JohnCenaFan28
02-07-2009, 03:48 PM
The friendship between murdered British student Meredith Kercher and her flatmate Amanda Knox had cooled before she was killed, a court has been told.
American Knox, 21, is on trial with her former lover, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, for the murder of the Leeds University student in Perugia, Italy.
Filomena Romanelli, who lived with Knox and Miss Kercher in Perugia, told the court that the two grew apart in the weeks leading up to the brutal murder. Both Knox and Miss Kercher were studying in the Umbrian hilltop town.
"At the start they had a good relationship," she said. "They had no reason not to get along." But their personal interests then diverged, she added, and they drifted apart.
Neither Seattle-born Knox nor Italian Sollecito shed a tear when Miss Kercher's body was discovered, Miss Romanelli said.
Giving evidence at the third hearing of the trial in Perugia, she said the couple did not cry, while most of the others present at the scene did.
Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead on November 2, 2007 in her bedroom in the shared cottage. Her semi-naked body was covered with a duvet and her throat had been cut.
Miss Romanelli described how Knox had phoned her that morning and told her: "There's something strange in the house. The door is open and there's some blood."
Knox, dressed in a purple jumper and blue jeans, smiled at her lawyers and her father as she was escorted into court.
During a break in proceedings she mouthed "Hey!" to her father William "Curt" Knox, who was seated a few rows behind her. He asked her if she was OK and she nodded.
-Nova
American Knox, 21, is on trial with her former lover, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, for the murder of the Leeds University student in Perugia, Italy.
Filomena Romanelli, who lived with Knox and Miss Kercher in Perugia, told the court that the two grew apart in the weeks leading up to the brutal murder. Both Knox and Miss Kercher were studying in the Umbrian hilltop town.
"At the start they had a good relationship," she said. "They had no reason not to get along." But their personal interests then diverged, she added, and they drifted apart.
Neither Seattle-born Knox nor Italian Sollecito shed a tear when Miss Kercher's body was discovered, Miss Romanelli said.
Giving evidence at the third hearing of the trial in Perugia, she said the couple did not cry, while most of the others present at the scene did.
Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead on November 2, 2007 in her bedroom in the shared cottage. Her semi-naked body was covered with a duvet and her throat had been cut.
Miss Romanelli described how Knox had phoned her that morning and told her: "There's something strange in the house. The door is open and there's some blood."
Knox, dressed in a purple jumper and blue jeans, smiled at her lawyers and her father as she was escorted into court.
During a break in proceedings she mouthed "Hey!" to her father William "Curt" Knox, who was seated a few rows behind her. He asked her if she was OK and she nodded.
-Nova