Murder in Perugia: The truth about Amanda Knox

March 27, 2015, and it’s over. Eight years have passed since Meredith's death, the judges reconstruct all the errors committed during the investigations, the findings of the scientific police that did not follow the guidelines of the international scientific community, the genetic analyses. And in the end, Raffaele and Amanda are acquitted; only Knox is sentenced to three years for slandering Patrick Lumumba. The only person responsible for the murder is Rudy Guede. That is the official legal status of the case. Forever. But to this day, for many, including those close to the victim, doubts remain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The case is ultimately destined for the Court of “Cassazione,” located in Rome, Italy’s Supreme Court for last appeals. The acquittal obtained in the second degree gives hope to the defenders of Sollecito and Amanda – who followed the trial from the United States. The behavior of the Seattle native after the crime is back at the center of attention: why would she have accused Lumumba if not to deflect suspicion from herself? And then there was a testimony, that of a homeless man, which had been dismissed in the second degree but was now considered valid. Result: a new trial was needed, starting from the second degree. And this time it would take place in Florence, where Amanda and Raffaele were again convicted. The last step was back in the Cassazione for the third and final degree of judgment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a first appeal, the Amanda and Raffaele return to the courtroom — and this time, the opinions of DNA experts will take over. The incriminating evidence is dismantled, piece by piece; testimonies that had led to the convictions in the first degree were deemed invalid. In the end, the two young defendants are acquitted on appeal. Knox receives a hero’s welcome. She would not come back to Italy for subsequent trials. Sollecito, a native of the Italian city of Bari, instead would be forced to return to court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Raffaele are tried before the court in Perugia, under Italian law that includes three levels of judgment. In the first instance, the court will conclude that Meredith was killed during a perverse sexual game that degenerated into violence: Raffaele and Amanda, in Rudy's presence, stabbed Meredith to death. The verdict enrages much of America. For the U.S. media and many notable public figures, the young woman from Seattle was convicted on circumstantial evidence. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will intervene. Donald Trump, then a media-hungry real estate mogul, calls for a boycott of travel to Italy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the investigations inside Meredith's room, the forensic police found a footprint: it belonged to a 21-year-old drifter originally from Ivory Coast who lives in Perugia. His name is Rudy Guede and he had been in Italy for five years. The police are hunting for him, but discover that he had left Italy immediately after the crime, and is now in Germany. With a trick and the help of Guede’s friend, the officers manage to arrest Rudy, who admits to having been in that house on the night of the crime. But his says that someone else had killed Meredith. Though he couldn’t identify her for sure, Guede says the killer was most likely Amanda Knox, Rudy, Amanda, and Raffaele will face justice in Perugia. The Ivorian defendant chooses a different judicial path: the fast-track procedure, which in Italy allows the defendant to obtain a reduced sentence and a shorter trial duration, waiving the trial phase in court. With a final sentence of 16 years in prison for Guede, the verdict includes the conclusion that others had actually carried out the murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Knox tells investigators that Meredith's killer was Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese-born owner of the the Perugia pub Le Chic, where Knox works. The Seattle student recounts that on the night of the murder, Patrick had gone to the house on Via della Pergola and had sex with Meredith. Then Amanda had heard screams coming from her English friend's room. "He killed her," Knox tells police. Lumumba is arrested, and the Italian authorities announce to the world that they have solved the case. But soon after, it becomes clear that Lumumba has a rock-solid alibi. Amanda Knox’s story is false, and there begin to many clues that appear to incriminate her. She is arrested, and with her, her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who also had contradicted himself to police several times in his reconstructions of events. The story, however, is far from over: soon, another suspect will wind up in handcuffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was November 2, 2007, when the lifeless body of a young woman was found with multiple stab wounds in Perugia, a charming city in central Italy renowned for its chocolate production. The victim is a 21-year-old from England named Meredith Kercher, who had come to study in Italy thanks to the Erasmus exchange program. In a small rented house, on Via della Pergola, she lived with three other women, including Amanda Knox, a student from Seattle who had just begun a whirlwind romance with an Italian student named Raffaele Sollecito. The magistrate in charge of the murder investigation, Giuliano Mignini, begins to interrogate the people connected to the house. Knox's behavior immediately seems suspicious — and eventually, the 20-year-old American will make a shocking revelation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a British exchange student in Perugia, Italy, may be the most widely debated criminal case of the century. The victim’s American roommate, Amanda Knox, along with her Italian boyfriend and an Ivory Coast-born Perugia resident, were initially convicted of the murder. After serving four years in prison, Knox and her boyfriend were definitively acquitted on appeal. But the case has continued to captivate the public’s attention, largely because of Knox's crusade denouncing both Italian investigators and international news coverage. Acclaimed investigative journalist Antonio Iovane, who covered the original case, long believed that the full truth had never been revealed. To discover it required going beyond the public obsession with Knox, speaking to those directly involved and pursuing the evidence wherever it might lead. What really happened that night in Perugia in 2007? This exclusive, seven-part podcast series is Iovane’s singular quest for the truth. Murder in Perugia is a co-production of OnePodcast and Worldcrunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices