Crime Weekly - S3 Ep370 Meredith Kercher Amanda Knox The Scene That Shaped The Case Part 2

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In September 2007, 20-year-old American college student Amanda Knox moved to Perugia, Italy to study abroad and experience life on her own. She settled into a stone villa with three other young women... and quickly began building friendships with her new roommates, forming a particularly close bond with 21-year-old British exchange student Meredith Kercher.Just weeks later, on November 2, Amanda would find herself standing outside that same home as police and paramedics rushed inside. Not fluent in Italian, she didn’t fully understand what was happening - only that Meredith had been found murdered in the villa they shared. Despite having no clue what was going on, Amanda became the focus of the murder investigation within hours. And what followed would become one of the most controversial criminal cases of the modern era, marked by intense scrutiny, global media coverage, and sharply divided opinions about guilt, innocence, and how justice is pursued when the world is watching.Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPodADS:1. https://www.SKIMS.com/CrimeWeekly - Check out our favorite underwear and bras at SKIMS! After checking out, let them know we sent you!2. https://www.TryFUM.com - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for double cores and a FREE gift with your Journey Pack!3. https://www.RocketMoney.com/CrimeWeekly - Reach your financial goals, cancel unwanted subscriptions, and more!4. https://www.WildGrain.com/CrimeWeekly30 - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY30 to get $30 off your first box and FREE croissants for life! 5. https://www.HelixSleep.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 27% off sitewide! Select our podcast Crime Weekly after checkout and let them know we sent you!

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Starting point is 00:00:21 please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Lavasser. Okay. And we are diving into part two of the Amanda Knox, Meredith Kircher case. We already did part one. But for those of you who need a quick update, because it's been a week, I will summarize what we talked about in part one. So in the fall of 2007, 20-year-old American college student Amanda Knox moved to Perugia, Italy, to study abroad and experience life on her own.
Starting point is 00:01:12 She settled into a shared villa and quickly formed friendships with her roommates, including a 21-year-old British exchange student named Meredith Kircher. The two bonded easily. They spent time together, and they adjusted to life in a new country. In the early hours of November 2nd, Amanda returned to the villa and noticed several things that unsettled her. An open front door, blood in the bathroom, she shared with Meredith and feces, left in another toilet in the other bathroom. in the other bathroom that the other two roommates shared. After failed attempts to reach Meredith and growing concern,
Starting point is 00:01:43 police were called and soon after Meredith was discovered dead inside her locked bedroom. As detectives and crime scene investigators flooded the scene, Amanda struggled to understand what was happening. She was hampered by the language barrier and the shock of what she was witnessing. This is according to Amanda. In the hours that followed, she agreed to speak with detectives multiple times. She believed she was helping and she was unaware that the detectives were already viewing her as their primary suspect.
Starting point is 00:02:09 So we're diving in here. I want to say that after we filmed last week's episode, I went back and I rewatched the documentary that's on Netflix, the one that came out, I think in like 2016 or something. I don't know exactly right now, but I forgot how much that documentary infuriated me. Specifically, have you seen it, Derek, the Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix? So specifically the journalist Nick Pisa,
Starting point is 00:02:35 who I believe he was working. for the Daily Mail at that time and he as well as other journalists I think he was from the UK he came to Italy to cover this case because it was huge sensationalized as we know and he really really came off terrible in that documentary he came off terrible I think that they sent him because he spoke Italian or at least had a better understanding of the language than other British journalists at that time but he was just the worst And I think that Nick Pisa was sort of a representation of the media at that time that was covering Amanda Knox case where basically Nick Pisa was like, this case was the best thing that ever happened to anybody ever. We were so excited about it.
Starting point is 00:03:22 It had sex and it had this. And it was just the best thing ever. And he said it's better than sex when you get a case like this. And he was just excited about it. And he doesn't seem to at all. number one care about Meredith, the murder victim. He doesn't at all seem to care about Amanda. He even admits that he and the other journalists at this time were just reporting by the seat of their pants. They would hear something and they would print it. And he said something like, who has time to fact check?
Starting point is 00:03:52 Who has time to fact check when all of these inflammatory sensationalized details are coming out and you want to be the first person to put it in the paper? And I think that this is a representation of not only how true crime is reported in the media, but how true crime is reported in general, where everybody wants to be the first person to report on this case, and they're reporting on it in the early days before really anything concrete has come out, and the focus turns more to who is this Amanda Knox person and digging into her background, and we're going to get into it, but the thing that bothered me the most, and I'm not sure how familiar you are with this case, You probably just know the details and things, but we will talk about it.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Amanda Knox ends up getting arrested and she's in prison. And while she's in prison, not only are they reading her diary, but they told her she was HIV positive, but she wasn't. They told her she was HIV positive. And when you look at it and you're like, oh, yeah, police are allowed to lie to people in order to further the investigation. what was the what was the motive for doing that how did it further the investigation to falsely tell a 20 year old girl that she has contracted HIV and to absolutely make her so devastated and and depressed about it now the italian law enforcement they'll say well we wanted to understand you know how how deep like her her sexual background went and she started listing her her previous sexual partners and her diary, and then they printed this stuff. Okay. So just really terrible reporting, unprofessional behavior on behalf of the Italian police. So I just wanted to kind of get that out of the way. Nick Pisa, bad, bad news, bad guy. But he is a representation of just how
Starting point is 00:05:54 terribly this case was handled and reported at the time when it was going down. Yeah, I mean, it's, I wasn't familiar with that. That's diabolical to go there. Use it as a tactic I can honestly say I've never gone that route, but to each his own. No, as far as this case overall, I'm following along with all of you guys, the ones who may have heard of the case before, but aren't familiar with all the facts. And I kind of like it that way. I like going into it with a fresh perspective and not being influenced or, or have any biases, you know, as we're going through it. The one feedback that I, I addressed in my voice reply on YouTube,
Starting point is 00:06:33 which is a new feature, it's pretty cool, was there were some people who were concerned that Meredith would be lost in this story. And here's the reality of it. If you had said Meredith Kircher to me just in passing, I would have said, oh, man, that name sounds familiar. And then I would have been like, oh, yes, it's connected to Amanda Knox. but to the point of everybody concerned about it, you're right. Amanda Knox has become the icon of this case, and Meredith, to a certain degree, has been
Starting point is 00:07:03 forgotten. And that is why, and I responded in the comment section about it, that is why we have Meredith in the title, because with 100% certainty, she is a victim in this case. And Amanda may be a victim as well, and that's why we're discussing the case to kind of break that down and give our opinions on who we think is responsible. for Meredith's murder. That's what it's all about. It's still,
Starting point is 00:07:26 this whole case is about Meredith and what happened to her. Now, as a side quest to this, we have to also look into Amanda because as Stephanie just said, with the reporting on this, Amanda became the quote unquote star of the show. That's what it was all about.
Starting point is 00:07:42 And so, yeah, we're going to approach it from that angle because that familiarity allows people who are looking for more information on this case to find it. And that is part of what we're doing here is making sure that the, searchability is there. But without a doubt, you don't have to be concerned. Our focus is not only Amanda, but more importantly, Meredith as well, to find out who's responsible for what happened to her.
Starting point is 00:08:04 And if there's more than one person, we want to make sure that they're held responsible as well. So trust us, it hasn't been lost on us that Meredith has, to a certain degree, been forgotten in all of this. And we're going to do our best to make sure that by the end of this episode, you know her name. Yes. And Meredith's not forgotten by us, which, as I said, in part one, We are going to talk about Meredith in part two. Of course. Of course. Here we are in part two.
Starting point is 00:08:27 Here we are talking about Meredith. So let's talk about Meredith, who she was, who she was as a person. Meredith Kircher was born on December 28, 1985 to her parents, Arlene and John. She was the baby of the family. She had three older siblings, John, Lyle, and Stephanie. She was known for her beautiful smile, her sparkling personality, great sense of humor. She was really, really smart. People described her as kind, caring, considerate, someone who knows.
Starting point is 00:08:53 never spoke badly about others. Like I said, she was known to be smart. She was intelligent. She also had an excellent memory. And she had a way of drawing people in instantly. So growing up, Meredith shared a bedroom with her sister. Stephanie, obviously, the two were very close. From a young age, Meredith gravitated towards creative outlets. She took ballet. She sang. She loved musicals and going to live theater productions and concerts. And because her father was a journalist, which is interesting. He often had access to all of these cool shows, you know, sometimes even backstage. So in his book titled Meredith, Meredith's father, John, wrote that one highlight was getting to see Liza Minnelli perform and afterwards even getting to meet her in person. So Meredith, it was just the
Starting point is 00:09:38 best time. She was in complete awe at this whole experience. And it was one that John was really happy to have been able to give her and share it with her. Now in 1997, when Meredith was 11 years old, her parents divorced. Her father, John, moved into his own place, and Meredith made a point to stay close to him. So every Friday after school, she would go see him. They ate dinner together and they watched Friends. Now, Friends was a show that Meredith was completely obsessed with. Her favorite characters were Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Were you a big friend's person? Yes. Yes. For a time. It's not one of those shows I've rewatched. Like, I rewatch some shows. I rewatch Gilmore Girls and Vampire Diaries and The Office and stuff like that. So it's not a show that I rewatch because I don't like the laugh track.
Starting point is 00:10:24 I don't like a laugh track, but I did watch it when I was young. I watched it when it's on TV. I even had the DVD box set. I will say, though, now you have daughters. And they're getting to that age. I think Gilmore Girls is a fun show to watch with them. So as Meredith entered her teenage years, she developed a strong interest in fashion and shopping. And she also fell in love with Italy.
Starting point is 00:10:46 She started taking Italian classes. By that point, she already spoke French, and she seemed to have a natural ability for learning new languages. And I always see people like this. Remember, Meredith's smart. She's a great memory. So someone like that is going to be able to pick up on new languages quickly. So jealous. I have enough trouble pronouncing English words, never mind learning a second language.
Starting point is 00:11:06 That's crazy. Yeah, and she's learning a third, right? Because she speaks English. She's French. And once you learn one language, you kind of have that part in your brain that allows you to pick up on other languages easily. But, I mean, my father spoke French. That's his native language. And he made sure when he came to America, I always get mad.
Starting point is 00:11:26 I'm like, why didn't you speak French to me? Because my aunt spoke French to my cousins. They all speak French fluently. And he was like, no, I wanted you to be Americanized. Like, I wanted to be Americanized. So I didn't want to pass that on to you. And I understand where he's coming from. But also I'm a little upset because it would be cool to speak French.
Starting point is 00:11:45 So Meredith's really good with picking up new languages. She loves fashion. You can see Meredith. She's a beautiful, beautiful young girl all throughout when she's growing up. Of course, if she's interested in fashion, that's going to bring her to Italy. And when she was 14 after studying Italian for about a year, she went on a two-week exchange visit to southern Italy. And she loved it so much that she returned again the following summer and planned to study abroad there in college. So by the time Meredith goes to school.
Starting point is 00:12:15 in Italy, she's already been to Italy a few times. She's learning the language. She's picking it up. And this is a place that she's a little bit more familiar with than Amanda. In 2005, Meredith was offered a place at Leeds University, where she planned to study European politics and Italian. She wasn't completely sure what career path she wanted to follow, but she considered journalism, like her father, or possibly working in the European Parliament. The one thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to spend her junior year abroad in Italy. While at university, Meredith made friends easily and stayed very close to her family. She worked at a local bar and joined several promotions agencies to earn extra money. She also appeared in a music video. In December of 2006, she celebrated her 21st birthday.
Starting point is 00:13:01 Around that time, she needed to decide where she would study in Italy during the fall semester of 2007. She considered a lot of places. Outside of Perugia, she considered Rome, Milan. And after speaking with various people, she decided that Perugia's smaller size, would offer a better fit for her. She then applied to the university for foreigners, which, as we know, she was accepted into. Meredith also wasn't sure how to find housing prior to arriving in Italy,
Starting point is 00:13:26 so she booked a hotel for a few days and made plans to search for student accommodations once she was there. Now, when Meredith arrived in Prussia in late August 2007, she immediately fell in love with the city. She also quickly found a listing for a villa shared by two Italian women, Philemena and Laura. This villa had space for herself and another student, Amanda Knox, who was expected to arrive a few weeks later. Meredith moved into the villa on the fourth day of
Starting point is 00:13:54 her stay and began settling in right away. She called her family almost every night talking about everything that was happening. She told them about meeting other English students and spending time with them. By all accounts, things were going extremely well for Meredith. She was thriving and she was loving her life in Italy, as I think everybody who knew her knew that she was. So remember that it was October 25th, Meredith and Amanda went out and they saw that concert, and that's where Amanda meets Raphaela, and they kind of get together. And from that point on, for that following week, because that following week is going to lead us right up to Meredith's murder, they're inseparable, they're together all the time.
Starting point is 00:14:35 And then we know that October 31st was Halloween. That night, Amanda's boss had asked her to stop by. the bar restaurant that she worked at for a little bit. I guess she wasn't scheduled to work, but he wanted her to come in. And that is when Amanda had texted Meredith, and she was like, hey, what are you doing? You want to meet up? Do you have a costume? And Meredith said that she did have one, but she was going to a house of a friend for a dinner.
Starting point is 00:15:03 Now, that next night, which would have been November 1st, this was all Saints Day. I guess, according to the documentary and all the sources I could find, mind, Amanda was scheduled to work that day, and this is going to come into play. She was scheduled to work that day, but she said her boss texted her and basically said, you don't have to come in today. You got the day off. So she... This is on November 1st.
