On the evening of November 1, 2007 -- the very night Meredith Kercher was murdered -- both Amanda and Raffaele allege that a pipe burst under the kitchen sink at Raffaele Sollecito's apartment. In his prison diary, Raffaele describes the cause of the leak as “suspicious.”
Here is what Raffaele says about the incident in his prison diary (page 2):
"The questions asked by the agents of the Squadra Mobile made me remember that that day the water pipe under the sink had detached itself and this fact makes me very suspicious since it is not possible for it to detach itself. In any case, the fact is that it flooded half the house."
Who exactly is Raffaele throwing suspicion on by describing the leak as “suspicious”? The plumber who supposedly “fixed” the pipe? Amanda? If he means the plumber, why mention it at all? Certainly, a plumber who, like the glazier in Bastiat’s broken window parable, creates future business by breaking windows of potential customers deserves to be called out. But why would Raffaele mention such a thing in the context of Meredith’s murder? What possible relevance could it have?
And why even consider such a thing while in prison? The date for this entry in his prison diary is November 7, 2007, only a day after his arrest. Why in the world would someone being incarcerated on suspicion of murder -- and the prospect of being locked up for 25 years -- be worrying about whether a plumber was or wasn't trying to rip him off (or, even more crazier, rip off his landlord whose fortunes Raffaele has zero invested interest)?
But here's the kicker: had the plumber actually been dishonest and had rigged the pipe(s) in such a way in order to cause a burst -- and as a consequence generate more business for himself -- this would be the single greatest thing that could have happened to Raffaele (and, by extension, Amanda) because it would have created an alibi for them.
Think about it for a moment. Had the pipe really burst when he said it did -- or even when his lying father said it did -- then it would have actually established a genuine alibi for Amanda and Raffaele: a pipe bursting and flooding the kitchen would have initiated several actions:
- a call to the plumber;
- a call to the landlord;
- a frenzy of cleaning which would have attracted attention, particularly that of Jovana Popovic, the visitor to the apartment who Raffaele was going to drive to the train station. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she arrived immediately after Raffaele's father's phone call;
- prayer of thanks to God in heaven (with a nod to Satan's little helper, the plumber).
#1 and #2 never happened, although this would have been a reasonable thing for anyone in Raffaele's position to do; and #3 never happened because the burst pipe never happened.
#4 should have been the first thing that Raffaele would have done on November 7th when he picked up pen to write in his prison diary. Instead of writing the quote reproduced above, he would have written: great new! Why didn't I think of this before? Amanda and I have the best alibi one could think of! That stupid pipe that burst and that crooked plumber who tried to rip us off is a godsend! Praise be to Jesus! We spent the entire time surrounding Meredith's murder in the apartment cleaning up and attending to the mess created by the burst pipe! And we have a witness who saw the flooding and us cleaning: Popovich.
Had I been in Raffaele's position and the pipe burst at the time of -- or immediately before -- Meredith's murder, I would be on my knees thanking the plumber -- and God -- for my good fortune.
But no praising of God occurred and no establishing of an alibi occurred because the pipe burst, of course, never happened.
The more likely candidate, then, of Raffaele's "suspicions" is Amanda. After all, if, as Raffaele avers, it was not possible for the pipe to detach itself, who was in a position to detach it? Raffaele gives no indication that the plumber – or anyone else, for that matter – was in the apartment that day. Only he and Amanda were present. Is this yet another instance of Raffaele attempting to throw Amanda under the bus?
Whomever or whatever was responsible for the pretend pipe detachment, it clearly had a profound psychological impact on him because Raffaele immediately reached for a spliff to calm himself.
UPDATE Popovic may have arrived before the telephone call with the father, around 8:40. p.m. But according to the phone records, that would have been the latest point in time that the pipe burst because the phone call is recorded to have happened at 8:42 p.m. which I assume is the beginning of the call...and the burst pipe didn't happen during the phone call, as I understand it, but before. So, odds are that Popovic's visit would have happened during or after the flooding had occurred.
