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that they were so blasted that they had lost touch with their own rational selves—and truly cannot recall exactly what happened that night. This could have been the dangerous side effect of their budding romance: According to Amanda’s prison diaries, Raf had been reminiscing about his incredible highs on heroin and cocaine, and she may have been eager to try it; she in turn might have introduced him to “hard A”—the high-proof mix of liquors popular with college students in the Pacific Northwest. By sharing their knowledge, two experienced thrill seekers could have found a way to get higher than ever—with lethal consequences.

Consider this scenario: Although they never admitted it in court, it is entirely plausible that Amanda and Raf saw Rudy at the basketball courts during their late afternoon walk on November 1. They placed an order for drugs, which Rudy then delivered to via della Pergola around 9 P.M., just as Meredith was getting home. But she was tired from her late Halloween night and had no interest in getting high. Amanda and Raf, however, were planning to be higher than usual—too high to take phone calls, particularly from Raf’s dad, who’d already threatened him with rehab. Records show both their phones were turned off around 8:30.

Between 9:15 and 11:15, Amanda, Raf, and Rudy got themselves seriously messed up; Amanda asked Meredith if she could lend her money to pay Rudy, and Meredith reluctantly did so. (This explains why three hundred euros Meredith had withdrawn to pay her rent was missing and there was a trace of Rudy’s DNA mixed with her blood on the zipper of the handbag but only her fingerprints on the wallet. She got the money out herself. Later, after the murder, Rudy, covered in her blood, probably moved her purse from the floor onto the bed. But he and Amanda and Raf were all acquitted of robbery.) Meredith was angry about having to lend Amanda money and retired to her room. Things were tense between the two roommates, and at a certain level of intoxication, it seemed like a good idea to Amanda to start baiting her. She prodded Rudy to go see Meredith; he went to her bedroom and started trying to kiss her and fondle her until she called out. Amanda and Raffaele went back to see what was going on, and instead of helping Meredith fend off Rudy, joined in the taunting. Actual rape was never confirmed in this case, but Rudy did violate Meredith with his fingers before, during, or after the murder. His DNA traces were found inside her vagina, but they were not from semen or blood.

By this point, Amanda, Raf, and Rudy were beyond the control of conscience. Raf took a switchblade out of his pocket and started teasing Meredith with it. Rudy had a knife in his backpack, and that came out as well. They had no intention of killing Meredith, but they were taunting her with knives on each side of her neck and she, in essence, impaled herself on the larger knife as she twisted in the grip of someone holding back her arms. Her final scream was the one Nara heard. When they realized what they had done, the three assailants panicked. They first tried to save her, taking a towel and putting it on the biggest wound, but they all freaked out and ran out of the apartment and up the metal steps in the parking garage below Nara’s apartment. Rudy headed out into the night, taking Meredith’s cell phones and his knife with him. A young couple would later testify that they had seen a frantic black man running away from the direction of the via della Pergola that night. Rudy threw the cell phones over a hedge and kept the knife, eventually dumping it when he was on the lam in Germany. Amanda and Raffaele ditched the pocketknife and eventually went back to the house, first looking at the villa from the basketball courts where Antonio Curatolo, the homeless man, saw them. They went to Amanda’s room and passed out.

THE NEXT MORNING, Amanda and Raffaele wake up around 6:00 A.M. with crippling hangovers and no memories of the night before. They peek into Meredith’s room to find her battered and lifeless body, but they still