Sorry, my post contained an error. It was three burglaries in five weeks, not one week.
This is from an article at the Daily Mail entitled “Amanda Knox: The Troubling Doubts Over Foxy Knoxy’s Role in Meredith Kercher’s Murder.”
Here’s the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234298/Amanda-Knox-The-troubling-doubts-Foxy-Knoxys-role-Meredith-Kerchers-murder.html
And the pertinent text from the article:
On September 27, 2007 - five weeks before the killing—Perugia bar tender Cristian Tramantano heard a noise downstairs in his home and found Guede wandering around with a large knife. Tramantano recognised Guede from his work in a nightclub.
There was a confrontation between the two, which ended when Guede ran away. On four occasions, Tramantano went to Perugia’s central police station to report the break-in, identify Guede as the culprit and to detail how the intruder was armed and threatened him.
On each occasion, he says he was ignored and the police refused to log his complaint.
The following weekend, there was a break-in at an English-speaking nursery school in Milan in which 2,000 euros and a digital camera were stolen. The school owner, Maria Antoinette Salvadori del Prato, reported it to her local police station.
Three weeks later, on Saturday, October 27 - one week before the murder—Mrs Prato arrived at the school early in the morning with a locksmith to replace the front door, only to be confronted by Guede standing in the main entrance.
Police were called and Guede questioned. A stolen laptop, digital camera and ten-inch kitchen knife were found in his backpack.
But instead of being arrested and charged, Guede was merely escorted to Milan central railway station and placed on a train back to Perugia.
In the interim, on the weekend of October 13, there had been a break-in at the office of lawyers Paolo Brocchi and Luigi Palazzoli, in which a firstfloor window was smashed—similar to the break-in at Meredith’s house. A computer and other items were stolen.
They were later found in Guede’s possession, but he was not arrested or charged.
Hi Nick, While I appreciate that you don’t seem to be one of the irrational Knox haters, your comments about the evidence contain a couple of errors, and the one that don’t leave out some important facts which cast doubt on almost every single claim.
-Yes, Knox’s DNA was founded mingled with Kercher’s, but almost all of it was in the bathroom they shared. It would’ve been almost impossible NOT to find a few instances of their DNA mixed in such a small place, and a place where humans shed copious amounts of hair and skin cells, and even blood (shaving cuts, etc.).
-Not one shred of Knox’s DNA was found in Kercher’s room. The idea that she somehow managed to remove every microscopic shred of her DNA, while leaving Rudy Guede’s behind, is completely implausible. This alone casts enormous doubt on the prosecution’s theory. DNA in the bathroom simply proves Knox and Kercher lived together. A total lack of DNA in Kercher’s room is compelling evidence she was not at the scene of the crime.
-No traces of bleach were found at the crime scene. Numerous rumors about bleach are clogging message boards all over the internet, including false stories about receipts which showed Knox buying bleach twice the morning after the murder, but those stories did not pan out and were not presented at trial. One witness emerged, seven months AFTER the murder, to say he saw Knox buy bleach in his store, but his co-worker said he was lying. This testimony must be treated skeptically, since no traces of bleach were found at the crime scene. The crime scene was extensively examined using Luminol, and in addition to revealing blood, Luminol illuminates trace amounts of bleach.
-The Albanian witness who says he says Knox and Sollecito with Guede is the only person to allege that the three knew each other, and his testimony at the trial was contradictory and underwhelming, to say the least. Throughout his interrogation and trial, Guede denied knowing Knox or Sollecito, and denied they were at the house. He knew what Amanda looked like, as he had twice visited the downstairs neighbors to play basketball, but didn’t even know what Sollecito looked like.
-Knox and Sollecito had taken the mop to Sollecito’s house to mop up water that had come from a broken pipe under the sink. Was any blood or DNA found on the mop?
-Whether or not the bloody footprint on the bath mat matches Sollecito or Guede is highly debatable. Another bloody footprint, found in Kercher’s room, was a definitive match for Guede. Although people have posted claims about bloody footprints revealed using Luminol, those prints were left by sweat and oil, and tested negative for any trace of blood.
Briefly, on a few other points, the prosecution’s fingerprint expert said it was not unusual that he didn’t find usable prints for Knox in her own bedroom. There were lots of smeared prints (fingerprints, made by a tiny amount of oil on our skin, are easily disturbed), just no USABLE prints. Lots of smeared and partial prints is evidence the room was NOT wiped down, and he testified he saw no evidence of a wipe down.
Last, the so-called “fake” break-in is highly contentious issue and neither conclusion can be viewed as beyond doubt. The prosecution tried to say it’s impossible to climb the wall (ignoring photos of a 40-year old Italian detective in dress slacks and dress shoes easily scaling the bars on the window below), but Judge Micheli dismissed them, noting that anyone in reasonable shape could’ve easily climbed into the window. Rudy Guede, who had committed at least three burglaries in the previous week, was 20 years old, and a former semi-pro athlete.
But again, I appreciate your rational approach to the evidence, and respect your opinion. It’s nice to see someone on the internet talking about the evidence, and not just Knox’s immature behavior.
Cheers, Matt