Amanda Knox case resurfaces as key hearing nears

It was the first house she looked at upon arriving in the small town in central Italy that would be her home for a semester abroad.

But Amanda Knox immediately knew it was the one for her.

The University of Washington student had been in Perugia for just a few hours on a hot summer day in 2007 with her younger sister, Deanna, who saw a poster that included the word "appartamento."

They followed the girl who had posted the ad to a charming, four-bedroom villa near the University for Foreigners of Perugia overlooking a small valley where figs grew.
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The sisters chatted for hours in the kitchen with the two friendly Italian girls who lived there and made plans with them to tour the town the next day.

To the wanderlust-driven young American, who had been hitting the books hard and working multiple jobs since high school so she could study abroad, it was a dream come true.

"She didn't need to see any other place, she didn't need to see any other listings, she was set," says her sister.

British exchange student Meredith Kercher moved into the house shortly after Knox settled in. The two foreigners became fast friends, Knox's friends and family say, as they explored Perugia together.

None of them had any way of knowing that just weeks later, the home would be the scene of a grisly stabbing that would leave Kercher dead and Knox branded her cold-blooded killer.

Prosecutors in Perugia said Knox directed then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and another man infatuated with her, Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down as Knox played with a knife before slashing Kercher's throat.

Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito is serving a 25-year sentence. Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year sentence.

Doubts over the forensic evidence used to convict Knox, 23, and Sollecito continue to linger. Knox has appealed her conviction and is awaiting the results of retesting of two controversial pieces of forensic evidence presented at her trial.

The first is a knife found in Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and what prosecutors said was Kercher's DNA in a tiny groove on the blade. Forensic experts are also testing a tiny metal clasp from Kercher's bra that was cut from her body after her murder. Forensic scientists in the investigatory phase determined that Sollecito's DNA is present on the metal clasp.

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http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-06/justice/amanda.knox.profile_1_knox-and-sollecito-kercher-s-dna-sollecito-s-dna?_s=PM:CRIME

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Natalee Holloway's mom She's dead

Nearly six years ago, Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba.

Her mother, Beth Holloway, has been relentless in her pursuit of the truth in her daughter's case, which is still unsolved.

But on "The Early Show" Tuesday, when speaking about her new Lifetime TV series, Beth Holloway admitted she doesn't think her daughter is alive today.

She said she reached the realization after learning of the death of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, allegedly at the hands of Joran van der Sloot in Peru.

She said, "(When) I discovered ferocity in which he murdered Stephany Flores. That put it in perspective for me as to what transpired with Natalee."

Van der Sloot has been charged with Flores' murder and is a "person of interest" in Natalee Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot has been in a prison in Lima, Peru, since June 2010, pending trial. Van der Sloot admitted details of Flores' murder to a Peruvian newspaper last year, saying he hit Flores repeatedly after she looked at his laptop. He has, in recent years, admitted to involvement in Natalee Holloway's death and then recanted his accounts.

Holloway told Wragge, "It was after ... the shocking news. For me to hear that Joran had murdered another young woman, I think that's when it all came into perspective for me as to who this young man was, and he's a violent - he's a killer."

Prior to airing her new show, Lifetime also aired a documentary that showed video of Holloway visiting van der Sloot in prison last year in Peru.

Wragge asked Holloway to describe her experience of seeing him behind bars.

"I never could have imagined that I was going to be face-to-face with Joran in prison," Holloway said. "Opportunity presented itself. All parents missing a loved one will do anything and everything. And I decided, 'OK, I want to be face-to-face with him again."'

She said she was able to enter the prison with help from documentary filmmaker Peter De Vries and his team, but said she visited the prison like any other woman that day.

"It was Wednesday afternoon, Ladies' Day. I went through the proper protocol, and it just happened," she said.

Wragge asked if she was able to learn anything from talking to van der Sloot.

She responded, "No, really, as a mother, I didn't go there to get information from Joran. Because, obviously, we can't do that. We've known that's just not going to happen. We're going to go there to get information. Just remind him, I'm still there. Obviously, I'm not going to go anywhere. And show him how easy it was to walk in and be face-to-face with him."

She added, "What I think felt the best to me is when I walked out of there and left him in prison where he belongs."

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/10/earlyshow/living/parenting/main20061398.shtml

Though Holloway is still looking for more information about her daughter's disappearance, she's now examining other disturbing and unsolved missing persons cases on her new Lifetime show called "Vanished with Beth Holloway."

Holloway told Wragge the show is an extension of what she's done before with families of missing relatives.

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