>> behind meredith's bedroom door was her body covered by a blanket, blood everywhere. meredith has been sexually assaulted, stabbing and slashed in the neck. a bloody handprint left on the wall, bloody footprints on the floor. as police began to process the crime scene, suspicion soon began to fall upon amanda. partly due to what police believed was a faked forced entry through the window. observers also thought amanda's behavior was odd. she and rafaeli stayed in the living room while the others broke into meredith's room. francesco is an attorney hired

by amanda's family. he says there was enough to make her a suspect. >> translator: the famous behavior of amanda knox cannot be justifiable to the way normal people behave. >> in this video amanda and her boyfriend comfort each other outside the house, but at the police station witnesses say they laugh and made faces, heightening suspicions about them. to amanda knox and rafaeli, the police station would become all too familiar over the coming days. her father curt recalls the week after the grizzly discovery. >> between the time they actually found meredith and when amanda was arrested, there was roughly a 90-hour timeframe in a ballpark of the numbers there. during that time, amanda was in the police station being questioned for, i believe it was 52 hours. >> as the days passed, the

interrogations became longer and more intense. without a lawyer, amanda continued to talk to the police. a decision her mother regrets to this day. >> would've, could've, should've. i should have insisted that she leave the country, that she not talk to anybody, i should have gotten her a lawyer immediately. >> meanwhile, media interest surrounding the crime began to surge. information was leaked to the press almost daily. reports stating the victim knew her killer or even a woman committed the crime went viral. soon articles were reporting that meredith kercher was in a sexting gone wrong. >> in italy you can hear this from somebody in a ditch, and

then all of a sudden it goes viral. >> reporter: the pressure grew on the police to solve the case. on the night of november 5th, police interrogated amanda all night and into the next morning. it was during this session amanda confessed she was at the house that night. her boss patrick lamumba was there as well. at that point amanda knox officially a witness became the suspect. the police held a press conference late they are a day announcing to the world they had solved the crime, case closed. according to police, meredith kercher was killed because she would not take part in a sex game, a sex game orchestrated by amanda knox, her boyfriend rafaeli. >> translator: i've always said this was a crime of succession. it was step by step, no

planning. >> all three were arrested and charged with murder, but the tabloid press turned their attention to one in particular, amanda. when the papers hit the newsstands the next day, foxy knoxy was all over the front page. in the weeks following her arrest, new evidence emerged. a knife found in rafaeli's apartment, with both of their dna on it. a homeless man came forward claiming to have seen the couple near the house at the night of the murder. >> we kept thinking, oh, this is a big mistake, it will clear up, and then it got really weird with the trial and it kept going and going and going. >> the world was captivated. two attractive young women, one accused of killing the other. so what really did happen to

meredith kercher and is amanda knox guilty of murder? for the next hour, forget everything you know.

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with an investigation nearly

finished and three people under arrest, the press began to focus on who is amanda knox. the picture they painted wasn't very flattering. >> i think some of the biggest problems that have happened with my sister has been because of the media, the eyes, the whole foxy knoxy thing. >> to know the real foxy knoxy you have to go back to seattle. >> amanda was born here in seattle, a day before i turned 25, so our birthdays are one day apart. >> born into a middle class family, her mother a schoolteacher, her father an accountant, divorced when amanda and her sister were still very young. >> and so growing up it was -- i spent a majority of my time with my mom.

it was every other weekend that me and amanda went to our dad's. >> always active, amanda earned her nickname, foxy knoxy at a young age, and not where you might have thought. and soccer is where she earned the nickname to come back to haunt her? >> oh, yeah, at the age of 8. where at an age they call her all sorts of nicknames gave her foxy knoxy. >> she was not a typical teenager. amanda was driven and focused. unlike most eighth graders, amanda wanted an academic challenge, so for high school she chose seattle prep, a prestigious private school that her parents could not afford. >> amanda was scholarship app to seattle prep, so it was not like she was given a silver spoon by any means. >> chris johnson, an english teacher at seattle prep, recalls a girl that was different from her classmates. >> she was so diligent that she

