A new theory to the Meredith Kercher murder from Switzerland
A new theory to the Meredith Kercher murder – what really happened
My person
I am living in Zurich, Switzerland.
I am not a professional crime specialist nor a hobby criminologist. I am a self-employed business consultant and coach for media enterprises, especially for publishing companies, dealing with business information. My job, since nearly 15 years, amongst other tasks is to develop, or help publishing companies to develop innovative cross-media products, services and business models for potential customers.
This often needs very tricky administration processes, so I am trained to think strictly logical and I am also trained to put myself in the position of potential customers, to think like them, to feel like them, to know their needs and problems etc., because this is a fundamental precondition for developing successful products.
My motivation for writing this article
I first heard from the Amanda and Raffaele trial nearly two years ago when they were found guilty committing these crime. At that point of time, I thought all things regarding the investigation of this horrible crime are clear, case can be closed, truth has been evaluated and justice has been served.
Over the years I forgot this crime.
I am normally not interested in crimes , not at all. But when time came closer to the final verdict in the second appeal trial, I had been thrilled more and more from the press reported crime “facts” and the things, that happened at the trial.
But the problem was: the more I read, the more I got confused because of these conflicting “facts”.
So I wanted to know, what really happened. I wanted to know the truth.
I read further magazine and newspaper articles (which was not very helpful), saw the tv station produced reports (which was a little bit more helpful), just all sources I could get from the internet.
And some day I luckily found the website of injusticeinperugia.org.
Although I knew, that this was not an neutral site, the masses of reasonable facts gathered there (and I can assume you, I studied nearly all), the analyses made from professional crime investigators, Amanda´s statements and pleas on video … all this stuff was overwhelming.
I got and I am completely convinced from Amanda´s and Raffaele´s innocence. I am really very happy, that justice finally gained a victory over this outrageous injustice and they had been set free meanwhile.
But we all know, that there are still, I suppose about 20 % of people, even here in Switzerland, who think Amanda and Raffaele are guilty. This will make it quite difficult for them to return to a normal life. They will be, in spite of their not guilty verdict of the appeal court, confronted with the prejudices and hate from these people.
And will be stigmatized for their whole life.
Why do people react in such an abhorrent manner?
People were and are still manipulated from the effects of former tabloid press articles, framing the “angel with the ice eyes”, refusing to accept the new evident facts for the acquittal.
For the public the whole crime is still not cleared up in total. Italian police claims, there must be a second killer who is still walking around. This causes crude rumors and speculations.
Unfortunately I have not the possibilities to change the matters of # 1.
But I think, I can perhaps do something to help solving problem # 2.
This is my first motive to write this article.
My second motive: I want to help the Kercher family to find their peace at last, when the crime will hopefully be cleared up in total someday.
My method
While I was searching the internet for reliable crime facts, I saw in one of these TV station reports an American or Italian investigator or lawyer (I don´t remember exactly) who stated, that in this crime it would have been better, to do more traditional detective work like Sherlock Holmes, than to count on modern forensic methods in such a big dimension. I think he was right.
My theory for the murder night emerged only from logical conclusions in this traditional way.
I must underline, that I could use only the crime facts I found on the internet, mainly from injusticeinperugia.org.
I tried to consider all these found facts in my theory.
The key to this crime is the key
I know this sounds very strange, but I will explain this later in detail.
The initial point for all my conclusions are the two following simple questions:
Why did Rudy leave the house with an open door?
And why was the door to Meredith´s room locked?
When Rudy wanted to hide the crime scene, why he did not close the front door. For the purpose of hiding the crime, it would have been much more important to have the front door closed. Instead of doing this he locked Meredith´s door.
This always appeared very strange to me and is completely illogical. (By the way, since dealing with this crime, I found it always a little bit strange with this locked door inside the house. But this was just an instinct feeling.)
We know the door had a mechanical problem: you only could close it by locking it with a key. This simple fact brought me to the simple answer for the above mentioned two questions. Rudy could not lock the door, because he had not the keys available.
This fact additionally explains, why he locked Meredith´s door. This was the only way to hide the crime scene a little bit at least.
