Forgotten Victims

The tragic innocents who became side stories to their own brutual murders.

- Lianne La Borde

The murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, 21, in Perugia, Italy, on 2 November 2007, sparked a media frenzy.

Meredith’s body was discovered under a blood-soaked duvet on her bedroom floor. Half-naked, her throat slashed, she’d been sexually assaulted and had 47 injuries. For two days, headlines focused on the kind, innocent student from Coulsdon in Surrey, but then the international media spotlight turned on her housemate Amanda Knox.

The speculation was that US student Knox, then 20, her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, then 23, and a third man forced Meredith to take part in a violent sex game.

The whole world became obsessed with the angelic looking young woman, dubbed Foxy Knoxy, who stood accused of the murder.

Knox, Sollecito, and Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, then 20, were all charged with murder.

Guede was granted a fasttrack trial, and was convicted and jailed.

But then came the real circus of endless trials and appeals…