Photos Detailing Break In

The prosecution alleged that the break in was staged and that no one actually climbed through the window to gain entry to the cottage. They stated that the room was ransacked to make it look like a burglary and that the rock was thrown from inside the cottage to break the window. Proper analysis of the crime scene photographs shows a completely different scenario. The photographs below show that the rock was thrown from outside the cottage. There is absolutely no evidence that the break in was staged. There was no investigation done on the room to conclude that the break in was staged. The room shown below belonged to Filomena. She is one of the four women that lived in the cottage. Filomena went into her room several times on November 2nd, before the discovery of Meredith's body. She told the police that she saw glass on top of her clothing from the broken window. There are no photographs showing any glass sitting on top of any pieces of clothing.

The prosecution used Filomena's statement to make the case that the room was ransacked before the window was broken. The actual crime scene photographs tell a completely different story. When you look at the photographs it is very clear to see that the room was not intentionally ransacked and the break in was not staged. Rudy most likely searched the room looking for money. Rudy's search would have left the room in disarray.

The first photograph shows Filomena's room. In this photograph you can clearly see the piles of clothing on the floor. You can also see the black shopping bag that was knocked over by the rock. From this angle it appears that the armoire has been opened and the clothes were thrown on the floor. You will see in the photos further down on this page that the armoire wasn't actually emptied out. The clothing was already on the floor when Rudy broke the window and climbed into the room.

The photograph below shows a closer view of the window. The prosecution stated that the rock was thrown from inside the room. They stated that the damage made to the outside shutter was proof of this. If you look at this photograph you will see that the eighth slat from the bottom of the outside green shutter has some damage. It is very clear from this photo that the wood has already aged in that area. This is not fresh damage to the wood. This area on the shutter doesn't resemble any type of damage that would occur from a large rock making contact with the wood.

There was a lot of speculation in regard to the glass being on the ledge. Keep in mind that the inside shutter was pushed closed but not latched. The rock hit the glass first and then hit the shutter. In that instant, the glass had nowhere to go and fell straight down. As the shutter was opening from the impact of the rock, some glass flew into the room with the rock.

Another scenario for alleging a staged break in would be for the window and the shutter to be opened as seen in the photo below, and the rock being thrown at the window striking the outside surface of the window from inside the room. The glass on the outside ledge proves this scenario to be nearly impossible. The most logical answer is that the rock was thrown from outside the cottage.

It should also be noted that the glass is only on one side of the ledge. It has been said that the glass on the ledge would have impeded entry without injury. You can clearly see that over half of the ledge wasn't covered with glass. There was plenty of clean surface to work with.

The next two photographs show where the rock hit the inside shutter. You can clearly see the damage caused by the rock on the wood shutter.

If you look at the damage caused by the rock you can clearly see that the wood is lighter in color. Compare the color of the freshly made damage to the color of the aged wood that can be seen on the edge of the window frame where the broken glass has fallen out.

The next two photographs show the rock where it came to rest on the floor. The rock caught the edge of the black bag tearing the paper as it knocked the bag over.

The next photograph is very important. You can see that the rock tore the bag open as it fell to the ground. More importantly, you can see dust from the rock on the floor as well as small pieces of the rock that broke free from the impact with the tile floor.

Would Amanda and Raffaele have really thought to throw the rock down on the floor causing an impact to make it look as if it had been thrown? Would they have actually thrown it down on the bag causing it to land where it is seen in the photographs?

The next photograph shows where the clothes on the floor were possibly stepped on by Rudy Guede when he climbed through the window and entered the room.

The next two photographs show what looks to be dust and debris on two separate pieces of clothing both sitting side by side. It appears that the clothes were stepped on transferring the debris from the shoe to the fabric. These clothes were not moved to stage a break in. They were on the floor to begin with.

The black bag fell over onto one of the pieces of clothing when the rock knocked it over. The purse and the black bag were most likely sitting next to each other on the floor. The rock made contact with the black bag knocking it over. The purse was also knocked over. The impact of the rock caused the black bag to be pushed forward over the purse.

The photo below shows that these two pieces of clothing were likely stepped on by Rudy Guede when he entered the cottage through the window. It is very possible that the white chalky dust seen on the clothes came from the outside brick wall of the cottage. You can see that these clothes were not moved in any way after they were stepped on. They remain side by side with the debris pattern still intact. We will never know if this dusty debris came from the outside wall because investigators failed to run any tests on the substance. In fact, they completely failed to properly investigate this room.

The next photo shows that the armoire is actually not emptied out. The clothes on the floor appear to be a pile of dirty clothes. This photo shows that the clothing on the floor was not thrown there in an attempt to make the room look ransacked. Filomena's room was just a mess.

The next two photographs show a black piece of clothing and the curtain that appear to be flattened out from being stepped on. There is a white substance on the black piece of clothing that resembles a shoe tread. The tread would be facing forward when looking at the front tread of a Nike Outbreak 2 shoe. This is not easy to see and may not be visible on certain computer monitors. We will never know for sure what the substance on the black fabric is or if it actually matches any specific shoe tread because the room wasn't properly investigated.

The white dust seen on the clothing in the two separate areas detailed on this page likely came from the outside brick wall of the cottage.

The next four photos show how far the glass came into the room. This never would have happened if the rock was thrown from inside the room. These photos also show, once again, that Filomena's room was not ransacked as the prosecution stated. This is a very important point. The prosecution stated that the room was ransacked by Amanda and Raffaele to stage a break in. Let's analyze this a little bit closer. Take a look at the table and chair. You will see that the table is covered in clutter. There are at least two more items sitting on the chair. These items have not been thrown about on the table. Filomena simply left everything laying around. The same goes for her nightstand. Keep in mind, Rudy could have thrown some items around looking for money. This would account for paper on the floor and the messy bed. Filomena also went through her room in a hurry the morning after the murder. There are no signs of staging. Filomena's room was a mess to begin with. These photographs prove this without a doubt.

Does this room really look ransacked to you? It looks like it is simply messy. You will see that glass made it's way all the way across the room. This never would have been possible if the rock was thrown through the window from the inside. The glass made it's way across the room form the impact of the large rock that was thrown through it from the outside of the cottage. You can see that the glass on the blue rug has been stepped on. The glass has been broken further from being stepped on and it can be seen laying in the same pattern on the rug. No tests were ever done to see if there were any traces of a shoe print on the glass. If the proper tests were done it is likely that dusty shoe prints would have been seen on that blue rug as well. What else could have been learned from doing a proper investigation of this room?

The next photo shows that a small piece of glass that made it all the way to the night stand.

The investigators neglected to investigate Filomena's room properly. Many questions are left unanswered. After analyzing the photos of the room and hearing the prosecution's claims, one thing is clear, there is simply no evidence whatsoever proving that the break in was staged. There is absolutely no evidence that could lead anyone to believe that Amanda or Raffaele had anything to do with the broken window in Filomena's room.

The next photo shows a closer view of the black garment and the curtain that were likely stepped on when Rudy Guede entered the room.

The next two photographs show additional photos of the rock when it was collected as evidence. Some have argued that the rock was too big to be thrown through Filomena's window. As you can see from the photographs below, this is not the case. Any average size adult could easily throw a rock of that size through Filomena's window.