in the weeks that followed the murder and the police's "caso chiuso", the forensic understanding of Meredith's murder was transformed. The DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene was tied, not to Amanda and Raffaele, but to a troubled young man from the Ivory Coast called Rudy Guede, who had committed several break-ins in previous weeks and who fled Italy on the night of the crime. He was brought back from Germany, where he was on the run, and accused of the crime.
But for whatever reason, the prosecution continued to insist on the guilt of Amanda and Raffaele. The African barman Amanda had named, who had a watertight alibi, was merely removed from the prosecution's equation, and Guede slotted in to his place.
The murder scenario began to take on dimensions of the absurd. Amanda and Raffaele had been lovers for a mere six days. Rudy was all-but unknown to Amanda, totally unknown to Raffaele, and he had no mobile phone. The idea that the three had arranged to be present together at Meredith and Amanda's house made no sense. Then there was the forensic void: how can you participate in a chaotic, bloody murder without leaving a single trace at the crime scene? Guede's fingerprints were all over Meredith and her room. Of Amanda, by contrast, there was no forensic trace of any sort; Raffaele was betrayed by a single speck of DNA which has been hotly contested by the defence ever since it was brought in evidence.
