As the family of murdered American artist Ashley Olsen buried her in Italy, the man accused of killing her claims she was alive when he left her home after a night of drinking, drugs, consensual sex and a big fight.
The Olsens released a statement thanking Italian authorities “for their swift apprehension of the perpetrator. Our deepest affections go to Ashley’s many friends and to the community of San Frediano (where she lived) that she dearly loved.”
Ashley’s casket was brought to the Santo Spirito basilica, where family and friends filled the pews. Olsen’s boyfriend, Italian artist Federico Fiorentini, sat with Ashley’s beloved dog, Scout, on his lap during the service.
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Federico discovered Ashley’s body on Jan. 9 after becoming concerned when he could not reach her. Ashley was found nude on her bed. She had been strangled and her skull caved in.
Police arrested Senegalese migrant Cheik Tidiane Diaw, 25, after his DNA allegedly was matched to a cigarette and a condom found in Ashley’s toilet. His DNA was also found under her fingernails, prosecutors said Thursday.
Diaw’s attorney, Antonio Voce, admitted his client fought with the victim, but when Diaw left her apartment, she was alive and moaning that she was feeling unwell.
“He did not want to kill her or hurt her,” the attorney said.
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Police said Diaw admitted under questioning that he had physically fought with Ashley when she tried to kick him out after sex
“She told him, ‘Please go away,’” Voce said.
That’s when a scuffle broke out. Ashley pushed Diaw to the door, and when she turned her back to him, he punched the back of her head — according to the lawyer, who believes Ashley skull was fractured in the ensuing shoving match.
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Diaw denied strangling the victim, instead insisting the neck injuries happened when he picked her up by the neck after she fell and put her on the bed.
An autopsy showed Ashley suffered two skull fractures and then was strangled with a cord, Florence Prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told a news conference on Thursday — adding that the fractures alone could have killed her.
The Florentine prosecutor said police do not believe the killing was a “sex game gone wrong” — which was the operating theory of prosecutors who went after American Amanda Knox for murder in a discredited 2007 trial that became a scandal and an international circus.
Ashley is to be buried in a Florentine cemetery because, according to Olsen family attorney Maria Gallo, the ongoing murder investigation means the remains cannot be cremated or returned to the United States.
