Amanda Knox Revealed Where She Stands With Meredith Kercher’s Family After They Accused Her of ‘Disrespecting Her Memory’
The death of Meredith Kercher is the subject of a new TV special. Amanda Knox‘s new Hulu series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox shows the aftermath of one of Italy’s most notorious cases.
Meredith Kercher was a 21-year-old British resident who had been studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. She shared a four-bedroom, first-floor apartment in a house with American Amanda Knox, and two Italian women. She was found dead on Nov. 1, 2007, with multiple injuries. An autopsy determined she died of hemorrhagic shock from stab wounds to the neck.
Knox told police that she had returned home earlier that morning after spending the night at her boyfriend’s house when she saw blood on the bathroom floor.
Who killed Meredith Kercher?
The only person who has been convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher was Rudy Guede. He was found guilty after DNA evidence and fingerprints were found at the crime scene of Kercher’s apartment.
Knox was spending the night at Sollecito’s when she came home she saw blood on the bathroom floor. Guede fled the scene, but was ultimately arrested and convicted.
Guede served 13 of 16 years of his prison sentence. His sentence was reduced from 30 years on appeal before he was released early for good behavior in 2021. However, he is currently facing another trial after facing charges of sexual assault and violence against a former girlfriend.
Knox and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder in 2009, but both were exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015. She served four years in prison before being released in 2011.
Although Knox and Sollecito were cleared from the case, Kercher’s family still have hard feelings for Knox, especially in light of the new Hulu series. Stephanie Kercher said that her sister’s “strength and love remains strong after 17 years” and that she “will forever hold a lasting legacy in friendship and kindness that no media can change”.
The family stated that it was “difficult to understand” how the series served purpose. “Meredith will always be remembered for her own fight for life, and yet in her absence, her love and personality continues to shine,” she said. “We will forever feel this indescribable void but we live by Meredith’s standards with dignity
Knox reflected about her decision and that she’s accepted their view of her. “What they’ve conveyed is a distancing from me, but that’s understandable, considering the myriad lies they were told about me,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “Honestly, it’s very common in wrongful conviction cases. But I think about Meredith all the time. She was a young 21-year-old girl who went to Italy to have the best experience of her life. And she didn’t get to go home. We were both just young girls who were trying to live our best lives. So, we are trying to honor that.”
She also revealed that she has been in contact with the family about the situation. “That’s been a really difficult part of this—I’ve never had any direct contact with them,” she told Newsweek. “I’ve always attempted to communicate with them….I have no confirmation that they even know that I’ve ever attempted to contact them.”
“I feel like nothing I could ever say could satisfy them as long as they think that I had something to do with Meredith’s death or know something about it that I’m not telling,” she says. “And like I don’t know what to do or what to say other than I’ve already said everything that I know.”
Kercher’s family lawyer Francesco Maresca, accused Knox of attempting to profit from Kercher’s murder with her book and TV series. In a statement to Newsweek, Maresca said: “In general, neither I nor the Kercher family have been pleased with the initiatives Amanda Knox has undertaken over the years, as they are unjustified and disrespectful of poor Meredith’s memory.”
He continued, “Her behavior has always prevented any rapprochement between Meredith’s family and Knox herself as it was always over the top and extremely excessive. I’m sure they won’t watch the TV drama because once again it is violating the memory of the beautiful girl that Meredith was.”
