Continuation Part Six: Discussion of the Amanda Knox/Raffaele Sollecito case

[acbytesla]

Perhaps it would be neater to cool the handle to make it brittle and then smash it, but I have little doubt that the handle could be cut in a myriad of ways and removed from the blade like that. Removing the handle from the blade is not a difficult problem. I think I might give it a shot if we have a knife with an injection molded handle lying around or a plastic handle that was ultrasonically welded to together.

The problem with cutting the plastic at room temperature is that the plastic at that temperature is that it can act like glue and not release from the steel blade. Granted this is all theoretical. It might just come apart easily by cutting along the hemisphere of the handle. I like the idea of freezing the plastic if cutting doesn't work.

 

[Antony]

Well - CO2 has a freezing point which is high enough that it can be maintained as a solid at atmospheric pressure and typical ambient temperatures, so it behaves a lttile like frozen water, but as pointed out, the liquid phase is over such a narrow temperature range at atmospheric that it seems to go from solid to gas instantaneously.

It can be maintained as a liquid at the right combination of pressure and temperature, as can nitrogen, but they're both quite narrow parameters, and difficult to arrange.

No, I don't think even this is right: again, according to Wikipedia, the triple point of CO2 is around 5.2 atmospheres (and -56.6C), meaning that it cannot exist as a liquid at anything below this pressure. Nitrogen is a liquid over a 14C range (between -210C and -196C) at atmospheric pressure.

Sorry to be so exacting. As Tesla points out, this is off-topic. IAC nobody is going to freeze-shatter the plastic handle of the bogus "murder weapon", using either liquid nitrogen or solid CO2.

 

[acbytesla]

No, I don't think even this is right: again, according to Wikipedia, the triple point of CO2 is around 5.2 atmospheres (and -56.6C), meaning that it cannot exist as a liquid at anything below this pressure. Nitrogen is a liquid over a 14C range (between -210C and -196C) at atmospheric pressure.

Sorry to be so exacting. As Tesla points out, this is off-topic. IAC nobody is going to freeze-shatter the plastic handle of the bogus "murder weapon", using either liquid nitrogen or solid CO2.

Yea, you are being exacting. I wish I had just said nitrogen instead of liquid nitrogen. Then this line wouldn't have continued. The knife is worthless. More time and energy has been used talking about a knife that couldn't have been the murder weapon. Frankly, that is shameful. I've said that this just shows how moronic the Perugian police and prosecutors are. But that's not right, it proves just how corrupt they are. It also proves just how gullible people are..particularly the press and of course their readers..

 

[Supernaut]

No, I don't think even this is right: again, according to Wikipedia, the triple point of CO2 is around 5.2 atmospheres (and -56.6C), meaning that it cannot exist as a liquid at anything below this pressure. Nitrogen is a liquid over a 14C range (between -210C and -196C) at atmospheric pressure.

Sorry to be so exacting. As Tesla points out, this is off-topic. IAC nobody is going to freeze-shatter the plastic handle of the bogus "murder weapon", using either liquid nitrogen or solid CO2.

Safe to say - the principles are understood, and thank you for the pusch for clarity and exactitude.

As you say, off-topic (mostly) and a distraction.

Ever onward.

 

[billyryan]

I think it's also that a lot of people just don't want to look into it too deeply, so they see "she knows something" as a reasonable half-way position to take. Probably the same wilful ignorance informing the other positions you mention, come to think of it.

You're probably wise not to speculate - pretty much nothing would surprise me at this point:

The ISC gambled everything on the new tests on the knife and lost,this is a world famous case,the court in Florence will just have the same evidence to look at that Hellmann did and acquitted,the new judge has no reason to open himself up to international ridicule by convicting on the same evidence Hellmann acquitted,not possible I say without some new evidence (planted or otherwise)Raffaele and Amanda to be acquitted for the second time

 

[acbytesla]

The ISC gambled everything on the new tests on the knife and lost,this is a world famous case,the court in Florence will just have the same evidence to look at that Hellmann did and acquitted,the new judge has no reason to open himself up to international ridicule by convicting on the same evidence Hellmann acquitted,not possible I say without some new evidence (planted or otherwise)Raffaele and Amanda to be acquitted for the second time

You seem to be making the same mistake I have made over and over again. That is of course thinking that this particular judge/jury cares about international ridicule.

