By
Andrew Doughman,
Will Mari
June 4, 2008
Murder suspect Amanda Knox’s framed photograph hung on “murderers’ row” in the office of the state police in Rome. The photograph was displayed alongside other notable arrests by Italy’s Serious Crime Squad, in a news video aired in April on the U.K.’s Channel 4.
The footage was taken about a week after the murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were the prime suspects. All the evidence pointed to their guilt, Italian authorities said.
But the facts of the case were far from determined, and some believe the police botched the initial investigation.
“They’re just not very good at this whole murder business,” said Paul Ciolino, a private investigator hired by CBS’ 48 Hours to examine the case.
Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor in charge of the Kercher case, has been scrutinized for jailing one journalist and forcing another, American journalist Doug Preston, to leave the country, while Mignini worked on a serial murder case.
Preston alerted various newspapers and described his treatment as “the worst abuse of state power I have ever seen in a Western European country.”
In Knox’s case, the British tabloid press quickly speculated about information on her MySpace and Facebook pages.
Members of the international press arrived on the UW campus and questioned anyone who had even a remote relationship to Knox, and some reporters even knocked on doors seeking interviews.
A British tabloid journalist from the Daily Mail called Daily staff writer Ben Schock, who lived in Terry Hall with Knox during her freshmen year.
A Nov. 11 story reported Schock had a “serious romance” with Knox, although he told the Daily Mail he “only went out casually [with Knox], and always in a group.”
He said he hasn’t talked to Knox since they moved out of Terry Hall.
“I didn’t even know she was in Italy when this happened,” he said. “It just really irritated me because I didn’t say anything that would lead [the reporter] to suggest we were in a romantic relationship.”
The Daily Mail also failed to note that Schock is openly gay.
Knox’s close friends at the UW said there were other inconsistencies with the media’s portrayal of the former UW student.
Knox’s MySpace headline read “Foxy Knoxy,” and media outlets took this as a sign that she is sexually promiscuis.
But the headline, as explained by Knox’s close friends, has a different meaning.
Madison Paxton, Knox’s friend, said the name originates from when Knox played soccer during her childhood.
“She kind of ran like a fox a little bit,” Paxton said. “She crouched.”
Paxton also recalls that Knox never saw herself as especially attractive.
“She even told me, ‘In high school, I was really unattractive and pudgy,’” Paxton said. “She never thought of herself as some gorgeous fox.”
Her friends also called into question the double standard between the hype surrounding Knox’s personal life and the relative lack of attention given to the other two suspects, Rudy Guede and Sollecito.
“Nobody even questions Raffaele’s or Rudy’s sex lives,” Paxton said. “It sells so much more papers if she did this than [if] Rudy did this.”
Alexandra McDougall, another friend of Knox agreed.
“It’s because a promiscuous girl is more exciting than a promiscuous boy,” she said.
Immediately after Knox’s arrest, journalists approached Andrew Seliber, another friend of Knox, using the UW student directory.
Seliber and fellow friend of Knox Ben Parker said they were offered as much as $40,000 by the Daily Mail if they would provide tabloid writers with information related to Knox’s personal life.
They declined the offer.
The use of MySpace and Facebook information shouldn’t be used to draw conclusions, said Joseph Weis, a UW sociology professor who studies murder. The same information published about Knox applies to many college students, he said.
“I can take a random sample of UW students who are on MySpace or Facebook and I can find a lot of stuff,” he said. “A lot of college students smoke dope and party.”
The Internet maelstrom surrounding the case has perpetuated rumors, allowing anyone to draw conclusions about Knox’s role in the murder, said Candace Dempsey, a Seattle-based journalist who has been writing about the case on her blog, Italian Woman at the Table.
“If you don’t really understand the Internet, you don’t understand this case,” she said.
A tabloid, such as the Daily Mail, will run a story on the case and fill it with dubious facts that outlive more balanced updates, Dempsey said.
“It’s there [and] it’s permanent,” she said.
Dempsey also said international cultural differences were influential in the amateur psychological investigation of Knox by the news media.
“I think there was a lot of misunderstanding about American college students,” she said. “She wasn’t the first person in Europe who smoked hashish or had sex.”
Ciolino, the CBS investigator, said that Knox’s confused statements are the result of a 14-hour period of intense questioning by eight Italian police officers, with a single interpreter present. Italian courts have dismissed portions of the interrogation, although other sections may remain as evidence in the case.