Starting point is 00:15:26 This November 1st. Okay. So she and Raphael were like, oh, well, you know, she's got the day off. We're just going to hang out at home. We're going to smoke a little weed, watch a movie, make dinner. And they stayed the night at his house. So allegedly, according to Amanda, she never went back to the villa that she shared with Meredith and the other two girls on November 1st.
Starting point is 00:15:48 She's just hanging out with Raphael at his house. And then she spends the night. And then November 2nd in the morning, that's when she goes back to the villa. Okay. Can we just recap that quick? Because it's super important. And I'm doing it more for me, I guess. But November 1st, All Saints Day, she is supposed to work that night.
Starting point is 00:16:08 She's supposed to work that day. And her boss is like, you don't have to. That day. Not that night. That day, but the boss calls her and tells her, we don't need you. And at some point, there's a communication between her and Meredith, which is extremely important, where basically Amanda is asking her what she's up to, all this stuff and asking her if she has a costume. Meredith says, yes, I do, but I'm already going out with some friends. She's going to a friend's dinner for a front house for dinner, yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:35 Okay. And that's where the conversation ends with them, or are we going to talk more about it? Because obviously that's significant. And that, yes, that is where the conversation ends with Meredith and Amanda. Okay. So they go their separate ways and Amanda ends up spending the night at Raphael's house watching a movie, smoking some weed, eating some food. And eating dinner, yes. Okay, cool. Cool. I'm with you. Amanda technically was supposed to work at the bar, Le Sheik. She was scheduled for like an evening shift. Yeah, I would expect that to be a big
Starting point is 00:17:03 popular day there, right? I mean, All Saints Day, everyone's going to be out, eat and drinking, right? But according to the case documents, she does. not get a text from her boss, Patrick Lumumba, until 8.18 p.m. And then she says that the text said, you know, you don't have to come in. It's a public holiday. And the bar was empty. So after that message, she stayed at her boyfriend, Raphael Solicito's apartment for the rest of the night. That's the story. Okay. So I was wrong. It's not a busy day. But she was so. So it would be, right? You would think so. But so she was clearly scheduled to work late at night then. Yeah, it's a bar.
Starting point is 00:17:40 So if she didn't get the text till 818, maybe she's at Raphael's or, you know, we're assuming here. She was at Raphael's when she got the tax. Yeah, thinking I'm going to have to go to work in a little bit. But then once the boss says, hey, you don't have to come in. They're like, okay, cool, we'll just stick around here. Let's smoke a joint. Let's watch a movie. Let's make dinner.
Starting point is 00:17:55 Now, what was Meredith doing on November 1st? Because we talked about it briefly in the last episode. We said she hung out with friends that night. Yeah, that's huge. Who are these friends? So on the evening of November 1st, and the police believed that Meredith was killed on the evening of November 1st. As do I. Yes.
Starting point is 00:18:12 So she went to the home of two English friends, Amy and Robin, and then their friend Sophie joined them there as well. And the plan was simple. They were going to eat pizza and watch the notebook together. So, you know, Meredith's over here with her friends doing basically the same thing that Amanda and Raphael. They claim that they're doing, watching a movie, eating dinner, hanging out. So they finished eating sometime between eight and eight. 30 p.m. Right in that same window that Amanda's getting a text from her boss saying, you have to come in. Then Sophie said that she was heading home and Meredith decided to leave at that time too.
Starting point is 00:18:44 At around 8.40 p.m., Meredith walked Sophie back to her place. After that, Meredith headed back towards the villa, which was only about a five-minute walk from Sophie's to the villa. No one heard from Meredith again after that. So we're assuming around, let's just say, approximately 9 p.m. I don't know how long it would take to get from where Meredith was to Sophie's house, but then you said it's only about five minutes from there. I'm assuming if they walked, it wasn't too far. It wouldn't have been too far. So let's just be conservative in say 20, 25 minutes. So she's home between 9, 905 p.m.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Yes, so that we would assume she got home to the villa, right? Because that's where she's found. So nothing happened to her on the way. But did she run into somebody on the way? You're taking the words out of my mouth. Like, this is critical because this, opens so many doors. And I don't want to sit here and get you off track of your story because we're just
Starting point is 00:19:38 getting started. But there's so many possibilities here. We could do an hour episode just on these possibilities based on all the cases we've covered. And I was actually saying to Shannon, our editor, the other day when we were just, you know, we always randomly discuss the cases we're covering currently as we're doing the edits. And I, my toolbox has grown so much since starting Crime Weekly with you because we basically have this encyclopedia of cases we've covered where we can see living, breathing examples of these weird anomalies that happen in these cases that you wouldn't expect.
Starting point is 00:20:12 I say all that to say BTK is one that I will always remember not only because of the entire case, but the specific incident where he was hiding in a closet of a couple that came home, he waited for the man to leave, and then he killed the victim. And to me, that is so rare, but it just shows it's possible. That's just one circumstance. There could have been someone waiting at the home or one of the many possibilities, someone saw Meredith or she encountered someone on the way home who has no previous connection to Meredith. So very important that there's that window of at least, we'll just say 20 to 30 minutes where she's walking the public streets and anybody could have seen her and had.
Starting point is 00:20:58 some type of nefarious intention. Or even she got back to the villa and one of the neighbors there saw her. Saw her walking home by herself. Hey, hey, Meredith, what's up? You want to grab a drink or something? Somebody she knew and trusted even one of the guys who lived in the basement. There was four guys down there. So many possibilities.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Yeah, that's interesting. Because if she was in a car, it's still possible, but less likely because she's moving so fast and how you're going to see the person in the car. Wouldn't be the first time it's happened, but less likely. But walking home alone, even though it's not. it's only five minutes, a lot can happen in five minutes. It only takes a second. And from what I can tell, the distance from their friend Amy's house to Sophie's house was also pretty short. Five to ten, five to ten, yeah, five to ten minutes. That's what's been conservative and just say 20 minutes. I'm
Starting point is 00:21:45 sure they have a more exact time, but I'm putting her home at the villa around 9 p.m. Yeah, exactly. So that's where we're at now. We know that Amanda's with her boyfriend and Meredith is with her friends that night. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Let's talk about something that does not get enough credit for how much it impacts your day, your bra and underwear, because if those are wrong, everything else is wrong. Yeah, it is true. You could be wearing the best outfit in the world, but if something's digging in, you know what I'm talking about? Shifting, just uncomfortable. It's overall, it's going to make you miserable. Exactly. And before Skims, underwear was kind of an afterthought for me. I'd
Starting point is 00:22:28 focus on the outfit, the jacket, the shoes, and then wonder why I still felt uncomfortable, even though I meticulously picked out my outfit. Well, Skims completely flipped that for me. The brawn underwear I put on in the morning actually sets the tone for how I feel all day. And you do actually talk about this constantly. I've definitely noticed that it's becoming more of a conversation. Well, that was before Skims. Well, because they work, right? And I'm really mad because I have to keep repurchasing skims because I have my new puppy Elfie. And anytime he gets a hold of any of my underwear, he just rips them to pieces. He's a year old now, but he still has that puppy mentality of just destroying
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Starting point is 00:23:32 And I love that I can wear it under anything, even yoga pans. And you don't see the underwear line because it's just like a part of your body. I've worn and washed mine more times than I can count. They still feel amazing. And the Fits Everybody T-shirt brawra, amazing, seamless, supportive without feeling suffocating, no constant adjusting. It's the unicorn of everyday bras. So if someone asked for a recommendation, what are you saying? I'd immediately say skims. Oh, and I do. I do because I'm talking. People don't have to ask me for a recommendation. Okay. I'm just walking out throughout the day.
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Starting point is 00:24:44 All right. We're back from break and my wheels are spinning. And we may get to this point in the story as we get into the aftermath, right? But like one of the big questions I have right now is what did Meredith say to Sophie Amy and Robin that night. Like when she said, hey, I'm going home. It's still relatively early. Her friends are out, right?
Starting point is 00:25:07 Amanda has already asked her what she was up to. It's all Saints Day. It's a public holiday. Did she say to her friends, hey, I'm going home. I'm tired. I'm in for the night. I just want to be in some sweatpants and watch some TV.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Or did she leave because she had plans to meet up with someone else? I have to imagine that when she said, hey, I'm leaving. There was some follow-up. as far as why she was leaving. Sophie had to leave. That's fine. But why did she decide to leave as well?
Starting point is 00:25:34 And I think those conversations with Amy and Robin and Sophie are going to be very important. It's specifically Sophie on that walk home. You know, what was said, what did Meredith say she was up to for the rest of the night? Just running through my head right now. So according to witness testimony, court records, Meredith did not say anything alarming or out of character that evening when they were at. Didn't say she was going anywhere. When they were at Amy's place, she was quiet, pleasant, relaxed, normal. No one recalled her expressing fear, stress, or an ease.
Starting point is 00:26:06 She didn't mention any plans beyond going home. She didn't complain about anyone who lived at her flat. She didn't say she felt unsafe. She did not hint that she was worried about being alone later. And I mean, obviously, she wasn't worried about being alone later because they left pretty early on in the night. You know, she could have stayed later and said something like, you know, do you mind if I, just stay here. I don't feel safe. She didn't say anything like that. All right. Well, then she goes and leaves with Sophie. She walks part of the way when they left Amy's apartment. Sophie later stated
Starting point is 00:26:38 Meredith was completely normal. They had a conversation, obviously, but it was unremarkable, light. Meredith said she was heading home. There was no urgency, no distress. And then they had, you know, they said goodbye, but it was brief, casual, just like the kind of farewell that friends share when they're like, hey, I'll see you later. And I'll see you tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll see. class, whatever. Yeah, she didn't express fear about anybody. She didn't mention Amanda Knox. She didn't mention Rafaeli Solicito. She didn't mention anything. She was just normal. And I think that this wasn't something where people can say her last words were prophetic or that somebody was like, I could sense something was wrong. She didn't seem to feel that she was a target to be attacked by anybody,
Starting point is 00:27:23 which also kind of, I think, gives credence to the fact that Amanda. is innocent because if Amanda is responsible for killing Meredith, right? If Amanda and her boyfriend did this together somehow, then you'd think there'd be some motive there. There would be some arguing or tension or something that was going on between Amanda and Meredith that Meredith would find a reason to talk about. If there was something going on and there was tension between them and there was something that Meredith wasn't feeling right about when it came to Amanda, she would have told somebody.
Starting point is 00:28:01 But there doesn't seem to have been any arguments. We know that Amanda and Meredith texted on the evening of October 31st. Amanda was like, what are you doing? You want to hang out? Meredith was like, I have plans. She sent that little X at the end of the text, like hugs and kisses kind of thing. There doesn't seem to be any animosity or any unresolved things between them. And as far as we know, they don't see each other at all on November 1st.
Starting point is 00:28:24 So what could have happened between them after that text where they see? seem to be normal where things are getting to the point where murder is about to happen. No, you're right. And just so everyone understands where I'm at right now, I'm looking at four possible scenarios and this list could expand. But the first one being she was followed home. Someone saw her alone and decided to follow her to the villa. The second being the neighbors in the basement slash first floor.
Starting point is 00:28:52 Maybe they saw her alone. The next one being a robbery gone wrong, some other crime that's. took place she just happened to be at the wrong place or wrong time. And then the final one, because we're here talking about it, is that somehow Amanda is connected to this and to what you just said there, from what we know, Amanda never went back to the house on November 1st. But if that falls through and that's no longer proven to be true, well, then it opens up a whole other can of worms. Because if Amanda did do this, right, if she was responsible for this, it would make sense that she would say, I never went back to the house. Why would she admit that she was
Starting point is 00:29:27 back there because now it implicates her. So if she is somehow responsible for this or knows who is, she's going to say I never went back there because it separates her from the crime. So that's my short list right now. It could expand it. I'm not leaning any direction. I'm just trying to remain as objective as possible. Okay. So according to what we know, Amanda was supposed to work at 10 p.m. that night. Which makes sense for the 818 text message. She gets a text at 818. Now, let's just say Amanda maybe went back to the villa thinking she had to work and she needed to get her work clothes. Right. She hadn't gotten the text yet.
Starting point is 00:30:05 She's going home to get ready for work because she's been at her boyfriend's house and now she needs to get her clothes. And then Amanda's there getting home while Amanda's there getting ready and then she gets the text saying she doesn't have to work. And so Amanda and Meredith are there together. That's a possibility. Yeah, I have to put it out there, right? We're not leaning in a direction.
Starting point is 00:30:23 We're not trying to steer you guys a certain way, but that is a possibility. What I also think might be possible is after Meredith dropped Sophie off at her home and she starts walking home, somebody sees Meredith and follows her home. Yeah, yeah, that's on my list. Yeah. Waits until she unlocks the door and forces his way in with her as she opens the door. Those are my two, this could have possibly happened right now kind of things. And don't forget the neighbors downstairs. You brought it up a few minutes ago.
Starting point is 00:30:50 I think you have to keep that on the list too. In that situation, it could have been somebody Meredith knew who she felt safe with. she invited in and then at that point she's attacked. Got to keep that on the list because there are four people living in the basement. I don't know what's going to be their, you know, their alibi for that night. But as of right now at this point in the story, there are four male individuals who live on the first floor and may have seen Meredith come home alone. So they're on my list as well.
Starting point is 00:31:17 Okay. So that brings us to November 2nd, the day that Amanda discovers, you know, the weird scene at the flat. She goes home to kind of get the mop and then go back to Rafaelis and she's there and she sees the blood and she sees the toilet and she sees that the door is, you know, kind of open and nothing raises too many alarm bells until no one can get a hold of Meredith. So at 12.51 p.m. on November 2nd, Amanda's boyfriend, Rafael Solicito, called the police to report a possible break-in at the villa and say that Meredith could not be located. Like we talked about in part one, around that same time, the postal police showed up at the villa after.
