By
Arla Shephard
January 29, 2008
Nearly two months after UW study abroad student Amanda Knox was taken into custody for her alleged involvement in the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, her family is finally breaking its silence.
“This was a horrible crime, but I couldn’t understand why immediately Amanda was painted in this horrible light, where she was unrecognizable,” Knox’s mother Edda Mellas said in an exclusive interview with ABC’s 20/20 set to air Feb. 1 at 10 p.m.
Kercher, an exchange student from Leeds University, was found dead in her bedroom Nov. 2, half-clothed and with her throat slit. She is believed to have died a “relatively slow and agonizing death” the night before between 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., according to police reports.
Knox is being held in an Italian penitentiary, along with Italian student Raffaele Sollecito and Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede. A three-panel judge ruled that Knox had to remain in Italy until the investigation was resolved, as she posed a potential flight risk.
Knox’s family and friends claim that the international media frenzy surrounding the crime has blown certain details out of proportion.
“They (the media) try to portray her as a crazy, psychotic sex maniac and none of that’s true; it couldn’t be more than 180 degrees from the case,” her friend Andrew Sclider told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Her friends criticized media outlets for turning her soccer nickname from when she was 12, “Foxy Knoxy,” into a slanderous depiction of an American party girl.
“The media took all of these things off of her MySpace very out of context and applied them [so] they could twist her story how they wanted to,” Sclider said.
Knox’s friends described her as an optimist, even when incarcerated.
“She sings a lot,” her friend Madison Paxton said. “She loves the Beatles, and we were told that when this first happened, and was in jail, she would go outside and sing Let it Be a lot.”
Paxton disapproved of how several media outlets have depicted Knox’s relationship with Sollecito.
“It’s not like they were some star-crossed lovers that the media is trying to make them out to be,” she said.
Knox’s family was aware of the relationship between the two.
“He looked like Harry Potter, and that’s what she liked about him,” Amanda’s sister Deanna Knox said.
Recent DNA evidence has uncovered Sollecito’s DNA on Kercher’s bra. Sollecito called such reports “stupid” and “unbelievable,” according to a Jan. 11 article in Italian’s daily newspaper La Repubblica (“Omicidio Mez, indagine senza fine Sollecito è “stupito” per il Dna”).
Sollecito’s father claimed that the bra could have belonged to Knox, not Kercher, explaining the presence of his son’s DNA.
Other evidence has included Knox’s and Kercher’s DNA on a knife belonging to Sollecito. Guede’s DNA was found in Kercher’s bedroom and on a tampon she was wearing.
Knox’s family and friends remain convinced of Knox’s innocence.
“We want her to know that we have not questioned her involvement in this,” Paxton said.
[Reach reporter Arla Shephard at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]
20 Comments
#1 Facts
on January 29, 2008 at 6:43 a.m.(Sumneytown, PA | Unverified Name)
Meredith was not wearing a tampon. This is a mistranslation of the word "tampone"; a swab. DNA was on the swab the coroner used.
#2 Jo Jo Gynowomby
on January 29, 2008 at 6:58 a.m.(Leiderdorp, Netherlands | Unverified Name)
Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede???
You must be kidding!
Okay, why not then Italian Coast native Raffaele Sollecito?
Get with it, that sounds so wrong, the way to say it correctly and not use discriminatory words is to say person with dual nationality, or Ivory Coast national.
You wouldn't say New Jersey Coast native, would you???
I was just wondering if these natives have large pots to cook the tourists in who are undoubtably always dressed in tropical helmets and khaki shorts shooting elephants and stuff????
#3 lou
on January 29, 2008 at 7:07 a.m.(New York, NY | Unverified Name)
I don't get it. This article is simply culled together from other articles. No new information, no fact checking (hence the tampon myth being carried along even though this error of translation has been widely reported), the use of the "Ivory Coast" as descriptive since Italian papers do this -- not even an attempt to rethink for an American readership?
#4 RightorWrong
on January 29, 2008 at 7:24 a.m.(Sumneytown, PA | Unverified Name)
Oh Lou, I get it. This is a syndrome. Seattle's girl right or wrong. Even if she DID do it, they would still want her to walk free for it. I would like to ask her parents if THEY have offered condolences to Meredith's family since last I read, the Kercher family was a bit put off (to say the least one can only imagine) that Ms. Knox had not.
#5 Simon
on January 29, 2008 at 8:10 a.m.(High Wycombe, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
I love the way the article tries to present everything in the best possible light for Amanda Knox. They mention the DNA on the knife, but not that Kercher's was on the tip and Knox's was on the handle. They don't mention Knox and Kercher's blood mixed together in the bathroom, that the rest of the apartment had been cleaned with bleach and that when the police came to the apartment the next morning they found Knox and Sollecito there with Kercher's clothes being washed in the machine. But that would cast Seattle's golden girl in a less than flattering light...
#6 Shotsock
on January 29, 2008 at 11:21 a.m.(Leiden, Netherlands | Unverified Name)
God, the Daily is the worst paper ever. My high school paper had more talent.
Way to cut and paste from other sources...
As far as Knox goes - at this point, I don't care if she was in on it or not - she is such a twat that I hope she gets locked up for 30 years. By the way - she is not "foxy" in the least - she is a plain jane - and with her body type, she'll be a cow after five years of low-end italian deli meats...
#7 charmcitynancy
on January 29, 2008 at 1:23 p.m.(Herndon, VA | Unverified Name)
Gynowomby....Ivory Coast is the name of an African nation from which that man is a native. Nobody would call someone a New Jersey Coast native, but they night call them a New Jersey native and I don't think that has any tribal connotations.
