Forensic expert says a single attacker killed Meredith Kercher, explains why
SEATTLE, Wash. -- Forensic Engineer Ron Hendry, who has used a specialized technique of reconstructing scenes using photos, concluded after a careful and thorough analysis of what happened to Meredith Kercher the night she was murdered, as well as the break in, that Meredith was killed by a lone strong male attacker wielding a knife, who quicklky overpowered and mortally wounded her.
Amanda Knox, who left Seattle, Wash., to study in Perugia, Italy, is one of three people convicted of killing Meredith and is serving a 26-year prison sentence there. She is currently appealing the court's decision.
Hendry is an engineer whose specialty is accident reconstruction, involving the same techniques police use to reconstruct a homicide. He has analyzed upwards of 2,000 cases and has interfaced with and reviewed the work of police investigators on many of them.
His professional focus, for many years, has been to study photographs and other evidence and produce detailed reports that show exactly what happened. He starts by creating a precise map of the scene. Then he examines photos to trace the sequence of events that unfolded across that map.
Ron was given hundreds of photos and several hours of video taken at the Meredith Kercher murder scene. He analyzed them point by point over a number of weeks. He then applied his methodology to build the reconstruction summarized below.
Nobody asked Ron to get involved in this case, and he is not being compensated. He stepped forward because he was intrigued by the media coverage and wanted to figure out what was really behind it.
Ron Hendry said, "I had extensive experience at reconstructing complex incidents, evaluating police investigations and reports, evaluating opposing experts’ investigations and reports, and evaluating witness statements and testimony. I have also extensive experience in evaluating and reconstructing complex incidents from photos. Finally, I have had some success in finding glaring errors and mistakes on the part of the investigations and analysis by both the police and opposing expert investigators.
In my view, there are three primary victims in this matter – Meredith Kercher, Raffaele Sollecito, and Amanda Knox. Also victimized are their respective families and loved ones. After many months of review, I have come to hold Meredith, Raffaele, and Amanda in very high regard. I would have felt blessed to have had any one or all as a grandchild."
Below is a news release issued November 22, detailing Hendry's analysis and conclusion.
Reconstruction shows the details of what happened
Dallas, TX— November 22, 2010 — As Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito prepare to appeal their convictions for murdering Meredith Kercher, a forensic expert has stepped forward with a detailed and precise reconstruction of the crime.
Ron Hendry is blunt in his conclusion: "Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito would never have been regarded as persons of interest – much less suspects – had the police correctly done their job from the start," he says.
Hendry is a forensic engineer whose specialty is accident reconstruction. He has analyzed upwards of 2,000 civil cases and testified many times with regard to his opinions. He has interfaced with and reviewed the work of police investigators on many cases.
"Typically, with major accidents, the police have little time to spend on a job before having to move on," Hendry explains. "I come behind them and usually spend a great deal more time. In cases that occurred months or years before I was brought in, the most relevant evidence is a set of photos of the accident scene. My technique is to study these photos intensely and then acquire enough information to do a scale layout. My approach is to analyze and interpret the physical evidence and review how it corresponds with witness accounts. I never start with witness accounts in any analysis."
Hendry has studied photos and videos from the Meredith Kercher murder scene, and he has applied his reconstruction methodology to figure out exactly what happened. Meredith was killed inside a small room with a regular grid of floor tiles – a setting well suited to Hendry's approach.
"I made a scale layout of the room, using the floor tiles to determine the exact location of bloodstains and other elements of the crime scene," he explains. "I took a slow, methodical approach. I spent dozens of hours poring over the photos, looking at the details that reveal what happened."
Hendry ended up with a reconstruction that shows precisely where and how Meredith and her attacker were positioned in the room at every phase of the brief struggle that ended her life. The confrontation began next to the bed, he says. Meredith stood up, the attacker seized her, and he quickly established a secure grip from behind her, with a knife blade pointed at the right side of her neck. During this initial struggle, they tripped over a small rug.
