New Lead in Meredith Kercher Case: Italian Authorities Seek Bulgarian Woman Who May Hold Key Information

Italian investigators pursue Bulgarian woman after fresh lead in Meredith Kercher murder

Italian authorities are following a new lead that points to a Bulgarian woman who may have important information about the 2007 killing of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who led the original inquiry, said the tip came from a "reliable" source in Perugia and named a person who reportedly left Italy a few days after Ms Kercher was murdered in November 2007. Sources speaking to The Telegraph have identified the person of interest as a Bulgarian woman who was in Perugia at the time.

Mignini cautioned that the woman identified by the tip-off may not be a suspect and could instead be a witness. "Finding her could be very important for the whole case," he told La Stampa. He confirmed the person was "not Italian" and said he had passed all available information to prosecutors in Perugia, but declined — or said he did not know — to which country she fled.

The tip reportedly originated from a Perugia resident. It is not yet clear why the Bulgarian woman was in the city, whether she had any connection to Ms Kercher or her former flatmate Amanda Knox, or what role, if any, she may have played in the events of that November.

"Once again, after so much time, people are talking about new hypotheses and other people who may have been involved, and on all this the family asks for more information," said the Kercher family's Italian lawyer, Francesco Maresca, speaking to Italy's ANSA news agency.

Mr Maresca said the family wants to preserve Meredith's memory after a high-profile case that produced books, films and television series focusing heavily on Ms Knox. "We remember once again Meredith's lovely smile and her happiness at arriving in a country where she should have been studying history, art and beauty and where instead she met her end," he said.

The only person definitively convicted in Ms Kercher's death was Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, who was found guilty in a fast-track trial after his DNA was discovered at the scene. Guede served 13 years of a 16-year sentence and was released in 2021. He now faces separate charges that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend; that trial is due to begin in Perugia.

Mignini — now retired — reiterated his long-standing belief that others may have been involved and remain at large. In his interview with La Stampa he described Ms Knox as a "narcissist" but said she was more intelligent than Guede or her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who spent four years in prison on the charge before Italy's Supreme Court definitively exonerated him and Ms Knox.

Nearly two decades after the killing, Mignini said he still felt that full justice had not been served. "I confess, it's a story that, 18 years later, I can't stomach: there has been no justice. It's a story that has left a lot of bitterness," he told the newspaper.

Italian prosecutors have handed the new information to colleagues in Perugia and investigators say efforts to locate and speak with the Bulgarian woman are ongoing. Authorities stress the tip is a potential lead that could provide new witness testimony, but they have not announced any fresh charges as a result.