Having to prove your innocence in a court corrupted by public opinion is exhausting and frustrating. But losing someone you love forever, especially if they have been brutally murdered, is much more heartbreaking. Fortunately, Amanda Knox (38) was able to prove that she was not the murderer of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, when she was accused of the crime that took place in the Italian town of Perugia in 2007. After seven years of judicial ordeal, she was acquitted, the true killer was found, and she returned to the United States to be with her family.
This is the plot of The Twisted Story of Amanda Knox. The new series produced by Hulu and available on Disney Plus, with Amanda Knox as the executive producer and Monica Lewinsky as a co-producer, the former White House intern involved in the scandal with Bill Clinton, who like Amanda, was unfairly treated by the media and is now an activist and entrepreneur.
Over eight episodes, you experience the anguish from Amanda Knox's perspective. You are a carefree young woman who goes on an exchange to Italy and has a romance with a handsome Italian named Raffaele Sollecito. Until one day you return home with him after a night out and find your apartment mate's room locked with blood in the bathroom. She doesn't respond, you get scared, and decide to call the Police. However, instead of helping you, the Italian officers subject you to a labyrinthine interrogation that corners you and your partner. Until your innocence is definitively proven in 2011, and the true culprit of the crime is convicted, a drug dealer from Ivory Coast named Rudy Guede, who sexually assaulted and then murdered the victim before fleeing.
Drawing a national comparison, Amanda Knox suffered the same fate as Dolores Vázquez, the woman wrongly accused of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof in 1999. She spent a year and a half in pretrial detention until it was discovered that the real killer (and also rapist) was Tony Alexander King. Meanwhile, Meredith's family faces the most common and unfair grievance for the relatives of a victim: that everyone remembers their loved one for their death, but very few for their life.
Although Knox has expressed in several interviews that she hopes both her bestselling book and this new series will be "comforting" for Meredith Kercher's family, the truth is they are upset. They appreciate Knox's attempt to reach out, but they want to move on. While Amanda Knox walks red carpets and TV shows and has earned an estimated four million euros recounting her story, the family does not want to relive the trauma.
"We have talked too much about this case, and there comes a time when we need to close this chapter... This ongoing turmoil demonstrates a lack of sensitivity," expressed the family's lawyer last year in The New York Times. Making it clear that their loved ones want to keep a low profile.
The family wants to remember the Meredith who had dreams and a future. "She was one of the most beautiful, intelligent, witty, and loving people you could ever hope to meet," revealed her sister Stephanie in 2014. She also shared that Meredith has been forgotten in all of this, using the nickname by which she was affectionately called by those who loved her.
"She was very excited to go to Italy, eager to learn about Italian culture, see the city of Perugia, and make new friends," Stephanie explained. She also recalled that Meredith dreamed of becoming a journalist or working for the European Union. She was striving to achieve it.
Born in Surrey, UK, she was studying European Studies at the University of Leeds and decided to go on an exchange to the University of Perugia. She chose Perugia because it was a picturesque and less crowded city, a place where she could genuinely connect with the local way of life. She was 21 years old at the time.
Previously, she had worked as a waitress, tour guide, and even appeared in the music video for the song Some Say by British singer Kristian Leontiou in 2004. According to her friends, she was popular, charismatic, and had a strong drive for self-improvement.
Meredith was the daughter of a Pakistani woman named Arline and a British journalist, John Kercher. Her parents divorced when she was young. She and her three siblings, John, Lyle, and Stephanie, were raised by her mother in a modest home on the outskirts of London.
Meredith's siblings have faced another great tragedy, as after their sister's death, they lost their parents.
Their father, John Kercher, was a renowned journalist who wrote over forty children's books. In 2020, he was found dead on a road near his home. It was determined that he had been hit by a car, but the driver was never located, presumably fleeing the scene. He was 77 years old. Their mother, Arline, passed away just four months later, at the age of 74, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We take comfort in knowing that they are now with Mez and no longer have to live with the consuming pain," wrote the siblings that same year.