Starting point is 00:31:54 a nearby homeowner reported finding two phones both belonging to Meredith in their yard. While the postal officers were still at the scene, a friend of Filomena's boyfriend forced open Meredith's locked bedroom door and inside Meredith was discovered dead. We need to understand this was an incredibly, incredibly bloody scene. This was not something that, I mean, you can see from the pictures. There's blood on the walls. It looks like handprints, like smearing blood. down the walls, very bad, bloody, violent scene.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Everyone was ordered out of the house, and then they waited outside for the investigating police to arrive. The first responding detective to the scene later spoke to author John Follion and said that after she showed up at the house, she was immediately suspicious of Amanda and Raphael. She said they were standing apart from the others, and they were, quote, giving each other little kisses and caressing each other. end quote. The detective thought this was super off-putting as she went into the house to look around. So we're going to show you a little clip of this now. This is Amanda and her boyfriend outside the flat after Meredith's body's been discovered. This is how they were acting. And this is what allegedly the responding detective found to be incredibly suspicious. Well, he kissed me because I was outside in that courtyard. And I was standing there looking lost. And he, felt bad for me. He kept close to me and was just trying to comfort me and there was nothing he could say. Yeah, I know this is kind of like my blanket statement, but when I watch that video, I don't put
Starting point is 00:33:31 too much stock in it. People react differently in traumatic situations and there have been numerous times in my personal life where I've seen two people reacting a certain way and I'm like, that's that's weird. That's not how I would react. But as far as the investigation's concerned, I'm not putting too much weight into what I just saw. Yeah, so I think that the first responder, the first police detective on the scene, finding this to be odd behavior, that's odd to me. First of all, Meredith and Amanda have known each other a very, very short time. Second of all, Amanda's going to be shocked just by the fact that the person she's been living
Starting point is 00:34:07 with her roommate, someone she knew, is dead. And aren't Italians all about like love and amore? and why would they find it to be weird that two people, a couple, are using physical affection and physical touch to comfort each other in the aftermath of a trauma, a shock. I think that's perfectly normal. There's nothing disrespect. They're not sitting there making out. They're not groping each other.
Starting point is 00:34:30 They're not like taking each other's clothes off about to throw down and, you know, one of those get a room situations. This is very, you know, innocent, sweet, just like comforting behavior that I would not think that anyone who was of an Italian culture would find to be odd. And yes, is she sobbing? Is she throwing herself down on the ground? No. But once again, we have to remember, Amanda did not know Meredith that long. It's somebody she knew, but I think at this point it's more of a shock of somebody I knew is dead and not like, oh my God, this lifelong friend I have is gone and she's been murdered and I'm absolutely distraught. I wouldn't expect Amanda to be absolutely distraught.
Starting point is 00:35:09 I'd expect her to be more kind of in a moment of like, I can't believe this is happening. I'm shocked. And yes, Raphaelie, who hasn't known her that long either a week, he's not going to know the things to say to her to comfort her because he doesn't really know her that well. All he's going to be able to sort of default to is let me hold you, let me kiss you, let me touch you and comfort you in that way. I don't find anything odd about this at all. No, I'm with you. I'm not putting too much weight into it. What I am putting weight into is something you said right before we watched that clip, which
Starting point is 00:35:39 was a reminder from what you said in part one, which is that Philomena's boyfriend had to break down Meredith's door because it was locked. And we talked about why the door would have been locked and how they probably all locked their rooms individually. But here's why that's so important. We were talking about different possibilities regarding who the suspect could be. And when you start to take the template of a random act of violence where someone had followed her home but maybe didn't know her previously, to me, when you apply the evidence that we have at the crime scene, it becomes less likely. Why? To me, the door being locked suggests some level of familiarity.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Because when you take the example that you gave of someone following her home and as soon as she unlocks the door kind of basically rushing her and going into the apartment, my belief would be, if that were the case, whatever happened to her would have happened right on that living room area. They're the common area where the couch is. They're going to attack her. They're going to bring her into the house or the villa, and they're going to attack her right there in that living quarters. The fact that she made it back to her bedroom, which would only be known by people who have been in that apartment before. A random stranger would not know that's her room. And yet they bring her into the apartment. She ends up in that room. And then on the way out, after committing
Starting point is 00:37:03 this heinous act, the offender, who has no previous connection to her. And she ends up in her, and her, locks the door again because that's something that's normal for the people who live there, which they wouldn't know. And then also, even though they don't know if anyone else is going to come home, because, again, they would have no familiarity with the place. They decide to ransack other rooms so that when someone does come home, they don't assume that it's someone connected to Meredith directly. It could be a random act of violence.
Starting point is 00:37:32 These are not the behaviors of someone who had no previous connection to this. house. It seems extreme to go to these measures if you're in and out because if that person had never been there before, let me reiterate that. They don't know if someone's coming home. They don't know if those other three rooms are residents that are going to be coming home in the next five minutes. Or if they're already home. Or if they're already in their room. But yet they had the, they felt safe enough to either before the act, which they couldn't have done it beforehand because Meredith would be free to escape. But after the act, rummaged through the house and ransack. the house and make it look like a robbery.
Starting point is 00:38:09 And you potentially use the bathroom without any concern that someone was going to walk in. Now, some of you may push back and say, well, maybe they were there. And that's when Amanda came home. And that's when everything went down. But even if that were the case, the other pieces that I just laid out for you don't make sense. They wouldn't know where Meredith's room was. And they wouldn't know to lock the door. So to me, as we start to put these different possibilities of who's responsible for this,
Starting point is 00:38:37 through the filters of the crime scene itself, some of them are going to be more, some of them are going to fit better than others. And I do think when you think about a random act of violence with someone who had no previous connection to Meredith, becomes less likely when you start to examine the evidence at the crime scene as it is. It still doesn't rule out the possibility
Starting point is 00:38:57 that it was a neighbor from downstairs or someone who had been at the apartment maybe even once or twice before, but to think it was just some random person who saw Meredith walking home alone, and rushed her as she opened the door, I think based on the crime scene itself, that does go to the bottom of my list, at least as of right now. So what you're saying is this would have to have been somebody that Meredith knew and invited in,
Starting point is 00:39:21 and they went to her bedroom together, and she's literally telling them, or they're seeing just from context clues, my roommates aren't home tonight, nobody's here. Now, I don't really understand even in that scenario how that person would still be there when Amanda was there the next day. Yeah, they're gone. They would be long gone. The police believe that Meredith was killed on the evening of November 1st. Amanda's there on November 2nd.
Starting point is 00:39:45 And why would they stay the entire night if Meredith's dead? Why would they do that? So that wouldn't make any sense. And it doesn't have to be someone who had like a previous relationship with Meredith. It could have been someone who was there for another person and just remembered the layout and how they operated and that they locked their doors. Just someone, again, keyword familiarity. not necessarily a personal relationship, but I believe whoever is responsible for this is based on the crime scene is someone who has been there before
Starting point is 00:40:15 and knew the scheduling of the other people living there. I mean, it would have to be somebody who was there with Meredith when she got home and she unlocked her door with the key because they would have to see that she used a key to unlock it and they would have to know where that key was so that when they left, they could relock it. But here's a thing, right? Depending on the lock itself, they may not necessarily need the key. So if it's one of those doors where it is a key lock, but you can push the button from the inside and then shut the door and it stays locked, that could also be possible where because this person knew that these doors locked from the inside, they were able to lock it and then leave.
Starting point is 00:40:53 But then that even raises another question, right? If you're just some random person who doesn't really care when people come home and what they find, why are you going to try to create a bigger gap of her discovery? Why would you take the time to lock that door to create a bigger level of separation in time from when the crime occurred and when she's discovered? Why is that necessary? At that point, you go in, you do what you did, and then you leave as fast as possible.
Starting point is 00:41:19 There's no need to stage the crime scene because you don't really care at that point. But someone took the time to lock that door so when people returned, it would take longer before she was discovered, creating a bigger window in which the crime could have occurred. So from what I can tell, this was not a door knob that had a lock from the inside. It could only be locked and unlocked with a key. So. But hear me out, Stephanie. You go in
Starting point is 00:41:45 your room, right, at the end of the night. Like you're, you're Meredith and you want privacy. You can lock your door from the inside so people can't come in without a key. So it's very hard for me to believe that if you're inside your bedroom, there's not a way of locking that door without using the key. Every door with a key on it, you can still go inside your room and lock said door so people can't come in, right? Am I wrong? But you're asking me, was there a button on the door from the inside where you could lock it? There was not. Or something, or a twist knob or something where you could lock the door so people can't come in and barge in on you while you're changing. No, there was not. It was one of those old European style locks that can only be locked with a key. With a key.
Starting point is 00:42:25 Now here's the thing. Amanda had a key to Meredith's room. Right. But Meredith would have that key as well. Meredith would have a key to her room, but Amanda also had a key to Meredith's room. She told the police this early on. Okay. Meredith had a key to Amanda's room. Amanda had a key to Meredith's room. So obviously not a good look. Let's just call it what it is. But it's also possible that whoever had this familiarity knew that Meredith had a key. Maybe the key was on her persons and they took that key and locked the key. door, but it's still, everything I said is applicable here. Why did this person feel it was necessary to lock the door on the way out? So it would be longer before her body was found and they'd have more time to get away. Exactly. It's a bigger window of when the crime could have occurred. And why would you be concerned about that if you have no previous connection to this residence? Yeah, I mean, true. BTC wasn't locking the door on his way out. Not always, no. You know, it's like you do,
Starting point is 00:43:21 you go in there, you do what you got to do, and you leave a horrific crime scene behind, but there's a sense of urgency because if you have, if you've never been there before and you see multiple bedrooms, then you don't know. You don't know which one is hers, I agree. You don't know which one is hers, but you also don't know when the other people are going to come home.
Starting point is 00:43:40 Or if they're even there. If they could be sleeping in that room, right? So even if you check the rooms before you do whatever you're going to do, there's still a potential. It's early in the night, potentially that someone's going to come. wandering in with their, you know, friends or family and they're going to walk in on whatever you're doing. So the fact that it happened in Meredith's room specifically and the door was
Starting point is 00:44:01 locked after the fact that that to me doesn't completely rule it out, but makes it less likely that this was some random stranger who happened to spot Meredith on the road. Yeah. Yeah, I get you. I completely do get that. That's really valid. We got to keep that in mind. Doesn't lean towards anyone, but I'm just saying we have to start prioritize maybe what is the most likely scenario based on the crime scene. So we've got the first responding detective getting there. She goes inside. And she started by examining Philomena's bedroom.
Starting point is 00:44:32 Remember, this is where the window was broken. She found clothes and personal items scattered across the floor and then a rock, roughly the size of a human head lying near a chair partially wrapped in a paper bag. There were shards of broken glass from the window that were lying on top of the scattered clothes, not beneath them. Now, to the detective, that suggested the room may have been ransacked before the window was broken. Or maybe Filamino was just messy. I mean, it's a pretty good observation.
Starting point is 00:45:01 Yeah, or Filomena just had a messy bedroom. I don't know. We're going to have to find out from Filamina whether that's what her bedroom looked like. Now, it's important to note that the rock matched other rocks found outside the home. So maybe is somebody breaking in or are they staging it to look as if somebody broken? That's what the detectives are going to be faced with. Well, I mean, it kind of aligns with the door, right? When you think about it, if someone was there and they're trying to create a different idea of what happened, you lock Meredith's door, you ransack the other rooms.
Starting point is 00:45:30 And then once you get outside the house, you cover a rock with a paper bag so that you don't get your fingerprints on it. You throw it through the window and you dump her phones over the fence. And then you take off. So now there's this idea that, oh, no, this was a robbery gone wrong. They started in Filomena's room. and then they went down to Meredith's room while she was sleeping. That's what you're trying to create. That's what you're trying to at least show them.
Starting point is 00:45:54 So as that detective looked around, she saw glass fragments resting on the windowsill itself. She thought that if the rock had been thrown from outside, the glass should have fallen inward onto the floor. Furthermore, the rock should have shattered the exterior shutters before ever reaching the window, but the shutters were undamaged. So what do you think about that? It's kind of making it sound like they think maybe the glass was broken with the rock from the inside. I'm not really following the detective on that one. On one hand, I can understand the rock being on top of the clothes, which wouldn't align because you would expect the rock to go through the window first and then the clothes to be thrown on top of the rock. But the shutters, from what I'm
Starting point is 00:46:31 seeing from all the crime scene photos, and it looks like there's a couple here that still have the law enforcement placard in the window, it appears to me, at least, that the shutters were already open. So whether someone was on the inside, throwing the rock at the window, or from the outside throwing it through the window, I wouldn't expect those shutters to be damaged unless I'm not following it. And if I'm not, anyone in the comments can feel free to correct me. Yeah, because I believe you could open those green shutters from the outside, those green wooden shutters from the outside.
Starting point is 00:47:02 And then there's like two glass window panes on the inside that would close. Yeah. And yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense to people. Maybe they're referring to there might be a safety measure on that shutter where you can lock it so it doesn't swing. open and maybe they found that most of the time those shutters were closed in their investigation and they didn't understand how the shutters would have been open and not damaged if you open them from the outside, right? Like if there's a locking mechanism only on the inside, how would someone open those shutters or pry them open from the outside without damaging them
Starting point is 00:47:40 and then throw the rock through the window? Well, let's keep going into her findings and see if it becomes more clear because there were other details that stood out to the detective. She noticed that the broken window pane was missing glass only along the lower portion. The upper section of the glass remained intact without any fracture lines extending downward. And the window itself sat about 12 feet above the ground, which would make it an unlikely point of entry, right? I agree. That's high. 12 feet. You're not opening the shutters from from up there. I wasn't thinking about that, that we had already talked about the fact that there was the door on the level, but then it drops off. Yes.
