Free The Forgotten Killer: Rudy Guede and the Murder of Meredith Kercher (Kindle Single) by Douglas Preston, John Douglas, Mark Olshaker, Steve Moore, Judge Michael Heavey, Jim Lovering, Thomas Lee Wright Page B

testimony was much different from the character assassination in the media. Knox had been a good student with an orderly life. She was much loved by her family and friends, who described her gentle, sunny demeanor. The prosecution put on witnesses who barely knew her, who complained about her addled behavior in the days following the murder. But no one recalled anything she had said or done that might be construed as aggressive, much less violent. Nor did the facts point to any ill will between Knox and Kercher. The prosecutor formed his closing argument around a baseless caricature rather than evidence presented in court.
    Massei also understood the most obvious interpretation of the facts revealed by the police investigation. In his report, he summarizes the litany of evidence against Guede:
    The handprint found on a pillow in the room, on which the lifeless corpse of Meredith was placed, turned out to have been made by Rudy Guede; the vaginal swab of the victim contained the DNA of the victim and of Rudy Guede; the DNA of Rudy Guede was also discovered on the cuff of Meredith’s sweatshirt found in her room, and on a strap of the bra that she was wearing, which was cut off and stained with blood; the DNA of Rudy Guede was also found on Meredith’s purse, which was also in the room that she occupied. Furtherbiological traces of Rudy Guede were found on the toilet paper taken from the toilet of the larger bathroom. Finally, in the corridor leading to the exit from the house coming from Meredith’s room were found prints from a shoe stained with the blood of the victim. At first, these prints were held to be compatible with the shoes of Raffaele Sollecito. Later tests finally ruled out this compatibility, showing that they were in fact actually from shoes of the same brand, type and size as a pair of shoes that might have been contained in a shoebox found in the home of Rudy Guede in Via del Canerino.
    From this, Massei draws the inevitable conclusion:
    By their diversity and by the agreement of the results of all the tests performed on them, these elements and traces, as has been said, do not leave any doubt about the presence of Rudy Guede in the house and in Meredith’s room on the night of the homicide.
    Further, wrote Massei: “Said elements indicate the paths he followed within the house.”
    This final point is of critical importance. It is what distinguishes the irrefutable evidence against Guede from the muddled inferences used to frame Knox and Sollecito. The evidence against Guede shows what he did that night. It solves the mystery rather than deepening it. It is what led to his arrest in the first place. It was not contrived after the arrest, in a mad scramble to make good on a public accusation.
    But Massei was part of a court system under siege. A series of local judges—Massei’s colleagues—had moved the case forward to the point of a trial. Prosecutors had spent millions of euros and pulled out all the stops to win the case. With the world looking on, their credibility was in Massei’s hands. He therefore hatched his own, peculiar scenario to justify the inevitable conviction. It was a foray of speculation that established Guede as the instigator of the crime, but not its sole author.
    Massei imagined that Knox and Sollecito brought Guede back to the house late that night, but then retreated to Knox’s room so they could have sex. Guede, sexually aroused but left out of the action, decided to force himself on Kercher. Here is how Massei described what happened next:
    Rudy decided on his own to enter Meredith’s room, the young woman’s reaction and refusal must have been heard by Amanda and Raffaele (Amanda’s room was very close to Meredith’s) who, in fact, must have been disturbed by them and intervened, as the progression of events and their epilogue show, backing up Rudy, whom they had brought into the house, and becoming themselves, together with Rudy, Meredith’s aggressors, her