Witness: I Heard Amanda Knox at Murder Scene

ROME, March 27, 2008 — -- For the first time in the nearly five-month investigation, a witness has placed American college student Amanda Knox in the Perugia, Italy, apartment when her roommate's throat was slashed.

The accusation was made by fellow murder suspect Rudy Guede during an interview with the prosecutor on the case Wednesday, according to Italy's national news service ANSA.

Guede, an Ivory Coast native who admits having had sex with Meredith Kercher the night she died, is being held in an Italian jail along with Knox, 20, and Knox's 23-year-old boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.

Kercher, a 22-year-old English student, was slashed to death Nov. 2 in Perugia, in a murder that has ensnared suspects from three countries.

Guede, 21, had previously said that when he left Kercher to use the bathroom, she was alive, and when he returned, she had been stabbed in the neck.

In previous statements he claimed to have scuffled with a knife-wielding white man but says he was unable to get a good look at him because the man was wearing a hood.

ANSA reports that during the interrogation, Guede told investigators that he now recognizes the man's face to be that of Sollecito

He also told investigators for the first time that he clearly heard Knox's voice in the doorway, although he does not claim to have seen her in the room where the murder took place, ANSA reports. Nevertheless, Guede did describe for police the clothes that Knox and Sollecito were wearing that night, the news agency reports.

ANSA reports that Guede gave police an alleged motive for the grisly slaying: that Knox and Kercher hated each other and on the night of the murder, Kercher had accused Knox of stealing 250 euros from her dresser.

As the suspects ran away, Guede told police that he heard Sollecito yell out, ''I found that black guy, they'll blame him!'' ANSA reports.

ANSA's version of the interrogation could not be immediately confirmed, although an investigative source confirmed to ABC News that Guede has been grilled.

"It was not a very long interrogation, but it was thorough. The suspect spoke freely, and he was relaxed," the source told ABC News.

It was the first time that Guede was interviewed by the Italian prosecutor, indicating that the glacial speed of the probe is nearing a decisive moment. The prosecutor has indicated he may wrap up his investigation by the summer.

In a statement released today, Knox's parents said: "Information being attributed to Rudy Guede regarding the investigation into the murder of Meredith Kercher is impossible to believe. There is no evidence to support his suggestion that Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito were present when Meredith was murdered. Guede lacks credibility just as his current statement lacks credibility.

"Guede said before that he did not see Amanda and Rafaelle that night, and is now telling a different story."

Also, one her lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, told ABC News, "This is a bit suspicious. We are not worried. There is no evidence against Amanda. This gentlemen [Guede] has to explain why this statement has been made four months after he stated that he never saw Amanda and Raffaele that night [of the murder]."

In one of the many contradictions in the case, Guede didn't mention Knox or Sollecito being at the apartment when he was first questioned by police, and during a Dec. 7 hearing, Guede said he did not see Knox and Sollecito that night.

Sollecito's lawyer and family scoffed at Guede's version.

"We are waiting to read the transcript," Sollecito's lawyer, Marco Brusc, told ANSA. "But if the reports are confirmed, it means that it is an improbable story told by an unreliable person."

Sollecito's family said that Guede has changed his story days before an April 1 hearing that will determine whether the three suspects will be released from jail while the investigation continues.

The prosecution has already stated in court that there was a "group participation" in Kercher's death.

And a neighbor has reported hearing the foosteps of several people hurrying away from the crime scene on the night of the murder.

Knox and Sollecito were arrested days after Kercher's body was found. Guede fled to Germany, where he was arrested in December, and returned to Italy.

Knox, who is from Seattle, initially claimed that she was not in the apartment when her roommate was killed. Later during intense police interrogation, she said she had a vision she may have been in the apartment during the murder, a statement she later recanted.

Knox's parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, have tried to explain their daughter's statement that she was in the apartment as a mistake, because she was scared and without an interpreter or lawyer at the time.

Forensic evidence also appears to implicate Sollecito, although his lawyers said the evidence is weak.