Now you could claim: when leaving the house, Rudy simply forgot to close respectively lock the front door because he was in panic. This sounds plausible at the first glance, but why he did not forget to lock Meredith´s door.
I come to my next conclusion. The only possible explanation for the missing keys is the following:
The keys were not in the house anymore because someone other involved in the crime, took them, before Rudy left the house.
But what would be a possible logical chain to explain how things happened in this night?
I try to give a possible reconstruction in short form.
My step by step theory for the murder night
Rudy broke in the house.
Meredith came home, Meredith locked the front door.
Rudy hides himself somewhere.
Meredith attempted the phone call to her mom.
Rudy is still hiding himself somewhere in the house and did not attack Meredith in her room.
A third person arrives at the crime scene: Meredith got a visit, probably she had a date with this person at home or she got a spontaneous visit from this person. She knows this person, she would not have allowed a stranger to enter the house. After the entering of this person, Meredith locked again the door with the key and took the keys to her room. Without the keys within reach, Rudy had no possibility to vanish quickly and undetected.
Meredith is killed from the third unknown person, while Rudy remains hided, because he is scared. He is a (ear) witness of the brutal murder.
Rudy used the toilet, but did not flush. He is so scared and remains quite as a church mouse, that he even not tries to flee through Filomena´s broken window, which he had used to gain entrance to the house.
The third person, the killer, leaves the house in panic, fetching Meredith´s keys (he had to open the locked front door), opening but not locking the front door.
Rudy entered Meredith´s room (probably he is the one, who disrobed and rolled Meredith´s body to the backside) and assaulted Meredith´s dead or nearly dead body sexually.
Rudy (probably fetched the money, credit cards and the mobile phones), locked Meredith´s door and left the house.
Some aspects supporting this theory
Rudy did not attack Meredith when she came home
Rudy was known as a petty criminal, a small time burglar. Not known as a violent person (as far as I could find out). While he attempted a burglary some days before in a nursery school, he had been caught red-handed by the school owner, who was a woman. Rudy is a well-trained young man, but there were no events of violence or attempted killing in this case.
Even Ron Hendry has in his step by step reconstruction no explanation for Rudy to go to Meredith´s room. He states: “For reasons only Rudy knows, he makes the decision to go to Meredith’s room”.
The killer has no keys for the house, Meredith had to open the front door
If the killer would have been in possession of the door keys, there would be no need to take Meredith´s keys for leaving the house. (By the way, this is an additional proof for the fact, that Amanda was not there, when the crime happened.)
The killer is a person, Meredith knows
If the killer would have been a complete stranger, a person who entered the house by force after Meredith opened the front door, a person who primarily intended to rape or to kill her instantly, why did the crime then happen in Meredith´s room? There were more rooms (or more space e.g. in the kitchen) closer to the front door. And regarding a planned rape, there were also three more beds in the house, all closer to the front door than Meredith´s bed.
It is only one person, who committed the murder
Ron Hendry and many other forensic experts are convinced there was only one killer.
Rudy didn´t have any motive to join the murder (especially in the difficult situation, he found himself). Why he should commit the murder together with another person?
The stolen mattress
This always appeared a little bit strange to me. Why should a “normal” burglar break into a house, where a murder took place some days before, to steal a mattress? And this was the specific mattress from the crime scene and there were three other mattresses in the house. This is very improbable.
In fact the burglar was the killer. The mattress was a an evidence, probably bearing the killer´s traces and she should vanish. And one more important point: The mattress on the bed was the only furniture in the room for two people sitting or lying comfortable together.
Transporting a mattress is a little bit awkward, especially when this has to be done without attracting attention. The disposal of the mattress was an important thing to the killer.
Rudy couldn´t do that burglary, he was in Germany at this time (I suppose this, because I could not find the exact burglary date).
Italian police had secured the house (I saw some photos showing wooden bars mounted to the outer shutters). In spite of this protection, there had been a burglary. The killer had not to work very hard on this, because he still had the keys to open the front door easily.
Italian police still claims, that there must be a second killer involved in this crime
Unfortunately I didn´t find anything about the detailed background for this statement. I suppose, Italian police found some unidentified traces from a second person in Meredith´s room.