#8 Yup
on January 29, 2008 at 1:47 p.m.(Sumneytown, PA | Unverified Name)
I'm glad they are defending her, she has made them famous and they are obviously enjoying it. When she walks and does her spread for Playboy, I bet they will be even more pleased. Honestly, though, I doubt she will walk. Take one look at the photos of her and her Italian boyfriend at the crime scene. You can tell she has recently gotten a hit to the face, most likely by Meredith fighting back with everything she had. There is a whole lot of things we don't know yet, kids.
#9 Californiaxile
on January 29, 2008 at 9:59 p.m.(Okemos, MI | Unverified Name)
"Stupito" in Italian means amazed, not stupid ("stupido"). Raffaele claims to be astounded that his DNA was on a piece of Meredith Kercher's bra.
Friends and family always believe they would know if someone they knew were a murderer, but sadly, they usually can't. Ted Bundy was by all accounts very charming and fooled a lot of people who had no idea he was a serial killer until it was too late.
Amanda's mother can't understand why "Amanda was painted in this horrible light." Maybe it was because she falsely accused Diya Lumumba of murder and sexual assault and caused him to be arrested in front of his wife and child.
So Amanda and her friends are shocked to find that if you call yourself "Foxy Knoxy" on your public MySpace page people might think you're a party girl?
"Coast" is part of the name of the country, so it would be like calling Raffaele an Italian native, not an Italian Coast native. Rudy Guede is a native because he was born there, not because he is a cannibal. But he did post a video on Youtube in which he makes scary faces and and moans in a strange voice about being a vampire and wanting to suck people's blood.
#10 Sinatra
on January 30, 2008 at 3:40 a.m.(Barcelona, Spain | Unverified Name)
Hey, we have tribes all right in Jersey, wanna find out?
#11 DORA UK
on January 30, 2008 at 4:52 a.m.(Hounslow, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
Im appailed at this... Knox family and there lawyer (who believes she is innocent - does he F**K!) WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THINKING ABOUT MEREDITH AND HER FAMILY - - WHERE ARE THE CONDOLINCES?!!!?
i hope knox family go bankrupt with this case, they desearve it! face fact your daughter is a killer, your country's press and yourPR stunts, are all sympathy for you ugly killer of a daughter.. WHERE IS THE SYMPATHY FOR THE KERCHERS?? YOU MAKE NE SICK!
#12 For the Victim
on January 30, 2008 at 9:45 a.m.(Bethlehem, PA | Unverified Name)
Does anyone here know of any article or info on this case wherein it has been stated that Meredith Kercher was hungover the day of the murder from partying on Halloween? I only ask, not out of disrespect at all for the victim, but because there is a blog writer for Seattle PI who has insinuated this in her blog, Italian Woman at the Table. I am curious as to whether she is correct in this assumption or if she is just trying to plant nasty seeds about a lovely British girl who had the misfortune of knowing one Amanda Knox.
thanks
#13 Stickler
on January 30, 2008 at 11:20 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Among the many examples of sloppy work, here's one I like. You say: "Sollecito’s father claimed that the bra could have belonged to Knox, not Kercher, explaining the presence of his son’s DNA."
What he said was that Knox could have borrowed the bra (which indeed belonged to Kercher) and that Sollecito might have touched it while Knox was wearing it.
Makes the whole thing a lot less plausible, doesn't it?
And as for playing down the relationship between Knox and Sollecito, which apparently is over, Knox has described it as the most intense one of her life.
#14 Alice Burns
on January 31, 2008 at 2:06 p.m.(Copenhagen, Denmark | Unverified Name)
It is unknown DNA, they have found on the murdered girl and the police have suspects they CAN NOT PROCECUTE due to one of the suspects political connections with a country in Africa, the Italian government have to maintain a good relationship with.
So they are in need of a fall guy. Knox is the fall guy, they can convict without being accused of racism.
Poor girl. She is done.
#15 Robert
on February 1, 2008 at 1:37 a.m.(Kingston Upon Hull, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
Yes, the bra may have belonged to Knox he says.
Just so happens it had been sliced apart with a knife.
Ah well, nothing to see here people.
Skunkweed ?
Nah, no problem...
#16 Friarspoint
on February 5, 2008 at 10:44 a.m.(Barry, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
Dear For The Victim,
I've followed this story from many news outlets in Europe and USA and have never seen any report of Meredith being hungover...she left her friend's home around nine for "an early night" because she was tired....hungover to any degree I think she wouldn't have gone out at all. Much less eaten CHEESE.
Dear Alice Burns,
What on earth are you talking about? Sounds like rubbbish to me. Your source?
#17 mauro
on October 31, 2008 at 5:08 a.m.(Bologna, Italy | Unverified Name)
basta con ste menate avete rotto il cazzo yenkee. ci pensiamo noi a giudicare gli assassini in casa nostra
#18 Harry
on October 31, 2008 at 12:53 p.m.(Leeds, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
There are a couple of excellent pieces about the Friends of Amanda group on the TJMK website:
http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php
#19 Voice of reason
on January 27, 2009 at 10:49 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Harry Rag is a notorious Internet troll. That site is full of hatred and ugly comments and he is convinced of Amanda's guilt.
#20 dobbin33ch
on February 13, 2009 at 2:03 a.m.()
i live in the swiss italain part of switzerland ,we get news updates all the time about this case ,the girl is as giulty as hell ,i cannot understand why there is a Friends of Amanda blog ,what a waste of time ,the girl is going down ,and its all what she deserves ,poor girl who died , i hope that amanda like pasta ,cause she is gonna have a lot of years to get used to it ,and she will learn the italian prison language ,so there is always good to come out of everything. giulty as hell ,so get a life and accept it ,,robert
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