Amanda Knox Case Update: British Coroner Says Meredith Kercher Death ‘Clearly Unnatural’

Amanda Knox Case Update: British Coroner Says Meredith Kercher Death ‘Clearly Unnatural’
Amanda Knox prepares to leave the set following a television interview in N.Y., on Jan. 31, 2014. (Mark Lennihan/Photo via AP)
Zachary Stieber
3/25/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

In the latest update in the Amanda Knox case, a British coroner says that Meredith Kercher’s death was “clearly unnatural.”

Kercher was killed by Knox, her former boyfriend Rafael Sollecito, and Rudy Guede, according to Italian courts.

A guilty verdict was announced in 2009 but it was later overturned by a higher court. Yet the country’s Supreme Court ended up reinstating the verdict earlier this year.

Kercher and Knox were both students in Italy at the time of Kercher’s death. 

Knox has refused to go to Italy saying that the justice system is unfair. Italian authorities haven’t requested her extradition.

British coroner Dr. Roy Palmer closed the seven year inquest into the death in London on Tuesday, saying he'd kept in contact with Kercher’s family, none of whom were present at the brief five-minute hearing.

He said that they were “keen for closure” after “all these years,” reported the Daily Mail.

“She died, the autopsy tells us, as a result of haemorraghic shock from stab and incised wounds to the vasculature of the neck. I do conclude that she was unlawfully killed,” said Dr Palmer, senior coroner for the south London area.

“On the night of the first and second of November 2007 Meredith was found in her bedroom at a residence in Perugia, Italy. It was clearly an unnatural death.

“Three individuals were arrested and tried. One male was convicted and did not appeal. The other two were convicted and appealed and the present position I believe is that there are further proceedings currently in Italy.”