done, and especially not young women. as the newest and youngest of the roommates, amanda and meredith found much in common. they also shared a bathroom at one end of the house. they would only know each other for six weeks. it s just so sad. she had by all accounts just a wonderful person. very smart, talented, and well liked and loved girl. meredith kircher was more formal. she was british. she was more fist indicated. she was there with a pack of friends who she knew from the university of leeds, so she was in a more secure place. amanda was like a lone wolf running around basically picking up guys. amanda s free spirit and fresh-faced beauty even helped her get a part-time job. she was recruited to waitress at a bar owned by an african immigrant to italy named patrick
a school that historically teaches italian to foreigners. she became the third of four roommates living together in this little house. two of the roommates were italian. amanda described one as off beat and the other as a bit of a hippie. the third housemate was 21-year-old meredith kircher, a british exchange student. amanda found her exotically beautiful and friendly. next to amanda, however, all three seemed almost reserved. amanda is from seattle. she was considered excentric in seattle, which prides itself on its eccentricities. the way you portrait yourself to the people around you in italy is of extreme importance, but she had this sort of extreme version of being blind and carefree and careless and actually kind of took pride in it, but in italy it s just not done, and especially not young
never met rudy guede. didn t know anything about him. never set eyes on him. he was picked up by police in germany. the initial assumption when rudy guede was extradited back to italy was it was all going to be over. everything pointed to him wresh even had a motive. he had stated in a conversation to the police that, yes, i was there. yeah, i know who amanda is and, no, she wasn t there, and, no, i have never met her boyfriend before. we re all sitting there going, hallelujah. she basically just throw lumumba back out on the street. sorry, we got the wrong black guy. he was released from custody, but his damage was done. his reputation was trashed because of amanda s accusations. i would take back my interrogation. when i think back on it, god, especially right afterwards, right after all of that happened, i wish i wished so much that i had stood up to them. prosecutor menini, however,
this was a case front and center. here she was an american on their soil. some were beginning to question the facts. at least as presented by the italian prosecutor. in italy you can t just go to the court building and say may i have all the court records having to do with this trial. the way it s done there is all the lawyers who are involved and sometimes the police hand to their favored reporters what they want them to have. with amanda in deep legal trouble, her mother arrived in italy. eager to change public opinion about her daughter. there s an innocent person. it s really hard for her. there is no record that connects them to that crime. she told me what had happened to her in the interrogation. you know, she told me, you know, i never confessed to anything. they asked me to imagine possibilities, and, you know, i have now learned that that s a tactic that they use.
getting high and hooking up is like a prerequisite to the college student. to the average american tourist, this looks like an idealic mountain town full of art and churches. if you spent a little time there and you read italian, you start to realize every single headline is about drugs, it s about gang violence. everything looks so calm and tranquil on the surface. it s a lovely little town in italy and terrible evil is being committed. this is something that the tabloids can feast on. amanda knocks never thought she would become fodder for the tabloids. when she arrived in perusia in 2007 as a 20-year-old exchange student italy seemed like a dream come true. she was a junior at the university of washington. she was good with languages, and she decided she was going to take her junior year abroad. she enrolled at the perusia school for foreigners, which is