The first stab wounds were shallow, and Hendry thinks the assailant may not have intended to kill her at that point. Something happened, however, to escalate the violence. Meredith and her attacker spun diagonally across the room. A violent struggle ensued next to the only window in the tiny room, during which the assailant tore at Meredith's hair. Then, the unspeakable happened. The attacker forced Meredith to her knees and plunged his knife up to the hilt in the left side of her throat.
"It is obvious that this attack was the work of one enraged man, who acted entirely alone," says Hendry. He explains that in such a tiny space, the presence of multiple attackers would have been easy to detect, because they could not have avoided stepping in blood. They would also have blocked some of the blood spatter that ended up on the floor and on the door of the wardrobe closet.
In reconstructing the murder, Hendry also uncovered a stunning forensic blunder made by police. "I determined that blood stains found under the bed, 47 days after the crime, could not have been deposited when Meredith was killed, because there were objects in the way."
The police knew this, says Hendry, but they made a fundamental mistake in their analysis. They concluded that the objects were put there after the murder to cover those blood stains, as part of a staging activity. But Hendry's analysis revealed that the truth is quite different.
"The police created these bloodstains themselves," he says. "Photos show that they ransacked the room after the murder, and they carelessly tossed a pair of blood-soaked boots under the bed with other footwear.
"When they removed this footwear from under the bed, they found the stains made by blood that had not yet dried when the boots were moved and had dripped onto the floor. They looked at pictures taken the day Meredith was found, saw that a shopping bag was covering the floor at the spot where the stains were located, and jumped to exactly the wrong conclusion."
It was a useful error for the prosecution, Hendry notes, because it helped them frame two innocent people. They submitted a police report containing the grossly misinterpreted stain analysis to the court, and it became part of the evidence through which Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted.
Hendry says the key to understanding what happened to Meredith lies in an outside-in approach – looking at the big picture before trying to determine the meaning of each detail. The overall view of the Meredith Kercher murder scene is that of a burglary that turned into a robbery assault and finally became a sexual assault and murder.
"Every element of this crime scene points to an outside intruder," says Hendry. "For starters, the forced entry was real, not staged. I have looked at many accidents involving broken windows, and the spray of glass on the floor shows clearly that this window was broken exactly the way it appears, by someone heaving a rock from outside."
Hendry says a close examination of the details supports the view that Meredith inadvertently walked in on a burglary. Crime scene photos show a fleece jacket turned inside-out and soaked with blood, indicating that she had not had time to remove it after arriving home. Phone records show that she made an aborted call to her mother in the UK just after the time her friend walked her home, which Hendry cites as further evidence that the attack took place minutes, if not seconds, after she stepped through the door. Finally, the strength and leverage needed to inflict the elongated wound in Meredith's neck, along with the torn bra straps, suggest she was attacked by an enraged male.
"It was a brutal, depraved murder," says Hendry. "Unfortunately, the killer, Rudy Guede, has escaped full accountability for this horrible crime because two innocent persons have been convicted along with him."
How certain is Hendry that his analysis is correct? He puts it this way:
"In my profession, opposing expert reports and opinions are commonplace. But in this case, there's little room for doubt.
"I believe I have solved the mystery of what happened to Meredith Kercher. I can fully explain and document every detail of my analysis."
Comments
Is this a new "expert" from Taxas friend of Mellas famiy that lives in Texas, such as Knox's stepfather (Chris Robert Mellas) sister - Deanna J. Kaufman?
So, everybody in Texas knows everybody in Texas? You may be surprised to know it's a pretty big place. How many Italys can you fit inside of Texas?
Still batting for the home team Isabelle?
No need to answer, the question was rhetorical and the answer has already been provided many times.
Oops, my fault, I forgot to say...
Knox is clearly innocent...as good old Ron says so.
The appeal's starting soon, when are you flying him out?
Soon Michael, someone must present the truth.
ha ha ha ha ha another good one.