“There isn’t a single 20-year-old college student who you couldn’t break down,” he said. “I know it’s not the U.S., but if that was done in the States, that thing would’ve been thrown out so quick it would’ve made their heads swim.”
The Chicago detective has an alternative to the official police theory, based on his own investigation into Knox’s case.
Guede should be the prime suspect, he said. According to The Times of London, the Italian high court has said that Guede was involved in the killings but his role remains unclear.
The Ivory Coast national has reportedly admitted to being present during the murder; he said he was listening to his MP3 player while using the bathroom.
That’s not an alibi, Ciolino said. Ciolino’s theory is that Guede killed Kercher because Guede suspected Kercher had money in the house to pay rent at the beginning of November.
“Poor Meredith [Kercher] was robbed, raped and murdered by one person, and one person only, and that’s Rudy Guede,” he said. “He is a classic burgling raping-machine who just got caught.”
According to Perugia Shock, a blog dedicated to the case, Sollecito’s bank account was also near empty at the end of the month, giving him the same possible motive.
Knox’s involvement is also unclear, but Ciolino insists the evidence against her is flimsy and that Italian authorities are building their case based on hearsay and intuition.
“The physical evidence — the science — does not and will not support their theory,” he said, but “they’re going to the wall with this thing.”
Others, however, aren’t quite as ready to declare Knox innocent — or guilty, for that matter.
“To say that he (Ciolino) knows she didn’t do it because she is an all-American girl, that doesn’t necessarily correlate,” Weis said. “There are a lot of all-American girls or boys who do a lot of terrible things.”
29 Comments
#1 B-town
on June 4, 2008 at 5:58 a.m.(Leiden, Netherlands | Unverified Name)
I say give her five years for being an over-privileged poser with an indisputable lack of compassion and values... and, bar her from ever traveling outside the U.S. again. But, I don't think she killed anybody...
#2 Chris
on June 4, 2008 at 7:03 a.m.(London, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
She was involved up to her pretty neck in the death of Meredith and the subsequent lies and clean up exercise.
The sooner she tells the truth the sooner she and her family and friends can deal with the consequences.
As per usual not one mention regarding the real innocent party in all this and how her family feels..... Meredith Kercher
#3 Alibi Limbo
on June 4, 2008 at 9:01 a.m.(Bethlehem, PA | Unverified Name)
Chris, pretty is in the eye of the beholder.
I see nothing pretty about this girl at all. She is average, plain and simple.
I'm glad she saw herself as unattractive, although her jealousy towards a truly pretty girl might have been her undoing. Well, that and if some of the people posting here and on other blogs that claim to be either kin or friends are any indication, she was a bomb waiting to go off.
Prayers to the family of Meredith Kercher. Amanda Knox is not the victim.
#4 Jay
on June 4, 2008 at 10:07 a.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
Interesting article and I liked the research. And as for previous comments, "the sooner she tells the truth"?? Chris, just stop assuming you know what's really going on, because who really does? And if you put yourself in her position, 14 hours of interrogation?
B-Town, five years for what? "Lack of compassion and values"..? Wow, I think that applies to too many people.
#5 Lisa
on June 4, 2008 at 10:14 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
" say give her five years for being an over-privileged poser with an indisputable lack of compassion and values... "
Right, because you know her so well. And certainly the tabloids, willing to pay thousands of dollars for juicy stories about her and obviously lying about her relationships (claiming she was in a relationship with an openly gay person she never sees) haven't shaped your opinion of her at all.
#6 Tanya
on June 4, 2008 at 10:31 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Let's get this straight: yes, Meredith is the first victim in this case, and without a doubt the person who deserves the majority of our sympathies. Amanda and Raffaele, though a year of their lives will be taken away, still have a life. There is no question that Meredith is the victim.
However, that does not mean that she is the only victim. Nor does it mean that by calling Amanda and Raffaele victims as well, one is saying they deservce more pity than Meredith. That's simply untrue.
But, to assume that justice for Meredith can come by imprisoning innocent people, and that no one should talk about how horrible this is because they're "not the real victims" is absurd. Justice does not come by commiting more crimes, like imprisoning innocent people. It is a disrespect to Meredith's memory and to her family to assume that any of them are the type of people who would want innocent people punished for what happened to Meredith.
May the real murderer be brought to justice, may the innocent be freed, and may Meredith's family somehow find comfort without their beautiful daughter. RIP Meredith.
