By David Lohr
November 27, 2007
PERUGIA, Italy (Crime Library) — Last week Italian police released one suspect and arrested another in connection with the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, a third-year European studies student from Coulsdon, south London, who was murdered earlier this month.
On November 20, police freed Patrick Diya Lumumba, 37, a man who had previously been implicated in the murder by Meredith's American roommate, Amanda Knox, 20. Police say the decision to release Lumumba was based on a lack of evidence connecting him to the murder.
"He was jailed with the shame of being a monster and today he comes out with his head held high," Lumumba's lawyer, Giuseppe Sereni, told Italian news agency Ansa.
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| Patrick Lumamba |
As the paperwork to release Lumumba was being filed in the Civil and Penal Tribunal of Perugia, police in Germany detained Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, in Mainz, after detectives in Perugia issued an international warrant for his arrest.
According to police, the search for Guede came after they discovered bloody fingerprints on Meredith's pillow and on toilet paper in the house that did not match Knox or her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, a third suspect in the case. Police also claim genetic samples taken from Guede's possessions matched fluids taken from Meredith's body, proving he had sex with her on the night of the murder.
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| Rudy Hermann Guede |
Guede has allegedly told German authorities that he was in the apartment, but denies being involved in the murder. He allegedly claims he had consensual sex with Meredith. At some point he went to the bathroom, when he supposedly heard the doorbell ring and shortly thereafter heard Meredith scream. He said he then ran out and fought with a "young guy" but claims he cannot remember the man's face. After a brief scuffle he allegedly went into Meredith's bedroom and discovered she had been stabbed.
"I took Meredith in my arms; I tried to resuscitate her but then I panicked and I ran away," Guede allegedly told German authorities.
"Rudy was present; he was there, but he denies having ever committed acts of sexual violence against Meredith, and it wasn't he who killed her," Guede's lawyer, Walter Biscotti, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview last week.
"He saw the assassin; he knows he's Italian... He found himself in a totally desperate situation, with Meredith in his arms dying... External circumstances made him flee immediately," Biscotti said.
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