Former U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox is engaged: reports

[February 13, 2015]  SEATTLE (Reuters) - Former U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox, back in Seattle after being acquitted in the slaying of her British roommate in Italy and then being convicted again in absentia, got engaged last week to a rock musician she has known since middle school, U.S. media reported on Thursday.

Two sources close to Knox, who is 27, confirmed the engagement to Reuters but were unable to provide details.

According to a Seattle Times newspaper column, Knox is engaged to Colin Sutherland, whom she has known since her school days and moved to Seattle from New York, though no date has been set for the wedding. The columnist said Sutherland wrote to her while she was in prison.

ABC News, citing Knox's father, also reported the engagement.

Knox spent four years in an Italian jail after a court found that she and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, had murdered 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.

That conviction was overturned on appeal and Knox returned to the United States in 2011, but both were found guilty again at a retrial. The story provided rich fodder for U.S. and European tabloid media, including cable news networks.

Knox has consistently maintained her innocence and vowed to appeal that ruling, but has also said she would not return willingly to Italy.

Knox has remained in Seattle since being released and has worked as a journalist at a local newspaper.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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