Italian authorities hunt Bulgarian woman amid new lead in case of Meredith Kercher's murder
Police were tipped off about a new person of interest in the case of Kercher's murder in 2007
Italian prosecutors are hunting for a Bulgarian woman they believe could have crucial information about the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
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A woman living in Perugia, the city in Italy where Ms Kercher was stabbed to death while studying abroad, tipped off police about the Bulgarian.
Meredith's murder attracted huge media attention in both the UK and the US - with her roommate Amanda Knox convicted and then later acquitted of the crime during a long-running legal saga.
Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor who led the murder investigation, revealed this weekend that a "reliable source" had led them to identify a new suspect.
Mignini has said repeatedly that he believes more people were involved in the murder and sexual assault of Ms Kercher, for which Ivorian drifter Rudy Guede was convicted in October 2008.
Read More: Amanda Knox ‘freely’ accused man over roommate’s murder, Italian court says
The prosecutor told Italian newspaper La Stampa that the Bulgarian woman had fled Italy days after Meredith's murder.
According to the Telegraph, she was in Perugia at the time of the killing and it is not clear what her business was in the town, whether she knew Ms Kercher or Ms Knox, nor her involvement in the case.
The prosecutor has stressed that the person of interest may not be a suspect in the case, and instead could be a witness.
He told the newspaper that it could be "very important for the whole case" should they find her.
Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family's Italian lawyer, told the Ansa news agency: “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.
“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,” Mr Maresca said.
Rudy Guede is the only person who has been definitively convicted in the case, having been found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering Ms Kercher after his DNA had been found at the scene of the crime.
He was released from prison in 2021 having served 13 years of his 16-year sentence - but now faces accusations of sexually assaulting an ex-girlfriend, 25, in Viterbo.
Mignini said he still feels justice has not been served for Meredith.
“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 said.
“I’ll be honest: when I think of that poor English girl, I feel a certain regret.”
