Who Killed Meredith Kercher

Meredith Kercher was a British medical student who, while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, was the victim of a brutal, still unsolved, murder in the fall of 2007. Her death quickly captured the media’s attention and has remained an unsolved mystery ever since.

Kercher, 21, was found murdered in her bedroom on the morning of Nov. 2, 2007. She had been stabbed and suffered numerous injuries. Three individuals were subsequently arrested in connection to the murder and two were found guilty and eventually sentenced to lengthy jail terms. The third person, Amanda Knox—Kercher’s roommate who was alleged to have been present at the time of the murder—was acquitted in 2015, upon appeal.

At the time of the murder, Knox was a 20-year-old American exchange student residing in Perugia. Prosecutors alleged that Knox, along with her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede—a drifter—had conspired to murder Kercher during a sex-game gone wrong.

The prosecution alleged that Knox, who had gone out to the pub the night of the murder, came home to find Kercher dead, and helped Sollecito and Guede cover up the crime. Knox has maintained her innocence since the beginning and has always claimed she was asleep in her bedroom at the time of the murder.

Guede was identified as the main perpetrator and tried separately from Sollecito and Knox. He was found guilty and his sentence was confirmed by Italy’s highest court.

An Italian jury convicted Knox and Sollecito of the murder in 2009 and sentenced them to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Knox’s conviction in particular caused an uproar in the US and both her family and supporters organized an extensive campaign to have her released.

In 2015, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation reversed the convictions and exonerated Knox and Sollecito, leaving many unanswered questions surrounding Kercher’s death. To this day, the identity of her killer or killers remains unknown, leaving her family unable to find closure and mourn their loss appropriately.

Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, Knox has yet to free herself from the cloud surrounding the tragedy. Some still suspect that she is responsible for the murder, pointing to her alibi as highly suspect and her behavior afterwards as not up to par. She has however long been defended by those who believe that she has been the victim of a traumatic miscarriage of justice.

No one will ever truly know who committed the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher, leaving her family and supporters in limbo as the case remains unsolved.