“Facts are like fireflies, they are real, always there even when you can't see them, blinking in and out of view in ever changing configurations.”

puzzler | 12.07.07 - 6:30 pm |

This is the north side of Perugia, looking south-west. The old center of town, with the majority of historic monuments, is up and over the hillside to the left (off screen). This collection of slides takes us from the girls’ house, to RS’s place, and onwards to RHG’s

Girls’ house

Basketball hoops on Piazza Grimana

Etruscan arch

In this snap you can actually see someone

shooting baskets in Piazza Grimana

Façade of the University for Foreigners. The shadow on the yellow building in the middle of the photo is the start of RS’s street (Giuseppe Garibaldi)

Everywhere in Perugia is uphill from the girls’ house. Although distances are

short, you can easily get tired if you’re running up and down with mops, bags

of clothes to wash, cleaning liquids, cutlery, mobile phones or stolen money

in your pockets.

University for Foreigners

Girls’ house

Basketball hoops on Piazza Grimana

RS’s house (110 Giuseppe Garibaldi)

Bottom of Corso (concourse / street) Giuseppe Garibaldi, opening onto Piazza Fortebraccio (a.k.a. Piazza Grimana), that’s the tall Etruscan Arch on the other side of the plaza. The flag hanging in the middle, actually is hanging over the entrance to the University for Foreigners.

That’s quite a narrow, neighbourhood street!

Giuseppe Garibaldi street from RS’s front door. It is clear that it’s a one-way street.

RS’s place on Giuseppe Garibaldi

street.

Etruscan arch University for

Foreigners

Let’s take a look up Corso Garibaldi from RS’s place. Maybe we’ll see someone we know ....

If RHG weren’t in jail, we probably would see him, because his street alley comes up next ... Via Canerino number 26.(In the sake of honesty, via del Canerino is U shaped, and the fastest way to RHG’s door is to walk up another 15 meters before turning right.)

RS’s Prison Diary 20/11/2007:“Today they have finally captured the real murderer of this completely unbelievable story. He is a 22 year-old Ivorian, they have found him in Germany. I saw Papa happy and smiling, but I for the moment am not 100% calm because I fear that he will invent strange things ... “

Girls’ house

Basketball hoops on Piazza Grimana

RHG’s house (26 via

Canerino)RS’s house (110 Giuseppe Garibaldi)

Etruscan arch University for

Foreigners

Forensic cops coming out of RHG’s house in via Canerino.

Who threw the Filomena’s and Meredith’s phones onto the lawn in Sra. Elisabetta’s garden? They weren’t even covered up or under bushes. Round up the usual suspects. Both RS and RHG live just a few steps away, thanks to the door in the old city wall, which allows access to the Parco Sant’Angelo, so either one of them (or persons with them) could have made a furtive visit to the garden.

Girls’ house

Basketball hoops on Piazza Grimana

RS’s house (110 Giuseppe Garibaldi)

Sra. Lana Elisabetta’s

house/gardin (5bis via

Sperandio)

RHG’s house (26 via

Canerino)

Lawn at Sra. Elisabetta’s

where phones were found

Door in city wall at end of via Canerino

Etruscan arch University for

Foreigners

Who threw the Filomena’s and Meredith’s phones onto the lawn in Sra. Elisabetta’s garden? They weren’t even covered up or under bushes. Round up the usual suspects. Both RS and RHG live just a few steps away, thanks to the door in the old city wall, which allows access to the Parco Sant’Angelo, so either one of them (or persons with them) could have made a furtive visit to the garden.

OR ... Someone running down the country road Via del Bulagaio from the girls’ house, could ditch the phones and head for home through the door in the wall. How ironic that the phones – which in the end don’t appear to contain key evidence – caused the police to visit the girls’ house and discover the crime.

Girls’ house

Basketball hoops on Piazza Grimana

RS’s house (110 Giuseppe Garibaldi)

Sra. Lana Elisabetta’s

house/gardin (5bis via

Sperandio)

RHG’s house (26 via

Canerino)

Etruscan arch University for

Foreigners

... (RHG’s) lawyer Biscotti has therefore focused on a witness produced by the prosecution relating to a woman who lives in front of the house of the crime, and who investigators reported had heard a terrible scream on the night of the crime. "After barely one minute," he added, “and after having heard footsteps running on gravel, more persons heard and saw one person flee towards Vía del Bulagaio and another on the iron stairwell adjacent to the carpark. We deem this to be a useful fact to the defense because the iron staircase, in addition to being very illuminated, is covered by a fixed surveillance camera. Surely it will have filmed the murderer that ran away. And he won’t appear at all like my client. Rudy also said he had heard someone running on pavement and more people on the gravel, without yet knowing the testimony of that witness.” - http://www.repubblica.it/2007/12/sezioni/cronaca/perugia-uccisa6/perugia-uccisa6/perugia-uccisa6.html

I don’t want to reflect on the CCTV cameras, but on the relative isolation of the girls’ house. I have this terrible feeling that the screams, shouts and general commotion during the night came from the perpetrators as they ran in and out the house. And that the victim’s screams were never heard by anyone, given the old thick walls of the house, the orientation of her bedroom away from town and towards the valley, and the absorption of sound by the viaduct / road, and carpark.

Forensic police examining bloodied hankerchief or tissues on Via Sant’Antonio just above girls’ house

Grainy image of vehicle (windscreen and passenger window) passing over viaduct next to house walls.

Depth of thick stone walls seen in kitchen

window (about 30 cm.)