signed up for an extra english class at a time when she could have had a free period. she took an extra class, so she stoodout. >> and as for boys -- did she have many serious boyfriends before? >> no. she was definitely a very late bloomer. i don't even remember a boyfriend until college. >> she knew very early on that she wanted to see the world. >> i think amanda started talking even in middle school about wanting to travel and to see different places. >> amanda would take her love of adventure to the university of washington to major in l linguistics. >> i think it was her personality to see the good in people and to have a positive attitude about everything and everybody in the world. >> in college amanda knew she wanted to spend a year abroad, but to do that, she would have to raise money that her parents

did not have. how did she do it? >> she had to save $10,000. she lived extremely frugly and spent no money on anything. and then worked several jobs at a time, numerous jobs at a time, saved every penny. >> amanda chose to study in perusia, italy, a small town in the center of the country. in the late summer of 2007, amanda and her sister deanna traveled there to get her settled. on the very first day in town, deanna found amanda a place to live. >> we were walking around and the first thing amanda did, of course, was go down to her university. so we walked down there and she went inside and i sat outside. and this girl came up and was posting something on the fence right next to where i was sitting. and i looked over and it said, all i could read in italian, was apartmento. >> and that was it.

>> that was it. >> once settled, amanda seemed to be living her dream. >> the first pictures she ever sent me were of the little house that she had found. and i was kind of looking at her going, you have that kind of a view out of your backyard? and it was really, you know, i was very happy for her. >> and just eight days before meredith's murder, amanda met a boy. an italian student named rafaela solechi. was she a girl in young? >> they went over to acissi, so, yeah, there was definitely a big factuation there. i don't think they had time to fall in love by the time they were arrested. >> amanda knox devoted daughter, student, lover? and according to this man, murderer.

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how she says under pressure by police she was asked repeatedly to dream up, imagine scenarios for how it could have happened. cnn traveled to perugia, italy, to sit down with the prosecutor, amanda knox. for three hours, he answered his questions and his critic that is he prosecuted knox with little evidence, that he played on emotions and rumor rather than facts. and that the lynch pin of his case, the so-called confession of amanda knox was coerced out of a frightened college student. nobody hit her? >> no, absolutely not. was she asked to imagine scenarios? so she's lying. >> translator: absolutely. you either see the person or not. i can't can a person what he or she imagines. this question would make no

sense. >> that's not all that wouldn't make sense because it turns out virtually everything amanda knox told her interrogators the night of her so-called confession was a lie. amanda knox in this statement told police she was in the house the night of the murder and saw her boss, nightclub owner patrick lamumba and meredith kercher go into meredith's room and heard screams. amanda's statement is, i am very confused. i imagined what could have happened. police did not check the facts on lamumba. they immediately arrested amanda knox, raff, a el raffaele sollecito. he knew the moment he arrived and laid eyes on amanda knox and raffaele sollecito that they

were involved in the murder. >> prior to the investigation, prior to everything, really, your intuition or your detective knowledge led you to amanda knox and raffaele sollecito. >> translator: after the first few weeks, we were convinced because of the behavior of the two people and especially amanda that they were both involved in the crime. >> but almost immediately after the arrests, benigni had a problem, that third suspect lamumba had an air-tight alibi. he was in his crowded bar that night and could not have been involved. then the actual forensic tests came back. >> when i looked at it, i was horrified. >> greg hampikian is a forensic biologist at boise state university and director of idaho's innocent project. he's also working with the knox

defense team. he says italian investigators did a good job processing the crime scene, collected excellent evidence, but clupg to shakier evidence to prove their theory. a classic error says hampikian, a prosecutor who trusted his gut feeling than the science that at that time was pointing to another suspect. >> they didn't like the way amanda behaved, whatever that means, and so they wanted to investigate her and raffaele and her boss. when the dna's finally processed, it's not any of their suspects. so what do you do? and what would you do? you let them go. >> as patrick lamumba was being released from jail, investigators analyzing the bloody evidence left at the crime scene found an entirely new suspect. his name? rudy gaday, a petty criminal

