Money Motive Probed In Italy Student Slay

Latest Twists In Brit Student's Murder Come From Diary Of Jailed American Roommate

(CBS/AP)  Italian police think money may have been involved in the murder of British university student Merideth Kercher, for which her former roommate, American co-ed Amanda Knox is presently jailed as a suspect.

CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey, reporting the latest twists in the murder mystery in the university town of Perugia, Italy, says a diary seized from Knox's prison cell also, and for the first time, suggests that her Italian boyfriend may be guilty of the crime.

Until now, reports Pizzey, Knox has maintained she and Raffaele Sollecito did not kill Kercher. But in the 125-page handwritten diary entitled "My Prison," Knox reportedly wrote, "This could have happened ... Raffaele went to Meredith's house, raped her and killed her, and then, having come back home, pressed my fingerprints ... I was asleep ... onto the knife."

Knox adds that if it did happen that way, "I don't understand why Raffaele did it."

Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a knife that had Kercher's blood on the tip. The knife, which has not been officially identified as the murder weapon, was found in Sollecito's apartment by police.

Pizzey reports that a secretly-taped conversation Knox had with her parents seems to indicate she was at the house at the time of the murder, not with her boyfriend at his apartment as they have claimed.

Police have speculated that Rudy Hermann Guede, a native of Ivory Coast, may have fled to Germany using about $360 Kercher had withdrawn from a cash machine to pay her rent, reports Pizzey. The rent was apparently never paid. In another twist, Knox had about $310 dollars on her when she was arrested, opening up the possibility that the murder sprang from a row over money.

A local drug dealer reportedly told police that Knox owed money to a pusher.

Meanwhile, German authorities agreed Monday to extradite Guede.

Guede was arrested in Germany after police caught him riding a tram without a ticket. Prosecutors in the southwestern German city of Koblenz agreed Monday to turn Guede over to Italy.

"The extradition can take place as soon as Italian authorities agree to a date for the handover," prosecutor Norbert Weise said in a statement.

Italian authorities say DNA tests confirm Guede had sex with the victim on the night of the slaying. Guede has admitted he was in Kercher's room the night she died but said he didn't kill her and that an Italian who is trying to frame him did, Biscotti has said.

Guede's lawyer, Walter Biscotti, said Monday that he did not know when Guede would be turned over to Italy.

In her diary, Knox reportedly makes no mention of Guede, or the other person connected with the case, Patrick Diya, a bar owner of Congolese nationality whom police have already released.

Pizzey says, whatever the case, Knox remains in a cell she complains is "cold", according to her diary. She says the only time she feels better is when she goes out for exercise, and can "sing and even shout."

So far, Knox still has tentative backing from the boyfriend she has now turned on. Sollecito wrote in his prison notes that he did not believe Knox did it, but adds that he is not sure she spent the whole night of the murder with him.

[mpepitone1]

I believe all three are involved in the killing and should be prosecuted. Each is going to blame the other when all three are guilty.And they will find out it is no fun being in jail in Italy. Their laws are different than ours. This country should take notice of Italy''s law that when you are a suspect they can arrest you without a charge. We need that her and Peterson would be in jail right now. We are too easy with a lot of criminal cases and the judges make mistakes in sentencing.

[nolalou]

We may never know exactly what happened, but the African guy , Guede who fled to Germany, gets himself arrested for failing to buy a ticket on the tram! Sounds like this wasn''t exactly a well planed incident! Sounds like some doped up kids who let things get way out of hand.

[b-easy63]

The diary is a fraud. Who cares what she wrote in a diary in Prison? the only reason she wrote is would be so someone could find it and consider it her musings from her mind. The information in the diary is just a set up and a lie to try to shift blame to someone else --maybe even her own boyfriend--anyone except her. Even if her boyfriend and others were involved, she should get a few years for being a twit. as for her "fingerprints pressed to the knife while she was sleeping. Forensics can determine the exact location of those prints and more than likely the angle will show if the person did it themselves or someone manipulated their hand--the way a person fakes someone holding a knife or gun often differs from the natural way a person could have done it.

We''ll see. But the diary is a silly plant and the girl should be taken to a room and have her skull rapped with it a few times. think these people do not know they are being taped or that ANYTHING they say or do in Prison is not scrutinized (like talking to other prisoners or on phones or writing in diaries? They''ve seen it all in the movies--they know a lot about how to lie and they certainly know that if they write stuff it will be reviewed--be it letters or diaries. She wrote what she hoped they would find-she even labeled it for them--now if only they will believe what she planted was true.