Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (28 December 1985 – 1 November 2007) was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy. Kercher was found dead on the floor of her room. By the time the bloodstained fingerprints at the scene were identified as belonging to Rudy Guede, an Ivorian migrant, police had charged Kercher's American roommate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, with Kercher's murder. The subsequent prosecutions of Knox and Sollecito received international publicity, with forensic experts and jurists taking a critical view of the evidence supporting the initial guilty verdicts.
In 2011, after nearly four years in prison, Knox and Sollecito were released following their acquittal at a second-level trial. Knox immediately returned to the United States. In 2013 the appeals verdicts for the acquittal (of Knox and Sollecito) were declared null for "manifest illogicalities" by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy, and the case was sent back to an appeals court in Florence. In 2014, the original guilty verdicts against Knox and Sollecito were reinstated but, on 27 March 2015, the Supreme Court again quashed the convictions, citing "stunning flaws" and "culpable omissions" in the murder investigation. The court also ordered that no further trial should be held, definitively resolving the cases against Knox and Sollecito.
Guede was tried separately in a fast-track procedure and, in October 2008, was found guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. He subsequently exhausted the appeals process and began serving a 16-year sentence. On 4 December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Guede could complete his term doing community service. Guede was released from prison on 24 November 2021. He was in court facing trial in 2025 for sexual assault and domestic violence.
Meredith Kercher
Background
Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (born 28 December 1985 in Southwark, South London), known to her friends as "Mez", lived in Coulsdon, South London. She was educated at the Old Palace School in Croydon. She was enthusiastic about the language and culture of Italy, and after a school exchange trip, she returned at age 15 to spend her summer vacation with a family in Sessa Aurunca.
Kercher studied European politics and Italian at the University of Leeds. She worked as a barmaid and a tour guide, and also made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" in 2004. She aspired to work for the European Union or as a journalist. In October 2007, she attended the University of Perugia, where she began courses in modern history, political theory, and the history of cinema. Fellow students later described her as caring, intelligent, witty, and popular.
Via della Pergola 7
At the time, Perugia had a population of 150,000 people, of whom more than a quarter were students, many from abroad. In the city, Kercher shared a four-bedroom, first-floor flat in a house at Via della Pergola 7.
Her flatmates were two Italian women in their late 20s, Filomena Romanelli and Laura Mezzetti, as well as a 20-year-old American student from the University of Washington, Amanda Knox, who was attending the University for Foreigners in Perugia on an exchange year. Kercher moved in on 10 September 2007, and Knox moved in on 20 September. Kercher typically called her mother daily on a mobile phone. A second mobile phone she used was registered to her flatmate, Romanelli.
The lower level of the house was occupied by four young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly. Late one night in mid-October, Kercher and Knox were out and away from their residence. They returned home at 2:00 a.m. and met Rudy Guede, who had been invited into the lower-level flat by some of the Italian tenants. Kercher and Knox left at 4:30 a.m.
Kercher and Knox attended the EuroChocolate festival in mid-October. On 25 October they attended a classical music concert, where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old computer science student at the University of Perugia.
Last sighting
1 November (All Saints' Day) was a public holiday in Italy, so Kercher's Italian flatmates and the downstairs occupants were out of town. Kercher had dinner with three English women at one of their homes on that evening. She parted company with a friend around 8:45 pm, about 500 yards (460 m) from Via della Pergola 7.
Knox's account is that she spent the night with Sollecito and returned to Via della Pergola 7 on the morning of 2 November 2007, where she found the front door open. Drops of blood were in the bathroom that she shared with Kercher. Kercher's bedroom door was locked, and Knox guessed that Kercher was sleeping. Knox took a shower in the bathroom that she and Kercher shared. She found faeces in the toilet of the bathroom of Romanelli and Mezzetti. She went back to Sollecito's home, and later returned with him to Via della Pergola 7. Sollecito noticed a broken window in Romanelli's bedroom. He was alarmed that Kercher did not answer her door, and tried unsuccessfully to force it open. He then called his sister, who was a lieutenant in the carabinieri, for advice. She advised him to call the 112 emergency number, which he did.
Discovery of the body
Romanelli arrived at the flat after receiving a telephone call from Knox. Romanelli inadvertently disturbed the crime scene by rummaging around, looking for any missing items. She became concerned because a neighbour discovered the two phones that Kercher normally carried with her in a nearby garden. Romanelli asked the police to force open Kercher's bedroom door, but they declined. Romanelli's male friend forced the door open around 1:15 pm. The body of Kercher was found inside, lying on the floor, covered by a duvet.
Autopsy
Pathologist Luca Lalli, from Perugia's forensic-science institute, performed the autopsy on Kercher's body. Her injuries consisted of 16 bruises and seven cuts, including a fatal cut to the neck. These included several bruises and a few insubstantial cuts on the palm of her hand. Bruises on her nose, nostrils, mouth, and underneath her jaw were compatible with a hand being clamped over her mouth and nose. Lalli's autopsy report was reviewed by three pathologists from Perugia's forensic-science institute, who interpreted the injuries, including some to the genital region, as indicating an attempt to immobilise Kercher during sexual violence.
Burial
A funeral was held on 14 December 2007 at Croydon Minster, with more than 300 people in attendance, followed by a private burial at Mitcham Road Cemetery. The degree that Kercher would have received in 2009 was awarded posthumously by the University of Leeds.