from the ivory coast who fled to germany shortly after the murder. it turns out gaday's handprint made in meredith kercher's own blood was found in the victim's room. gaday's dna found on her body, in her vagina, his feces found on used toilet paper left near an unflushed toilet down the hall. and something else, gaday didn't know raffaele and had only met amanda a few times with neighbors. >> knowing all that and when he was extradited from germany, we thought, thank god it was over. it wasn't. >> prosecutor benigni simply swapped suspects. amanda knox, raffaele sollecito

and lamumba, when she refused to help they killed her. you were fixuated according to the defense on amanda knox and raffaele sollecito and kept imagining new scenarios to make these two people guilty. >> translator: no, absolutely not. i did what i did because i was convinced given the evidence that had been gathered that they were responsible. i am absolutely convinced. >> rudy gaday was implicated and sent to prison, immediately after raffaele and his sentence was reduced. in 2009, begnini would bring his

case against amanda and her boyfriend to trial.

[ speaking a foreign language ] one of italy's most notorious murder trials, the

case against amanda knox and her boyfriend was getting under way. basing his case mainly on circumstantial evidence. the prosecutor giuliano mignini would begin to present witnesses. one who claims to have seen the couple near the home the night of the murder. two others would come forward saying they heard a scream. one of them also hearing footsteps running in different directions, but magnini now would also present scientific evidence, he said, proves amanda and raffaele's guilt. two dna samples. raffaele's skin cells on meredith's bra clasp collected 46 days after police first showed up at the murder. and what one expert called an inconclusive sample of what could have been meredith's dna found on a knife collected at raffaele's apartment. on the handle of the knife, amanda's dna. according to prosecutor magnini, because the victim had never been to raffaele's apartment,

the knife must be the murder weapon. but tests for blood on the knife turned up negative. prosecutors explained it's because the knife had been wiped clean. forensic expert greg hampikian says finding dna but no blood makes it highly unlikely the knife was used in a bloody murder. he also says it's surprising the prosecutor was even allowed to admit such a small, unexplainable sample as evidence. >> would this have made it into a u.s. court? i don't think this would have made it onto a u.s. lab report. >> what also made it into court was amanda's so-called confession. in a quirk of italian law, the confession was thrown out of the criminal case against knox, but jurors heard it anyway as part of a civil case being tried simultaneously. in court jurors heard mignini's

evidence of guilt, then when they went home each night, they heard the news from a tabloid press gone wild. sensational headlines about the murder suspect dubbed foxy knoxy were rampant. completely fabricated stories of how amanda knox engaged in sexual orgies, satanic rituals, how she bought bleach to clean up the crime scene. all of it according to the prosecutor himself lies. with no conclusive evidence their daughter was guilty, the knox family would enter the courtroom just after midnight on saturday, december 5th, 2009 believing prosecutors had simply not proved the case. the jury had deliberated for 13 hours. in a moment that haunts him to this day, curt knox heard the verdict in italian. guilty. >> these two kids were innocent, and to have them say guilty, it was just devastating.

it was literally devastating. and, you know, i mean literally the people that were in the courtroom were kind of like ooh! >> doug preston is a best-selling author who dreams up chilling murder plots in his writing shack on the cold coast of maine. 13 years ago, he had an idea to write a chilling tale, but in a warmer location. >> i moved to italy to write a novel, and we rented a house in the tuscan hills just outside of florence. >> his research began with trying to learn about the italian justice system. teaming up with an old italian crime reporter named mario spezi, he soon was intrigued about a serial killer italy had yet to catch. the monster of florence who killed eight couples from 1968 to 1985, then vanished.

>> when you are a novelist, you are just making things up. but this was real. >> preston would quickly abandon his work of fiction for the real thing and began to learn how the monster targeted young lovers engaging in sex, mostly in cars in the hills above florence, killing first the man and then dragging the woman out of the car, mutilating and removing her genitals. for 17 years always using the same gun, the same knife, killing again and again as police failed to solve the case. >> yes, again and again the police arrested innocent people, interrogated them brutally, thought that they had extracted all kinds of really important confessions from them. >> preston says with the suspects in custody, the monster would kill again. police chased wild theories of a satanic cult. preston and spezi began to write of a lone killer and terrible police work. >> the book, you know, to be