Starting point is 00:48:18 And so that window being on the side like that, especially from these pictures we can see now, I was envisioning it being ground level. That would not be the point of entry that a robber or some other criminal trying to get inside is going to choose to break into the house. Yeah. So I'm looking at these pictures from the outside. And from the interior pictures, when they're taking them and showing the outside from inside, it does look like it's kind of ground level.
Starting point is 00:48:43 because you can see a car, you can see grass. But then if you look at the outside pictures, you can see that the house is on a slope like we talked about. Yes. And so the place where the cars would park would sort of be on level with the window. However, the ground that slopes down underneath the window is 12 feet below that window. I don't see who's getting in that way. Unless there's Spider-Man, there's nothing you'd have to use a ladder.
Starting point is 00:49:08 There's no way you could climb up there. There are a couple images that I see online where they've replicated it. And it is possible, if tall enough, there's a window below Philomena's window where you could use that window to scale up the wall by putting your feet in like the grid of the window and then open Philomena's window. So it is possible without a ladder. But it seems like all of this, when you think about it from a logical perspective, if you're going to attack this house, think about how many things can go wrong, how much noise you're going to create to alert the people on the inside. And if the male individuals on the first floor were home, I would like to think they would have heard someone kicking on their window as they're using it as a ladder. So there's a lot of
Starting point is 00:49:58 variables here that are unnecessary risks that would only be applicable to someone who's trying to surprise whoever is inside. And again, I'm going to beat this with a dead horse. But if this person is a complete stranger, how do they know that that window belongs to Filomena, who's not inside her room at that time as you're breaking in? You would have to know who's inside that house at that time. Yeah, because there's other access points to this house that were lower that you could have thrown a rock through the window and gotten in. But if you have a target here and you know where you're going and you know who's in that house and you know where they're located in regards to the the outlay of this house.
Starting point is 00:50:40 Yeah, you could have gotten in to that lower window and gone in there. But then you'd be in a place you might not want to be. So they knew where they were going. You might not want to be. You got four guys in there. Yeah. And also, if you're trying to be quiet, you throwing a rock through the window is going to alert anybody inside.
Starting point is 00:50:54 So if that's what happened, right? If Meredith is inside the apartment and she's alone, sleeping, sitting on the couch, whatever it might be, if she hears a rock go through the window, I would like to think she would wake up. We'd have to, we'd have to again create an experiment to see if you would hear that rock going through the window from her room. But at that point, her door would have been locked if she's sleeping. And you would imagine that that person would have had to break down her door to get inside her room. So if you're going to create noise regardless, why wouldn't you just shoulder the front door and go through the front door and get in that way? It doesn't make sense to
Starting point is 00:51:30 go through this window. It would create too much noise. You're going to alert the people on the inside and at that point your plans out the window. So yeah, the whole rock through the window thing, it becomes more suspicious as you break down the specifics of this house. So I think we can both agree. We do not think that the Philomena's window was the point of entry. I do not believe that. No. I don't either. I do not believe that. I think it was an afterthought to create the illusion that something else happened. The question is why. And that's what the police believe as well, that this was staged. I think that's, I think that's fair. I think the rock being on the ground above the clothing. I also think the way the window, the access point to get to it, it's too much of a
Starting point is 00:52:08 stretch for me anyways. Yes. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. You know what's funny about New Year's resolutions? They usually fail for one reason. We try to remove a habit without replacing it. We just try to go cold turkey on something. Yeah, we've all been there. You tell yourself like, hey, don't do that thing anymore. And for a couple days, you're good. And then by day five, you're right back to it. Yeah, because you're putting a your mental energy into telling yourself to not do the thing, but your brain wants it. So that's why I really like fume. It's not about white knuckling your way through cravings.
Starting point is 00:52:42 It's a replacement. Fume is a flavored air device designed to help people quit smoking or vaping by breaking that hand-to-mouth pattern. Yeah, it's pretty genius. No nicotine, no batteries, no vapor, just clean, natural flavors. And it's weighted, fidget-friendly design is something that I really enjoy. I always have it on the YouTube version. You guys can see me playing with it a lot.
Starting point is 00:53:01 And I like the design of it, like the weight of it. a little. Pretty cool. There have been so many moments where I've grabbed my fume just to fidget, but not because I had to, because my hands wanted something to do. And that's exactly why it works. It interrupts the old habit loop before you even realize what's happening. Yeah, resolutions always feel easy on day one. And then that craving shows up again. And that's when people usually quit the resolution and they go right back to what they used to be doing. Fume helped me replace that automatic reach with something intentional. So I've talked about this before. My go-to flavors are the orange cream. So go on so good. Also the peach.
Starting point is 00:53:33 blush because it does taste like peach. It tastes like actual peach. They actually have a limited time gingerbread right now as well. It's pretty good. Yeah, I really like the sweeter flavors. The gingerbread is good. It's spicy. But that true to fruit flavor that the peach blush gives, it's not overly sweet. It doesn't taste artificial and the gingerbread. Like I said, it just feels like winter. It's spicy. It's delicious. Yeah. And for January only, Fume is doubling every core you order. So order one, you get two. Order three. you get six. Plus, when you grab the journey pack, you'll also get a free gift for using our code. Yes, and also I want to say the cores are the flavor thing that goes inside the fume in case you wanted to know. But once January ends, that double course offers is gone, no extension. So head to
Starting point is 00:54:16 tryfume.com. That's t-R-Y-F-U-M dot com and use code crime weekly to claim your double cores and your free gift before this new year offer closes. Okay, we're back. So as the detective, finished looking around Philomena's room, another detective arrived at the scene. And so the first detective shared her concerns and said she believed that a break-in had been staged. Then the detectives walked down the corridor towards Meredith's locked bedroom. Inside, they found blood on the door handle, the walls, the wardrobe, the floor. Meredith's body was lying between the bed and the wardrobe with a beige duvet over her. Meredith's left foot was protruding from beneath the duvet,
Starting point is 00:55:02 and two receipts lay on top of the blanket. So when the dube was pulled back, Meredith was found lying on her back with her head in a pool of blood. She was naked except for two shirts that had been pulled up above her chest. Her right arm was stretched outward while her left arm was bent at the elbow with her hand positioned close to her head. Her legs were spread apart with her right leg bent at the knee at roughly a 100 degree angle and rested on the edge of the quilt. the left leg was extended and resting on the floor. On the floor near her right foot were black underwear and a white bra. The bra was stained with blood, particularly along the right strap and the upper outer area of the left cup.
Starting point is 00:55:44 The left shoulder strap had been severed, and the fabric and metal clasp from the back had been cut off and were missing. A pair of Levi's jeans lay partly under the quilt smeared with blood around the right back pocket. So the clothes found on Meredith and on the ground near her actually matched what she wore to her friend's house that same, well, on November 1st. So we know that those were her clothes. She was in the same clothes from the first, which would align with her being attacked that night before going to bed. Yes. So near Meredith's head, detectives found a blue hot water bottle and a pair of brown leather boots. On the bed was a towel heavily soaked with blood, a sock, a beige fake leather handbag with a.
Starting point is 00:56:27 sock looped around its handles, a large notebook, and a blood-stained Italian history book. A second white purse was found on the floor. On the desk to the right of the window sat an empty container of Vaseline, a laptop, a notebook, a notebook, and another Italian history book. To the right of the door, several beauty and hygiene products had been knocked over on a wooden shelf. So the detectives exited Meredith's bedroom and went into the small bathroom she had shared with Amanda, and there they saw a large bloodstain on the 10th.
Starting point is 00:56:57 above the sink. Blood stains were also visible on the light switch, and on the bath mat was a footprint that appeared to be a mix of blood and water. So this is interesting because remember Amanda goes in on November 2nd and she said she saw like some blood spattered here and there, and then she didn't see a larger blood stain on the bath mat until after she got out of the shower, which might explain why there was, you know, water in the blood. But they're saying that there's a large blood stain on the tap above the sink, kind of suggesting that this would have been something that should have raised more alarm in Amanda on November 2nd.
Starting point is 00:57:36 It's possible she missed that. I'm giving her the pass on that. There are bigger things, but it's possible you're not expecting to see those things. You could have missed it. So then Laura's bedroom was also searched, and one drawer was found to be open and ransacked. It was also determined that the home's washing machine had been recently used because damp towels and clothing were found inside.
Starting point is 00:57:57 So at this point, detectives didn't know much about what happened, aside from the fact that Meredith had been found dead inside a bedroom that could only be locked from the outside with her key, which was missing from the scene. So Meredith's key, not there. Okay. The detectives later told author John Follion that they questioned who would take the time to lock the door after the attack and why someone would cover her body with a blanket. I do remember the lead detective in this case saying like a man wouldn't do that. A man wouldn't cover the body. Only a woman would do that. I don't believe that that's the case. We've seen many cases where bodies are covered and men are the perpetrators of that. It's usually more of a sign of shame. Like you are ashamed of what you've done. You're trying to hide it. It can even be a
Starting point is 00:58:50 sign that there is some relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, and they were trying to preserve some sort of modesty and privacy for the victim, and that's why they covered their body after. But I've never heard it said that, like, oh, men don't do this because that's true. No, no, the gender specific actions, I'm good on that because there's anomalies, right? We talk about cases all the time and people do things for different reasons. The one thing that you said, And there was a lot, but one thing that stood out to me that's a little contradictory is what you were describing to me, especially with the damage to the bra, things of that nature, it would indicate a sexual assault, right? Some type of struggle that went on where Meredith fought back. But then you have other things where it looks like someone used a towel to clean up the scene or to clean up themselves.
Starting point is 00:59:46 And you have to assume some of that blood came from Meredith as well. I would assume all the blood came from Meredith. Well, came from Meredith. I'm saying that wrong, originated from Meredith, but maybe even from her body. Did they clean her with the towel as well? Was this all blood that transferred on to the suspect that they were wiping off of themselves?
Starting point is 01:00:04 And if they did that, what type of DNA did they find on that towel? It would have been from the suspect as well. So that's something that I'm thinking about. But yeah, it does seem like the scene was staged because the evidence doesn't support one specific act, right? There's multiple crimes being demonstrated in these different rooms, which is why you get to the conclusion of a staged scene because they don't align. You mean, did they come in to
Starting point is 01:00:31 assault Meredith and then they tried to make it look like they were committing a robbery? Or did they come in to commit a robbery, found Meredith there, and decided to assault her, and then also continue rifling through the home. You're saying it's probably the main reason they came was to assault, Meredith, and they tried to make it seem like somebody came in and broken after. Or even option number three, someone is there with Meredith. Either they're welcomed to be there or they live there or whatever the case may be. And during that evening, something goes wrong. She could have invited someone over where it could have been a male counterpart that came over to her room. They were spending the night in the room. They wanted to do more. She wasn't into it.
Starting point is 01:01:12 And it went from a friendly encounter and it turned violent. And it led to this and that person had get out of there. I think with the scenario that we have right now, from what we know, it's very possible that she had someone come over who she did know, who was going to spend the night because she knew maybe Amanda wasn't coming home. And that person was aggressive, wanted to go further. Meredith refused and it turned violent and it resulted in her death. And in the process of leaving, because this person knew that nobody else was coming home that night because Meredith had already told them that, they decided to ransack the place a little bit more and make it look like a robbery gone wrong in case somehow someone saw this person leaving the scene,
Starting point is 01:01:53 they could now say, oh, yeah, I was there, but I left early and whatever happened to her must have happened after I left. Maybe, maybe, but the DNA. That would also be the reason to lock that door, by the way. You're creating that bigger window. Yeah, well, yes. I think that anybody would want to create a bigger window just so they can say, I need space between me and the scene. I bet you that key is somewhere around there. If the law enforcement didn't find it, that key is, that key is still near that property or was still near that property for sure.
Starting point is 01:02:20 They wouldn't take it with them. That implicates them into the crime. Well, because the detectives also were trying to understand why Meredith's two phones had been taken and then later discarded in a nearby garden. So if you're getting rid of evidence as you're kind of fleeing the scene, why would you hold on to the key? No, the key got tossed as well. So what happens is you have the phones, right? We're lucky enough to have found those. Unfortunately, wherever the key was tossed, which is a much smaller item, no digital trail,
Starting point is 01:02:44 they just weren't able to find it. It could have been washed away. It could have been buried in a little pile of soil. It could have been in the grass. We don't know. There's a million possibilities. Could have put it in a sewer or something. Correct. Correct. But I would bet with a high degree of certainty that that key was dumped right after the phones were or right before. But if you don't want people to find the phones, why wouldn't they be in the same place as the key or why wouldn't you just throw them in one of the many like waterways that are around this area so that they're not being found? It doesn't make sense. But if criminal. them are smart, they wouldn't get caught. In that moment, you're realizing what's going on. You're trying to cover your tracks as best as you can. You're not always making the right decisions. Well, if it wasn't Amanda Knox, this criminal did not get caught. Well, yeah, they got lucky then. All right.
Starting point is 01:03:27 So the detectives exited the villa. That's when they go to speak with Amanda, Rafael, and Filamina. Philomena's boyfriend and his friend. Now, according to the detectives, everyone appeared visibly upset. Well, everyone except Amanda and Raphael, they were standing apart from the others, still kissing and caressing each other. When questioned, Amanda reiterated what happened earlier that morning. She told the detectives she returned to the villa around 10 a.m. to shower and pack.