Meredith Kercher scholarship fund
Five years after the murder, the city of Perugia and its University for Foreigners, in co-operation with the Italian embassy in London, instituted a scholarship fund to honour the memory of Meredith Kercher. John Kercher stated in an interview that all profits from his book Meredith would go to a charitable foundation in Meredith Kercher's name.
Italian criminal procedure
In Italy, as in most countries, individuals accused of any crime are considered innocent until proven guilty, although the defendant may be held in detention. Unless the accused opts for a fast-track trial, murder cases are heard by a corte d'assise or court of assizes. This court has jurisdiction to try the most serious crimes, i.e., those crimes whose maximum penalty begins at 24 years in prison. A guilty verdict is not regarded as a definitive conviction until the accused has exhausted the appeals process, regardless of the number of times the defendant has been put on trial.
Italian trials can last many months and have long gaps between hearings; the first trial of Knox and Sollecito was heard two days a week, for three weeks a month. If found guilty, a defendant is guaranteed what is in effect a retrial, where all evidence and witnesses can be re-examined.
A verdict can be overturned by the Italian supreme court, the Corte di Cassazione (cassation is the annulment of a judicial decision), which considers written briefs. If the Corte di Cassazione overturns a verdict, it explains which legal principles were violated by the lower court, which in turn must abide by the ruling when retrying the case. If the Corte di Cassazione upholds a guilty verdict of the appeal trial, the conviction becomes definitive, the appeals process is exhausted, and any sentence is served.
Rudy Guede
Early life
Rudy Hermann Guede (born 26 December 1986, Abidjan, Ivory Coast) was 20 years old at the time of the murder. He had lived in Perugia since the age of five with his polygamous immigrant father. In Italy, Guede was mostly raised with the help of his school teachers, a local priest, and others. Guede's father returned to Ivory Coast in 2004. Rudy drifted and was fed, clothed, and housed by an informal group of well-meaning households, until the age of 17 when he was adopted by a wealthy Perugian family. He played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004–2005 season.
Guede repeatedly skipped school, and he did not show any interest in the jobs that his adoptive family arranged for him. His adoptive family asked him to leave their home in mid-2007.
Involvement in the case
Guede said that he had met two of the Italian men of the Via della Pergola 7 house while spending evenings at the basketball court in the Piazza Grimana. The young men who lived in the downstairs flat at Via della Pergola 7 were unable to recall when exactly Guede had met them but recalled how, after his first visit to their home, they had found him later in the bathroom, sitting asleep on the unflushed toilet, which was full of faeces. Allegedly, Guede committed break-ins, including one of a lawyer's office through a second-floor window, and another during which he burgled a flat and brandished a pocket knife when confronted by its inhabitants. On 27 October 2007, days before Kercher's murder, Guede was arrested in Milan after breaking into a nursery school; he was found by police with an 11 in (28 cm) knife, which he had taken from the school kitchen.
Guede went to a friend's house around 11:30 pm on 1 November 2007, the night of the murder. He went to a nightclub where he stayed until 4:30 am. On the following night, 2 November 2007, Guede went to the same nightclub with three American female students whom he had met in a bar. He then left Italy for Germany, where he was located in the subsequent weeks.
Arrest
After his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, along with DNA traces, Guede was extradited from Germany; he had said on the internet that he knew he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name.
Trial
Guede opted for a fast-track trial, held in closed session with no reporters present. He told the court that he had gone to Via della Pergola 7 on a date arranged with Kercher, after meeting her the previous evening. Two neighbours of Guede's, foreign female students who were with him at a nightclub on that evening, told police the only girl they saw him talking to had long, blonde hair. Guede said Kercher had let him in the cottage around 9:00 p.m. Sollecito's lawyers said a glass fragment from the window found beside a shoeprint of Guede's at the scene of the crime was proof that Guede had broken in.
Guede said that he and Kercher had kissed and touched, but they did not have sexual intercourse because they did not have condoms readily available. He claimed that he then developed stomach pains and crossed to the large bathroom on the other side of the apartment. Guede claimed he heard Kercher scream while he was in the bathroom, and that upon emerging, he saw a "shadowy figure" holding a knife and standing over her as she lay bleeding on the floor. Guede further said that the figure fled, while saying "in perfect Italian," "Trovato negro, trovato colpevole; andiamo" ("Found black man, found culprit; let's go").
The court found that his version of events did not match the scientific evidence, and that he could not explain why one of his palm prints, stained with Kercher's blood, had been found on the pillow of the single bed, under the disrobed body. Guede said he had left Kercher fully dressed.
Guede originally said that Knox had not been at the scene of the crime, but he later changed his statement to say that she had been in the apartment at the time of the murder. He claimed that he had heard her arguing with Kercher, and that, glancing out of a window, he had seen Knox's silhouette outside the house.
In October 2008, Guede was found guilty for the sexual assault and murder of Meredith Kercher. He was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. Judge Micheli acquitted Guede of the charge of theft.
Appeal
Three weeks after Knox and Sollecito were convicted, Guede had his prison term cut from 30 to 24 years. Then the automatic one-third reduction of a sentence decided in a fast-track trial kicked in, resulting in a final sentence of 16 years. A lawyer representing the Kercher family protested at the effective "drastic reduction" of the sentence.
Imprisonment and release
Guede was first granted day release from the Viterbo prison in 2017 to complete a master's degree in sociology, and in December 2020 the authorities entrusted him to social services to carry out the rest of his sentence doing community service. He was working in the mornings at the Catholic charity Caritas and in the afternoons he was allowed to work in the library of the prison's criminology centre.