An illegal immigrant from West Africa was arrested by Italian police on Thursday for the murder of Ashley Olsen, a popular American expatriate living in Florence.
Tidiane Cheik Diaw, 27, from Senegal, was accused of strangling to death Miss Olsen, 35, a well-liked event organiser who documented her idyllic life in Tuscany with dozens of photographs on her Instagram account.
The arrest of an immigrant for the high-profile murder, which evoked comparisons with the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007, is likely to fuel the debate in Europe over crime and immigration, particularly in the wake of the mass sexual assaults in Cologne and other cities on New Year’s Eve.
More than 150,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers reached Italy’s shores by boat from Libya last year, the vast majority of them young men.
Of Italy’s total prison population of 52,000, a third are foreigners.
Miss Olsen’s naked body was found in her flat in Florence on Saturday by her Italian boyfriend, who was left distraught by the discovery.
Diaw is believed to have arrived illegally in Italy several months ago in order to join his brother and was eking out a living in Florence by distributing nightclub flyers.
Investigators believe Miss Olsen met him in the early hours of the morning last Friday after leaving a nightclub, the Montecarla. The pair walked back to her flat in Via Santa Monica and had consensual sex, possibly under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
But a furious argument developed after Miss Olsen told him he had to leave the apartment because her Italian boyfriend was about to arrive.
Diaw became enraged, accusing her of treating him “like a dog.”
He allegedly strangled the American and inflicted wounds to her head, either by hitting her with a blunt object or by shoving her to the ground.
She sustained two fractures to her skull and is believed to have died at around 8am on Friday morning, prosecutors said.
Diaw allegedly told police that he pushed her to the ground, where she hit her head hard, but said that he had not meant to kill her.
He was identified from security camera footage which showed him walking with Miss Olsen from the club to her flat, and by DNA evidence.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/12097235/Italian-police-reportedly-arrest-man-over-murder-of-American-woman-in-Florence.html
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Police first began to consider him as a suspect earlier this week and pulled him in for questioning.
In the course of the interrogation, officers offered him a cigarette. After he discarded it they retrieved the butt and recovered DNA from it.
They then matched that with DNA found on a condom and a cigarette butt that were found in Miss Olsen’s flat, as well as genetic material found beneath her finger nails.
He also stole her mobile phone and put his own SIM card inside it, investigators said.
Giuseppe Creazzo, the chief prosecutor in the case, said investigators had found “very serious indications of his guilt”.
The suspect had "substantially admitted" being responsible for the killing, Mr Creazzo said.
Miss Olsen’s body, naked apart from a pair of socks, was found in her flat on Saturday by her Italian boyfriend, Federico Fiorentini, a 43-year-old artist.
He had become concerned that he had not heard from her for a few days, after the couple had an argument.
Diaw, who is being held in prison, faces a charge of murder aggravated by cruelty.
In the course of the interrogation, officers offered him a cigarette. After he discarded it they retrieved the butt and recovered DNA from it.
They then matched that with DNA found on a condom and a cigarette butt that were found in Miss Olsen’s flat, as well as genetic material found beneath her finger nails.
He also stole her mobile phone and put his own SIM card inside it, investigators said.
Giuseppe Creazzo, the chief prosecutor in the case, said investigators had found “very serious indications of his guilt”.
The suspect had "substantially admitted" being responsible for the killing, Mr Creazzo said.
Miss Olsen’s body, naked apart from a pair of socks, was found in her flat on Saturday by her Italian boyfriend, Federico Fiorentini, a 43-year-old artist.
He had become concerned that he had not heard from her for a few days, after the couple had an argument.
Diaw, who is being held in prison, faces a charge of murder aggravated by cruelty.