Starting point is 01:03:53 She said she noticed the front door was open and saw blood in the bathroom she shared with Meredith. After taking a shower, she went into the larger bathroom and found feces left in the toilet. She got freaked out and decided to leave. She went to Raphael's and they returned together, later calling the police. When Amanda was done giving her statement, the detectives told her, her that her account didn't make any sense. They said she should have realized much sooner that something was wrong. On that note, if this was Amanda responsible for Meredith's death, why would she have gone back to the villa at all? If she said that she and Raphael were planning to leave for
Starting point is 01:04:29 the weekend, she could have just said they left from his house, that she didn't need to go back and pack and get clothes. She had what she was wearing and they were going to be gone for a few days and maybe she would buy stuff. Why would she go back to the villa at all and put herself there? Well, or why would she have to add that to her story if she was responsible? I think the simple explanation is she's concerned that there's going to be evidence that was left behind that would indicate she had been at the property. So by re-entering that apartment, whether it's a footprint or DNA or trace evidence, she can now say, yeah, I went back there for the broom.
Starting point is 01:05:02 Of course my DNA is going to be there. And of course it's going to show that I rummage through things that may have blood on it because I went there after the fact. So she has to put herself back there if she's involved. Okay. Well, I mean, she lives there. So they might find evidence that she lives there. They might find her DNA and stuff there anyways. Hypothetically, though, let's say there's blood on the ground. And then you have a footprint or a handprint that comes back to Amanda Knox after the fact. That would show that her hand entered that pool of blood at some point. She can always say now, and obviously that didn't happen, but she could say, oh, yes, you know, I must have missed that spot or I touched it not knowing what it was. So now it gives her an excuse as to why there would be evidence of her being there after the murder occurred. Okay. Okay. So or maybe, you know, she took a shower. Let's say she committed this murder. She took a shower after to clean the evidence and then realized, oh, the water bloody footprint.
Starting point is 01:05:54 Yeah. I better, you know, making it a reason of why I was here showering. Okay. Or it's exactly what she's saying. Right. Yes. As, as quote unquote, suspicious it may be, it's an unfortunate set of circumstances for Amanda Knox. And she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So the detectives tell Amanda, listen, your story. doesn't make sense based on what we just saw. You should have known something was wrong much sooner. And then after that, the detectives stepped away. Shortly afterward, Raphael approached one of them and said, quote, my girlfriend has just remembered that when she went into the big bathroom on her own this morning, there was excrement. When we went back to the flat, it wasn't there anymore.
Starting point is 01:06:33 End quote. So the first detective on the scene then returned to the villa and checked the larger bathroom shared by Filomena and Laura. And contrary to what Raphael had just said, the feces was still there in the toilet. And so the detective was puzzled. Wait, the poop is still there. The poop is still there, yes. Oh, so that whole, you pulled a bait and switch from episode one. Well, it is still there.
Starting point is 01:06:55 It is still there. Okay, all right. The detective was puzzled and unsure why Amanda thought it had been flushed or, you know, why you wouldn't have flushed it, I guess? You know, if you saw that and you didn't think anything was wrong, why would you have left it there? If it's my house or I'm sharing an apartment, if I see it, I'm going to be like, who did this, like this sucks. And I'm going to flush it.
Starting point is 01:07:15 I'm not going to leave it there. Yeah, I get what you're saying. If I see it and my kids are guilty of it for sure, I don't go to them and say, hey, can you go flush the toilet? Like you said, if you see it, you flush it. And if she doesn't think anything's wrong at that point, if she sees number two in the bathroom, she's going to flush it. Yeah, she might be like, oh, I'm a little frustrated and annoyed that somebody did this, but I'm not going to leave it here for someone else to find. I'm not going to track down the person who did it. Yeah, I'm not going to wait to.
Starting point is 01:07:41 all my roommates are home and then walk them into the bathroom and say, who's responsible for this? And at this point, you're going to assume it was a woman. So it's even more embarrassing to bring it up to him. Like, hey, did you drop a huge deuce in the toilet? You're just going to flush it. Yes. So she didn't flush it. But then she claimed that it had that she did flush it. I cannot believe this is such a big part of the story. But here we are. I know. Here we are. However, now you think they have this, this human waste that they can possibly test. Right? Yes. Okay. Don't tell me they flush. the toilet. I'm not going to tell you anything yet. Okay. Okay. The detective walks in and goes,
Starting point is 01:08:17 eh, flushes it. The detective walks in is like, only an American would leave this here and flushes it. I'm waiting for you to tell me that it was one of the investigators that were there and had to go and use the bathroom. That's honestly would not be surprising to me at all, but I'm going to shut up. And there's actually pictures of this. So they did, they did take pictures of it. We know that, all right? Oh, God. I know. Okay. So by that point, prosecutor Giuliano Minini had been called to the scene to help investigate. And this is the guy you see in the Amanda Knox documentary. He's a big guy, kind of receding hairline, big Italian guy.
Starting point is 01:08:50 He was very vocal about this case. And while he was still outside, he looked up at the broken window in Filomena's room and said it seemed unlikely that someone had broken in that way, which he agrees with you and I. Yeah. So the window was too high for someone to easily scale the wall and the wall itself was in full view of anyone on the street. He thought there were other points of entry that could have made more sense.
Starting point is 01:09:13 Now, there is a video on YouTube of a guy climbing that wall and showing that he can easily get to the window. And in that video, the person who's guiding him through this, they said, hey, the window shades, the blinds, the green ones on the outside. The shutters.
Starting point is 01:09:32 They were closed. How easy would it have been for you to climb up there and open them? And he said, well, pretty easy. And then he showed them how he did that. And I guess this guy was like a trained mountain climber. And they were like, well, okay, you're trained in climbing things. But if somebody wasn't, would it still have been easy for them?
Starting point is 01:09:48 And he said, yes, I think it would have been. It's not a matter if it would be easier or not. If you're casing the house and you're looking for points of entry, you're not going to choose that location. Because it is in full view of the street. It's too much of a risk. You have to use the window below you to get in. There could be someone that could hear you there. You're going to cause noises as you're trying to get through the shutters.
Starting point is 01:10:07 in the window. By the time you get into the window, someone's going to be waiting there with a baseball bat for your head. So it just, it's too much of a risk. It's almost safer. And you're crawling up with that big rock in your hands? Yeah, it just, it doesn't make sense. And, and listen, it would be safer to just go to the front door and run through it. Because at that point, there's the element of surprise. By the time they hear the bang, you're already inside the apartment, right? So if you're going to do that, if that's the approach you're going with, you're mule kick the door. Do you know what mule kicking the door is? Well, you put your back to it.
Starting point is 01:10:41 Exactly. Yeah, you put your back to it. That's how we would kick in doors a lot of times. You can do it. Put your back into it. Yeah. And then you'd mule kick it because you'd get a lot more power that way. You mule kick that thing and you're within 30 seconds. You're inside the apartment. So that's, if you're going to go that way where you're just going for it. If you're just being brazen in general, yeah. You're going for the door directly and you're not climbing up a wall. So as McNini looked around the house, he noticed there were also no signs that the front door lock had been tampered with from the outside and no signs of forced entry through the French doors leading out to the
Starting point is 01:11:12 terrace. Once inside Filomena's room, McNini agreed that the window had not been broken by a rock thrown from outside and that the break in had been staged. So in this case, the person's going in, they are breaking the window from the inside and then I suppose going outside to get a rock and bring it in to look as if that rock was the way that the person broke into the window, unless they came prepared with the rock, but it seemed to be a pretty big rock, so I don't know if that's the case. Well, I see what they're saying now, though,
Starting point is 01:11:44 because if someone had broken that window from the outside with the rock, and we were kind of going back and forth on this earlier, they would first have to open those shutter doors. Open the shutters first, yeah. Right? And they'd have to open it and then throw the rock through the window.
Starting point is 01:11:56 Yes. It would be very difficult to do that. You're going to climb up there, open the shutters. It would be difficult to climb up there, and then to balance yourself up there to be able to open the shutters and then throw the rock in? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:06 Couple that with the rock being on top of things that they believed were rummaged through after breaking into the apartment. That's why they're, that's why they're coming to this conclusion. If you were going to break the window, then you might have just brought like a hammer, something you could tuck into your belt loop and then climb and then pull the hammer out and break it. You wouldn't be grabbing a huge rock the size of someone's head, scaling the wall like Spider-Man with this rock in your hand. Regardless of what you believed, whether it was before we covered this case or even now, I think most people, are going to come to the conclusion that this rock thing, this this robbery setup is more than likely something that was done after the fact. So then McNini theorized that either Meredith or Amanda had actually let the attacker or
Starting point is 01:12:50 attackers into the villa. When McNini went into Meredith's bedroom, he immediately zeroed in on the quilt covering her body. Once again, he thought the act of covering her body with a duvet suggested a mark of pity, and he now firmly believed that the killer was someone Meredith knew. McNini then went to the basement flat to look around. There were no signs of forced entry there either, but small traces of blood were found on a quilt, a bed, a pillowcase, a sofa, and on the floor.
Starting point is 01:13:18 Now, at this time, the flat was empty because all four of the Italian guys who lived there were on vacation hours away with their families. So that's their alibis. These four Italian guys, not in town at all. Not in town at all. So we can clear them off the list. So no signs of forced entry there. So we're assuming the attacker or attackers did not enter.
Starting point is 01:13:36 through the basement flat, but at some point they were down there or Meredith was down there because there's traces of blood found on the quilt, the bed, the pillowcase, sofa, and on the floor. Next, Magnini spoke with Philomena, and according to him, she told him that Amanda's account of events didn't make sense. Other detectives told McNini they felt the same way. And based on these concerns, Magnini decided to speak directly with Amanda Knox. During their conversation, Magnini paid close attention to her.
Starting point is 01:14:06 her body language. He later said that at times Amanda pressed both hands to her temples and shook her head. And he interpreted the gesture as if she were trying to empty her mind of something. Magnini does this a lot or he's like, you know, she did this and she acted this way. And I think that this is what she was trying to do. I'm not, to me, that's just like I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed. You know, I'm putting my hands to my temples and I'm like shaking my head. It's like, I'm overwhelmed. I'm overstimulated. There's too much happening. I don't understand. I don't know what's going on, especially with the language barrier of Amanda not speaking Italian and that being, obviously, McNini's native language. So it could have been frustration, overwhelmed.
Starting point is 01:14:48 But he said it was her trying to empty her head of something. So I don't know. I'd love to see his education in body language. And we talk about it before having a foundation on a person, what's normal for them. And so without having that baseline and this being one of his first interactions with her, I think it's a stretch to come to that conclusion. For sure, a stretch. All right.
Starting point is 01:15:10 We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. I feel like at some point we've all had that moment where we look at a bank statement and think, wait, when did I spend this? What am I even paying for? Yeah, like you recognize the charge, but you don't remember why it's there or when you signed up for it. And I've been there multiple times. Oh, I think we all have. And that's exactly why I started using Rocket Money.
Starting point is 01:15:34 It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscription. subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. And genuinely, when I tell you, this has been a lifesaver, this really works. I love how intuitive it is. I love how it lays everything out very easily for you to see. For someone like me who is not super organized financially or otherwise, it's just what you need. I like how you said, or otherwise. I'm not organized at all.
Starting point is 01:16:03 Yeah, and I will say the subscription tracking alone is worth it. Rocket money shows you everything in one place and actually lets you cancel subscriptions right in the app in just a few steps, which saves you time and money because now you're there, you're out, you're on your way, you don't have to worry about paying for it in the future. What I really like is how organized everything becomes. It automatically categorizes transactions across your accounts and you can customize categories and tags so you actually see where money's going. It makes patterns really obvious, sometimes painfully obvious. It's like, no, I don't want to see this. Yeah, it really is. Don't remind me.
Starting point is 01:16:36 And you can set budgets and goals, get personalized insights, regular reports, real-time alerts for things like large transactions or upcoming bills. I get an email. And it's like, Stephanie, there's large undetected transaction. What is this? And I'm like, ah, it takes something that normally feels overwhelming and makes it manageable, one step at a time. Yeah. And unlike you, I'm very organized. I like to have everything just lined up in one place.
Starting point is 01:16:58 And instead of juggling multiple accounts, rocket money puts your checking, your savings, your loans, and investments all in one dashboard. so you have a clear picture of your financial portfolio, which I love, and there's no need to jump from app to app. Yeah, you don't have to use multiple apps. And if you want to feel more in control of your money without turning it into a full-time job, Rocket Money really helps. That's right. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join RocketMoney.com slash Crime Weekly. That's rocketmoney.com slash crime weekly. Okay, so crime scene investigators were brought in. They began collecting evidence throughout the villa. Meredith's bedroom, they collected blood samples from the wardrobe, wall, and desk. They paid
Starting point is 01:17:42 particular attention to the bed, which no longer had sheets on it. A mattress cover remained, and it showed bloody knife-shaped outlines, suggesting the knife had been placed on the bed after the stabbing began. A long blonde hair was also found on the mattress cover. And as we know, Meredith did not have blonde hair. So beneath the bed, near the head of the bed and the nightstand, investigators found a significant blood spot. Meredith's nightstand lamp was located near there as well, positioned in a way that suggested someone may have been using it to look underneath. Like underneath the bed, I guess. Amanda's nightstand lamp, the only functioning light in Amanda's room, was also found inside Meredith's bedroom.
Starting point is 01:18:27 It was partially under the bed near the foot of the bed. The brown purse found on the mattress with a sock looped around its handles, contained a long, blonde hair. Investigators determined that along with her keys and phones, Meredith's wallet had also been taken from her purse. The wallet and keys were never recovered. So investigators determined that the pillow from the bed had been removed and was found on the floor underneath Meredith's body.
