Is This Amanda Knox?A close-up view of the unidentified person in the newly released CCTV footage by the Italian Investigative TV show Quarto Grado, whose investigative team claims “may be” Amanda Knox. Really.
Amanda Knox can be definitively excluded as being in the CCTV footage recently released by the Italian investigative TV show Quarto Grado, for the simple reason that the unidentified woman (above) displays a unique body type that is unquestionably incompatible with Amanda Knox: she is obese. Quite possibly, morbidly obese.
(See the Quarto Grado program clip this article is based on here: Link . This site link was copied from an article in the Huffingtom Post on the same CCTV footage).
Quarto Grado’s claim that the CCTV image may undermine Amanda Knox’s alibi, has been picked up and commented on by major media around the world, apparently by simply echoing without any further concern, Quarto Grado’s suggestion that this same unknown rotund person in the CCTV footage “may be” Amanda Knox, thereby threatening to impugn her longstanding and consistent alibi that she spent the night of the Kercher murder at her then boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito’s apartment. The implication of Ms Knox losing her alibi, is to suggest that perhaps she was doing something else in the vicinity, like committing the murder of her friend and flatmate Meredith Kercher.
If there truly were some vast US based Knox PR operation darkly conspiring to unfairly influence the reporting in the world’s media, they don’t appear to be doing a very good job.
Before I proceed, I want to say that you need only go to any one of many prestigious museum galleries around the world and stand before a painting by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, to know that many men greatly appreciate a voluminous female form. There are many, many males of all ages who swear by the charms of a generous female figure. All I am suggesting here, is that Amanda Knox, with her famously slender physique of a 19 year old accomplished athlete on the night the CCTV image was recorded, isn’t obese.
Here are two frames from the TV show Quart Grado showing a split screen of Ms Knox walking on a sidewalk presumably in the US at least 4 years after the CCTV images were recorded, and the CCTV mystery woman, apparently recorded on Nov 1, 2007, on the parking garage security camera, located across from the house Ms Knox shared with Ms Kercher and two more female Italian flatmates in Perugia, Italy.
The first frame shows the ‘CCTV mystery woman’ appraoching the garage and provides more of a frontal view, from which it is far easier to discern her physical body type. The second frame is the 2nd to last frame in the sequence of only 9 video frames showing this unidentified woman, in the newly released CCTV footage. Here, in the lower frame, the CCTV ‘mystery person’ is shown in the clip by Quarto Grado. This latter frame shows only a side view, from which it is much more difficult to see the figure’s very ample and obvious girth. (A complete index of the 9 frames from Quarto Grado, along with their times codes is provided at the end of this article).
FRAME #5 of 9 – CCTV split screen; Walking towards camera, a frontal view of CCTV mystery woman walking (left screen), versus Amanda Knox (walking with profile view, right screen). (time code 20.53.49.35)
FRAME #8 of 9 – CCTV split screen; walking diagonally across frame, a side-view of CCTV mystery woman (left screen) , versus Amanda Knox (walking with profile view, right screen). (time code 20.53.49.35)
Quarto Grado chose to emphasize in it’s investigative report, the latter frames (frame number 8 of 9, and 9 of 9) with the side view of the CCTV mystery person for their comparison to Ms Knox. This editorial choice by Quarto Grado, visually downplaying the CCTV mystery person’s considerable waist circumference, was left unchallenged and effortlessly echoed in the mainstream media around the world.
Below, is another earlier frame of the same CCTV video, which also shows this more frontal view of the same CCTV mystery person, and similarly gives a much better visual perspective on the body type, (see below, Frame #4 of 9).
FRAME #4 of 9 – CCTV mystery person, frontal view. (This is cropped from the original frame, and is also the source of the extreme close up at the top of this article). The TV show’s producers, added a visual lighting effect that makes this mystery person’s notably unique physique stand out in this frame in particular.
Ok, honestly, does this look like Amanda Knox?
