Knox's mother: 'Her story has never changed'

Part 1, in a series of 3

SEATTLE -- For ten months University of Washington student Amanda Knox has been held in an Italian prison, accused of playing a role in the murder of her British roommate.

This week a hearing will begin that could determine whether Knox will face trial or be allowed to come home.

Knox's family members recently sat down with KOMO News to set straight the record they feel has been marred by misinformation leaked to the press.

Family members say much of what the Italian media has reported has been flat out wrong, and fear it could destroy the life of their loved one.

After news of the murder broke, a crime-scene kiss between Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, made international headlines.

"It wasn't anything passionate," said Edda Mellas, Knox's mother.

"If you really look at her face, it's completely blank," said Deanna Knox, Amanda's younger sister.

Amanda's family members see nothing improper in the kiss, but it fueled police suspicion and tabloid rumors that claimed the couple was acting strangely following the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.

"It's being passed on that it's an intimate moment, and I think it was two people who were hurting who were trying to comfort each other," said Curt Knox, Amanda's father.

When the couple shared that kiss, Kercher, a 21-year-old British student, had just been found with her throat slit inside her locked bedroom of the hillside home which she shared with Amanda and two other girls in Perugia, Italy.

Her bloody bra was on the floor, and bloody hand prints were left on her pillow and furniture -- evidence, says the prosecutor, of extreme sex turned deadly; murder at the hands of Amanda, Sollecito and a third man.

Twenty-year-old Rudy Guede, who claims he was in Kercher's bathroom when she was murdered, was later arrested after fleeing the country.

Amanda has maintained she was not at the house at all on the night of the murder.

"She was over at Raffaele's house, and she happened to be the one who was there in the morning and found the situation," Curt said.

"Her story has never changed," said Mellas.

Amanda told police she arrived home in the morning to find the front door ajar. She went inside through the common area and down the hall to her room, which is next to Kercher's. Her roommate's door was closed, she said.

Amanda said she took a shower and when she stepped out, she noticed blood spatters in the bathroom. She called her mom in Seattle and told her she was worried, then went to fetch Sollecito. Together they called police.

"People in authority are really scary to her, because she was attempting to help police and work with them," Mellas said.

But soon police switched the focus of their investigation to Amanda herself. The prosecutor pointed to the conflicting statements she gave during her interrogation, which was conducted throughout the night with no interpreter and no attorney present.

Police questioned Amanda about a text message she'd sent to her boss, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, which read "see you later." In leaks to the media, Amanda appeared to change her story, first saying Lumumba may have committed the crime, then later recanting the accusation.

"They (the interrogators) told her they knew Patrick was involved, that she was involved, she was going to go to jail for the rest of her life, she would never see her parents again. There was some physical abuse," Mellas said. "She was hit in the back of the head."

But if Amanda wasn't there, why did she point the finger at Lumumba? Mellas says Amanda was asked to speculate.

"She was told she needed to come up with some scenarios, some possibilities as to how this could have happened, how Patrick could have been involved. And in that context, she said, 'well maybe this, maybe that,'" she said.

Lumumba was eventually cleared.

Italian press also reported Amanda talked to having been in the other room during the murder, covering her ears and ignoring Kercher's screams.

"The police even went so far as to say, 'You know, I remember my little brother was hurt and he was screaming and I just put my hands over my ears so that I didn't have to hear it.' Could that have happened?' Well, maybe, but that was all turned into 'Amanda said this and the other,'" Mellas said.

The Italian Supreme Court has since thrown out these statements because of allegations of police brutality and coercion, but the damage had already been done to Amanda's credibility.

And the family claims the evidence supposedly implicating Amanda should be questioned, too, starting with a knife found in Sollecito's apartment. The prosecutor claims the knife was the murder weapon as Amanda's DNA was reportedly found on the handle of the knife while Kercher's was found on the blade.

"She (Amanda)had cooked at Raffaele's house. You would expect nothing less to have DNA on the handle," Curt said.

As for Kercher's DNA found on the blade, Curt said, "Not blood; DNA material. It's been tested multiple times and what we're hearing is that it has a one in 5,000 chance of ever matching Meredith Kercher."

The defense team has another problem with the alleged murder weapon.

"All the experts agree it's the wrong size of knife for the wounds that were inflicted," Mellas said. "It's just not the murder weapon. But again, that's not the way it's been portrayed in the media."

Since the opening days the prosecutor, who himself is under investigation for abuse of power in another case, has held fast to his theory, claiming three suspects murdered Kercher when she refused to participate in a sex game.

There have been reports that stated Amanda's DNA was found mixed with Kercher's blood spatters in the bathroom. Some experts say the findings actually supports Amanda's story since the DNA could have mixed when Amanda stepped on the blood with her wet feet when she stepped out of the shower.

Legal experts who have reviewed the evidence say most of it points to Rudy Guede as the one and only culprit.

Guede had attended a Halloween party at which Kercher was also present the night before, and admits to having been romantically involved with her the night she was killed.

Guede's bloody hand print was found on her pillow, and his DNA was found in her locked room and on her body.

Amanda's family believes if her trial is based solely on the evidence, she'd go free. But they fear because she's been so vilified in the press she may never get a fair trial.

When asked whether he felt the investigators aren't trying to get to the truth, Curt said, "I think they are trying to create a resolution to an extremely bad situation."

"There's a lot of public pressure there, too," said Mellas.

Amanda's parents have traded off taking weekly trips to Italy to visit her in prison. Their lawyers have warned them Italy is a controlled country where visits, phone calls and e-mails are monitored by authorities.

Part 2, which will be published Monday night, will detail how the Knox family learned the hard way that their private conversations were being leaked to the press. The story will also outline the family's explanation for Amanda's prison diary that details her sex partners, as well as the controversial contents posted on her MySpace page.