The Murder of Meredith Kercher by Gary C. King Read Free Book Online

focused on the text messaging that had occurred between him and Amanda the night Meredith was killed.
    It was later learned that Lumumba, described by the locals as ‘very educated’ and as a ‘gentle’ person who was ‘willing to help anybody’, had been one of the people passing out flyers announcing the candlelight vigil in honour of Meredith’s memory. He had also done a lot of volunteer work at the University for Foreigners, and was known for being very generous with his time, even when it meant reduced hours for his own recreation. It transpired that he was well-known in Perugia, in large part because of his bar, which he had opened in August 2007 (the same month that Meredith had arrived in town). Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1969, and believed to be related to the Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba (who was assassinated in 1961) he immigrated to Italy in 1988. The student community also knew him because of his involvement in helpingorganize concerts and other musical experiences – he frequently performed in his own band, which had a repertoire of reggae and contemporary music.
    Lumumba, who wore his hair in short, tight dreadlocks, was in a loving relationship with a young Polish woman, named Ola, whom he had met while she was studying Italian at the University for Foreigners, where Lumumba had also studied nearly twenty years earlier. After deciding that she would remain in Italy, Ola worked as a waitress in a busy restaurant and the couple moved into an apartment together. They had a child, who was barely a year old at the time of Lumumba’s arrest.
    Lumumba was comfortable wearing jeans, pullover shirts, and zippered jackets as part of his everyday attire, and people said that he typically had a kind smile on his face. The smile, however, was missing the morning he was arrested and handcuffed by police officers, and was replaced with an incredulous expression that depicted confusion, anger, and above all, disbelief about the predicament that he now found himself in.
    One of Lumumba’s neighbours, according to the Corriere dell’Umbria , reportedly heard Lumumba shouting, ‘I haven’t done anything,’ as he was being handcuffed and placed inside a police car.
    As news of Lumumba’s arrest as a murder suspect spread through the city, shock and disbelief was also on the minds of many of the students, as well as otherswho knew him, including Esteban Garcia Pascual, owner of the popular student hangout, La Tana Dell’Orso, where Lumumba had worked occasionally as a DJ prior to opening Le Chic.
    ‘This is like a hammer blow to the head,’ Pascual said after hearing of Lumumba’s arrest. ‘I’ve known him since 1999, and I can’t believe it… he is very friendly and professional.’ Pascual said that Lumumba was a gentle and relaxed person. ‘He worked at the university organizing cultural events and concerts, and is from a really respectable family. He is a nice person… very friendly and professional.’
    Prior to his arrest, Lumumba was seen mingling with students, journalists and friends of Meredith outside the university. He purportedly told one reporter that he liked Meredith, and had been planning to give her a job handing out advertising leaflets for Le Chic.
    When it became clear that the police believed they had built a solid case against their three suspects, the pathologist, Luca Lalli, who had performed the autopsy on Meredith’s body, made another statement to the press that was related to his earlier comments in which he had suggested that Meredith had sex before she was killed, but still refrained from calling it rape.
    ‘The autopsy showed no sign of the lesions that suggest rape, but I cannot rule out intercourse under threat, which might not have the same signs,’ Lallisaid. ‘I feel free to say that, now that the police have a break in the investigation.’
    If Meredith had been forced, or coerced, into having sexual relations under threat or duress,