New twist in the Meredith case

Amanda Knox was seen shopping in the early hours of the morning and was not at her boyfriend's house, a new witness in the Meredith Kercher murder trial has claimed.

Meredith had arrived in Italy just two months before she was killed


Knox, 21, insists she spent the morning at Raffaele Sollecito's house before going the the apartment she shared with Meredith to ''take a shower.''

However, a new witness has now told detectives he saw the American in the cleaning section of a convenience store just hours before Meredith was found stabbed to death.

The man described how he had noticed Knox at 7.45 on the morning of 2 November last year at a store close to Sollecito's home in Perugia.


She was acting suspiciously, she had covered her face, that's why I couldn't get a good look at it, it was as if she didn't want to be recognised.

Witness describes seeing murder suspect Amanda Knox

He said: ''She was wearing a grey hooded jacket, zipped up to the top, jeans and grey blue scarf which was wrapped around her face, she also wore a light coloured hat.

''''I know it was her, I had seen her in the Corso Garibaldi (the street where Sollecito lived). I know Sollecito by sight and in the days before the murder I saw the American girl with him.

''I had looked at them closely because I always used to see Sollecito on his own. That's why it struck me.''

His testimony is the latest to be submitted to prosecutors ahead of Knox and Sollecito's murder trial on December 4. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Knox says she was at Sollecito's until around 10am when she left to take a shower at her own apartment, where she noticed blood on the floor outside the bathroom.

However, police who searched Sollecito's house days after the murder found a receipt for cleaning products from the shop where Knox was allegedly seen.

Detectives believe bleach and cloths found under the sink at Sollecito's house were used to clean up the murder weapon - a knife - and the murder scene itself .

Last month unemployed Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was jailed for 30 years after he admitted his part in the killing.

Police believe Leeds University student Meredith was murdered after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game.

The 21 year old from Coulsden, Surrey, had arrived in Perugia two months earlier as part of her European Studies degree.

This isnt good news but if its true then it has to be proved. They must have CCTV footage of her somewhere around the area dressed like this and have the salesperson who sold her the cleaning materials say it was her.

MsTaken wrote:This isnt good news but if its true then it has to be proved. They must have CCTV footage of her somewhere around the area dressed like this and have the salesperson who sold her the cleaning materials say it was her.

I agree...its easy standing up in court and saying this...and this person is a friend of Amandas ex???

And Now they have split up? Revenge maybe?

There's alot of twists in this case too. I cant work this one out though.

Amanda Knox was 'near house where Meredith Kercher died earlier than admitted'

Amanda Knox was near the house where her British flatmate Meredith Kercher was killed much earlier than she has previously said, a new witness will reportedly testify.
If the fresh evidence is accepted, it could cast doubt on Miss Knox's claim that she was nowhere near the brutal stabbing to death of Miss Kercher during what prosecutors claim was a sex game which turned violent.

Since being arrested a year ago, Miss Knox, 21, of Seattle, has always insisted that she was at her boyfriend's flat on the night of the murder and that she only went to the cottage that she and Miss Kercher shared in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia after 10am the next morning.

She and her boyfriend, Italian IT student Raffaele Sollecito, 24, found Miss Kercher's bedroom door locked and noticed traces of blood in the flat, they claim.

They called the police, who broke down the door and found Miss Kercher's semi-naked body lying in a pool of her own blood, with deep slash wounds to her throat.

But the new witness will allege that on the morning after the murder he saw Miss Knox in a shop close to the murder scene and watched her then head in the direction of the house where Miss Kercher lay dead.

She had a scarf tied around her face, he has reportedly told chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini.

"I saw Amanda, on the morning they found the body of Meredith, doing some shopping at around 7.45am," the witness, whose name has not yet been released, claimed.

"She was in the part of the shop where they keep detergents, but I couldn't say for sure if she bought anything," the man was quoted as saying by the Giornale dell'Umbria newspaper.

"I thought it was very strange for a student to be out so early in the morning. That morning was virtually a holiday, there were no lectures, if there had been I could understand her being up so early."

Prosecutors allege that Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito tried to hide any trace of their involvement in the murder by breaking a window to suggest a burglary and then scouring the murder scene with cleaning products.