Indeed, the selection of the latter frames of video for comparison to Ms Knox, offering more of a diagonal side-view of the CCTV figure, inherently tends to conceal the woman’s pronounced girth. However, even in this side-view, which visually downplays the woman’s super-plus size, her obese body type is again nonetheless confirmed in this second perspective, by her bulging cheek jowls clearly apparent on the side of her face.
Split Screen; CCTV Mystery person (screen right), Amanda Knox (screen left).
Split Screen Close-up, showing bulging cheek of mystery woman (screen left), versus Amanda Knox (screen right).
Notice the bulging cheek flesh is below ear level on the CCTV mystery woman, while Amanda Knox’s face is slim and narrowing at ear level and below.
Amanda Knox could not project this obese woman’s image in this CCTV video clip from Quarto Grado if she were wearing a ‘fat suit’, because even a fat suit wouldn’t create the bulging cheek jowls in the side view of this woman’s much more voluminous face.
Ok, again I have to ask: Is there anyone who sees both these pictures who still thinks this plainly obese woman, “may be” Amanda Knox?
This editorial selection by Quarto Grado raises the important question of possible bias in their investigative report. Did Quarto Grado try deliberately to conceal the fact that this woman’s body type is flatly incompatible with that of Amanda Knox, and that there is no possibility whatsoever that they “may be” the same person? Or is it once again, confirmation bias; where they have an incorrect accusatory theory they can’t let go of and begin to see it confirmed, not in reality but only in their own minds, everywhere they look?
Does Quarto Grado really believe its own reporting, or are they intentionally floating a false theory to titillate their viewers, thus toying with the lives and liberty of the two accused college students, solely to milk television ratings through the intentional release of misinformation?
In the TV show episode, Quarto Grado continues its investigation, and goes on to claim to find a similarity to the “walking gait” of Amanda Knox and this CCTV mystery woman. If we can agree that this obese woman is not Amanda, is there any point in examining in detail this fevered analysis by the investigative team of Quarto Grado, of two completely different people?
But let’s just take a moment to recognize the type of analysis the Quarto Grado investigative team believes will be convincing to its audience.
As previously stated above, there are only 9 video frames of the CCTV mystery woman in the entire CCTV footage that Quarto Grado provides. Just 9 frames. The earliest time code is 20:53:46:11, and the last video frame used in their amazing split screen walking comparison, is the Frame #8 of 9, and its time code is 20:53:51:42.
This means a total of 8 frames of the CCTV mystery woman walking are actually displayed, over a period of less than than 6 seconds. Take a moment to understand what this means.
TV programs are broadcast in the US at 30 frames per second. Hollywood movies shot on film, are photographed at 24 frames per second. Both retain the appearance of life like movement. Cheaply made cartoons, often for children’s viewing, are sometimes produced at only 8 frames per second. That’s because its both less expensive to produce, but also because children are thought to be less demanding. And, the need isn’t there to maintain the appearance of life like movement in that type of programming.
Quarto Grado’s fantastic split-screen walking comparison of this CCTV mystery woman walking, is done at under two frames per second. The only actual comparison to Amanda’s walking across screen is literally closer to only 3 or 4 frames of this short wide woman laboriously ambling into the garage.
Quarto Grado could have filmed a baboon at the zoo lumbering across her cage and achieved a visual result every bit as convincing as the analysis they have provided in attempting to compare the CCTV mystery woman to Amanda Knox. But our hypothetical noble baboon is already living out her life in a cage. The very real, very human, and very much completely innocent Amanda Knox is hoping to avoid that fate.
And every decent human being in the world should be hoping and fighting right along with her.
—
(See the Quarto Grado program clip here: Link . This site link was copied from an article in the Huffingtom Post on the same CCTV footage).
Frame no. – CCTV Time code listed in frame.
1. – 20:53:46:11
2. – 20:53:46:95
3. – 20:53:47:01
4. – 20:53:48:59 (best frame for actually seeing the clearly obese body type of the CCTV mystery person. The close-up picture used at top of this article is cropped from this frame).
5. – 20:53:49:35
6. – 20:53:50:21
7. – 20:53:51:10
8. – 20:53:51:42
9. – 20:53:51:77 (used by Quarto Grado for close-up comparison of Amanda Knox)