honest, really criticized their investigation very thoroughly, and it wasn't just criticism. it presented irrefutable evidence that the police were on the wrong track. >> before the book could even be released, police focused their attention on the authors. mario spezi's villa was raided, his notes confiscated and the journalist placed under arrest, though later released without charges. police surmised spezi knew so much about the killer that he just might be the killer. then preston's phone rang. >> i thought it was a joke. then they said, no, mr. preston, this is not a joke. we are coming to get you. this is obligatory. you tell us where you are. that will save everyone a lot of trouble. >> preston would find himself at the door of the prosecutor's office here in perugia where he thought he would spend a few minutes answering just a few questions. >> i had never understood how brutal, psychologically brutal an interrogation is.

you feel absolutely helpless. >> and the chief interrogator was and is? >> giuliano mignini, this prosecutor who -- let me tell you something, he knows exactly what he's doing. >> mignini was the prosecutor for both the monster and the amanda knox cases. just like during amanda's interrogation, preston also says he was asked to imagine scenarios of how the crime could have occurred. >> i was terrified. i thought, these people have the power to put me in jail for the rest of my life. >> preston says he was questioned for two hours. he left the meeting and wrote everything down, including the time he went in and the time he left. which is why giuliano mignini's recollection of that meeting with preston is so puzzling. >> translator: it lasted about 20 minutes. no more than that.

and it was the first time i had met preston. around 20 minutes. >> i interviewed doug preston, and that is just not true according to him. he said the interrogation lasted two hours. >> translator: i don't remember now how long he was interviewed for. i believe it was about 20 minutes. perhaps half an hour. perhaps who knows? about an hour. i'd have to look at the statement. however, what is certain is that when you make a statement, that person must tell the truth, and i challenge some of the things he said. >> and let me read to you what he said about it. i began to sweat. the public minister began repeating the same questions over and over again. >> so i said, wait a minute. i said, are you -- are you -- do you think i've committed a crime? and that's when mignini said, yes, we don't think it. we know it. we know you have committed a crime.

we have the proof. and you are going to confess to it. >> it sounds very similar to what amanda knox described. >> translator: it is completely different because i interrogated preston, amanda was interrogated by the police. preston wasn't arrested. amanda was arrested. the two things are completely different. they have absolutely nothing in common apart from the fact that i was the public prosecutor in both cases. >> amanda knox describes to her lawyers the very same techniques, aggressive questioning, asking to speculate, confronted with so-called evidence of criminal activity that police didn't have. fearing he would soon be arrested, in 2006 preston fled italy and has never returned. but the tables were beginning to turn for the prosecutor as the main witness against amanda knox

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for decades now italian prosecutors have tried and have failed to catch the monster of florence who shot and mutilated eight couples in the tuscan hills. prosecutor giuliano mignini's investigation would also end in failure. his case against journalist mario spezi was completely thrown out, and his theory of a satanic cult and massive cover-up in the monster case was being ridiculed by other italian justices and in his investigation into kercher's death, he would not wait for the forensic evidence to be processed. he already had his suspicions. within days he announced the horrific crime was solved.

>> dr. mignini, is it possible that a prosecutor that was facing his own troubles perhaps rushed to judgment to solve a sensational crime? >> translator: i did not take any opportunity because that day, i just happened to be on duty. a tour of duty of a week. so i did not take an opportunity. the morning after our interview with mignini, the prosecutor spotted our camera, walked towards me and off camera asked what i thought of the interview the night before. if i thought he was being truthful. clearly, mignini was concerned about his own reputation and his case against amanda knox. the tabloid press still enamored by foxy knoxy was beginning to tell a different story.