Some general aspects regarding this theory
Rudy does not know the killer
Rudy heard (and perhaps saw) the killer. After his detention he was facing a conviction for thirty years in prison (later reduced to 16 years). To reduce his sentence, he surely would have told the police the killer´s name, if he would have recognized him in the murder night.
Rudy´s first confession after his detention
In my opinion this is a very interesting point. When I first read from Rudy´s first confession, I thought, what a crude story. How he did hit on that?
Now, after developing my theory, I find there are some remarkable aspects and the story he told, seems to me as a mixture from truth and fiction.
Here is what I found on injusticeinperugia.org:
“Guede claimed he met Meredith at a bar and they both went back to Meredith’s residence. He said that he and Meredith were “fooling around” in Meredith’s room. Guede claimed he started not feeling well and he needed to use the bathroom. He claimed he was listening to his ipod while using the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom he found Meredith bleeding to death. He claims that he tried to stop the bleeding but he panicked and left. He was convinced that the color of his skin would be enough to attract the attention of the Italian police.”
There are some points in his story, who correspond to my theory, the rest is fiction:
Fooling around with Meredith:
Rudy heard the killer, doing exactly this before the murder happened.
Used the bathroom:
Rudy did this.
Listening to his ipod:
In fact Rudy was listening the murder. He did nothing to prevent this crime, it´s an attempt to justify his craven behavior. He never would have listened to his ipod during a burglary.
Found Meredith bleeding to death:
corresponds to my theory.
Convinced that the color of his skin would be enough to attract the attention of the Italian police:
This is the one of his main motives to flee the country, because Rudy rightly feared, that he would blamed as the killer (as it had been afterwards), given what he did in Meredith´s room and being a colored man.
My general conclusions and suggestions
There exists an unknown third person, who is the killer.
Rudy was not physically involved in the murder. He got a wrong conviction. His true crimes are sexual assault, necrophilia, burglary, theft and eventually nonassistance of a person in danger.
The last two mentioned points provide the chance, to move Rudy to cooperate with the police and telling truth. This would offer new possibilities for the investigation of this crime.
Rudy knows at least the voice of the killer (perhaps he knows his face).
Meredith knew her killer, Rudy didn´t recognize him. Perhaps this is a clue, that the killer was a person, she met quite recently and Rudy didn´t know yet (but this depends on the fact, how often and exactly when Rudy saw Meredith with her friends).
I didn´t find any information, if the footprint on the bathmat in the bathroom could be assigned clearly to Rudy. If not, it could be a footprint of the killer.
My open question
Where did the killer know from, that the mattress is still in the house?
Did he see the pieces of evidence, Italian police transported from the house? Could he know from these pieces from local newspapers? Was there a lack of information in Italian police?
Perhaps he didn´t know it by sure and made the burglary at a venture. But probably he needed a car for transportation, which usage would be an higher risk for him to be discovered (especially when the entrance gate to the property had been locked by Italian police, which I assume).
Or he didn´t need a car at all, because the place, where he did hide the mattress after the theft, was quite near-by.
My personal closing words
From the moment I recognized the surprising illogical disagreement, that one door of the house was closed and the other was opened, I was agitated emotionally really heavy.
In the following days I nearly couldn´t stop thinking about this crime and how all could have happened. I spent many hours to develop my theory, I had to do my normal job, for one week I could sleep only a few hours per night. Sometimes I thought, what in heaven´s sake are you doing here. You are no professional, you have no experience with detective work, not at all. My attempt to develop an new theory is ridiculous, seeing that perhaps 100 professional crime experts dealed with this crime.
But I felt, I have the duty to finish work properly, because of all the involved people, who are still suffering from the aftermath of this terrible crime. Because this theory could be an starting point to stop their suffering.
Sometimes I got in frustrating logical dead end streets, but in the end all my conclusions seem now very obvious and logical to me. I hope, my conclusions will be logical and conclusive to professional crime specialists too.
It´s a real tragedy that three families still couldn´t find their peace. I strongly hope that this crime will be cleared up in total someday.
I hope my contribution will help. I tried my best.
Wodi Zumach
Dear Wodi,
We were making theories like this at the beginning of the case, we were also losing our sleep as you are doing now, but then we realized that cops and prosecutors were totally corrupted and their only target was to frame that girl and that boy. Then we realized that even the family of the victim joined to the same purpose.
