Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!
Marmion, Sir Walter Scott, 1808
Meredith Kercher was brutally murdered in Perugia, Italy in 2007 and a young talented woman’s life was savagely cut short. But the investigation and trials that followed caused an international stir that still elicits the most extreme reactions four years later.
Some will tell you that this is a very complex case full of mixed DNA, mixed blood, bloody footprints, staged break-ins, double DNA knives, and complex lies.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
This is, in fact, a very simple crime. This is the kind of case that detectives world-wide would love to catch.
A rock is thrown through a second story window. The burglar climbs up and enters. He has a drug habit and needs to feed it. No one is there, so he makes himself at home. He likes to make himself at home. Maybe he dreams of living there or just belonging there. But he has to defecate and does so in one of the bathrooms. Then there is a problem.
He hears the front door open and someone enters the flat. Without flushing the toilet, he goes to find out who is there. And he prepares himself with a knife in his hand. He sees the young woman and tries to subdue her but she fights. Panic ensues. He must silence her but cannot control her so he uses his knife. He stabs and slashes and reaches his hand out to the wall to steady himself. He keeps stabbing until she is quiet. Dead.
Then a new sensation overcomes him. He is excited by this new power. He adjusts her body and tears and cuts the clothes off her so he can penetrate her but he finds that he can’t. So he masturbates over her bloody body. Then he covers her with a duvet cover and cleans up. He takes her cell phones and cash and exits through the front door, leaving it open.
He feels good, perhaps even powerful. After showering and changing he hides his bloody clothes and knife and he goes dancing.
Rudy Guede is not worried. He stays in Perugia another day and dances again that night. But something is pressing him. Maybe it occurs to him that he’s not safe. Maybe someone tells him he’s not safe. He leaves town.
Based on the evidence, this is the most likely scenario of Meredith’s death. A lovely young woman with a brilliant future.
What a horror. A beautiful young life brutally cut short.
But more horrors are yet to come.