#7 Jean
on June 4, 2008 at 12:14 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
You have no idea if what you have been reading and hearing is even true, that's why they're tabloids. Do any of you actually know her or are you just quick to accuse someone based off of what you've heard? Have some compassion, people.
#8 Jean Jeanie Lives in a Shell
on June 4, 2008 at 12:44 p.m.(Allentown, PA | Unverified Name)
Sure, compassion. Sort of like step dad Chris referring to Amanda and her sister as Sh*thead on his myspace? What, is that a term of endearment in Seattle or something? Have you had any dealings with this guy? If that is the environment she grew up in, she is better off sitting in jail in Perugia.
#9 ex-pat
on June 4, 2008 at 12:59 p.m.(Scandicci, Italy | Unverified Name)
"Justice does not come by commiting more crimes, like imprisoning innocent people."
This is what frustrates many people... no crime is being committed here. No innocent people are being imprisoned. This is how the Italian judicial system works. If she is found guilty of murder please do not hesitate to cry wolf if you believe her to be innocent... but before you can make such broad statements please try to understand that though this case has captured the attention of many -because it is involves students from the US, UK and Italy- the crime was committed here in Italy! Amanda can not be given special treatment merely because she is an American. She must wait it out under Italian law- like every other suspect. I think Meredith deserves that... no?
#10 Tanya
on June 4, 2008 at 2:08 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
#9 ex-pat
I do understand what you are saying. I understand that Amanda and Raffaele are subject to Italian law, and that neither should be given special treatment. I agree with that.
My belief, however, is that not only are they innocent, but that the police have done a very poor job in this case. I also believe that Magnini should not be prosecuting this case, as he himself is going to trial. If I felt there was enough evidence to justify holding Amanda and Raffaele in jail for a year, then I would not complain. But I believe there is no such evidence to justify them being held at all, and that Magnini doesn't want to admit he's wrong and let Amanda and Raffaele out, so he's trying to keep them in as long as possible.
I am not trying to bash on Italian law, though admittedly it is difficult to understand it from the perspective I come from. Nevertheless, I do not wish to disrespect the Italian legal system. The fact that in Italy suspects can be held for a year without charges does not need to be discussed right now. This, to me, doesn't matter as much as the fact that I don't believe Amanda or Raffaele should be suspects at all.
#11 Jessie
on June 4, 2008 at 2:14 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
#8 Jean Jeanie Lives in a Shell
"Sure, compassion. Sort of like step dad Chris referring to Amanda and her sister as Sh*thead on his myspace?"
How arrogant can you be?! If he referred to them as 'sh*theads' on their myspace (yes, I've seen what you're talking about) he clearly wasn't meaning it in the literal sense! If you actually feel like calling people names, you don't write it under a photo in a public social network. You only have a right to call people these things jokingly if you're very close to them. If I think some one's a bitch, and I truly truly feel this way, I would never write it under their photo. That's just cold. But you could write it under a friend or family member's photo as a joke.
I can't believe you're taking this so literally. He's their step-dad! It was a joke!!! You are a perfect example of people jumping on Amanda's myspace and trying to analyze her entire life and all her relatipnships without ever knowing her.
#12 The Dude
on June 4, 2008 at 6:57 p.m.(Belfast, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
I fink Chris is frum England.
#13 probably "C"
on June 4, 2008 at 11:22 p.m.(Chengdu, China | Unverified Name)
Hey guys,
#2 and #3 seem like a couple of “trolls/flamers” who have been stalking all the blogs on Amanda Knox since it began. Just look for the insults towards Amanda or her family if you ever want to identify them. Best strategy against them is to simply ignore them. They’ll never go away, but at least you won’t get sucked into long, pointless arguments with people who don’t really care about this case in the first place. Also, they like to switch aliases often. In fact, those two are likely the same person. And they will undoubtedly respond to my post with some negativism. Bear this in mind whenever you read a comments section attached to an article about the case. Just saying…
#14 Chris
on June 5, 2008 at 3:39 a.m.(London, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
I ahve not read anyone insulting AK or her family.... on here.... unless I have missed the postings....
All - Look forward to the court case and realising who exactly AK is as you clearly DO NOT know her despite what you say....
#15 Brainiac
on June 5, 2008 at 6:35 a.m.(Rockford, IL | Unverified Name)
Too much unsupervised freedom. The U.S. friends of Amanda seem to ignore the fact that the Amanda of Europe had impetuous sex with a stranger on a train.
Is this typical of the Amanda you all know?
