GUILTY Italy - Ashley Olsen, 35, American, strangled in Florence, 9 Jan 2016

PastTense · Jan 10, 2016

Italian police on Sunday were investigating the death of an American woman whose naked body was discovered in her home in Florence.

Ashley Olsen, 35, from Summer Haven, Fla., who moved to Florence from the United States three years ago, was found strangled on Saturday in her one-bedroom apartment in the arty Santo Spirito district of the Tuscan city, authorities said.... Investigators found bruises and scratches on Olsens neck, and no evidence of forced entry at the apartment. Olsen was strangled, and we are trying to establish her movements before her death, said a police source in Florence, who added that an exact time of death had not yet been fixed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly...

Postings on her Instagram account suggest she may have had a stalker.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-death-american-woman-italy-20160110-story.html

Daily Mail Article with lots of photos:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3391987/Italian-police-US-woman-slain-Florence-flat.html

LaborDayRN · Jan 10, 2016

The unidentified boyfriend said he had not heard from Olsen for several days after the couple fought, the Corriere Della Sera reported.
Police seized Olsens computer hoping to piece together her final moments. She was known among Florences art community, along with her beagle named Scout, who was frequently featured in Instagram photos.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...und-slain-italian-apartment-article-1.2491456

PandaJ · Jan 10, 2016

Just heard about this on CNN. So sad, what a beautiful woman. So no forced entry and she was strangled. Fight with her boyfriend. Suggestions that she had a stalker. I bet they will solve this one pretty quickly, sounds personal to me.

RIP Ashley.

pappa rob · Jan 10, 2016

I hate it when you hear about these cases where someone's died right after a fight with the significant other. It sounds like a stalker alright, or lover..

dotr · Jan 10, 2016

pappa rob said:
I hate it when you hear about these cases where someone's died right after a fight with the significant other. It sounds like a stalker alright, or lover..

It does seem that way, a person has a fight, or does something outside of their usual routine, and somehow murder is the end result, imo.

Chelly · Jan 10, 2016

Wonder what the boyfriend has for an alibi.

Coquette · Jan 11, 2016

I'm following this case closely. I have friends in Florence and know it fairly well, though haven't been for some time now. Ashley's Instagram page photos alluding to an alleged stalker seem playful, not serious - IMO. I suspect her boyfriend was taking photos from behind her. Given their recent split and talk of fighting, I'm sure the police are looking very closely at him. She was found nude in her bed with no signs of forced entry. Her poor father.
MOO.

ETA: Here's some good video coverage from CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/10/europe/italy-american-woman-dead/

wfgodot · Jan 11, 2016

CBS:

Mysterious murder of American woman grips Italy

PandaJ · Jan 11, 2016

Coquette said:
I'm following this case closely. I have friends in Florence and know it fairly well, though haven't been for some time now. Ashley's Instagram page photos alluding to an alleged stalker seem playful, not serious - IMO. I suspect her boyfriend was taking photos from behind her. Given their recent split and talk of fighting, I'm sure the police are looking very closely at him. She was found nude in her bed with no signs of forced entry. Her poor father.
MOO.

ETA: Here's some good video coverage from CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/10/europe/italy-american-woman-dead/

I agree with you, that the stalking photos almost seem playful. She also seems to use the words "creep" and "creeper" a lot too, I've noticed, when talking about other things (like posing with friends, etc).

Please let us know if you hear anything from anyone in the area, if you don't mind. TIA.

dotr · Jan 11, 2016

wfgodot said:
CBS:

Mysterious murder of American woman grips Italy

From the link, wondering if Ashley was left in the state she was in, ie.nude, black restraints, for the ultimate purpose of photographing her that way? There does not appear to have been a sex assault, and a boyfriend would probably, imo. cover her up somewhat.
imo, speculation.

What is known about the case so far, according to Italian police, makes it a mystery worthy of a novel.

Olsen was last seen Thursday night at a club with a female friend. She was out until dawn.

Someone was on her computer until lunchtime on Friday -- the day she is believed to have been killed.

There was no sign of forced entry into the apartment. Black restraints were found near her body.

There are no suspects so far.

Olsen and her artist boyfriend had argued, but police have said he has an alibi.

She moved to Florence two years ago, worked arranging art events and as a part time baby sitter and was often seen in the neighbourhood where she lived walking her beloved beagle, Scout. He was in the apartment when the body was found

.

AbbeyR · Jan 11, 2016

I had the same impression as @coquette and @pandaj about the use of 'stalker' and 'creeper' as playful and a kind of photo style - They were obviously taken by someone she was with, since she posted them herself.

Worth noting this page from a book posted on her instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/_xBJxDoi0R/?taken-by=ashleyannolsen

Does not look good for the boyfriend, at first glance.

