Training | 2009.12.04
Meredith Kercher timeline
From the discovery of the British student\'s body in Perugia, Italy, to the murder verdicts
2 November 2007: Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old exchange student from Coulsdon, Surrey, is found dead with her throat cut in her bedroom in a house in the central Italian town of Perugia.
4 November 2007: A postmortem examination reveals evidence of sexual activity at some point before Kercher died, but no confirmation that she was raped.
5 November 2007: Police are said to be trawling through Kercher\'s diary and examining her laptop and email account in an attempt to track down her killer.
6 November 2007: Police arrest Kercher\'s American housemate Amanda Knox, then 20; Knox\'s boyfriend, the Italian student Raffaele Sollecito, 23; and Congolese Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38, who runs a local bar. Police say Kercher was murdered because she refused to take part in violent sex. Knox has reportedly broken down and confessed to the crime. The three are held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit manslaughter and sexual violence.
7 November 2007: Knox is reported as telling officers she covered her ears to block the sound of screaming coming from Kercher\'s bedroom. Kercher was supposedly in the room with Lumumba, owner of the pub Le Chic, where Knox worked occasionally.
9 November 2007: Judge Claudia Matteini rules that the three suspects can be held for up to a year while the investigation continues. Lumumba\'s lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, says his client was at work at the time of Kercher\'s death and never went to the house. Sollecito\'s lawyer, Tiziano Tedeschi, says his client was at home. Knox\'s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, says they "maintain the girl\'s innocence".
11 November 2007: Kercher\'s body is flown home. Knox\'s mother, Edda Mellas, tells reporters Knox did not hear Kercher\'s screams the night she died because she was with Sollecito at his house.
12 November 2007: Claims that Knox was caught on camera entering the apartment she shared with Kercher the night she was killed, contradicting her claim that she was at Sollecito\'s house.
15 November 2007: DNA is reportedly found on a kitchen knife belonging to Sollecito, with Knox\'s DNA near the handle and Kercher\'s on the blade.
19 November 2007: A fourth suspect is named as Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, from Ivory Coast. He is thought to have left Perugia for Milan after Kercher died and to be on the run.
20 November 2007: Guede is arrested in the German city of Mainz after travelling without a ticket on a train bound for Frankfurt. Lumumba is released without charge from prison in Rome.
22 November 2007: Guede has reportedly admitted being in Kercher\'s house on the night of the murder but says an Italian man he did not know committed the crime.
27 November 2007: It is revealed Knox was present at the scene of the crime after a bloody fingerprint belonging to her is found on a tap in the bathroom next to Kercher\'s bedroom.
6 December November 2007: Guede is extradited from Germany back to Italy and held in prison.
13 December 2007: Knox tells the Italian newspaper La Repubblica she is "stunned" by the crime and denies playing a role in it.
14 December 2007: Kercher\'s funeral is held at Croydon parish church, south London, followed by a private burial at nearby Mitcham Road cemetery.
10 January 2008: Italian media report that Sollecito\'s DNA was found on a piece of a bra belonging to Kercher.
11 January 2008: It is revealed that police found traces of a bloody footprint in Knox\'s bedroom.
12 January 2008: An Albanian witness tells police Knox threatened him with a knife after he crashed his car and that she was with the two other suspects 24 hours before Kercher was killed.
13 January 2008: It is revealed that police have found mystery traces of DNA on Kercher\'s bra that do not match up with any of the three suspects.
1 April 2008: Knox, Sollecito and Guede lose their appeals to be released from prison and are told they will stay behind bars until they are charged or released.
19 April 2008: Kercher\'s family attend a closed court hearing in Italy to hear evidence relating to her death after leaks in the Italian media suggest she may not have been sexually assaulted on the night she was murdered.
9 September 2008: Guede\'s lawyers say he will ask to be tried separately from Knox and Sollecito in a fast-track trial after talk of a possible pact between the former lovers to frame the Ivorian.
16 September 2008: All three suspects appear before a judge in the first of a series of pre-trial hearings in Perugia. The judge grants Guede\'s request for a fast-track trial.
28 October 2008: Knox and Sollecito are indicted for murder. Guede is found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years.
16 January 2009: Trial of Knox and Sollecito begins.
12 June 2009: In evidence to the trial, Knox claims police interrogators hit her and called her a "stupid liar", causing her to become confused about what happened.
13 June 2009: Knox tells the trial that police pressure caused her initially to accuse Lumumba of being the culprit.
30 August 2009: It emerges that Guede\'s lawyers have hired private investigators in a bid to clear his name.
21 November 2009: The prosecutor calls for Knox and Sollecito to serve life sentences if found guilty.
29 November 2009: It emerges that Knox\'s parents have been accused of libel after claiming their daughter was abused by the Italian police officers who questioned her.
1 December 2009: Knox\'s lawyer tells the court that the evidence against his client is "flawed", adding: "There are still many doubts."
4 December 2009: Knox and Sollecito found guilty of murder.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/04/meredith-kercher-murder-timeline