Rag - one thing is certain, it won't be you presenting the truth. I've read your cut and paste nonsense all over the internet. An hour reading reliable information about this case shows that everything you say has been shown to be absolute nonsense. You know, reliable information presented by professional people who use their own names and put their own reputations behind what they say -- not cowards who hide behind slang words for a "cigarette." So go grab a Harry Rag, HarryRag, and read the facts of this case -- you might learn something. Then again, probably not.
This is interesting, but I would like to hear this expert's opinion on how Meredith's dna got on Sollecito's knife tip, and how Sollecito's dna got on Meredith's bra clasp? Does he think it was contamination, or planted evidence? It is just so hard for me to believe that all these people would conspire to frame two innocent people for no apparent reason. They already have a killer in jail, what are they gaining by framing someone?
Face.
AOG3
You're absolutely right. They didn't seem to be too worried about saving face when they let Lumumba go, either, did they?
Why did they frame innocent people? Because before they had the guilty person in jail, they had declared the case closed. If they had to let everybody go, they would have had to admit their expert opinions of guilt from just observing their suspects were completely wrong! That they weren't experts at all. As for the other questions, they have been answered by other experts such as DNA experts who have been clear and concise about how the amounts of DNA were too low for reliable testing and were almost certainly the result of contamination. There is video of the improper handling of the bra clasp by investigators. Ron Hendry is a reconstruction expert. Unlike the HarryRags of the world, he comments on things withing his own expertise.
It's easy why they framed them. I totally believe they know that Rudy is the one who did this, but he has been an informant for them that is why he gotr away with 2 robbery's and 1 attempted one with a bartender with a scuffle with a knife, and nothing was done about it. By the way 6 days before Meredith's murder Rudy broke into a day care center and was caught and they found a knife he had taken from them, but all the police did was take him back to Perugia so he could do it to someone over there which eventually was poor Meredith. If the police would of taken the actions against this monster this would NOT be going on today and Meredith would still be here, and Amanda and Raffaele's family and friends would not be going through this.
Great article Isabelle! Thanks so much.
Ron Hendry's detailed analysis is fully available on injusticeinperugia dot org. Important in his analysis is a photo of the duvet that was found on top of the victim. It clearly shows blood stains. One of the lies put out there in the past has been that somebody had come to the crime scene well after the murder and placed the duvet over the victim. To support this they claim that the duvet had not come into contact with liquid blood. The photo clearly shows that it had.
Police officials had also claimed that placing a duvet over a victim was a sign of a female killer. Barbie Nadeau in her hate filled book, Angel Face, claimed that criminologists "overwhelmingly" say this. Why didn't members of the media ask for an example of another crime where this has happened or for an expert who had said this before the Meredith Kercher murder.
The trial of Amanda Knox was a show trial and a kangaroo court that has shamed all of Italy.
FYI that website is paid for by Amanda Knox's Dad.
This is such an interesting article! It is a fascinating analysis of what happened in this tragic murder. I can hardly believe the police forensic team made such a careless mistake during their work? How in the world did they let that happen?? Really shoddy work.
I hope this will be looked into further. I hope Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will find their freedom in the appeal. This has clearly been a terrible wrongful conviction.
How on earth did they let it happen that they've made this poor old ocdger look really stupid. This is not his sphere of expertise. It's a very poor joke and doesn't advance Amanda's appeal by a hair's breadth.
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming. They gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they were doing on the night of the murder. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis despite three attempts each. All the other people who were questioned had one credible alibi that could be verified. Innocent people don't give multiple conflicting alibis and lie repeatedly to the police.
The DNA didn't miraculously deposit itself in the most incriminating of places.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Judge Massei pointed to the extremely clear RFU peaks associated with the DNA test, the lowest of which was 30% higher than the RFU test widely used for minimum reliability and the highest of which was more than 200% higher. Of the 17 loci tested in the sample, Sollecito's profile matched 17 out of 17. Dr. Torricelli for the Kerchers affirmed that the alleles (peaks) in the sample constituted the biological profile of Raffaele Sollecito.