< anticipate silence as tumbleweeds dance through a mist of sand >
She was wont to bringing home one-time males on a regular basis. Drugs? Sex? Study sessions? The Amanda you all remember?
< sands through an hourglass stream quietly, however louder than the testimony of Amanda's cult >
Had no definitive remembrance of an obvious exceptional holiday when natives her age were gone to visit family, shops were more or less vacant, and the scene certainly had a unique "lack of normal happening action" air about it.
< the collective stoners couldn't muster a thought as if their brains were hard-packed buckets of damp sand and voices unable to utter a sound from dry-as-sand mouths >
So do youngins remember what you did last Sunday? I bet you do...
Tell us about the prank she planned involving gangstorming a room with masks and weapons.
Tell us about toilets.
Tell us what here is typical and not typical. Maybe Amanda in Europe went weird. Too much freedom.
Please, tell...
P.S. Tanya: you don't know the evidence.
#16 John
on June 5, 2008 at 6:53 a.m.(Karlsruhe, Germany | Unverified Name)
Damn, this article read like it was written by a 5th grader. Can't you form paragraphs properly? A paragraph can have more than one sentence, FYI!
As to Candace Dempsey; she wants balance? Hah! Perhaps the writing on the tabloids (heavily against Knox) do create balance against the writings of Ms. Dempsey, which are heavily defensive of Knox to the point of being blind.
I agree, the police messed it up, and I fear they'll let 2 murderers walk free. But not the black guy, the black guy must be the guilty one. (Hint: that was sarcasm).
#17 Clarence Carls
on June 5, 2008 at 8:43 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
"Seliber and fellow friend of Knox Ben Parker said they were offered as much as $40,000 by the Daily Mail if they would provide tabloid writers with information related to Knox’s personal life."
Bull&^%#. They wish.
#18 t
on June 5, 2008 at 9:28 a.m.(Beaverton, OR | Unverified Name)
in re: #16, it's a doughman, so you have to take what you get and ignore how painful it is to read.
i think we should all measure our quick indictments of amanda's involvement against the possibility that she's going to get off a plane at sea tac one day as innocenet as when she left. then we'll all have to look at the brutal things we've said about her over the past 9 or 10 months and wonder if we too were strung along by an international news media hell bent on convicting her without a trial.
i hope i can be there when she comes back and say that we in washington and we as huskies were not so quick to judge her. that we waited until the facts were in and made a balanced decision about her involvement. i hope that she finishes school one day and that this nightmare won't last forever, but somehow i feel that i'm being hopelessly naive.
#19 mikey
on June 5, 2008 at 10:13 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
i hope she gets shanked, yo. f*cking b*tch deserves it. her parents are lame-ass b*tches, too!
#20 Mexico Nessmen
on June 5, 2008 at 10:25 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
#18 Skep,
Hello Chris Mellas.
Good to know that you have found another blog to post your racist and homophobic ideologies.
Too bad your hatred will not free your special "step-daughter".
It's pretty obvious where she acquired her hatred.
Too bad you'll be broke by the end of the year. All those defense attorneys and translators "from the UN".
Sorry. I have to take a moment to laugh.
All better now.
Yes, Chris Mellas, best to move on to the next one. You know what I am saying. :-)
#21 Blather
on June 5, 2008 at 10:28 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
#19 t,
Would it be possible for you to re-sit your remedial English class?
You are not only "naive", but illiterate, as well.
Such high academic standards at the UW. Impressive.
#22 Someone Who Knows
on June 5, 2008 at 10:32 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
Hey UW Newspaper,
Have you done any background research on the Knox/Mellas Family?
Just curious about what you came up with?
I think it would be very interesting and beneficial to your readers.
Someone Who Knows
#23 Di
on June 5, 2008 at 11:36 a.m.(Southfield, MI | Unverified Name)
This article relies heavily on the words of Paul Ciolino, a private investigator hired by CBS. What the article fails to mention is that other investigators who have reviewed the case do not share Ciolino's conclusions:
Another investigator hired by "48 Hours," Paolo Sfriso, didn't share Ciolino's view. Sfriso agreed there are problems with the case put forward by prosecutors, but he said there are also some apparently damning pieces of evidence.
There are the shoe print left in Kercher's blood that investigators say matches a pair owned by Sollecito, the knife with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade. There are the blood evidence on a bra strap that carries DNA from Guede and Sollecito, and more DNA in the sink showing blood from both Knox and Kercher.