amanda and raffaele had appealed their convictions and a new judge and jury were in the driver's seat. the appeal hearing was under way. by now, they had both been imprisoned for four years. raffaele sollecito shaved his head. knox rarely smiled. knox's family said the couple who had met just eight days before the murder hadn't communicated since their arrest. march 26th, 2011, amanda mouths to raffaele are you okay. it is a tender moment in what would be a strange hearing. amanda knox's attorney cross-examine an old witness. he is the homeless man who lived in this park and originally told the court he saw amanda and raffaele near the crime scene the night of the murder. before any testimony, cameras are ushered out of the court, and police bring in a star prosecution witness that the

jury would find laughable. the homeless heroin addict could no longer remember the exact night he saw the couple. he was confused. it could have been halloween. actually the night before the murder. and then the star witness dropped a bombshell admitting he was under investigation by mignini's office for heroin dealing at the exact moment he became one of mignini's star witnesses. in our interview the night before, giuliano mignini has no doubts the tramp, as he calls him, was telling the truth. >> translator: if he says he saw them and states it under oath, then we have to believe him, unless given reason not to. it's not as if the crime had been filmed. i wish it had been. >> reporter: was he offering his testimony in hopes of getting a favor in court? >> translator: no, he didn't get any favor at all. the witness presented himself and gave a statement. that's all. we took his statement because

the evidence was relevant. >> so you believe the testimony of a homeless heroin dealer? >> translator: i don't want to comment on the judicial proceedings regarding this individual because he was tried for another matter, something completely different that had nothing to do with this trial, and so for this trial, he is a witness. >> with mignini's main witness heavily scrutinized, it left only the scant dna evidence. and that, too, was about to be challenged.

with the prosecution's main witnesses being challenged on appeal, the case against amanda knox and raffaele sollecito seems to be hanging on two very small pieces of dna evidence. two months after our interview with prosecutor giuliano mignini, a court-appointed review of the forensic evidence would find the evidence itself worthless.

the spot found on the knife, it turns out, was not even blood and the dna evidence on the bra clasp is so small, it is scientifically worthless. further testing impossible because the genetic material, if there was any, was ruined in police storage. mignini still insists the forensic evidence proves his case, but the independent italian experts have determined the evidence should not be used. it is a final blow to mignini's prosecution. >> do you have any doubt, any doubt in your mind, that you convicted the wrong people? >> translator: listen, i am very sincere so if i made certain requests, it was because i was absolutely sure that they were responsible. otherwise, if i had had any doubt, i would have asked for an acquittal for lack of evidence. >> october 3rd, 2011.

the appeals case is now complete. amanda knox is allowed to address the judge and jury for a final time. after four years in an italian prison, she speaks fluent italian and begs them to let her go. >> translator: i haven't done the things they're suggesting i have done. i haven't murdered, i haven't raped, i haven't stolen. i wasn't there. i wasn't present at the crime. >> hours later, a verdict is reached. amanda knox and raffaele sollecito are escorted into court for the final time. and as the verdict is read, knox realizes the jury believes her story and sinks into the arms of her attorney. the murder convictions are overturned. both sollecito and knox are to be set free immediately. 30 hours after a sobbing amanda

knox leaves an italian court, a now smiling amanda knox and her family arrived to cheers in seattle. amanda knox is home, speechless, but finally approaches the podium. it's the first time she has spoken publicly since her release, and as she approaches, she's reminded this time to speak in english. >> thank you to everyone who believed in me, who has defended me, who has supported my family. i just -- my family's the most important thing to me right now and i just want to go and be with them, so thank you for being there for me. >> for the past year and a half, amanda has spent time with her family and friends, studied creative writing at the university of washington, got reacquainted with her old boyfriend, raffaele sollecito.

>> we talk about family, about relationship with friends, about movies, books. we are almost a brother and sister. >> she also has a new boyfriend, james torano. the two reportedly live together in seattle. things were finally becoming normal again. but her ordeal was not over. >> shock waves in italy. >> after the prosecutor appealed his case, italy's highest court announced a shocking decision tuesday. to overturn her acquittal. amanda knox's attorney, ted simon, said the ruling was disappointing but it's hardly a time to panic. the supreme court has a much narrower scope of review. all they're supposed to do is to look and see whether or not the appellate court jury acted within its jurisdiction and

about her experiencing today. she said they are not proceeding with that and has no intent with

here in the midwest, several young girls went missing. some were found murdered. others were never found at all. lori, 20 in appleton, wisconsin. reina, 16. wendy felton 16 from marion, indiana. michelle dewy in indianapolis, indiana. all of these cases went unsolved. officials believe only one man knew what happened. >> we kne