Body Of Slain U.K. Student Goes Home

American Student And Two Others Jailed In Connection With Death Of 21-Year-Old

(CBS/AP)  The body of a British student who was brutally slain in an apartment in Italy was flown back to England on Sunday.

Meredith Kercher, 21, was found with her throat cut in her apartment in the Italian city of Perugia this month. Italian prosecutors believe she was murdered after refusing to take part in an extreme sex game.

Three people - Kercher's American apartment mate, Amanda Marie Knox, 20, of Seattle; Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23; and Congolese immigrant Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38 - have been jailed as suspects in her death. of Kercher of Coulsdon, Surrey, in southern England.

Knox, has now given several contradictory accounts of the night of the killing, Italian authorities say.

All three suspects have denied involvement in the slaying.

In Rome, Italian technicians are beginning the analysis of evidence from the crime scene, from testing DNA samples to examining fingerprints, footprints and a knife believed to be the murder weapon, CBS News correspondent Richard Roth told The Early Show.

An Italian newspaper reported that forensic traces found in Kercher's apartment suggested that a fourth person may have been involved in the killing. La Repubblica said police discovered DNA in the apartment's bathroom that did not match any of the three suspects.

Kercher had been stabbed three times, allegedly with Sollecito's pocket knife, reports Roth.

Authorities say Kercher - a Leeds University student who had traveled to Perugia in August to study at the city's University for Foreigners - was stabbed in the neck in her bed as she resisted sexual assault. Police who visited the apartment on Nov. 2 to return Kercher's cell phone, which had been found in a neighbor's garden, discovered her seminude body in a pool of blood.

According to Knox's mother, who visited her daughter over the weekend, the 20-year-old American girl insists she's innocent of any crime.

"I was able to see Amanda, and she's doing as well as can be expected for the situation she's in," her mother said. "She's sure that as the investigation continues the truth will come out and she'll be proven innocent."

Sollecito's father has also proclaimed his son's innocence.

On Sunday, Kercher's body was flown to Heathrow Airport on an Alitalia flight from Rome. She was from Coulsdon, Surrey, in southern England.

Full forensic tests on material found in her apartment are due to begin Monday.

A judge in Perugia said Friday there was enough evidence to hold the three suspects for up to a year while the case against them was prepared.