Miss Kercher, 21, of Coulsdon, in Surrey, was a Leeds University student who went to Perugia as part of her European Studies course.

She was murdered on the night of November 1 to November 2 last year.

Prosecutors claim that Miss Knox, Mr Sollecito and Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, subjected her to a bizarre sex game fuelled by fantasies of Halloween and violent Japanese manga comics before killing her.

Guede, 21, elected for a fast-track trial separate to the two other defendants and last month was found guilty of murder and aggravated sexual assault by a court in Perugia. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito, whose requests to be released from jail and allowed to live under house arrest for the duration of the trial were refused by a judge, both deny the charges against them.

The new evidence, if accepted by the court when the murder trial begins on December 4, will add a further twist to a murder mystery that has captured headlines in Britain and the US and continues to intrigue Italians.

It is not clear why it has taken nearly a year for the new witness to come forward with his testimony.

Knox will go on trial for murder next month.


If the fresh evidence is accepted, it could cast doubt on Miss Knox's claim that she was nowhere near the brutal stabbing to death of Miss Kercher during what prosecutors claim was a sex game which turned violent.

Since being arrested a year ago, Miss Knox, 21, of Seattle, has always insisted that she was at her boyfriend's flat on the night of the murder and that she only went to the cottage that she and Miss Kercher shared in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia after 10am the next morning.

She and her boyfriend, Italian IT student Raffaele Sollecito, 24, found Miss Kercher's bedroom door locked and noticed traces of blood in the flat, they claim.

They called the police, who broke down the door and found Miss Kercher's semi-naked body lying in a pool of her own blood, with deep slash wounds to her throat.

But the new witness will allege that on the morning after the murder he saw Miss Knox in a shop close to the murder scene and watched her then head in the direction of the house where Miss Kercher lay dead.

She had a scarf tied around her face, he has reportedly told chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini.

"I saw Amanda, on the morning they found the body of Meredith, doing some shopping at around 7.45am," the witness, whose name has not yet been released, claimed.

"She was in the part of the shop where they keep detergents, but I couldn't say for sure if she bought anything," the man was quoted as saying by the Giornale dell'Umbria newspaper.

"I thought it was very strange for a student to be out so early in the morning. That morning was virtually a holiday, there were no lectures, if there had been I could understand her being up so early."

Prosecutors allege that Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito tried to hide any trace of their involvement in the murder by breaking a window to suggest a burglary and then scouring the murder scene with cleaning products.

Miss Kercher, 21, of Coulsdon, in Surrey, was a Leeds University student who went to Perugia as part of her European Studies course.

She was murdered on the night of November 1 to November 2 last year.

Prosecutors claim that Miss Knox, Mr Sollecito and Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, subjected her to a bizarre sex game fuelled by fantasies of Halloween and violent Japanese manga comics before killing her.

Guede, 21, elected for a fast-track trial separate to the two other defendants and last month was found guilty of murder and aggravated sexual assault by a court in Perugia. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito, whose requests to be released from jail and allowed to live under house arrest for the duration of the trial were refused by a judge, both deny the charges against them.

The new evidence, if accepted by the court when the murder trial begins on December 4, will add a further twist to a murder mystery that has captured headlines in Britain and the US and continues to intrigue Italians.

It is not clear why it has taken nearly a year for the new witness to come forward with his testimony.


Amanda Knox

She was acting suspiciously, she had covered her face, that's why I couldn't get a good look at it, it was as if she didn't want to be recognised.



He said: ''She was wearing a grey hooded jacket, zipped up to the top, jeans and grey blue scarf which was wrapped around her face, she also wore a light coloured hat.

''''I know it was her, I had seen her in the Corso Garibaldi (the street where Sollecito lived). I know Sollecito by sight and in the days before the murder I saw the American girl with him.

''I had looked at them closely because I always used to see Sollecito on his own.



This witness hardly knew the boyfriend and says he was always alone and then he says he had seen them together. I cannot see how he could recognise her if she was hooded and had covered her face that morning if he didnt know her well and why didnt he come forward before?