Starting point is 01:18:52 The pillow had bloody footprints and handprints. The missing bed sheet was never recovered. The fitted bed sheet, however, was found bundled on the floor partially underneath Meredith's body. It was stained with blood and. contained several hairs, red chestnut hair, an animal hair, a long blonde hair, and a very short black hair. So we got a lot going on. We got a lot going on in this crime scene. And when I look at Amanda Knox, I don't see her as a blonde. I see her as kind of having like light brown hair, but during the documentary on Netflix, everyone including Amanda herself, describes herself as
Starting point is 01:19:30 being a blonde. I don't know what you think about that. So I'm not sure if they're saying, these blonde hairs are like a true blonde, like coming from a very blonde person or blonde as in what they've described Amanda Knox to be, which once again, I don't know if I would look at Amanda and say she was a blonde. I don't know. She seems to have like kind of light brown hair to me. What do you think? I mean, I'm actually looking at the video that we just looked at earlier where she's kissing her boyfriend and I wouldn't describe her as blonde. There might be some strands of blonde in there. This goes back to the debate we had about my hair. It's like, oh, you're dirty blonde, right? And it's like, maybe in person it would look different. She could have some strands of blonde in there. There are points where the light is hitting her hair at certain angles and I can see a little bit of like blonde in there. But I wouldn't describe her as a blonde, no. No. So in the small bathroom, Meredith had shared with Amanda, investigators found multiple traces of blood. Blood was present on the basin, on the tap above it, and on a container of cotton bun. left on the basin.
Starting point is 01:20:33 Additional blood was found on the blue bath mat on the bidet, on the toilet lid, on the floor tiles near the toilet, on the light switch, and on the door frame. No blood traces were found in the larger bathroom used by Philomena and Laura. That's the bathroom where the feces had been discovered. Yep, yep. That's across the hall. Yes. So in Amanda's room, blood was found on her pillow and on the wall behind the nightstand.
Starting point is 01:20:59 So this is interesting. There's now blood in Amanda's room and a lamp from Amanda's room was found in Meredith's room. So when Amanda showered and then I would expect went into her bedroom to pack clothes, which she said that's what she was there for. Did she not notice that her lamp, the only light source in her room, was missing? Yeah, it's not good. It's not a good look initially, but it could also come back to whoever's responsible for. for this after the crime, staging the crime scene by going into the other rooms. Going into a manager's room, getting the lamp and leaving the blood.
Starting point is 01:21:36 Yep, moving things around to create red herrings, to have law enforcement in there confused, running through different scenarios, looking at people who may be innocent because of the evidence, how simple just to take her lamp, throw it in there. Now you have detectives looking at her. So it's pretty smart if it was intentional. That's looking at it through different lenses. but it could also be as simple as it sounds, which is that Amanda is somehow involved,
Starting point is 01:22:04 maybe not directly, maybe indirectly, maybe through someone she knows, and she does have a connection to this case. But I'm not ready to go there yet. I think it's just as possible that the person responsible goes into these multiple rooms
Starting point is 01:22:18 and grabs things just to distract law enforcement. But we have talked about that these rooms are very small. They're sparse. There's not a lot. Yeah, this is not a big place. Amanda goes into her room, After showering, because she's got to get new clothes. So we know she had to have gone into a room.
Starting point is 01:22:33 Right. You don't notice your lamps missing. Yeah, there's a lot of things going unnoticed. I will give you that. At this point, you have a lot of things that maybe not one of those individual pieces of evidence might not stand out. You might miss a blood stain or something. But in totality, at some point, you would think you'd say, okay.
Starting point is 01:22:54 What the hell is going on here? Something doesn't feel right. Even if it's just an instinctual. thing. And to her defense, at one point she did, right? I mean, that's, that's what happened. She felt like something was off. Yes, allegedly. Was it the lamp? Did she notify law enforcement of that? Did she say, hey, my lamp was missing? She did not of her own free will come forward and say, I noticed my lamp was missing. I would love to know what her response was once she was informed about the lamp and what her excuse would be for the lamp being in there. Did she just say,
Starting point is 01:23:22 I have no clue, which could be the truth? But how did you not, how did you notice it wasn't in your room or how did you not notice that it wasn't in your room when you went in there? So here's the one thing I'll say. It was during the day when she came back to the apartment. And so depending on her normal behavior, if that's not something she would engage with during the day, is it possible that she missed the fact that the lamp was missing because she wouldn't have used it? Now, if she had said, I went back there at 10 o'clock at night, went into my room, got
Starting point is 01:23:50 dressed in my room, and never realized the lamp was missing, the simple question would be, then how'd you change with no light? But because it was during the day, there is a little bit of an out there. If we're trying to be respectful and reasonable to Amanda that, she may be telling the truth. And even though it's hard to believe,
Starting point is 01:24:10 she might have missed it. Yeah, I mean, I'm not necessarily concerned right now about being respectful and fair to Amanda because while, yes, she could be a victim, there's also a lot here that we have to look at. And the rooms are quite small. Even the windows aren't, you know, super big.
Starting point is 01:24:27 There's not a lot of windows. Even if it's 11 a.m., like she said, you would still maybe flip a switch to turn the light on, just automatically out of habit. Notice the light's not there. You come into your room. It's not a large room. You know what you have in there. There's no lamp there. That's not going to sort of raise any signs to you.
Starting point is 01:24:46 I would notice if the lamp was missing in my room. That's all I'm saying. It's fair. I'm not saying you're wrong. But not everyone is you. You know, everyone's different. Yes, not everyone is me, and I'm not really usually big on noticing things. But I feel like that.
Starting point is 01:25:00 If it's the only light source in my room, I feel like that I would notice. So all of this evidence, including the feces, was collected and then sent for testing. We're going to talk about those results in a future episode. Oh, of course you're going to do that to me. I know. Well, we have to organize it this way. So shortly after 3 p.m., everyone at the villa was asked to go to the police station for questioning. Meredith's English friends, the one she had spent time with the evening before,
Starting point is 01:25:22 they also arrived and they were interviewed. Police asked everyone's similar questions about who Meredith knew in town, the men she dated, her social life in Perugia, et cetera, et cetera, the normal questions you would ask. Amanda was one of the first people questioned. In her book, she wrote that the interview lasted about six hours and that for the first hour she did not have an interpreter. And it was during this interview that Amanda learned for certain that Meredith was dead. Because remember, she had said earlier that she knew a dead.
Starting point is 01:25:52 dead body was found in Meredith's room, but she was sort of trying to convince herself and tell herself out of shock, like, well, maybe it's not Meredith, maybe it's someone else. There's still a chance it's not Meredith. So now in this interview, she gets the confirmation. That is Meredith. Meredith, Meredith is gone. Amanda said she covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head, no, unable to believe what she was being told. Now, once again, as a side note, none of these interviews were recorded. And even with an interpreter coming in for Amanda during this interview, there's still going to be something lost in translation. There's still going to be things that are not properly transmitted between Amanda and the detectives interviewing her. There's language
Starting point is 01:26:38 barrier. And it's kind of up to the interpreter at that point how well and how concisely they are interpreting these languages to each part of the conversation. So Amanda told police she'd gone to Raphael's apartment the night before, stayed there the entire night. She returned to the villa around 11 a.m. Detectives immediately noticed this differed from what she had told the first responding detective earlier that she had returned home around 10 a.m. Aside from that time discrepancy, the rest of her account did remain the same. And in his statement to police, Raphael confirmed everything Amanda said. This is when they're talking to the police for the first time. That's going to change.
Starting point is 01:27:17 So when they were not being interviewed, everyone waited together in a common room at the station. And several people later told author John Folian that they were unsettled by Amanda and Raphael's behavior during this time. Like the police said, they said the two continued kissing and touching each other. Some also said they laughed at times. And that when Amanda spoke about what had happened, she seemed detached describing events as if they were ordinary. once again, I don't find this to be odd. I don't at all. You're laughing.
Starting point is 01:27:48 This is somebody you've known, you know, a little bit over a month. Once again, not a lifetime friend. You're sad that they're dead, but you're also trying to just get through this trauma of being involved in something. So unexpectedly, I don't find them to be kissing and touching and laughing and even seeming detached to be odd. In fact, I think seeming detached makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of shock happening here. Yeah, I agree with what you're saying there. And what I do want to point out is that at this point in the story, and I know you've just kind of hinted that maybe this changes later, but with everything aligning and Raphael and Amanda being on the same page, if somehow Amanda is responsible for this, Raphael is involved as well.
Starting point is 01:28:28 I don't know how. I don't know the specifics. But at least at this point, it would have been a collaborative effort. Now, there was an account I heard in the Netflix documentary where somebody was talking to Amanda during this time when everyone's waiting. she said, oh, I hope Meredith didn't suffer too much or something like that. And Amanda said, of course, she fucking suffered. She was stabbed to death, you know, and then she kind of, like, was very harsh with that remark.
Starting point is 01:28:52 I also don't find that to be a weird thing to say, you know, like, you're, that's kind of the person who someone dies and someone says, I'm sorry for your loss. And it's like, what a stupid thing to say at this time. Like, you know, and what a stupid thing to say, I hope she didn't suffer. Of course she fucking suffered, you know. Yeah, right. It's traumatic. So I don't find that to be weird.
Starting point is 01:29:12 Some witnesses even said Amanda told people over the phone that she was the one who had found Meredith, which they said wasn't true. But, I mean, it technically was true. She was the one who went to the villa and not found her body, but, you know, found, I don't know. What do you think about that? She did technically, like, come in and would have been the first person in the villa after Meredith was attacked and died to sort of notice. things were off and then, you know, have Raphael called the police and say that they couldn't find Meredith and Amanda's calling people to see where Meredith is. So in a way, I don't find that to be a crazy exaggeration. No, no, I don't think so. Others said that Amanda and Raphael spoke as though
Starting point is 01:29:58 more than one person must have been involved in the attack. And Meredith's roommate, Laura, also told police she thought she saw a long vertical red scratch on the middle of Amanda's throat, something she had not noticed the day before. Laura threw Amanda right under the bus. She's like, I thought I saw a scratch. I don't know. I thought I did. Now, most people, including Amanda and Raphael,
Starting point is 01:30:20 remained at the police station overnight. Then at around 6 a.m., Philomena and her boyfriend drove them back to Raphael's apartment. By that point, prosecutor Giuliano McNini firmly believed that someone close to Meredith had betrayed her, allowing an accomplice into the villa to kill her
Starting point is 01:30:36 and then helped stage the fake burglary. He told author John Fulian that he was inclined to rule out Philomena, who said she'd been with her boyfriend that night, and Laura, who said she'd been away visiting family. That left Amanda and the four guys living in the basement flat. McNini instructed the homicide squad to install phone taps and keep them under close observation. Now, I said earlier the guys were out of town with their family, but at this time, they weren't questioned because they were out of town. And after finding out about Meredith, they got on a train to come back. but at that point the police wouldn't have known that they were out of town with their families because they hadn't come back yet. So that evening, Amanda called her mother to update her on what was happening.
Starting point is 01:31:17 And in her book, Amanda wrote that she did not realize she was a suspect at that point and believed that she was genuinely assisting in the investigation. Although I think I may have felt a little bit like I was a suspect if when I first told the police what happened outside the flat, they were like, your story doesn't make any sense. You know, I might have felt like maybe they don't believe everything I'm saying. But that same evening, Amanda and Raphael went to a local store for clothing. Amanda did not have access to any of her belongings, which were still inside the sealed villa, and she needed clean underwear. So obviously, they're going shopping for underwear. And to her surprise, this outing ended up drawing a lot of attention.
Starting point is 01:31:54 The shop owner later contacted police and said Amanda had picked out a thong and a pullover, and that she and Raphael approached the register. And that when they did approach, he overheard Raphael, saying to her in English, quote, later you'll put them on at home and we'll have hot sex, end quote. So apparently that sort of drew some attention because I guess these two young people who are dating should not be thinking about sex at this time. And Amanda later wrote in her book that the outing was completely innocent. She said Raphael hugged her and gave her a few kisses, but he didn't say anything about having sex. Amanda said she didn't even buy a thong. She bought
Starting point is 01:32:32 cotton bikini briefs. Despite that, once the thong statement, later reached the media. It spread quickly with reports claiming the couple had gone lingerie shopping. And that is exactly how it was sort of purported in the media that Amanda and Raphael, after they got released from the police station, immediately went lingerie shopping and they were talking about sex. And like, once again, even if they were, I don't think that it automatically makes them guilty. I could argue that it makes them less guilty. Yeah. Like if you just killed someone and you're trying to cover it up, you're going to give every impression.
Starting point is 01:33:06 possible to anybody watching you that you are filled with guilt and fear and concerned that this person could come back. And you would not be out lingerie shopping. So you, well, I mean, if you did it, then you wouldn't be filled with concern and fear that this person might be coming back. But you would give the illusion that you were, right?
Starting point is 01:33:26 Like if I had killed someone and I wanted law enforcement to believe it, I would do everything I could under the sun to make it appear that I was petrified, that I was next. I wouldn't be out lingerie shopping. But if you're seriously just that oblivious to the fact that you're being considered as a suspect, maybe you would go out lingerie shopping because you think it's preposterous to believe that someone could assume you did this.
Starting point is 01:33:49 Someone could think you did this. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it could go both ways. It all depends on what you think. This is where confirmation bias comes in. You could read that or hear that and think, yep, she did it. Or if you believe she's innocent, you would say, no, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:34:03 This proves she didn't. Yeah. I don't think that even if they were out getting lingerie, that it would be like, oh, they are so callous. It's like once again, she did not know Meredith that long. She's been in this very intense relationship with this young Italian man for about a week. We can tell they've been having sex a lot. They're very attracted to each other. They can't keep their hands off each other.