Therefore we lost any interest in who, between Rudi or someone else, could be the killer of Meredith, since the problem became another: saving two more lives that were going to be sacrificed for the private interest of those in charge, and even of the family.
If not even her family cares about who the real killer is, why should we care? If they don’t even ask the semen stain to be tested, if the police don’t even test evidence and people’s alibi properly, why should we spend our time and energies to inquire and think about that? We will always have missing data because they didn’t do their job and will never do it.
Lawyers (and me too) receive hundreds of theories like this and they don’t even read them since their only purpose was the freedom of their clients. And they find me, by now, on the same wavelength.
Thank you for sending me this but I’m telling you that her relatives don’t deserve the efforts of altruistic people like you, like I have been, and like many others have been.
Since ages this is not any longer the case of the murder of Meredith. This is the case of the attempted murder of Amanda. And, luckily, it has been solved. That’s all that counts. Even if one wanted to still inquire on the original case, the data the police provided are deliberately incomplete and not reliable, therefore inquiring in a serious way is not only impossible, it’s even useless.
Maybe there was even someone else’s DNA in that room, who knows. We have lost trust in those people, they can do anything in that lab when we don’t see.
What you say, by the way, could even be possible, by remote possibility. But usually reality is much more simpler… Remember that the front door was opening by itself. So Rudi by running away did close it, it just later opened by itself…
He locked Meredith’s door because it was inside, and the key was already in the lock, so it was easy.
He just closed the front door, instead, without locking it, because he would have had to try the right key and he obviously was not in the mental condition to do it, especially being outside, where passing people could have seen him…
If Rudi wants to tell us how things went it’s ok, otherwise the crime will be archived as committed by him alone, and, as far as I’m concerned, I’m ok with that!
Well Frank,
Rudy would need the key to leave…and I think if he could have at first he would have run out the front door. I suspect MK heard him trying to leave or simply discovered him after she arrived home. Its easy to imagine that she would be scared and her first instinct was to run into her room…Rudy could have left by the window then but he was seen and so he went after her…he had to do something…talk, bargain, silence, kill.
I have never considered two strangers being in the house that night as Wodi suggests. That is just the story designed by Rudy…some one else did it…All criminals say that when there is hard evidence of their own presence at the scene. And since Rudy had plenty of time to make up his story and since he was following the news about the case while on the run and even for months after being jailed…he could watch and read and listen.
There is no evidence of another person involved. In MK room there is MK and Rudy only. Although I have also heard of the theory that Rudy ran around with an angry, scary, Italian pal who disappeared to England shortly after the murder. Rudy sat on the toilet and this man killed Meredith. This story also seems unlikely because someone would know more about this friend of Rudy, and again we are missing any evidence of this other man…but it is also correct that police did not investigate this case properly…why was the semen stain never tested? There can be no reasonable excuse for this. Unless they refused to test because they actually already did the test and they know the result…and the result did not fit their case against the two innocents. I think this stain shows that there can be no excuse of a simple mistake by police and prosecution. Why would RS attorney agree to this test but Mignini and Maresca object? It is simply not logical or correct for them to object to testing this explosive evidence! And yet they did it and no one asks why not?
You are quite correct though that we probably should not waste time anymore even thinking about this case because as you say even the family does not care to seek the truth. I gave them all benefit of doubt because they were being used and tricked by prosecutor and lawyers and police…but at some point they must look with their own eyes and listen to what makes sense about this terrible murder of their daughter. It was a tragic but all too common burglary gone wrong turned into rape and murder by Rudy Guede.
The pro filers even think this was Rudys first murder. The common sign of this was the covering of the body. Mignini and the police were wrong that this is a sign of a woman…that is incorrect. But many first time killers cover or hide the body of their victim as if they can pretend they did not do it. This case fits that profile exactly…a burglar is caught in the act by a lone young woman. She screams and runs and he overreacts. At some point he makes a decision and the true person comes out…the person who can rape and kill reveals himself.
Facts we know from Rudy in his own words…
MK screamed (very loudly) at around 9:20 PM. He included this early in his skype call because he had no way to know if some else heard this so he assumed that someone did. This is likely when he killed Meredith.