According to Sollecito's forensic expert, Professor Vinci, Knox's DNA was on Meredith's bra.
Amanda Knox's DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
There were five instances of Knox's DNA mixed with Meredith's blood in three different locations in the cottage.
Knox tracked Meredith's blood into the bathroom, the hallway, her room and Filomena's room, where the break-in was staged. Knox's DNA and Meredith's blood was found mixed together in Filomena's room, in a bare bloody footprint in the hallway and in three places in the bathroom.
Rudy Guede's bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith's room and out of the house. This means that he didn't stage the break-in in Filomena's room or go into the blood-spattered bathroom after Meredith had been stabbed.
Sollecito left a visible bloody footprint on the blue bathmat in the bathroom. Knox's and Sollecito's bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway.
It's not a coincidence that the three people - Knox, Sollecito and Guede - who kept telling the police a pack of lies are all implicated by the DNA and forensic evidence.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she was involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007.
Blah, Blah, Blah................and more blah, blah, blah.
Harry, it's time to put down the crack pipe!!!!!!
Shall we discuss your age Harry? Because your identity is very clear to quite a few of us.. :)
Harry Rag,
In the D7S820 locus of the bra clasp, one observes three alleles, with repeat lengths of 8, 10, and 11. Amanda is homozygous for 9 repeats at this locus. Why do you say that Amanda's DNA was present?
The finding of Amanda's DNA in her sink has to be one of the least surprising results in this whole case. It is not proof of anything beyond Amanda's living at her own apartment.
Harry Rag,
It is wrong to describe the DNA profile attributed to Raffaele ia abundant. It is only 100-200 picograms, and this falls into the range described as low copy number. It is also wrong to say that three independent experts reviewed the data. Biondo is Stefanoni's direct superior. Moreover, you ignore the fact that the defense experts were repeatedly denied the electronic data files, in contravention of the principle of full discovery of the evidence.
Team Knox adds another over-the-hill burn out! This guy (used) to work with car accident cases! He's COMPLETELY unqualified to comment (to say nothing of the drool on his chin). However, if we can get to him before his nap time, he might help us figure out what really happened to Anne "3 flats" Bremner's BMW!
He looks like he can do with a few extra dollars.
If this is all you cannot resort to then it's not looking to great for you huh?
Linda, what does one look like when one could use a few extra dollars?
Theo, being older makes you incredible? Where is the drool on his chin? And what about the BMW?
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha good one
Just pray for me Michelle.
This is indeed a very interesting article. I hope the forensic evidence is thoroughly reviewed and that the Court of Appeal will realise that this conviction is unjust and they will free Amanda and Raffaele and exonerate them as soon as possible!!!!
@May Doveston,
Doddery Ron Hendry didn't address most of the evidence. He's probably not even aware of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Bruce Fisher wheeled him out of an old people's home. If any of these "experts" had anything of value to add to Amanda Knox's appeal, they would have been called as witnesses.
Did you know that no one is as smart as Harry Rag?
Even experts speaking in their own field, Harry is always the wiser.
And no one loves the sound of Harry's voice more than Harry.
Why Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy are innocent:
http://freeamanda.livejournal.com
Twittering for Amanda:
http://twitter.com/FreeAmandaKnox
Harry, may I ask how your observations about Ron Hendry's age are different from saying, "The black guy did it?"
@Mary H,
After reading Ron Hendry's befuddled and rambling comments, it's quite clear that his mental faculties have deteriorated with time.
Its best to not engage Harry in conversation, he's been off his meds for some time now.
Harry after reading your rambling comments, it's quite clear that your mental faculties have deteriorated with time. I told you the copy and paste of lies would catch up with you.
@ HARRY RAG
It is clear that Mr Hendry has addressed the evidence in detail and his opinion is valuable and pertinent.