Starting point is 01:34:23 And some people do use sex as like a distraction coping mechanism. We've heard about parents of children who've been murdered who go home and have sex. And people are like, how could they? And it's like, well, you know, this is maybe how these people find comfort. And all they cope. Yeah. It's a weird thing to kind of look at it. And if you're looking at it that way, just to go back to the underwear, she didn't even buy laundering.
Starting point is 01:34:47 They make it sound better by saying she went and bought laundry. And she's like, dude, I went and bought cotton underwear. Like, come on. And I mean, she didn't have access to her clothing and everyone needs underwear. You know, even if you rewear the same clothes for a few days, you want clean underwear. So that makes complete sense. And she would have to go and buy some. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:35:05 But let's take a quick break. We'll be right back and we're going to talk about what Meredith's autopsy show. This episode of Crime Weekly is brought to you by Wildgrain. This is one of those sponsors that just makes winter better. We've talked about it a lot. I love carbs. I love bread. I love pasta.
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Starting point is 01:36:14 I get the same thing. The croissants and definitely the sourdough bread. I get the Nyokis and some of the other pastas. The raviolis are so good. Yeah, it's just amazing to have it. They also have amazing butter. Like, I love this butter. I can't use any other butter.
Starting point is 01:36:28 It's this French slightly salted butter. It's amazing. Can't beat it. And I had the cinnamon rolls. recently, which were really good as well. And the box is fully customizable, right? It depends on what you want. They can do it for you.
Starting point is 01:36:42 You can choose from their variety box, their gluten-free box, their vegan box, and their protein box. So whatever you choose, it actually fits your lifestyle, not the other way around. Yeah, so I made my own box. I put what I wanted in there. I get every month. And I will say their customer service is amazing and quick. This actually happened.
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Starting point is 01:37:48 Once again, that is $30 off your first box and free croissants for life at wildgrain.com slash crime weekly 30 or use code crime weekly 30 at checkout. I feel like winter always turns your bedroom into your main living space. You're inside more. You're sleeping more because it gets dark. It gets dark earlier and it's not like sunny in the morning. And that's when you really notice if something's off with your mattress. Yeah. And unfortunately for Stephanie, she knows this all too well, especially with me.
Starting point is 01:38:20 If I sleep bad, everything is bad after that. So there's definitely been some days where I've come into the office and she's like, okay, yeah, he didn't sleep good. Yeah, of course. I think that everybody is like that, especially if you're in a hotel or something away from home. It's not fun. That was me all the time before Helix. I had night sweats, back pain, and that thing where you wake up tired, even though you did technically
Starting point is 01:38:39 sleep. Switching to Helix was a real upgrade. My sleep quality genuinely improved. And I'm talking, I've had my Helix mattress now for over five years. And it is just as good today as it was the day I got it. Yeah, same here. I have the Midnight Lux. Absolutely love it.
Starting point is 01:38:54 And when we originally got it was many years ago, the process just was super easy. All you have to do is take the Helix sleep quiz, answer some questions about your sleep. And it matches you with the mattress. that actually fits you. So there's no guessing and no awkward like showroom interactions, which by the way, that's all that there is when you go to these places. I know. I don't like it.
Starting point is 01:39:14 You're laying there on the bed and you're like how many other people have laid here? The salesperson is looming over you. And you're like, this is not what it's going to feel like when I have it in my house, right? Also, something that is very important is Helix is the most awarded mattress brand. They've been tested and reviewed by experts at places like Forbes and Wired, which definitely gave me peace of mind. Yeah. Plus the delivery was seamless.
Starting point is 01:39:33 It shows up at your door. with free shipping in the U.S. And you get a 120-night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty, so you're not locked into anything. Helix also has what they call the happy with Helix guarantee, which basically means the experience is customer first. And honestly, my sleep has been noticeably better since switching. Even my sleep tracking reflects it on my Apple Watch.
Starting point is 01:39:52 And just in general, I sleep with multiple dogs. And I was always very frustrated about that because I never felt like I had enough space. And I don't have any more space now, but my sleep is still better. So if you are ready to upgrade your sleep, go to helixsleep.com slash crime weekly for 27% off sitewide. That's helix sleep.com slash crime weekly for 27% off sitewide. And make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. As the investigation moved forward, a forensic pathologist conducted Meredith's autopsy. Multiple stab wounds were documented, though accounts do differ on the total number of stab wounds, Meredith suffered.
Starting point is 01:40:35 Some sources claim she was stabbed 47 times, others say 12 times or as few as seven. I would say that it probably was more than seven. Once again, a very, very bloody scene. And you could tell this was an overkill kind of thing. Like this, you always say, you know, you could have killed this girl in a few stablins. You didn't need to keep going kind of thing. Like it was pretty bad. There's a lot of blood.
Starting point is 01:41:06 A lot of passion behind it. But every source did agree that the largest wound was on the left side of Meredith's neck. It measured just over three inches long and up to 1.5 inches wide. And it was so deep that it exposed tissue and bone. That's crazy to me. So there was also a second wound on the right side of her neck, though it wasn't as severe. The pathologist also found what he described as, quote, lakes of blood, end quote, inside Meredith's lungs, indicating that she had inhaled a large amount
Starting point is 01:41:38 of her own blood and that it had taken several minutes for her to die. Meredith also had cuts on her hands consistent with defensive wounds. She also had bruises across her body, including inside her vagina, though the pathologist could not determine whether this indicated rape or consensual sex without lubrication. There was also bruising around her anus and some dilation, which the pathologist said could have been caused by constipation. This pathologist is very, you know, kind of not really knowing what these things could mean and leaving a lot of things open for interpretation, which I do feel caused some more confusion with this case.
Starting point is 01:42:19 Now, additional bruising was found on Meredith's nose inside her nostrils, on her mouth, on and below her jaw, and on the tip and sides of her tongue where bite marks were also present. This bruising was consistent with an attacker clamping a hand over her mouth and nose in an apparent attempt to suffocate her, although it was unclear if this occurred before or after the stabbing started. I also wondered, could this be somebody clamping a hand over her mouth and nose to quiet her so that she wasn't screaming? You know, I know that normally you wouldn't put your hand over someone's nose in order to make them quiet, and that would, I guess, suggest more of a suffocation. But if, you know, there's a lot of chaos happening, she's moving, she's trying to get away, and you put your hand over her face to stop her from screaming. You're not really going to be like, oh, my hands over her nose. I better move it down and just cover her mouth.
Starting point is 01:43:09 You know, it might be that they were trying to keep her quiet. You know, I want to point something else out before I forget when you're starting to describe this autopsy because it's significant. And even though it's a little ambiguous at certain points, which pathologists love to do, right? They love to give themselves outs. But regardless of which way you go, whether it's consensual, non-consensual. the overall crime itself and the violence of the crime and the fact that there appears to have been a violent occurrence here an encounter between the two parties or at least two parties.
Starting point is 01:43:37 One, it doesn't sound like this would be a woman who would be the primary offender, but secondly, if it were Amanda Knox, based on just some of the things you've described so far, it seems like Meredith fought back. And yet it doesn't appear, at least so far in the story, that Amanda had any signs of injury, which you would expect to see from someone
Starting point is 01:43:55 with this brutal of an attack. but yet we have nothing. I guess outside of that, that like, I guess, scratch that Laura claimed to have maybe seen. Yeah. Yeah, I think they'd be more. I think there'd be more. But just based on what you're describing so far,
Starting point is 01:44:08 this sounds like a sexual assault slash murder. It doesn't sound like someone who was attacked by another woman and maybe it was even an accident that just an argument that got out of control. This sounds like this was a deliberate act. And it's kind of leaning in the direction so far of someone who wanted more and was told no. At least that's my opinion. Do you think this was premeditated planned or like a kind of a crime of opportunity? It escalated and then the person got mad.
Starting point is 01:44:35 Without knowing for sure, I would say that this just escalated because it doesn't seem like the meetup was even planned. If Meredith was planning on meeting someone that night and had to get home for them, I would think she may have said something. Like, hey, so-and-so is coming over tonight. We're going to hang out. And then you could argue that it was premeditated by that other person who said, yeah, I'm going to come over. Let's hang out. but they had these other intentions. This seems more likely that this person came over.
Starting point is 01:45:01 Maybe they thought it was going to lead somewhere that it didn't. And they didn't realize it until they were already in the room. And they felt like they were disrespected by Meredith saying no. And that's when it escalated to this. At least now, just on the surface. But overall, and we're starting to wind down this episode. I think everything points to A of familiarity and knowing Meredith before the crime occurred. And then when you take the actual autopsy into consideration as well, it does appear to be sexual in nature.
Starting point is 01:45:29 So to me, that indicates a male individual. And I'm asking myself, without getting too far ahead of the story, how much of Meredith's past did we look into? Previous partners, boyfriends, just maybe someone they met one night or another. This is the direction I'm going as far as the profile of this person. But maybe you're going to hit me with a curveball that's going to change my mind. Maybe I am. but we will get there. But yes, we already heard that the police question Meredith's friends.
Starting point is 01:45:57 And they asked about, you know, did she have boyfriends? Who did she date? Things like that. So they did sort of scratch the surface on that. But what was it just a situation ship? Someone that maybe nobody knew about. I don't know. There's so many angles here.
Starting point is 01:46:10 Yeah, maybe somebody she had met in a bar one night mentioned where she lived. Right. They'd been trying to get a hold of her. But, you know, they would probably, police would probably check Meredith's cell phone records at that point, see if any calls had come in. things like that. So it doesn't appear that that if somebody had met her previously and then wanted more from her, that they were making themselves known as far as her electronic records go. No. You know, one more angle I think about, and I hope you're not getting mad at me for going
Starting point is 01:46:37 to all these possibilities because I just, I could talk about this for hours. But so it's a crime scene full of stuff that if you look at it and you're like, what is all this stuff here for? And why was there, you know, a lamp put down like somebody was trying to look under the bed? What were they looking for? There was receipts found on the dube that we haven't even talked about yet, right? There's a lot of stuff at this crime scene that it does seem personal. It does. And I hope you're proud of me because I've refrained so much on talking this episode, even though I feel like I've talked the entire episode. So I apologize if that's the truth. But what's my favorite phrase, right? Two things can be true at the same time. And, you know,
Starting point is 01:47:14 two things could be true here. We know that Amanda did reach out on the 31st about, you know, what was Meredith up to? And we know that Amanda was texted by her boss at 818 on November 1st saying, hey, you don't have to come in tonight. Is there any point where Amanda and Raphael and maybe a friend of his decide to go back to Amanda's house? Does something go down there where they know Meredith is home alone? So they all go over there.
Starting point is 01:47:37 And there's the four of them hanging out. And, you know, as couples do sometimes, you know, they separate, go their own ways. And something went down in that other room that Amanda and Raphael weren't aware of initially.
Starting point is 01:47:48 again, it's total speculation at this point, but I'm just throwing out there that there is a world where Amanda knows more than she's saying, but still isn't the primary offender here. So I'm considering all options at this point. The only thing I've really ruled out is I don't believe someone threw a rock through the window and broke in that way. That's the only thing I'm pretty confident about. So you don't believe somebody just followed Meredith home randomly, not knowing who she was, not knowing anything about where she lived or who she lived with, and then climbed up the house, broke into a window. found her bedroom and killed her. Correct. I don't. And the main reason being there is clearly some level of familiarity with the house as far as how to get around it and what to lock and what to lock.
Starting point is 01:48:29 And also a sense of security. And what I mean by that is they not only committed the crime, but they stayed behind after the fact to stage the scene by going in Amanda's room, by going in Filomena's room. And the only way you would feel confident. Even Laura's room they went in and like rifled through some drawers. That's right. And the only way you would feel confident and safe enough to do that, is if you knew nobody else was coming home that evening. So to me, that clearly indicates that this person had an understanding and a familiarity with that apartment.
Starting point is 01:48:57 Yeah, but that person would have to know that Philomena was with her boyfriend and Laura was out of town. Exactly. And Amanda was with her boyfriend. And who would know all of that. It would be someone who was invited into the apartment and either Meredith disclosed that to them by saying, hey, come on over. My two roommates are out of town and my other roommates with her boyfriend for the night. Or my other roommate's supposed to be working tonight. Right, exactly.
Starting point is 01:49:21 So they're not expecting anyone to come home. So it could have been a brief interaction, but either way, I believe this person was invited into that house or they had the ability to go in on their own. According to Meredith's digital records, she was not seeing anybody. In Perugia, there wasn't any text or calls from anybody that would suggest she had a relationship of any kind. Which could give some credence to the idea that maybe Amanda brought someone over. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:49:45 Right. I think that's why the Italian police. thought that, yeah. Oh, they did think that? Well, I think the Italian police thought that Amanda was somehow... Did you just slip? No, because I said that earlier that McNini said that he believed that Amanda or Meredith had let in the assailant, right? So if Amanda or Meredith led in the assailant and Meredith's dead and Amanda's alive, then that sort of goes without saying that McNini believes Amanda was sort of an accomplice to the person. He's indicating that she believes she's not telling the truth. Yes. Yeah, I think it's possible.
