(CNN) -- Within weeks of British student Meredith Kercher's death in the vibrant college town of Perugia, Italy, prosecutors and police declared the case closed. They'd seized two knives in their search for the murder weapon. They took DNA from the room where Kercher was killed. And at least one suspect had confessed to being at the murder scene. Or so they said. Kercher had been stabbed in a sexual misadventure, officials said. And they knew the killers. American Amanda Knox, Kercher's roommate; Italian Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend; and Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede, a drifter known in the area, had their pictures splattered across the world's media.
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Trial of Amanda Knox, accused of murdering fellow student in Italy, is nearing end
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Key pieces of evidence that once seemed to signal closed case are disputed by defense
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Opposing sides argues over what is revealed by alleged murder weapon, DNA evidence
Kercher had never been to @placeholder's apartment and wouldn't have come in contact with the knife, he said, yet there was her DNA.