American woman's slaying in Florence still a mystery
AFP
January 12, 2016, 5:05 am
Rome (AFP) - Italian police were Monday studying cc-tv footage and awaiting the result of an autopsy as they attempted to explain the mysterious slaying of an American woman in Florence.
Expatriate Ashley Olsen, an artist and event organiser who had moved to the Tuscan city to be near her art teacher father, was found dead in her flat in the city centre on Saturday.
The father, Walter Olsen, on Monday laid flowers outside the sealed-off building where his daughter's dead body was found on Saturday.
According to media reports, the 35-year-old blonde's corpse was found naked and she appeared to have been strangled but there were no indications of a struggle or of the door to the apartment having been forced.
Ahead of the autopsy, police only confirmed that Olsen was found with bruises on her neck.
Olsen's pet beagle was in the apartment and did not appear distressed, leading investigators to conclude the killer may have been known to her and the dog.
The body was discovered by Olsen's boyfriend, Federico Fiorentini, an Italian artist who reportedly went to the flat with its owner after becoming alarmed that he had not heard from his girlfriend three days after a row between them.
The AGI news agency reported Monday that investigators believe the killing is unlikely to have been premeditated and that Olsen's boyfriend was not considered a suspect having provided a coherent alibi.
Police believe Olsen had been dead for between 12 and 24 hours before her body was discovered.
She was last seen in the early hours of Friday morning in a late-night bar that has been closed down several times by police as a drug dealers' haunt.
The murder investigation has generated a high level of interest in Italy and beyond in the wake of the lengthy legal saga surrounding another American expat in Italy, Amanda Knox, who was definitely acquitted last year of involvement in the 2007 murder of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher.