These judges live in the poisoned well which is Italy and while I'd like to think that the majority of Italians are now convinced of Amanda's innocence, I'm not sure that is the case. Remember the yelling of "shame" outside the courtroom in Italy after Amanda's acquittal? Also the media in Italy has not exactly been in Amanda's corner.

I hope you are right, logic tells me you are right. But recent history in Italy makes me afraid that you are not. knock on wood.

 

[Antony]

I guess we both have small minds Bill, because that is exactly what I think happened.

There is a reason that the EDFs have never been provided and never will be. And that is to keep the power in the hands of the police and the prosecution. They are trying to protect the process, not necessarily get Rudy or Amanda. Their system is in desperate need of reform and they all know it. But they are naturally afraid of what changes that reform will bring and how it effects them.

That hits the nail on the head. Of course, the whole project of protecting the system stemmed from the need to justify the arrests of November 6th. "Oh what a tangled web we weave ..."

 

[acbytesla]

That hits the nail on the head. Of course, the whole project of protecting the system stemmed from the need to justify the arrests of November 6th. "Oh what a tangled web we weave ..."

If they hadn't made such a big deal out of the arrests. Not held a massive International press conference declaring to the world "case closed" they would have probably walked this back. They wouldn't have been so vested in the "guilty" verdict. Once the press ran away with it, any walking it back became impossible. Far too many important people would have had egg on their faces.

They really missed an opportunity when they released Patrick Lumumba, They should have let Amanda and Raffaele go, but then they didn't have a confession out of Patrick. Not that Amanda's statement was a even close to a confession.

I can see how at first that they would have suspected Amanda and Raffaele. But people have to make adjustments to new information. The moment in particular when they found out that Raffaele's sneakers DIDN'T match the shoe prints that they were so convinced that they did, they should have let them both go. But by then, they were giving interviews to the press around the world. They had become more important than they had ever been. It's heady stuff. Intoxicating, to feel important, this would have not only popped their balloon, it would have been to embarrassing to take.

It was too late, their hearts and mind were hardened. They had to be guilty. they could not be innocent.

 

[Mary_H]

I can only return to my own small-minded conspiracy about this.....

The knife, at collection, was never intended to make it to trial.

Here's Raffaele's account of the knife's collection, Honor Bound, p. 64.

My suspicious little mind holds that on the first day this knife was not intended to link Amanda to the crime. It was to show Raffaele in the most gaudy way possible the length they would go to link him to the crime.

And when Raffaele (eventually) did not budge from "we're both innocent", and has held that to this day, that knife then was pressed into service as courtroom evidence.

I also small-mindedly think that Stefanoni's analysis of the knife was tailored, really, so that her results could go either way. If Raffaele had ratted out Amanda, and some future mirror-universe-FOA needed to debunk Raffaele's tales of Knox's guilt; with the mirror-universe-FOA's making copious reference to that knife!.....

...... it would have been Mignini and company perhaps joining in with the mirror-universe-FOAs saying that Stefanoni's analysis really means nothing. It would have been Mignini entering evidence in court that it had been starch on the blade!

And both prosecution AND defence in that mirror-universe would have stonewalled the tests on that knife at all costs; just like at Rudy's trial in the real-universe no one contested the multiple attacker scenario - not prosecution and certainly not Rudy's lawyers!

That knife is very flexible when one considers it's value as "evidence".<snip>

I don't think this is quite right, Bill. When they acquired the knife, they still had Raffaele's shoes, but they had no physical evidence of Amanda. They had already shown her the knives in her house so, in their stupidity, they probably thought they shouldn't use one of those.

 

[acbytesla]

I don't think this is quite right, Bill. When they acquired the knife, they still had Raffaele's shoes, but they had no physical evidence of Amanda. They had already shown her the knives in her house so, in their stupidity, they probably thought they shouldn't use one of those.

Had they actually matched Raff's shoes to the shoe prints at this point Mary?

DNA matches in so many people's minds is game over. As for the knives in the cottage, Amanda's DNA on any of them is not suspicious, just as Amanda's DNA pretty much throughout her own home is not really suspicious. Having a knife from Raffaele's and the victims DNA is really incriminating even if the knife is beyond absurd from a murder taken place blocks away.

 

[Grinder]

I don't think this is quite right, Bill. When they acquired the knife, they still had Raffaele's shoes, but they had no physical evidence of Amanda. They had already shown her the knives in her house so, in their stupidity, they probably thought they shouldn't use one of those.

