American student Amanda Knox headed for home today after spending four years in an Italian jail, leaving the family of Meredith Kercher no closer to the truth about her murder.
Ms Knox left Rome shortly before midday for London where she and her family boarded a flight to Heathrow. They passed through Heathrow to take a flight on to their home town of Seattle in the US.
The 24-year-old had broken down in sobs last night after an appeals court in Perugia ruled she and her former boyfriend, Italian computer student Raffaele Sollecito, should be freed immediately.
Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito (27), said they were innocent. They had appealed against a 2009 verdict that found them guilty of murdering 21-year-old student during what prosecutors had said was a drug-fuelled sexual assault.
Prosecutors said today they would appeal the verdict to the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest appeals court.
Mr Sollecito, who had been held in a separate jail near Perugia, also left custody immediately after the verdict.
Ms Kercher's half-naked body, with more than 40 wounds, was found in 2007 in the apartment she shared with Ms Knox in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia where both were studying.
Ms Kercher's disappointed family said the search for who killed her would go on. "We're still absorbing it. You think you've come to a decision and now it's been overturned," Meredith's mother Arline told reporters at a news conference.
Ms Kercher's sister Stephanie said they would wait for the written explanation of the acquittal verdict in the hope that all the killers would eventually be found. "Once we've got the reasons behind the decisions for this one, then we can understand why they have been acquitted of it and work towards finding those who are responsible," she said. "That's the biggest disappointment - not knowing still and knowing that there is someone or people out there who have done this."
Ivorian drug dealer Rudy Guede is serving a 16-year sentence for his role in the murder. But investigators believe more than one person held Ms Kercher down while she was stabbed and had her throat cut.
Ms Knox has not spoken in public since but she thanked her supporters in a letter to an Italian-American foundation that was published by Italian news agency Ansa.
Outside the court yesterday, hundreds of people whistled, booed and shouted abuse at the courtroom and at US television crews.
The appeal trial gripped attention on both sides of the Atlantic. There was an outpouring of sympathy and outrage from many in the United States who regarded Ms Knox as an innocent girl in the clutches of a medieval justice system.
The verdict was an embarrassment for the prosecutor and Italian police investigators. Independent forensic investigators sharply criticised scientific evidence in the original investigation, saying it was unreliable.
The court upheld a conviction against Ms Knox for slander after she had falsely accused barman Patrick Lumumba of the murder. It sentenced her to three years in prison, a sentence which she has now served.
Ms Kercher, a Leeds University student, was on a year-long exchange programme in Perugia. Her murder brought a flood of unwelcome attention to the medieval town in central Italy that her family said she loved.
The murder investigation showed she was pinned down and stabbed to death and evidence suggests Guede did not act alone.
Prosecutors had said Ms Kercher resisted attempts by Ms Knox, Mr Sollecito and Guede to involve her in an orgy. Their case was weakened by forensic experts who dismissed police evidence that traces of DNA belonging to the two women were found on a kitchen knife identified as the murder weapon.
The experts also said alleged traces of Mr Sollecito's DNA on the Briton's bra clasp may have been contaminated.
The defence argued that no clear motive or evidence linking the defendants to the crime had emerged, and said Ms Knox was falsely implicated in the murder by prosecutors determined to convict her regardless of the evidence.