Amanda Knox acquitted by Italy's highest court after a years-long legal battle over Meredith Kercher's murder

On November 2, 2007, police in Perugia, Italy, were called to a cottage shared by four exchange students. A mobile phone belonging to Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student from Coulsdon, Surrey, had been found in a nearby garden. Inside the house, officers discovered Kercher's body in her bedroom. According to the case file, she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times in the throat.

Present when police arrived was Kercher's American roommate, Amanda Knox, a 20-year-old student from Seattle. Knox initially told officers she had spent the night at her boyfriend's apartment. That boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student, soon became a central figure in the investigation.

A third person, Rudy Guede, an Ivorian national who had been seen around Perugia, was also implicated. Guede was arrested in Germany days after the murder and extradited to Italy.

Police focused on Knox and Sollecito after inconsistencies emerged in their statements. Knox changed her account several times, at one point claiming she had been in the house and heard Kercher scream, then later retracting that, according to the official record. The investigation centered on DNA evidence. Forensic analysis found Knox's DNA on a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and Kercher's DNA on the blade. Sollecito's DNA was reportedly found on Kercher's bra clasp.