Not only did they have the shoes but they had the bloody footprint on the bathmat. Had they wanted to scare Raf it would have been much smarter to have said it was on one of his tactical knives or at least a smaller knife that would have fit all the wounds and the the sheet print.

Had they actually matched Raff's shoes to the shoe prints at this point Mary?

DNA matches in so many people's minds is game over. As for the knives in the cottage, Amanda's DNA on any of them is not suspicious, just as Amanda's DNA pretty much throughout her own home is not really suspicious. Having a knife from Raffaele's and the victims DNA is really incriminating even if the knife is beyond absurd fro a murder taken place blocks away.

Yes, they had matched the shoes incorrectly at that time and most likely the bath mat print. Having Meredith's DNA and blood on any knife would be really damning.

I don't in any way believe in the grand conspiracy. Some people live in a world where pure faith in unknown things is required.

 

[acbytesla]

Not only did they have the shoes but they had the bloody footprint on the bathmat. Had they wanted to scare Raf it would have been much smarter to have said it was on one of his tactical knives or at least a smaller knife that would have fit all the wounds and the the sheet print.


Yes, they had matched the shoes incorrectly at that time and most likely the bath mat print. Having Meredith's DNA and blood on any knife would be really damning.

I don't in any way believe in the grand conspiracy. Some people live in a world where pure faith in unknown things is required.

These are all good points Grinder. And I'm very skeptical of conspiracy theories as well. Never the less, I think "group think" is a very real phenomenon. And that people with common goals and attitudes often work in concert with each other. Does it constitute a a conspiracy when a group of people on their own cross the line between ethical and not so ethical behavior?

My closest friend in the world is a Seattle Police Officer and he has often spoken how the old timer cops would handle a petty crime or someone misbehaving. No arrest, no trial. just a bit of beat down to make the criminal knows who's in charge. The old timers would say that was better than the judicial and proper way that things happen today. But even he admits that makes the system ripe for abuses.

The idea of the police trying to trick suspects into breaking down and confessing is not really that unusual. In fact it has been a strategy in obtaining confessions almost forever. This was just another trick that didn't work.

But of course I could be wrong. But in my opinion, this is why the knife blade DNA is so equivocal.

 

[Grinder]

These are all good points Grinder. And I'm very skeptical of conspiracy theories as well. Never the less, I think "group think" is a very real phenomenon. And that people with common goals and attitudes often work in concert with each other. Does it constitute a a conspiracy when a group of people on their own cross the line between ethical and not so ethical behavior?

I I think I agree with your point. I think that taking the knife to con Raf into spilling the beans on Amanda goes beyond people with common goals. I'm not sure about the group that cross the line.

My closest friend in the world is a Seattle Police Officer and he has often spoken how the old timer cops would handle a petty crime or someone misbehaving. No arrest, no trial. just a bit of beat down to make the criminal knows who's in charge. The old timers would say that was better than the judicial and proper way that things happen today. But even he admits that makes the system ripe for abuses.

I'm sure he is relating the past accurately. I don't see keeping their mouths shut about some rough play as in the same arena as faking DNA on a "murder" weapon.

The idea of the police trying to trick suspects into breaking down and confessing is not really that unusual. In fact it has been a strategy in obtaining confessions almost forever. This was just another trick that didn't work.

But of course I could be wrong. But in my opinion, this is why the knife blade DNA is so equivocal.

This I don't buy. Why not grab a knife that was a match to something? Volturno didn't play the party line with his testimony about Quintavalle and Curatolo. Too many people involved for me.

Of course they would lie to them while questioning but faking evidence is on another plane.

 

[Planigale]

One of the most infuriating things for any scientist reading about this case is the dreadful parody of science carried out by the Italian Police. The poor standards of securing the site, preserving the evidence, delaying the measurement of liver temperature, poor and inadequate investigation e.g. no fibre analysis. I think if this had occurred in the UK there would have been a national scandal there would have been call in parliament for 'something must be done'. I think this is in its way more important than the fate of an individual. I can not understand why Italy is not having an inquiry into the quality of forensic science.

Naively when I first read about this I thought that those who thought Amanda Knox guilty would agree the investigation was inadequate, since clearly better evidence would favour conviction if she was guilty. The absolute denial that the investigation was faulty made me realise that these people had an irrational conviction (pun intended) in Ms. Knox's guilt. It seems to me the desire is to have the fewest facts to allow the greatest latitude for fantasy.

