A man has been arrested in connection with the tragic death of American artist Ashley Olsen, Florence chief prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told reporters during a news conference in Florence, Italy, on Thursday, January 14.
“We have collected very serious evidence of his guilt,” Creazzo said of Senegalese man Diaw Cheik Tidianee, citing DNA found in a used condom and on a cigarette as the “decisive evidence.”
Creazzo added that police believe that Tidianee and Olsen, a 35-year-old Florida native living in Florence, met at a local nightclub in the early hours of Friday, January 8, and went back to Olsen’s apartment to have consensual sex.
At some point in the evening, however, things apparently took a turn for the worse; an autopsy of Olsen’s body revealed two fractures to her skull in addition to strangulation marks on her neck.
Officials believe both individuals were under the influence of alcohol, and possibly drugs, at the time of Olsen’s death.
Tidianee, who illegally arrived in Italy just a few months earlier to join his brother, has not yet made any public comments, but according to Italian media, he told police during questioning that he did not mean to kill Olsen.
Olsen was found dead in her apartment on Saturday, January 9, after her boyfriend was unable to reach her and asked Olsen’s landlord, Claudia Colivicchi, to open the apartment for him.
The American artist, who had lived in the city for three years, was found naked and unresponsive on her bed, and her beloved beagle, Scout, was pacing the studio loft space.