Way cleared for Meredith burial

PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- A request for a second autopsy on the body of Meredith Kercher, the UK student killed in Italy, has been rejected, a lawyer for the student's family said Wednesday, clearing the way for her burial.

The decision came hours after Italian news reports alleged that a fingerprint and blood stains belonging to Amanda Knox, 20, Kercher's American roommate, placed her in their Perugia villa at the time of her death.

Kercher, an exchange student at Perugia's university, bled to death late on November 1 after she suffered a stab wound to her neck while in bed, according to police.

A report issued more than a week ago by an Italian judge suggested she may have been sexually assaulted at knifepoint before she was killed.

Francesco Maresca, lawyer for Kercher's family, said, according to the Press Association: "I have spoken to the family and they are obviously glad that they will now be able to bury their daughter."

However, authorities in Italy have not yet released the body, which is still being held in a morgue in Britain.

The autopsy request had been made by lawyers for Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba, one of the four suspects identified by Italian police, in order to determine the time of death more closely.

The original postmortem put the time of death at between 10 p.m. and midnight, according to a report from Perugia's prosecutor general Claudia Matteini.

However, Matteini said that Kercher probably suffered a "very slow agony" as she bled to death, that the wound could have been inflicted as early as 8:30 p.m. and that she could have died at any time prior to 11:30 p.m.

Lumumba was released last week and says he has an alibi for the time of the killing, according to his lawyers, although police say he remains a suspect. There was no immediate response from his lawyers regarding the judge's reported decision.

Meanwhile investigators have found Knox's fingerprint on a glass and blood traces on a tap, despite the rest of the villa being cleaned, Italy's ANSA news agency has reported.

The agency quotes a report by investigating magistrate Giuliano Mignini as saying that the evidence linked to Knox, a student from Seattle, can be dated to the night of Kercher's death.

"The visibility of the stain is such to exclude that it could have been left in the days before the crime since it would surely have been cleaned," ANSA claims Mignini said in his report.

Italian media have said that Knox has told police that she is unclear about what took place on the night of Kercher's death and that the American's lawyer has admitted he was confused by his client's testimony. Both Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23, deny any involvement in the killing.

A source in the prosecutor's office said forensic police will return to the villa before a court hearing Friday to determine whether Solliceto and Knox should continue to be held by police.

The source said forensics investigators had discovered impressions on the victim's bra, which was found near her body, and were trying to determine if the impressions are fingerprints.

A fourth suspect in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, is expected to be extradited in the next 10 to 15 days on suspicion of murder and sexual assault after fleeing to Germany.

Italian police say that they have connected Guede to a bloody fingerprint on a pillow at the crime scene, and that DNA tests on skin cells found on toilet paper there have linked him to the villa.

Last week, investigators said DNA on a vaginal swab taken from Kercher matched Guede's DNA, indicating the two had sex.

Guede has already admitted being in Kercher's home the night she was killed, but denies any involvement in her death, his lawyer Walter Biscotti, told CNN.

He claims that he was in the bathroom when he heard Kercher screaming from the bedroom and that an unidentified assailant attacked the student, his lawyer told CNN. His lawyer said Guede denies that he and Kercher slept together. Italian police have said that they are not looking for a fifth suspect. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Hada Messia in Rome and Daniela Berretta in Perugia contributed to this report

All About Murder and Homicide • Italy