I agree that Amanda's and Raf's innocence doesn't mean they were incapable of suspicious behavior. At the same time I don't believe that just because investigators say something was suspicious then it necessarily was truly suspicious.
When I first starting reading internet fora regarding this case, I read that Raf had called 112 after the arrival of the Postal Police. Despite being convinced he was innocent, I thought that was highly suspicious behavior on his part. Then I read in his report that even Massei didn't believe that claim. In his report, Hellman then completely demolished the idea. [Did Nencini really bring this idea back up having heard no evidence to support the claim? Did he even read the Hellman report?]. Now, the fact that the police/prosecutor have made the claim makes me highly suspicious of their abilities and integrity.
Regarding Raf knowing nothing was missing, usually such statements are suspicious for one of two reasons. Either the statement is true and reveals knowledge that only a guilty part should know or the statement is clearly a lie told to divert the investigator's attention. In my opinion, Raf's statement that nothing was missing doesn't clearly fit into either of those categories. First of all it wasn't true and he would know that it wasn't true if he were guilty. Meredith's phones were in fact missing. From a guilt perspective I guess you could claim that he lied to cover up the fact that he knew something was missing from inside Meredith's locked room. BUT, both Amanda and Raf had spent a considerable amount of time in the apartment before placing the call. My understanding is not much was disturbed and to the extent Amanda had looked around and done an inventory nothing was in fact missing. What exactly is suspicious about stating that?
To whom and when do you believe that statement was suspicious? Who testified that it was suspicious? Was it suspicious to the operator who took the call at the time of the call?
Is there a tape of the call? Did Raf give a spontaneous statement or did he ask Amanda during the call? If so, can her response be heard? Did Raf definitively say nothing was missing or was it more of a not that we can tell? Did they discuss whether anything was missing before the call?
Given the fact that it is clear to me the police cannot be trusted, based on the claim of the timing of the 112 call, without further information about the exact nature of the statement I can't jump to the conclusion that it was suspicious.
I would add to your analysis the fact that Amanda spoke very poor Italian, and since Raffaele's English was better than her Italian, so they mostly spoke in English, but there are numerous confusions caused by Amanda and Raffaele's lack of perfect communication between each other.
E.g., on the way to the police station after Meredith's body was discovered, Amanda & Raffaele drove there with Filomena and her B/F, who had kicked in the door and saw Meredith's foot sticking out from under the duvet.
On the way to the police station the B/F (Marco, or was it Luca?) was telling Raffaele what he had seen in rapid Italian that Amanda couldn't follow, so Raffaele interpreted the conversation for Amanda, which is how Amanda came under the impression that Meredith had been stuffed into her closet with only her foot sticking out, when they apparently had said Meredith was found in front of the closet with her foot sticking out from under the duvet.
Amanda's skewed recounting of the crime scene to the English girls should have been exculpatory evidence since she clearly had never seen the crime scene, but instead Mignini claimed Amanda knew about the crime scene since she had seen it before the door was kicked in. Clearly, Amanda's only knowledge was 3rd-hand thru Raffaele, and Raffaele had used broken English, at that.
In the same vein, Raffaele wouldn't know if anything had been stolen or not, so after seeing Filomena's TV and laptop still there, Amanda likely said something to the effect that "
nothing appears to have been taken."
Raffaele likely innocently interpreted "
nothing appears to have been taken to "
nothing was taken."
As far as I know, Amanda's voice wasn't heard in that recording, perhaps because she told it to Raffaele before he made the call?
Amanda had her own rent money in a drawer in her bedroom, and due to all the confusion, Amanda never checked to see if her own rent money was still there. That would be interesting to know?
If the cops were honest, then Amanda's rent money (if still there) would have been collected and logged, but I've never seen any mention of Amanda's rent money having been found after the murder?
