'New suspect in Meredith killing'

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian police have identified a fourth suspect in the killing of a 21-year-old British woman in Italy after linking him to a bloody fingerprint on a pillow at the scene of the crime.

The suspect was named Monday as Rudy Hermann Guede, 21, Marco Catana, a spokesman at the Italian headquarters in Rome confirmed to CNN.

Catana refused to confirm if a warrant had been issued for Guede's arrest, although a source in the prosecutor's office told CNN an international arrest warrant had already been issued.

The source said the whereabouts of Guede, of Ivory Coast, were unknown.

Police were able to trace his fingerprint because he has a criminal record for drug dealing, the source said. According to the source, the pillow was found underneath the body of the victim.

Guede was in the same circle of friends as the three suspects already in custody, the source said, adding that all four are now considered prime suspects in the murder.

Investigators found the body of Meredith Kercher half-naked with a stab wound to the neck November 2 at her home in Perugia, where she was studying as an exchange student at the city's university.

A report issued by an Italian judge last week suggested that the British student may have been sexually assaulted at knifepoint before she was killed in her bed.

Being held in connection with the death are Amanda Knox, 20, Kercher's American roommate; Raffaele Sollecito, 23, Knox's Italian boyfriend; and Patrick Lumumba, 38, a Congolese bar owner and Knox's boss. All three deny involvement in the killing.

The source in the prosecutor's office said Guede had an ID card and was in Italy legally. Italian newspapers published pictures of Guede's ID card in Monday editions.

The source said Guede lived close to both Sollecito and the villa where Knox and Kercher lived.

Knox, from Seattle, told police Lumumba was responsible for Kercher's death. She later retracted that statement via her mother, saying drugs rendered her account of that night "confused."

She has given investigators three versions of what occurred. On Friday, her lawyer said even he was having trouble discerning the truth.

Police found DNA belonging to both Kercher and Knox on a knife belonging to Sollecito at the Italian's apartment, police said. Kercher's DNA was found near the tip of the knife, while Knox's DNA was discovered near the base. Police also found the knife had been washed, authorities said.

A report issued last week by an Italian judge paints a disturbing picture of how Kercher is believed to have died.

"The fact that Meredith was a victim of violence is evidence from the state in which her body was found," said the report issued by Judge Claudia Matteini of the Civil and Penal Tribunal of Perugia, according to a translation posted on The London Times' Web site.

The judge's report said a pathologist had found bruising and lesions to the victim's neck that suggested she had been held down with a knife pushed to her throat.

The report added that "bruises indicate a sexual act carried out or attempted in a hurry or against the girl's wishes."

According to the report, Sollecito and Knox spent the afternoon of November 1 smoking hashish before meeting up with Lumumba. The three then went to the villa that the American student shared with Kercher, the report went on.

At some point in the evening Kercher went into her bedroom with Lumumba, but "something went wrong," the judge wrote. Matteini said the three suspects then staged a break-in in an attempt to cover their tracks. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.