@May Doveaston,
Doddery Ron Hendry hasn't addressed the multiple conflicting alibis and repeated lies, the double DNA knife, Sollecito's DNA on Meredith's bra clasp, Sollecito's bloody footprint on the bathmat, Knox's and Sollecito's bare bloody footprints which were revealed by luminol, the five instances of Knox's DNA mixed with Meredith's blood and Knox's voluntary admission that she was involved in Meredith's murder.
Good old Harry Rag. You can always rely on him to cut and paste the same comments at the end of any story about this crime.
The so called DNA evidence has been discredited by experts who published an article in New Scientist magazine. No reputable DNA expert believes that this evidence stands up.
Knox's 's DNA was found elsewhere in her own flat. This is not very surprising. However, nothing of hers or Raffaele's was found in the room where Meredith was murdered. They had no injuries, no blood on any of their clothes and none of their clothes were missing.
How did they manage this? Because they are innocent and were not there when the murder took place.
@London Supporter,
It may come as a complete surprise to you, but the DNA evidence has to be discredited in court and not in a magazine, where these "experts" can't be cross-examined by the prosecution lawyers. The defence experts were unable to discredit the DNA evidence at the trial and they were unable to prove there had been any contamination.
There was an independent review of the forensic evidence in 2008. Dr. Renato Biondo, the head of the DNA Unit of the scientific police, reviewed Dr. Stefanoni’s investigation and the forensic findings. He confirmed that the forensic findings were accurate and reliable. He also praised the work of Dr. Stefanoni and her team.
The Kerchers hired their own independent forensic expert, Professor Francesca Torricelli, and she also confirmed Dr. Stefanoni's findings.
You seem to be forgetting that an abundant amount of Sollecito's DNA was found on a small piece of Meredith's underwear. Sollecito's forensic expert, Professor Vinci, claimed that Amanda Knox's DNA was also on Meredith's bra.
Amanda Knox was bleeding on the night of the murder; she left blood in the bathroom that she and Meredith shared. She testified at the trial that there was no blood in the bathroom the previous day.
What explains your befuddled and rambling comments then, Harry?
"Befuddled and rambling comments," Mary? Far from it.
What nonsense you spout.
It does not matter who judges Amanda Knox, the evidence is conclusive.
Here she would be appealling a death sentence.
You are wrong, Sandy. In the U.S. she wouldn't have made it to trial.
sounds like every tom, dick and harry wants to put in his 2 cents worth in this case, he says he had "some success"?, maybe he should go to Italy to help out Knox's American defense lawyers.
PhanuelB, with the upcoming appeal you have a chance to present your "evidence" and if you convince the court she will be freed.
I personally believe that Raf will throw Amanda under the proverbial bus during the final appeal.
I would not be surprised if the finds it unfair to receive a similiar sentence to Amanda Knox when it was neither him or Rudy Guede who dealt the fatal stab.
This is very cool. How anyone could THINK that it was anything more than what Henry has concluded has is a seriously closed minded person (at best). Thank you for the article, thank you for the many people just wanting to know the truth...and the truth has been found!!!!
3 Questions: (and remember God is watching)
1) Is that a wig on your husband's head?
2) Does God select people for wealth and Hollywood fame?
3) If so, does he use washed-up camera men from Seattle to set up the deals?
Michelle,
Your husband is a qualified pilot, isn't he?
What qualifications do you have and do you a job or to put it differently, are you gainfully employed or does your husband pays your keep?
You seem to have an awful lot of time on your hands propagating the PR company's key points in the "Amanda Knox is innocent" deception campaign.
Michelle Moore, you are too easily influenced by the latest pseudo expert wheeled out by the PR machine.
If you are sincere in your desire to seek the truth, you will not find it here or in propaganda pieces like that "48 Hours" show you were so easily and quickly convinced by. The truth is to be found in the courtroom. That is also where the real experts can be heard.
Pages
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!