress...
The scene was mishandled from the very beginning. Police officers entered the crime scene without wearing booties on their feet, without changing booties from room to room, and handling evidence without ensuring photographs were taken first, failing to change gloves between evidence handling, and so much more. When photos were taken, things had already been moved around, and in some cases, it had been weeks since the murder took place and nothing was as it had been during the murder. Police had actually recorded the investigation and because of this, we were able to see just how disorganized and ill-conducted the investigation actually was. Here was a beautiful 21-year-old college female with an incredibly bright future - found dead, badly beaten, and left with a blanket tossed over her, and police became more intent on delivering to the media the monster that they had envisioned and created than they were on simply finding Meredith’s killer and because of this, her family, as well as Amanda and Amanda’s family, suffered for it. All of this because of Giuliano Mignini insisting that this murder was based on a sexual escapade gone wrong - while he painted this picture of Amanda as a sex-crazed lunatic who must have killed her roommates. If you want to hear more on this, then listen to “Real Crime Profile” episodes 37-43 to really have the case unpacked in a very detailed way.
Because of the lack of self-defense marks on Meredith and the way she was seemingly pinned down during the attack, police determined she must have faced at least two attackers. Further, because of the fact that she was covered with a blanket - they insisted that one of the attackers had to have been female because a male attacker “wouldn’t think to have done that.” So when Rudy Guede, an acquaintance of the men who lived on the lower floor was arrested based on fingerprint evidence, police insisted that he could not have acted alone, still citing that “a woman of Meredith’s strength could have and would have fought off her attacker.
Rudy’s fingerprints, skin cells, and feces were all found at the scene. His shoe prints were found set in her blood, his DNA on her purse along with her blood, he admitted to being in the room… his actual handprint was found on the pillow under Meredith’s HEAD and his fingerprints lead investigators to him. He, by the way, was found fleeing the country. Rudy had prior burglaries on his record and had in fact just been released after stealing from a nursery in which he was carrying a large knife. There was no way around it. Rudy was it. His sort of signature at his burglaries was throwing a rock through a window to gain access to the home, just as we had seen with Meredith Kercher’s place. With mountains of evidence indicating that Rudy was the only one there, it doesn’t make sense to me why the police would insist on not being satisfied with Rudy’s arrest. He ultimately even admitted to being there. He did claim at separate times (as his story continuously changed) that Amanda wasn’t there, and then she was. Truly, I believe he was just trying to get time off of his sentence and move some of the guilt to someone else.
That wasn’t enough for the police though. Police couldn’t get past that “no man would cover the victim” in the way Meredith was covered. They couldn’t get past Amanda Knox’s “out of the ordinary” behavior, which was truly very normal, just sensationalized by the media and greatly exaggerated. The “DNA evidence” that the police had against Amanda was from a kitchen knife that supposedly had Meredith’s blood on the blade, but was later found that it wasn’t in fact Meredith’s blood, but something else entirely. By the time that was determined, however, the media had already run with it. In one episode of the podcast I mentioned earlier, they discussed how Amanda could have made lunch with that knife, rinsed the blade, and put it back, and truthfully, that’s exactly as I see it. She sliced some vegetables to go with her lunch, rinsed the blade, wiped it on a towel, and put the knife back in the drawer, leaving her DNA on the handle. Additionally, they found DNA from Raffaele on Meredith’s bra clasp. This clasp was collected over 40 days after the murder scene was initially investigated, and also, it was stated by the lab technicians that it very well could have been transferred DNA from the sloppy investigation. So - there really wasn’t any DNA evidence on Amanda or on her boyfriend.
So what happened that night? This is where I come in…
100%, I see Amanda and Raffaele snuggled up on the couch watching their movie. I can see Meredith on her way back to her flat unknowingly headed to her untimely death. I see that Rudy had already thrown a rock into the window and broken in, and was in there literally sitting on the toilet when Meredith walked back into her flat. I believe he had never raped anyone during a burglary before, but that has met her already, having been struck by her beauty already before, and having made an attempt to interact with her before, in which she was polite, but not as inviting as he’d hoped, he took what was his as he saw it. I believe that as soon as he saw her, he knew he was going to rape her, but didn’t know that anyone would in fact return home while he was there.
He did know that no one would be home - as he knew all four men on the lower flat would be out of town, he had in passing conversation, come to find out that Amanda would have been at work, Meredith was going to be at a friend’s house, and everyone else would be out of town. Now, when I initially felt into this case with only Meredith’s name, I saw a beautiful young woman and I saw her out with “coeds” which is how it came into my mind. I believe what I saw was her socializing with the men who lived in the lower flat and with her roommates. I felt the tension of two people who were together, but not necessarily a couple. I believe this was Rudy’s attempt to come onto her that was denied. I felt a lot of confusion over another couple and their involvement, which made so much sense when I finally looked her name up - as that was clearly Raffaele and Amanda, and I saw someone being raped and strangled. I did also see a lot of blood, but I didn’t see the act of the stabbing, just of the beating and the strangulation. When I read that she was in fact strangled, but ultimately the stabbing is what killed her, I believe that she was not staying as still as he thought she would, and that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he was to be able to strangle her on his own, and that’s ultimately why he grabbed the knife that he had already had on him and began stabbing, because he was having trouble over-powering her.
Was Amanda involved? Absolutely not. Rudy was the only one involved. Had Amanda been home instead of Meredith, it would have been her killed in the same exact way, as Rudy would have been caught off guard, and taken control of the situation so-to-speak. Why did he cover her with the blanket? So, for those of you who are well-versed in true crime and consider themselves jr. criminal profilers, we know that often, victims are covered as a sign of remorse or respect. I do not believe this was the case. I believe that he was disgusted by the sight of her deceased body, and covered her solely so he didn’t have to look at her.
Now, I did not go into all of the ways that the police ruined the lives of others who got wrapped up in this circus, and that’s not for any other reason than to be very clear on what happened to Meredith. Frankly, I don’t think that there is too much to look into with mediumship, and I will also be clear, that I did not make any attempt to connect directly to Meredith, but only to the energy of the situation psychically. Connecting to her in this instance felt unfair and unacceptable to me. So this case was definitely done a little bit differently than usual, but I did feel it needed to be covered in a way that we only highlight what affected Meredith or her family. Shame on the criminal justice system that disrespected them in such a way.
And on that note, my friends - hit me up with any case recommendations that you may have and head on over to Patreon to see any photos of the crime scene.