The problem with the argument about the faked burglary is to paraphrase Asimov any sufficiently sophisticated fake is indistinguishable from reality. Whether the stone is thrown from inside or outside it could still be 'faked', clothes scattered before or after glass breaking could still be a fake. That is why it must be incumbent on the prosecution not merely to assert but to prove that the break in was a sham. But almost no investigation was done. So there is no evidence.

So I find the whole thing depressing. Those of you who have had the enthusiasm and determination to have argued for justice for Knox and Solecito over the years have my admiration. The fact that this has dragged on for so long is a tragedy. The pursuit of AK and RS having convicted Guede seems inexplicable to me. I just cannot conceive how this happened. Still as we are on JREF I guess we all accept that thinking rationally is not natural for humans, and needs hard work.

I just hope this is over soon allowing people to look forward and not be trapped in this nightmare.

 

[Dan O.]

Not only did they have the shoes but they had the bloody footprint on the bathmat. Had they wanted to scare Raf it would have been much smarter to have said it was on one of his tactical knives or at least a smaller knife that would have fit all the wounds and the the sheet print.

They did:

• 2007-11-05 21:11 GMT BBC News - Monday
  Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, is thought to have been stabbed with a pocket knife.
  Police believe she was stabbed with a penknife sometime after 10pm.
• 2007-11-07 Mirror - Ryan Parry In Perugia
  The murder weapon - thought to be a pocket knife - was still being hunted.
• 2007-11-08 Ryan Parry In Perugia
  Knox's confession came as forensic experts were last night carrying out tests on a flick knife found at the home of her 24-year-old boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. Police believe it was used to slash Meredith's throat.
• 2007-11-09 19:04 GMT BBC News - Friday
  Police allege Mr Lumumba entered Miss Kercher's room to have sex, during which something went wrong. They believe Mr Sollecito went in to join them and pulled out a knife.
• 2007-11-09 Mail
  The judge [Matteini] added that a flick knife found in his possession with an 8.5cm blade and which was compatible with the wound in Meredith's throat was also of significance.
• 2007-11-09 Mirror.co.uk
  Judge Claudia Matteini: "She was then threatened with a knife, which Sollecito always carried with him, and with which Meredith was stabbed in the neck."
• 2007-11-12 Mirror
  A telephone call between Meredith murder suspect Raffaele Sollecito and his father revealed the 23-year-old carries a knife. In the conversation intercepted by police on November 5 - the day before he was held - Sollecito's father Franco says: "Raffaele don't walk about with a knife. If the police find it on you, who knows what they may think?"
• 2007-11-13 The New York Times - IAN FISHER
  Concerning Mr. Sollecito, the police say that they found a footprint from Nike sneakers that match his, and that a pocketknife he carried could have been the murder weapon. :His lawyer, Mr. Brusco, says he is waiting for the laboratory reports. “If there is no blood on the sneakers and no blood on the knife, there is no proof,” he said.

Note in particular the timing of the intercepted phone call and when this story of the presumed murder weapon first appears. The lawyers were watching Ms. BS in BS Stefanoni very closely on this one and she couldn't deliver. They had to find a different knife that could be tested while nobody was paying attention.

 

[acbytesla]

I'm sure he is relating the past accurately. I don't see keeping their mouths shut about some rough play as in the same arena as faking DNA on a "murder" weapon.

Really??? Well you may be right, but who faked the DNA? Not the cop who collected it. He was just part of the threat. The person who faked it was someone else entirely. He wouldn't have had knowledge of that part. From his perspective, they just hit the LOTTO.

This I don't buy. Why not grab a knife that was a match to something? Volturno didn't play the party line with his testimony about Quintavalle and Curatolo. Too many people involved for me.

I can understand that. But Volturno wasn't involved and I don't think it was a conspiracy just a couple of people who believed in Amanda's guilt and each acted on their own. This is far more likely than them colluding to obtain a conviction. If their is any real collusion, it involves Stefanoni and maybe one other person.

[/QUOTE]
Of course they would lie to them while questioning but faking evidence is on another plane.[/QUOTE]
There is only one person I think actually did fake evidence. Whether or not she discussed with anyone is a question I have.

 

[Bill Williams]

I can only return to my own small-minded conspiracy about this.....

The knife, at collection, was never intended to make it to trial.

Here's Raffaele's account of the knife's collection, Honor Bound, p. 64.

