Florence, Italy – An American woman was found dead in her apartment in Italy on Saturday. Italian police opened a murder investigation and guaranteed maximum attention to find the killer.
Ashley Olsen, a 35-year-old artist, originally from Florida and who had been living in Florence for about three years, was found dead last week by her boyfriend Federico Fiorentini, an Italian artist. He said he had asked Olsen’s landlord to open her apartment because he was worried as he had not heard from her in days after they had an argument.
Autopsy findings so far indicate that Olsen died within the morning of Friday and the early afternoon of Saturday. The actual date and time of death will not be available for weeks. The corpse presented bruises and scratches on the neck, however, there were allegedly no signs of struggle. Italian police have said there were no signs of a break-in, indicating that Olsen likely knew her killer.
Even though investigators stressed that they haven’t put anyone under investigation, authorities interrogated her boyfriend who provided police with an alibi on Monday. Also, a friend said in an interview that Olsen had been in a marriage that ended badly.
Olsen was last seen by friends on Friday at a popular nightclub that has been temporarily closed more than once for problems with the law, including alleged sale of cocaine and overcrowding.
Friends expressed horror and said they hoped her killer would be found quickly.
“I can’t imagine a person who would hurt her. She is a gentle, a kind, a beautiful, friendly, lovely girl and it’s an awful shock. We’ve got a great community here of people and everyone loved her,” Amy, a friend who only gave her first name, told The Associated Press in Florence.
Friends and people in general, are worried this would turn into another case like Meredith Kercher, the British student who was living in the Umbrian city of Perugia when she was found dead in 2007. Knox, Kercher’s American roommate, and her then-boyfriend were at first convicted of the murder, then acquitted, convicted again on appeal but Italy’s supreme court definitively exonerated them last year.
Source: Fox News