And, Sfriso told "48 Hours," there's Knox's strange behavior in the days after Kercher was killed. Surveillance video shows Knox and Sollecito shopping for underwear the day after finding Kercher's body; other shoppers said they overheard the couple talking graphically about sex.
http://tinyurl.com/3g6shu
Continued on next post
#24 Di
on June 5, 2008 at 11:37 a.m.(Southfield, MI | Unverified Name)
Continued
And there is:
Clint Van Zandt had flown over from Washington to help untangle the snarl of conflicting stories and interpret the crime scene evidence. Clint, who spent 25 years with the FBI as a onetime supervisor in the Behavioral Science Unit, known as the Profilers, is an analyst for NBC News.
Speaking of the blood evidence found in the bathroom sink, he said, "They think that's a very good piece of evidence. We have fingerprints. We have footprints. We have basically fresh blood. We have DNA evidence, all of that places two and probably three people in the apartment, in the murder room with the victim at the time it happened. This is someone who was a victim from the get go and all the way through.
And Clint thinks Amanda, with the forensic evidence, her shifting stories -- yes I was there, no I wasn't -- coupled with her false accusation of Lumumba has put her in a perilous situation.
"These are good cops. They're linking together all of the technology, cell phone, internet, crime scene forensic evidence. I think when this is all over and done with we will find out what happened to Meredith that terrible night".
"I think Amanda has got an uphill battle. She's painted herself back into a corner that she's going to have a hard time getting' out of. The only thing that's going to get her out of it is the truth. But this is someone, because of physical evidence and because of the statements of others, may very well take a hard fall for this homicide".
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22332240/
Supporters of Amanda will ignore these statements and cling to those of ciolino and others who believe as he does that "Jesuit-educated high school girls who are high honors students ... don't participate in orgies and homicides," Ciolino said. "They don't do it". Geeez, if he knew that going in, why bother traveling to Perugia? Plus, we have Rudy Gruede, who in Ciolino's opinion "is a classic burgling raping-machine who just got caught.” Oh, and he's also black. Course, thats probably what makes him a "classic" raping machine. Nevermind that he has no history of rape--he is still a "classic raping machine". I don't know, I'm not sure that Ciolino is a detective. I think perhaps he is just a bigot who wanted his 15 minutes of fame. Not exactly a balanced source for the article.
#25 Skeptical Bystander
on June 5, 2008 at 12:04 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
#18 Skep
Anyone who reads Steve Huff's True Crime weblog and/or the message board that has been set up to discuss this case knows I could not express myself this poorly even if I tried. But I would like to thank "Skep" for giving me this opportunity to invite anyone whose interest has been sparked by this article to join the posters on the message board or just stop by to check out our discussion.
Posters on our board have created and compiled a rich array of documentation on the case, and you don't have to sign up to take a look at that body of work. Here's our address: truecrimeweblog.freeforums.org
There is also a 5-part Haloscan thread that was started by Steve Huff back in November. It provides an interesting chronology of the case and its coverage. Haloscan was open to one and all, but we finally decided to move to a more controlled environment so we could have a discussion that was not constantly sidetracked by people like "Skep."
#26 Stated Abramson
on June 6, 2008 at 7:22 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
Love the photo of Amanda sitting on the toilet.
Is that to imply she's in the sh*&?
#27 truthsquad
on June 6, 2008 at 8:15 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Any assumption that any of you actually know what the evidence is in this case lies at the heart of the injustice being done to Amanda Knox. So-called "witnesses" paid for their stories by British and Italian tabloids, rumor-mongering, fabricated evidence, unnamed sources, translation problems, pseudo-detective 24/7 anonymous bloggers, discredited police leaks, a complete absence of any real and credible print journalism being done about this case - not to mention an inexperienced provincial prosecutor already facing formal charges for "abuse of office" (yet still on the job!) - have all contributed to this travesty. I applaud the U-W for finally attempting to help bring the truth to light. The university, as well as our larger Seattle community, should awaken and rally to Amanda's cause. Our elected officials need to step forward on behalf of an uncharged American student who has essentially been held hostage in a foreign country for the past seven months.
#28 Dave Knows
on June 6, 2008 at 8:33 a.m.(London, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
thruthsquad
You are a buffon....
Please put your head in that toilet that AK is sitting on and pull the chain!
#29 Washing tached
on June 6, 2008 at 9:07 a.m.(Sumner, WA | Unverified Name)
#27 truthsquad
Maybe you should organise a rally at Red Square?
Or Downtown?
This is big, people, it could be bigger than the WTO protests!
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