My suspicious little mind holds that on the first day this knife was not intended to link Amanda to the crime. It was to show Raffaele in the most gaudy way possible the length they would go to link him to the crime.

And when Raffaele (eventually) did not budge from "we're both innocent", and has held that to this day, that knife then was pressed into service as courtroom evidence.

I also small-mindedly think that Stefanoni's analysis of the knife was tailored, really, so that her results could go either way. If Raffaele had ratted out Amanda, and some future mirror-universe-FOA needed to debunk Raffaele's tales of Knox's guilt; with the mirror-universe-FOA's making copious reference to that knife!.....

...... it would have been Mignini and company perhaps joining in with the mirror-universe-FOAs saying that Stefanoni's analysis really means nothing. It would have been Mignini entering evidence in court that it had been starch on the blade!

And both prosecution AND defence in that mirror-universe would have stonewalled the tests on that knife at all costs; just like at Rudy's trial in the real-universe no one contested the multiple attacker scenario - not prosecution and certainly not Rudy's lawyers!

That knife is very flexible when one considers it's value as "evidence".<snip>

I don't think this is quite right, Bill. When they acquired the knife, they still had Raffaele's shoes, but they had no physical evidence of Amanda. They had already shown her the knives in her house so, in their stupidity, they probably thought they shouldn't use one of those.

With respect, Mary_H, by the time they dragged Raffaele back to his apartment and grabbed the knife from his kitchen, I think they knew Raffaele's Nike's were no match for the shoe print in Meredith's room. The PLE may have been exhausted and may have been in a rush to judgement, but they can count.

Raffaele surrendered his Nikes early - and it does not take THAT long to count rings. In fact, I suspect that the line about Raffaele in the 5:45 am memorandum s reflective of the fact his Nikes had not panned out, and that they'd better do something to scare him.

The text in the 5:45 am memorandum is roughly, "I am not sure if Raffaele was there as well that night but I clearly remember that I woke up at my boyfriend’s home, in his bed and that I came back home in the morning when I found the door of the apartment open. When I woke up in the morning of November 2nd I was in bed with my boyfriend."

The "I am not sure" about Raffaele, to me and my small minded conspiratorial brain, is written for Amanda - in flawless Italian. The writers had perhaps just been informed that the Nike prints did not match, therefore like Stefanoni did with the knife - keeping it potentially both in as well as out of play - they had to leave that line in to keep Raffaele both in and out of play depending on his cooperation.

Which of course he did not.

Can ANYONE describe the advantage to Raffaele for him to adopt an, "I am innocent and so is Amanda" position throughout? They tried to scare him with that knife - it partially worked - he made some unfortunate comments about Meredith perhaps pricking her finger on it. But as trial went on.... all four of them!!!!.... Raffaele has been rock solid behind the truth.

What is the guilter scenario which would explain that!?

 

[acbytesla]

They did:

• 2007-11-05 21:11 GMT BBC News - Monday
  Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, is thought to have been stabbed with a pocket knife.
  Police believe she was stabbed with a penknife sometime after 10pm.
• 2007-11-07 Mirror - Ryan Parry In Perugia
  The murder weapon - thought to be a pocket knife - was still being hunted.
• 2007-11-08 Ryan Parry In Perugia
  Knox's confession came as forensic experts were last night carrying out tests on a flick knife found at the home of her 24-year-old boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. Police believe it was used to slash Meredith's throat.
• 2007-11-09 19:04 GMT BBC News - Friday
  Police allege Mr Lumumba entered Miss Kercher's room to have sex, during which something went wrong. They believe Mr Sollecito went in to join them and pulled out a knife.
• 2007-11-09 Mail
  The judge [Matteini] added that a flick knife found in his possession with an 8.5cm blade and which was compatible with the wound in Meredith's throat was also of significance.
• 2007-11-09 Mirror.co.uk
  Judge Claudia Matteini: "She was then threatened with a knife, which Sollecito always carried with him, and with which Meredith was stabbed in the neck."
• 2007-11-12 Mirror
  A telephone call between Meredith murder suspect Raffaele Sollecito and his father revealed the 23-year-old carries a knife. In the conversation intercepted by police on November 5 - the day before he was held - Sollecito's father Franco says: "Raffaele don't walk about with a knife. If the police find it on you, who knows what they may think?"
• 2007-11-13 The New York Times - IAN FISHER
  Concerning Mr. Sollecito, the police say that they found a footprint from Nike sneakers that match his, and that a pocketknife he carried could have been the murder weapon. :His lawyer, Mr. Brusco, says he is waiting for the laboratory reports. “If there is no blood on the sneakers and no blood on the knife, there is no proof,” he said.

