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moment the police arrived.’
    Raffaele reportedly indicated that his previousstatement to the police had been a ‘load of bollocks because she had convinced me of her version of the facts and I didn’t think anything different.’
    Similarly, when confronted with portions of Raffaele’s statement, Amanda had told the investigators that it was possible that Raffaele had awakened during the night, slipped out of his flat and murdered Meredith, only to return to his own bed where Amanda presumably was fast asleep.
    As the questioning continued and investigators asked her about other possible scenarios that may have occurred the night Meredith was murdered, Amanda, by now growing tired and weary, said that she could have been at the villa that night and may have heard someone screaming. It was during this so-called admission that the case took a very different turn – Amanda implicated her Congolese boss at Le Chic, Patrick Diya Lumumba, 38, by saying that she and Lumumba could have gone to the villa that evening together. The police, aware of the text messaging that had occurred between Amanda and Lumumba on the night of Meredith’s murder, had been pressing her for additional information about the bar owner, in part because the hair from a black man had been found in one of Meredith’s hands – a fact that previously had been kept from the public.
    ‘I don’t remember if my friend Meredith was already there or whether she came later,’ Amanda said during questioning. ‘We were all separate. What I cansay is that the two of them [Lumumba and Meredith] went off together… into Meredith’s room while I think I stayed in the kitchen… he wanted her… yes, we were in the house… that evening we wanted to have a bit of fun. We were drunk. We asked her to join us. Diya [Patrick] wanted her. Raffaele and I went into another room, and then I heard screams. Patrick and Meredith were in Meredith’s bedroom while I think I stayed in the kitchen. I can’t remember how long they were in the bedroom together – I can only say that at a certain point I heard Meredith screaming and I was so frightened I put my fingers in my ears… In my mind, I saw Patrick in confused images… I don’t remember anything after that. My head is really confused… there is such a lot going on in my head… I don’t remember if Meredith called out or if I heard thuds because I was upset, but I can imagine what was happening… I want to tell you what has happened because it’s left me really shocked and I am really scared of Patrick, the African guy who owns Le Chic where I sometimes work… I’m not sure whether Raffaele was there too that evening, but I do remember waking up at his house in his bed and that in the morning I went back to where I lived, where I found the door open.’
    The investigators could not help but wonder why Amanda had changed her story regarding Raffaele. First she had said that he had been at the house with her, Patrick and Meredith, but a little later on she had contradicted her earlier statement. Was she trulyconfused about the events of that evening? Or had she contradicted herself to further confuse the situation?
    Portions of the statement found their way into a number of newspapers in Italy including Corriere Della Sera . The news, of course, travelled quickly, and the details of what Amanda purportedly told the police also appeared in newspapers in the UK, the European continent, as well as the United States.
    According to a police interpreter, Anna Donnino, Amanda had seemed somewhat relieved after she had changed her story to the admission that she had been at home and had heard Meredith’s screams. Amanda had also reportedly told the police that Lumumba had been infatuated with Meredith, but the reality of what may or may not have been said was not immediately known, because the police refused to release any of the tapes recorded during the interrogations.
    What was known at this juncture was that