ROME – An investigator said Thursday that DNA tests show that the latest suspect in the slaying of a British university student in Perugia had sex with the victim the night she was stabbed to death.
The suspect, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, was arrested in Germany on Tuesday. He has denied involvement in the slaying.
His attorney, Valter Biscotti, said he has not yet spoken with his client and could not comment on the DNA development.
Genetic samples taken from Guede’s possessions matched fluids taken from the body of Meredith Kercher during an autopsy, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
“I can confirm that the DNA test result” confirmed that Guede had sex with the victim on the night of the slaying, said an investigator on the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media about the investigation. The investigator declined to give other details.
Authorities began tracking Guede after a bloody fingerprint indicated there was another suspect in the killing of the 21-year-old Kercher, whose body was found in a rented flat in Perugia on Nov. 2. He was arrested in Germany when riding a train without a ticket.
Jailed in Perugia are two other suspects: Amanda Marie Knox, 20, a University of Washington student from Seattle, who shared the flat with Kercher, and Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23.
Knox and Sollecito have denied wrongdoing. A third suspect, Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a 38-year-old Congolese, was released earlier this week for lack of evidence.
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