Note in particular the timing of the intercepted phone call and when this story of the presumed murder weapon first appears. The lawyers were watching Ms. BS in BS Stefanoni very closely on this one and she couldn't deliver. They had to find a different knife that could be tested while nobody was paying attention.

All of these articles are referring to the "flick" or pocket knife that Raffaele carried. I think they seized one of these the night that he was interrogated. We are discussing the large cooking knife seized from his flat. Totally different kettle of fish.

 

[Bill Williams]

They did:

• 2007-11-05 21:11 GMT BBC News - Monday
  Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, is thought to have been stabbed with a pocket knife.
  Police believe she was stabbed with a penknife sometime after 10pm.
• 2007-11-07 Mirror - Ryan Parry In Perugia
  The murder weapon - thought to be a pocket knife - was still being hunted.
• 2007-11-08 Ryan Parry In Perugia
  Knox's confession came as forensic experts were last night carrying out tests on a flick knife found at the home of her 24-year-old boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. Police believe it was used to slash Meredith's throat.
• 2007-11-09 19:04 GMT BBC News - Friday
  Police allege Mr Lumumba entered Miss Kercher's room to have sex, during which something went wrong. They believe Mr Sollecito went in to join them and pulled out a knife.
• 2007-11-09 Mail
  The judge [Matteini] added that a flick knife found in his possession with an 8.5cm blade and which was compatible with the wound in Meredith's throat was also of significance.
• 2007-11-09 Mirror.co.uk
  Judge Claudia Matteini: "She was then threatened with a knife, which Sollecito always carried with him, and with which Meredith was stabbed in the neck."
• 2007-11-12 Mirror
  A telephone call between Meredith murder suspect Raffaele Sollecito and his father revealed the 23-year-old carries a knife. In the conversation intercepted by police on November 5 - the day before he was held - Sollecito's father Franco says: "Raffaele don't walk about with a knife. If the police find it on you, who knows what they may think?"
• 2007-11-13 The New York Times - IAN FISHER
  Concerning Mr. Sollecito, the police say that they found a footprint from Nike sneakers that match his, and that a pocketknife he carried could have been the murder weapon. :His lawyer, Mr. Brusco, says he is waiting for the laboratory reports. “If there is no blood on the sneakers and no blood on the knife, there is no proof,” he said.

Note in particular the timing of the intercepted phone call and when this story of the presumed murder weapon first appears. The lawyers were watching Ms. BS in BS Stefanoni very closely on this one and she couldn't deliver. They had to find a different knife that could be tested while nobody was paying attention.

All of these articles are referring to the "flick" or pocket knife that Raffaele carried. I think they seized one of these the night that he was interrogated. We are discussing the large cooking knife seized from his flat. Totally different kettle of fish.

It's stunning to read through the earliest press reports about the presumed knife.... no mention at all of the kitchen knife, really.

It's one thing what the press reports.... but I still maintain that the cops knew the Nikes were not Raffaele probably within minutes of him surrendering his at interrogation. The 5:45 am memorandum keeps is suspected role in this in limbo. Byt the time they drag Raffaele back to his apartment, it was now time to show him what they were intending - cooperation or they'd throw the whole shooting match at him.

Then, surprise, they later find Amanda's touch DNA on the handle. Stefanoni reports that the speck on the blade is so small that it can only tolerate one test - so she chooses the test to find out the speck's owner; necessitating the destruction of the speck forever as to what it was.

It turned out, Stefanoni alleged, to be Meredith's. Meredith's "what" is the question, but blood can be ruled out.

But reading through Dan O.'s summary.... the cops eventually drop Raffaele's flick knife, and drop his Nikes. Was there ANYTHING early on which did not collapse?

 

[Dan O.]

All of these articles are referring to the "flick" or pocket knife that Raffaele carried. I think they seized one of these the night that he was interrogated. We are discussing the large cooking knife seized from his flat. Totally different kettle of fish.

A large cooking knife that doesn't match any of the wounds in Meredith unless you lie about the pathologists report. A knife that doesn't match the imprint in the victims blood found in the murder room. A knife that has no legitimate means of being transported to and from the scene. If this were a murder-mystery the author would be rightfully lynched by his fans.