Amanda Knox, family at Rome airport heading to US
PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — Amanda Knox was making her way home to the United States a free woman Tuesday, after an Italian appeals court dramatically overturned the American student’s conviction of sexually assaulting and brutally slaying her British roommate.
AP photographers and camera crew at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome saw Knox family members in a terminal where the student is expected to board a British Airways flight to London and then catch a connection for the United States following four years in an Italian prison.
Knox was not immediately seen, and believed to have been escorted by police through a nonpublic entrance to the airport.
Back in Perugia, the family of slain British student Meredith Kercher remained stunned by the verdict and searching for answers.
“It was a bit of a shock,” said Stephanie Kercher, the victim’s sister. “It’s very upsetting … We still have no answers.”
Lyle Kercher, a brother, said the family is still trying to understand how a decision that “was so certain two years ago has been so dramatically overturned.”
Lyle Kercher said the family has been left to wonder who is guilty in the 21-year-old Kercher’s death after the release of Knox and her one time boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on appeal. A third man has been convicted in the brutal slaying, however his trial concluded that he did not act alone.
“If they two released yesterday were not the guilty parties, we are obviously left to wonder who is the other guilty person or people. We are left back at square one,” Lyle Kercher said.
