Amanda Knox traveled to Italy to study writing. A few weeks later, the American college student became a murder suspect. Now nearly a year after she was convicted in a second trial by an Italian court, Knox has returned to writing, as a journalist in Seattle. 
 
 Knox has been working as a freelance reporter for the small West Seattle Herald for a few months, according to Web Editor Patrick Robinson. The Herald asked her to be a freelance reporter, but not because of her notorious status. 
 
 “We approached her originally to give her the opportunity of a normal life,” Robinson told The Daily Beast. “We simply asked her as we would ask anyone of that age and stage, if they would be interested in writing for us as a qualified writer of that scale and this level of journalism.” 
 
 In November 2007, Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found dead in the house they shared with two other women. Authorities arrested Knox, boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and a bar owner and charged them in Kercher’s murder. In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of murder. Both spent four years in prison before a court acquitted them in 2011 after evidence was thrown into doubt by independent experts. Knox returned to the U.S. following acquittal, but a court in January 2014 upheld the 2009 guilty verdict and sentenced Knox and Sollecito to more than 25 years. Knox has not been extradited to Italy while the case is appealed. 
 
 In 2012, Knox signed a book deal reportedly worth $4 million. A movie based on a book by The Daily Beast’s Barbie Latza Nadeau has been made into a movie starring Kate Beckinsale. 
 
 Knox wanted to write under a pen name at first, which the paper allowed her to do. 
 
 “That was purposely to give her the protection of that and to give her the opportunity. She showed us writing samples and they were good,” Robinson said. After she “got her feet wet,” Knox began writing under her own name. 
 
 Knox is covering everything from human-interest stories to local theater like a high-school production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. 
 
 “Amanda’s a very bright, very capable, highly qualified writer,” Robinson said, adding he was “flabbergasted” by how good her photography had become over a few months. “She’s certainly been through as lot and been very easy to work with and very interested and eager in doing stories.” 
 
 The Herald was obviously aware that their newest freelancer—an international celebrity and convicted murderer—would eventually generate outside attention. There was “some note of caution” attached to hiring Knox, thanks to the negativity from the case, Robinson said. But that wasn’t why the paper hired her, he insisted. 
 
 “It doesn’t matter what people say or think—the truth is that she’s a West Seattle resident, she grew up here,” Robinson added. “Why not give her the opportunity to be an actual human being versus a celebrity?” 
 
 That celebrity may attract unwelcome visitors, like people with cameras, but Robinson said all meetings with Knox are conducted privately. Though “she’s not hiding,” he added. 
 
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 As for the murder charges against Knox and Italy’s request to extradite her, Robinson said that’s not the newspaper’s concern. The outcome of the case has “little to nothing” to do with Knox’s relationship with the newspaper, he said. 
 
 “It’s really about giving a young, talented writer an opportunity at a normal life.” ||||| Amanda Knox has become engaged to a 27-year-old musician who wrote to her while she was in an Italian prison. 
 
 The 27-year-old will reportedly marry Colin Sutherland, who Knox has known since middle school. 
 
 But as their families celebrate in Washington, a legal back and forth continues in Italy as Knox and her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito fight back against their 2014 re-conviction by an Italian upper court for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. 
 
 Engaged! Amanda Knox (right) is reportedly engaged to her childhood friend, musician Colin Sutherland (left) 
 
 The news of Knox's engagement was first reported in a Seattle Times column on Wednesday. 
 
 Columnist Jonathan Martin writes that Knox confirmed the engagement to him via email buut said no more. The pair were engaged last week. 
 
 No date has been set for the nuptials. 
 
 Before her current love was revealed in September, Knox was known to be living in Seattle with her classical guitarist then-boyfriend James Terrano. 
 
 A LinkedIn profile for Sutherland once listed his name as Thunderstrike after the Marvel comic-book character - says he studied French at Sarah Lawrence 
 
 Sutherland once lived in Brooklyn but has since moved back to Seattle, where he and Knox attended middle school. 
 
 Sutherland once lived in Brooklyn but has since moved back to Seattle, where he and Knox attended middle school. Here, Knox is pictured with Sutherland in New York during a visit in July 
 
 Sealed with a kiss: Sutherland (again seen here with Knox during her visit to New York as they locked lips at Coney Island) and Knox reported were engaged last week 
 
 Childhood friend: Sutherland reportedly wrote to Knox as she sat in an Italian prison following her 2009 conviction. The pair have known each other since middle school 
 
 She was set to graduate from the University of Washington this past June with a degree in creative writing. 
 
 She's now working at a Seattle bookstore and as a writer for the West Seattle Herald. 
 
 Meanwhile, her case is headed back into the Italian courts once again following an initial conviction, an overturning of that conviction followed by her reconviction along with Sollecito. 
 
 It seems unlikely Knox, who now lives in the U.S, will ever be returned to jail for the crime as she has repeatedly refused to return to Italy. If she is convicted again, Italy is likely to request to extradite her but her longstanding battle to prove her innocence has made her a cause célèbre in the U.S who may ignore political pressure to send her back. 
 
 Sollecito and Knox were first found guilty of murder in November 2009. 
 
 The previous man: Knox was last known before Sutherland to be dating classical guitarist James Terrano, who she reportedly lived with in Seattle, Washington 
 
 The killers' convictions were later quashed after experts said forensic evidence had been contaminated and they were released. Prosecutors then appealed that finding and the case was re-tried in March 2013. 
 
 In January last year a court upheld the original verdict, but the pair remained at large as under Italy's legal system, any verdict reached after a second appeal but be ratified by the highest court. 
 
 Since the last verdict, Sollecito, 30, has stayed in Italy. He was ordered to remain there after being found near the Italian border with Slovenia and Austria hours after being found guilty for the second time. He has since completed a degree in information technology. 
 
 Back then: Knox was accused along with her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (both at left) of brutally murdering Knox's roommate in Perugia, Italy Meredith Kercher, 21 (right) in 2007 
 
 Kercher, 21, was found dead on the floor of her bedroom. Some of her belongings were missing and Knox reported an apparent burglary to police. 
 
 Detectives concluded the supposed break-in looked staged and Knox became the prime suspect. 
 
 She then implicated Patrick Lumumba, a bar owner she worked for. The duo were arrested along with Sollecito. Mr Lumumba was later released when evidence pointed to Rudy Guede's involvement. 
 
 Guede was then accused of committing the murder along with Sollecito and Knox. In October 2008 he was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher. 
 
 Home for good: While it's highly unlikely that Knox would be extradited no matter what happens in court in March, her ex Raffaele Sollecito must face the music in his home country
– Amanda Knox may yet be extradited, but for now, the 27-year-old has a new gig: writing for a small Seattle newspaper. Patrick Robinson, web editor for the West Seattle Herald, tells the Daily Beast that Knox has been freelancing for a "few months," covering human interest stories and high school plays—in her recent review, Knox philosophizes about how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead questions "everything one takes for granted: time, space, identity, reality, fate, freedom." "Amanda's a very bright, very capable, highly qualified writer," says Robinson, admitting that she used a pen name at first. "She's certainly been through [a] lot and been very easy to work with and very interested and eager in doing stories." As for Italy's ongoing attempt to get Knox back overseas, Robinson says it has "little to nothing" to do with her standing at the Herald: "Why not give her the opportunity to be an actual human being versus a celebrity?" (Knox's ex-boyfriend changed his story over the summer.)