Starting point is 01:50:17 possible for sure. So in addition to all of those horrific injuries, Meredith's superior right thyroid artery had been completely severed and the hyoid bone was fractured. The pathologist said this fracture could have been caused either by an attempt to strangle Meredith or by a blow from the blade of a knife. The pathologist ultimately concluded that Meredith died from cardio-respatory failure caused by exfixiation from attempted strangulation or suffocation combined with hemorrhaging from the major neck wound, which he said was, quote, caused by a pointed and cutting weapon, end quote. And her estimated time of death was determined to be between 10 p.m. and midnight, most likely around 11 p.m. Now, keep in mind, if Amanda Knox had not been called off of work, her alibi would be
Starting point is 01:51:05 completely locked up here. Yes. She's at work. Yep. Can't be involved at all. Can't be her. Can't be two places at once. So after the autopsy, Meredith's roommates were called back into the police station for further questioning. According to the detective interviewing Amanda, while she was being questioned, Raphael showed up insisting on being allowed to speak with Amanda. The detective found this unusual. Amanda and Raphael had known each other for only nine days. Still, she agreed to let her see him, and she placed them together in an office that she had already bugged. Now, they didn't end up saying anything incriminating, and Raphael eventually left. Laura and Filomena were then brought into the bogged room. Amanda told them she felt she was being treated like a criminal, saying police kept asking
Starting point is 01:51:47 her the same questions over and over, despite her giving the same answers. Afterward, the roommates were taken back to the villa, and they were asked to go through the kitchen to see whether any knives were missing. As the knives were shown to her, Amanda began to cry. Police later said this was the first time they had seen her cry. In her book, Amanda wrote that it was her first time back inside the house since Meredith was killed, and the weight of what had happened finally hit her, which I find to be completely reasonable. I agree. Police then interviewed the four men who lived in the basement flat.
Starting point is 01:52:18 They were asked about people who had visited the flat prior to their trip. One of the men, Stefano, mentioned a recent visitor to the villa, a young man nicknamed the Baron. He described him as a fit South African man who was attracted to Amanda. Stefano couldn't recall the Baron's real name, but remembered that the man had once come over to the flat, drank heavily, used the toilet, and didn't flush it. Of course, that piece of information stood out, so after Stefano's statement, the detectives attempted to figure out who the Baron was, but it would be weeks before they knew his name.
Starting point is 01:52:52 So as the investigation continued, detectives also began reviewing phone records belonging to Meredith, Amanda, and Raphael. Meredith's phone records showed that on November 1st at 8.56 p.m., she called home in England but did not reach anyone. And that sort of lines up with your timeline of her getting back to the flat around nine. Because if she's calling someone at home at 856, it's probably once she's gotten home after walking Sophie home. Then at 9.58 p.m., her phone dialed the number 901, which corresponded to an answering machine. But the call ended before the greeting finished.
Starting point is 01:53:30 Two minutes later, a final call was placed to a number associated with a bank, but it failed because the international prefix had not been entered. This is all very interesting. So phone records also show that Amanda and Raphael's phones went inactive within minutes of each other on the night of the murder. Amanda's phone was inactive from 8.35 p.m. until the following morning, the exact time wasn't listed. Raphael's phone was inactive from 842 p.m. until 602 a.m. This stood out to detectives because records showed that both typically kept their phones on until late at night before turning them. off. So this is also suspicious. So when you say inactive, you mean phones went off? So yes, they were turned off. And later, Amanda would say that she had turned her phone off so early
Starting point is 01:54:21 on this night because she didn't want her boss to change his mind about her coming into work. Because remember, she's supposed to be there at 10. And he calls her at what, like 818, was it? 818. Yeah. So she's thinking, okay, he's calling me at 818. And so. She's thinking, okay, he's calling me at 818. and saying, I don't have to come in. But my shift doesn't technically start until 10. So there's still time where he could change his mind and call me back before 10 and be like, oh, actually, we got busier. We're going to need you to come in.
Starting point is 01:54:47 She didn't want to come in. So she shut her phone off so that her boss wouldn't be able to call her back and be like, hey, I changed my mind. Come in. That was what Amanda said. I'm not going to go too far down this path because I feel like it could be something. It could be nothing. Her explanation does make sense.
Starting point is 01:55:04 I've definitely done that where I'm like, hey, I don't want to get. get called back into the police station. I'm turning off my phone. You want to get called back into work, you mean? Yeah, to the police station. That's where I worked. Oh. Yeah, I didn't want to get called back into the police station if something popped off. But no, it could be something. It could be nothing. To me, it's more interesting that their phones went off within minutes of each other. You're talking about a seven minute difference, 835, 842. That's interesting to me. However, you just said a couple minutes ago that at 958, she or allegedly someone from Meredith's phone used it to dial the number 901 for that answering machine. So that's that's two hours after or an hour and a half after their phones would
Starting point is 01:55:49 have went off. So that would mean that they knew something was going to happen or someone else was using Meredith's phone. But but I also don't think that if their phones went off at 835 and 842, the suspect or whoever was involved would be calling their Meredith's mother at 856. No, I agree. That was Meredith. So that to me was Meredith, which would mean she was still alive at approximately 9 p.m. And from what we know, Meredith wasn't even home by 835, 842. So did they know that they're going to go over there and do this?
Starting point is 01:56:24 I actually think if I had to choose, it's either nothing or it gives more credibility to the fact that they did. didn't have anything to do with her crime. So I do find it suspicious that both of their phones were turned off. I agree. And then Raphael came back on at 602 a.m. Like, if you're not getting up for anything, why are you getting up at 602? You know, you're like, that to me is that right there is a dangerous thing. Anyone who gets up at six.
Starting point is 01:56:48 Yeah. Why are you doing that? That's absolutely, that's a sign of a psychopath. Yeah, right there. Well, you get up at 602 when you don't have to work. And I know there's a lot of morning people. We're just joking. I'm just not a morning person.
Starting point is 01:56:57 Yeah. I'm not, no, I'm not, I'm not, first of all, I'm not going to go to sleep with my phone off all night, because that would make me very nervous. Like, what if something happens? But I have kids, so that's a different thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But different times back then, too. We weren't as attached to our phones as we are now, to be honest. But did Amanda's boss have Raphael's phone number?
Starting point is 01:57:17 So Amanda was like, Raphael, shut your phone off too. That way he can't call you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Knowing I'm with you, you know, so we'll both shut our phones off and we'll just say we went to sleep. That, that could be very possible. But the fact that your roommate was murdered and you guys shut your phones off, it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good. And we've got a lot of coincidences now, right?
Starting point is 01:57:38 We got a lot of coincidences. Amanda going in to the flat and just not finding the blood and that stuff to be alarming, not noticing the lamp in her room is missing, finding the poop in the toilet, and then saying she flushed it, but she didn't flush it. All of this stuff. Why didn't you flush it? If I found it, I would have flushed it. All of these things are not super. looking good for her. That's all. Yeah, but I don't want to lose sight of the fact of what you mentioned as well about the baron because I don't know if the baron is involved in this story,
Starting point is 01:58:08 but to me, I still think the concept of a person like that holds a lot of weight. This individual could be someone who knew of Meredith, but maybe knew someone else who lived at that apartment for women living there. They live in their best life. There are people coming and going all the time. it could be someone who was brought over there by Philomena or Amanda at one point and just saw Meredith and understood that nobody else was home but Meredith and came over there and said, hey, is Amanda around or is Filomena around? And Meredith says no. And then it goes from there. There's there's so many options here when it comes to anybody who had been at that apartment before and may have an understanding not only of the layout, but how they live as far as locking their doors, etc. and may have even known that certain people wouldn't be home that night.
Starting point is 01:58:58 So it doesn't have to be someone direct who was in contact with Meredith, who she reached down to and said, hey, come on over. It could just be someone who stopped by the house because they had been there before. Yeah, and we will talk about the baron more. So that is important. I mean, I think not only the baron, but other people like the baron. Yeah. I think that still applies.
Starting point is 01:59:16 And I think if the story of him going over and like using the bathroom and not flushing it is true. Yeah, that right there is a crime. Lock him up. Yeah. shows once again, you're waking up at six. Sam, you're a psychopath. If you're going to somebody's apartment and using the bathroom and not flushing it, just leaving calling cards. Guilty as charged. What are you doing? Yeah. So if that, that does show pattern of behavior though. Maybe that's what he just did all the time, even in his own house.
Starting point is 01:59:38 Creature of habit. Yeah. So that's, that's interesting. According to court records, Amanda's first call on November 2nd was placed to Meredith at 12.07 p.m. with no answer. Immediately afterward, she called Philomena. That was followed by another call to Meredith and then another call to Philomena. At 1251 p.m. Raphael called the police to report the break-in while Amanda spoke with her mother. Now, if you recall part one, Amanda wrote in her book that she called her mom first, then Philomena, and that Filamina told her to call Meredith, at which point she said she called Meredith for the first time. So we do have a discrepancy here. Now, this could be just Amanda remembering things differently years later when she wrote the book, but you'd think you
Starting point is 02:00:21 want to kind of get this timeline of the morning that your roommate was found murdered, a little bit more accurate and you kind of check your sources. Yeah, before you publishes. Because it will be used against you, for sure. Yes. So at this point, police had not identified a suspect, a clear motive, or the murder weapon. Because Raphael and Amanda's accounts remained confusing, the detectives decided to question Raphael again on November 5th.
Starting point is 02:00:44 They asked him to come alone. Yet, he and Amanda arrived at the police station together at around 10.30 p.m., which the police found weird. Like, we told you to come alone. Why is she here with you? You know, almost like she was trying to watch him. Like, don't say anything. I'm here.
Starting point is 02:00:59 But he did. He did say something. So, yeah. So by the morning, both would be arrested on suspicion of murder, but all of that's going to have to wait until part three. And this is where things get really murky. And I cannot wait to hear your take on it because, yeah, I mean, this is where things get murky.
Starting point is 02:01:17 I'm just going to give you a little spoiler. But Raphael. under intense scrutiny and intense questioning, he kind of confesses or basically throws Amanda under the bus. He doesn't really confess. He throws Amanda under the bus. And then Amanda goes in and then she throws her boss, Patrick, under the bus. And then Patrick gets arrested. So none of it really makes sense.
Starting point is 02:01:42 And then later, both Amanda and Raphael are going to be like, we just didn't know what to say because we were questioned for so long. and it wasn't letting up that we just sort of like told them what they wanted to hear, but I don't know. It's concerning. So I can't wait to dive into that with you next week. I'm ready now. Let's do it right now. Just keep going. Yeah, I apologize.
Starting point is 02:02:05 I was really talking a lot this episode because there's so much in my brain and I didn't want to forget it. The short version, you can't really rule out anything yet. I feel like whoever is responsible for this. And I've said it 17 times this episode, but I'll keep coming back to it. familiarity. They've been at this apartment before. They knew the layout. They knew how they lived. This wasn't just some random stranger. It could have been someone who only knew them for a short period of time. But it is my belief that whoever this was had been at that apartment before. And more than likely, they were inside that apartment, at least for the initial period, because they were invited, because they were allowed to be there. I think the rock and the shutters and the clothes being thrown everywhere. I think it's a red herring. At least that's where I sit right now, subject to check. change, but based on what you're telling me, it's starting to go that direction. And I mean, let's say it was the baron. And we heard from Stefano that the baron was interested in Amanda.
Starting point is 02:03:01 So let's say the baron shows up at the apartment looking for Amanda. And Meredith's like, Amanda's at work right now. Yeah, right. And he's like, well, can I come in and wait for her? That's right. And she could have been like, yeah, sure. I mean, I don't know why she would have done that, knowing that Amanda's dating Raphael and they have this relationship for a week. but maybe he was insistent.
Starting point is 02:03:21 Maybe he said that he and Amanda were meeting up. He told her that Amanda planned for him to be there and that she was going to be coming along shortly. Can I just go inside and wait for her? And then it happens. Yes. How often are people coming and going from that residence? Is it a common thing that people are allowed to kind of hang out and chill until other people get home? I don't know.
Starting point is 02:03:39 These are the things we have to talk about. But as far as Amanda's concerned, is there a possibility that she went back to the apartment that night with Raphael and maybe someone else? Yeah, I think it's still on the table. but based on the autopsy itself, it doesn't sound to me like the primary offender was a woman. I can't say it with 100% certain. I agree with you, yes. To a certain degree, it sounds sexual in nature. And it seems like even though the pathologist couldn't nail it down, there was some form of a sexual encounter that had taken place within a reasonable amount of time of her murder.
Starting point is 02:04:08 Consensual or not consensual. Something took place. And clearly that wasn't Amanda. Yes. So that's where I'm at on this one. It's fascinating stuff. Can't wait for part three. this was a long one. Any final words from you?
Starting point is 02:04:20 No. I am really looking forward to next week, though, and I can't wait to hear what everybody thinks about what we've talked about today, specifically the evidence, you know, the window. How important do you guys think the window is? Are you in the camp who believes somebody could have entered through that window, or it's a possible form of entry? Are you kind of with us and the police where it's like, no, it was definitely staged, but why was it staged? Maybe it wasn't staged by Amanda, maybe it was staged by somebody else, but it definitely was staged and what would be the point in doing that and things like that. So I can't wait to hear what you guys think about the evidence we've covered today, and we'll keep it going next week. But this is a,
Starting point is 02:04:58 it's a crazy case and a really chaotic crime scene with a lot of items that are, we really should try to explain why they were there or why somebody would have put them there. And maybe we can go more in depth on that later on in the series. I love going over these cases that most people feel like they know. I didn't know it. And, you know, there were some people who were like, I don't know why you're covering this case is more obscure cases you can cover. This right here is the reason we're covering it,
Starting point is 02:05:27 not only to build up the catalog so we cover all cases that you're familiar with, but because I want to hear about it. I want to hear your perspective on it. And it's our first time experiencing it. So for us, or at least for me, it's new. And I'm really glad we're doing it. So that's going to do it for us, guys. We appreciate you being here.
Starting point is 02:05:44 If you haven't already, because I don't mention it a lot, please like, comment, subscribe, whether you're listening on audio or you're watching on YouTube. We don't mention it a lot. We don't ask for a lot, but we would really appreciate it. It helps out the channel. It gets more exposure on the cases we're covering. So until next week, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Bye.

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