PandaJ · Jan 11, 2016

wfgodot said:
CBS:

Mysterious murder of American woman grips Italy

Ok, so she was found on Saturday and her boyfriend reportedly told police that they had argued three days prior and that he hadn't seen her since. So that would put their argument on Wednesday. We know she was last seen at a club with a friend on Thursday night. So assuming that the boyfriend is telling the truth and is correct about the day they argued, that would mean she was still alive afterwards. IF he is telling the truth, of course.

jmo

JerseyGirl · Jan 11, 2016

Olsen's boyfriend, a fellow artist, reportedly found her body on Saturday. He was concerned because he had not heard from her, so he asked Olsen's landlord to go with him to Olsen's apartment to check on her.

Olsen's father, an architect, works for the Florence Art School Bianca Cappello.

http://www. cnn.com/2016/01/10/europe/italy-american-woman-dead/index.html

_________

there was no evidence that Olsen had been sexually assaulted

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-woman-found-dead-florence-apartment-italy-police-n493551

Coquette · Jan 11, 2016

dotr said:
From the link, wondering if Ashley was left in the state she was in, ie.nude, black restraints, for the ultimate purpose of photographing her that way? There does not appear to have been a sex assault, and a boyfriend would probably, imo. cover her up somewhat.
imo, speculation.

.

It sounds like she may have taken a man home with her from the club who had a penchant for bondage and rough play (and perhaps she did as well). The dark side of taking a stranger home or perhaps someone she already knew? Interesting that the police say the boyfriend had an alibi. MOO.

JerseyGirl · Jan 11, 2016

Two weeks ago Olsen shared a photo on Instagram of a page appearing from Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat Pray Love that may have hinted she planned to break up with her boyfriend

A local woman revealed Olden had told her the couple had been having problems recently in their relationship. 'I talked to her nearly every day,' the woman told The Daily Telegraph. 'I felt like a mother to her.' The woman said she advised Olden to get therapy, as the American woman had been in a previous marriage that ended badly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...talker-weeks-dead-Florence.html#ixzz3wxdKSnY9

PandaJ · Jan 11, 2016

Coquette said:
It sounds like she may have taken a man home with her from the club who had a penchant for bondage and rough play (and perhaps she did as well). The dark side of taking a stranger home or perhaps someone she already knew? Interesting that the police say the boyfriend had an alibi. MOO.

That's an interesting theory. But police also said (from the CBS link) that someone had been on her computer Friday until lunchtime. So if it was someone she had taken home for the night, was he still there on Friday until lunchtime? Could be, but not sure that's very likely. Who knows, though!

jmo

dotr · Jan 11, 2016

http://time.com/4175876/italy-murder-ashley-olsen-florence/
rbbm.

In one newspaper, her landlady described how Fiorentini threw himself on Olsen’s body, desperately trying to revive her. “I loved Ashley and I want to find who killed her,” Fiorentini was quoted as saying by the Italian newspaper La Stampa. “They will have to pay for what they did.”

Olsen was last seen in public at a nightclub late Thursday night, in the artsy Oltarno neighborhood where she lived, not far from Florence’s iconic Ponte Vecchio. The door to her apartment showed no signs of forced entry, and police told Italian media that her computer had been used until around noon on Friday. Her mobile phone has not been found, and seems to have been turned off since Friday morning.

Her pet beagle, Scout, the star of many of her Instagram posts, was found alive inside the apartment. Investigators are said to be studying footage from surveillance cameras not far from her apartment. No suspects have been formally identified.

Coquette · Jan 11, 2016

If her phone was taken by her killer, I suspect the killer's images are on that phone. She liked to document things for Instagram. One could venture to guess the killer grabbed the phone, saw something they didn't like (perhaps including texts or contact info.) and took the phone. Some of that will be easy to access via the carrier or perhaps the cloud. All very interesting... MOO.

PandaJ · Jan 11, 2016

The Daily Mail is reporting that Ashley's boyfriend had scratches on his knuckles:

"Police have confirmed that he had scratches across both knuckles, but he said that these were sustained as he battled to save his girlfriend's life.Fiorentini was interrogated overnight by police and released without charge in the morning."

Hmmmmmmm

More at link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Knox-detective-called-lead-investigation.html

Coquette · Jan 11, 2016

PandaJ said:
The Daily Mail is reporting that Ashley's boyfriend had scratches on his knuckles:

"Police have confirmed that he had scratches across both knuckles, but he said that these were sustained as he battled to save his girlfriend's life.Fiorentini was interrogated overnight by police and released without charge in the morning."

Hmmmmmmm

More at link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Knox-detective-called-lead-investigation.html

Scratches on knuckles? She was strangled. If someone is being strangled they try to pry the hands away from around their neck. There could easily then be scratch wounds on the killers knuckles. About that alibi...

GUILTY Italy - Ashley Olsen, 35, American, strangled in Florence, 9 Jan 2016

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