Rudy tells us in his call and his diary that he went to her bathroom twice to get towels. I don’t believe the reason was to save her though. The towels were to cover the blood as he sexually abused her…the act of which I think he failed to complete as the gravity of what he had done began to sink in.
Finally one more important detail comes from Rudy himself…he tells in his own words that his pants were wet. He doesn’t say why they are wet, just that they are. I think the evidence shows that he went into the bathroom…just one step away …perhaps using towels to step on so he left no prints. He removed one blood covered shoe and rinsed it and his pants leg off in the shower or even perhaps in the bidet. As he hops on one foot, he momentarily loses his balance and places one wet bloody foot down partially on a towel and partially on the blue bath mat. Finished he is faced with the small problem of the bloody towels. Only now does Rudy take the towels into MK room …she is already dead. He makes some wiping motions in the pooling blood more to hide his trace than for any other reason.
I think the attack proceded closely along the lines laid out by Ron Hendry…fianlly he sits on the bed…lays his bloody knife down and goes into MK purse. We find his DNA on the zipper and not some low copy number amount that requires special training and a special seperate lab to alanyze but an abundant amount of DNA… thousands of picograms worth, maybe millions of picograms…Rudy DNA. Did he need the keys to get out? Maybe. Was he looking for money? Probably. Did he take her phones? Certainly. Did he go back and forth to the front door? Possible since the bloody left shoe trailed out as the blood wore off…no way to know for certain exactly unless he starts to us what really happened…but he wont.
It is sinful that Rudy got off so lightly for this crime. He can thank Mignini personally for that. He can thank Marasca. He can thank the police too. But the Kerchers must open their eyes to how they were used. Not only did they lose a daughter but they were used in order to save a career of a prosecutor faceing his own jail term for abuse…how ironic that Italy allowed him freedom to recommitt his crime in an effort to make his first crime vanish from the memories of the Italian people. I wonder how the police feel to be dragged into this political game of hide the abuse of prosecutor. All this like a family…a little lie, a piece of paper…that what the family does. Except this is suppose to be the law …not the mafia. I suppose they have fought the mafia for so long that they have become just like them in attitude and tactics and behavior. But they forget that they are suppose to represent the good guys…and no part part of that allows them to behave the same as the bad guys. They are suppose to be better. If there is one or two bad apples someone must remove them before they cause rot of the whole barrel. In Perugia no one is checking the apples, and so the rot must spread. And one day when things get so bad… finally someone will come to remove all the rotten ones… how many innocent must suffer stolen years of lives before this happens though?
Sad we cant read this in Italian papers. I guess it was all just a dream then.
Your theory does not address HOW Rudy’s skin cells found their way into Meredith’s vagina and handbag, and NO UNKNOWN PERSON’S DNA was found on her body at all. There is some unknown DNA I believe in Meredith’s room, but no way of knowing when it was left. It seems very unlikely that an unknown person could be intimately involved with the victim, murder the victim, but then leave not a single cell of himself at the crime scene. I still find it absurd that the semen found on the bed at the scene of a sex crime was never even tested, but your unidentified killer must have been a spirit for him to leave no evidence of his presence. I think there was no one there but Rudy and Meredith.
I think that it’s cool that this person would like to help bring peace to the Kercher family, however, I found it hard even going past the first questions. He (Rudy) locked the door to Meredith’s room trying to hide the horrid murder and sexual assault! He didn’t lock the front door because he was FLEEING FROM THE CRIME.
This doesn’t take too much logic to understand……seriously.
I would like to point out that a grown man can conceivably sexually assault and murder a girl. It actually CAN happen.
And the police would do or say about anything to save face rigt now.
Lastly, the bathroom print is partial footprint from one man-Rudy Guede. He was cleaning his bloody foot and had no intention of leaving a print. Can people not see that he couldn’t keep his balance so well and touched down. Maybe he was a litle shaky because he just MURDERED Meredith Kercher.
This person, God bless them, but this has got to be the most illogical thinking….it’s like grasping at straws now. I feel really badly but this is either some fake or someone writing something VERY not logical. It’s really bad. Sorry……