Fourth Suspect in ‘Extreme Sex’ Murder

Still, police announced last week that they had found a kitchen knife in Sollecito's home with Kercher's DNA near the blade and Knox's DNA near the handle. The knife, according to two Italian women who shared the villa on Via della Pergola with Kercher and Knox, was not part of the villa's kitchen cutlery. On Sunday police said they had confiscated Knox's handbag from her possessions at the Perugia prison where she is being held to test it for DNA that would indicate whether it had been used to carry the knife.

Investigators also said the knife had been bleached (bleach removes blood but not DNA, investigators said at a press conference), and that they had found receipts in Sollecito's apartment dated Nov. 2—the morning after the murder—for the purchase of two liters of bleach. Meanwhile, though Guede's testimony could be crucial to the investigation, it will do little to ease the shock of the killing in the once-sleepy medieval town of Perugia. Nor is the news that the wanted man is a foreigner likely to ease Italy's growing resentment toward immigrants. "Knowing exactly what happened," says Perugia newsstand operator Alessia Ceccarelli, "is not going to make this nightmare go away."

Editor's Note: This report, originally published on Nov. 19, was updated on Nov. 20 to include the news of Guede's arrest.

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