At first I thought it was one of the twins from Full House:
"Italian police say a 35-year-old American woman has been found slain in her apartment in Florence. A police spokeswoman in Florence, Maddalena Carosi, said the victim’s neck was bruised and scratched. But police wouldn’t comment on Italian news reports that the woman had been strangled until an autopsy was performed. Carosi said the murdered woman has been identified as Ashley Olsen. Police also declined to comment on reports that Olsen’s boyfriend became worried when he didn’t hear from her for a few days and asked the flat’s owner to open the door, leading to the discovery of the body (AP)."
"Italian police seek killer of US woman in Florence" Associated Press January 11, 2016
FLORENCE — Police vowed ‘‘maximum attention’’ Sunday to find the killer of an American found dead in her Florence apartment as Italy’s expatriate community expressed hope that the case won’t turn into another Amanda Knox-style, drawn-out, headline-grabbing legal saga.
Knox, Knox?
Whose there?
Not funny.
Police opened a murder investigation Saturday after 35-year-old Ashley Olsen of Summer Haven, Fla., was found dead, her neck bruised and scratched.
Authorities questioned Olsen’s boyfriend, a local artist, Saturday but said they have no suspects so far.
“What happened in Florence is getting the maximum attention to find out what it’s all about,” Italy’s police chief, Alessandro Pansa, said during an unrelated visit Sunday to Florence, the ANSA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, friends and fellow expats expressed horror at the slaying of a woman known around Florence for her beloved beagle, Scout, and said they hoped her killer would be found quickly. Flowers were left at her doorstep.
“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,” said Amy, a friend who only gave her first name. “We’ve got a great community here of people and everyone loved her.”
Friends and other expats expressed hope that the case wouldn’t end up repeating the flawed, flip-flopping investigation into the last high-profile murder case of a foreigner living in Italy, that of Meredith Kercher.
The British student was studying 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, and finally acquitted for good when Italy’s supreme court last year definitively exonerated them. Another man was convicted and is serving a 16-year sentence.
“I would hope for her sake that this investigation is more clear,” said Georgette Jupe, who writes the “Girl in Florence” blog and knew Olsen casually, primarily because they both had beagles and lived near one another in Florence’s Santo Spirito neighborhood.
What if they never catch the killer?
What if she was a spy who had been compromised and needed a new assignment and career?
Olsen was involved in fashion and had moved a few years ago to Florence, where her father was also a professor.
There can be skullduggery and intrigue there, too. Lots of money at stake.
Social media groups for expats in Florence expressed the same sentiment, with several people posting comments about the parallel to the Kercher investigation, which was harshly criticized in both the American and British media.
“It reignites the concern of justice, different policing and judicial systems, and the different journalism styles between Italy and the US,” said Beth Prusiecki, an American living in Milan.
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"Friends say US woman stayed behind at club before killing" by Fanuel Morelli Associated Press January 12, 2016
FLORENCE, Italy — Friends of a US woman found slain in her rented Florence apartment have told police she stayed behind at a nightclub when they left, investigators said Monday.
The more I think about it, the more I'm a strict prohibitionist.
Coroners began an autopsy on Ashley Olsen’s body Monday afternoon. First results, including time and cause of death, could come as soon as Tuesday.
See: Florence autopsy finds US woman was strangled, maybe with rope
Olsen had lived in Florence for three years and was a familiar figure among the Renaissance art city’s close-knit expatriate community.
Some 72 hours’ worth of video from two surveillance cameras in the street near Olsen’s home were being scrutinized by police in hopes of catching a glimpse of whoever killed her arriving or leaving the building....
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"Italian officials investigate mysterious death of US woman" by Yanan Wang Washington Post January 13, 2016
The murder has inflamed the international community in Italy, where a British student was found dead in 2007. Local investigators on the case were heavily criticized abroad after it was discovered that they had botched it, convicting the victim’s boyfriend and roommate before exonerating him just last year and pinning the crime on another man.
‘‘I would hope for [Olsen’s] sake that this investigation is more clear,’’ Georgette Jupe, a blogger who was acquainted with Olsen, told the AP.
Beth Prusiecki, an American living in Milan, said the killing ‘‘reignites the concern of justice, different policing and judicial systems, and the different journalism styles between Italy and the US.’’
For onlookers, Olsen’s murder is gripping not only because of the mysterious — and dramatic — circumstances of her death, but also because of the cinematic way that she lived.
Are we sure that is not what is this? A staged and scripted piece of fiction?
If so, it's a laugh-in-your-face comedy.
Hers was a story ripe for the kind of memoir that inspires movies:
I'll wait and catch that then.
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That was a lot to ciao down.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Italy arrests suspect in death of U.S. woman" by Gaia Pianigiani New York Times January 14, 2016
ROME — The Italian police announced Thursday that a Senegalese migrant had been arrested in the killing of a young American found dead in her Florence apartment last weekend.
The mysterious circumstances of the death of the woman, Ashley Ann Olsen, 35, of Florida, immediately drew global attention. Her body was discovered Saturday morning by her boyfriend, who alerted the police.
I will explain the italics momentarily.
Investigators said Thursday that Olsen had met the suspect — Cheik Tidiane Diaw, a 27-year-old Senegalese who is in the country illegally — at a Florence nightclub on the evening of Jan. 7. Witnesses saw the two leave the club together, and street cameras recorded them returning to her apartment early Jan. 8. Investigators said they had consensual sex before Olsen was killed.
DNA analysis of a condom and a cigarette butt discovered in Olsen’s bathroom, as well as other biological evidence, suggested that Diaw and Olsen had been the only two people in the apartment at that time. Diaw also stole Olsen’s smartphone and used it, investigators said.
Giuseppe Creazzo, chief prosecutor of Florence, said in a televised news conference that Diaw had been questioned for several hours and had “substantially admitted the accusations.” Creazzo said that he did not know what Diaw’s motives might have been, but he suggested that the two might have had an argument.
“The investigation is not over,” Creazzo said, “but they are obviously at a good, an excellent point.”
Investigators are examining whether drugs played a role in the events leading up to Olsen’s killing, and tests are being conducted.
The police said that Olsen had suffered two fractures to the skull and was subsequently strangled with a cord, wire or other object.
Diaw was arrested late Wednesday in his brother’s apartment in Florence, where he moved a few months ago, the police said, and he had been hired to distribute leaflets for nightclubs.
Okay, you have the print copy and what the web version added to it.
Here's more:
Early local news reports had suggested that Diaw had dealt drugs, but the police said there was no evidence of this.
Olsen’s death came a week after Europe was shaken by reports of rape and sexual harassment on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany. Witnesses there, as well as the police, described predatory gangs of mostly foreign men, including some refugees, groping and robbing young women. The Cologne police are also investigating at least three cases of suspected rape.
That story stinks and I've already gotten rid of it.
In fact, this all stinks to high heaven.
The Cologne assaults resonated in Italy. Florence’s police chief addressed questions about safety that emerged in the local media after Olsen’s death, assuring the public that Florence remained safe.
The case has shaken the city, where Olsen was well known in the international art community. She had moved to Florence a few years ago to join her father, an architecture and art teacher there. She was living in the lively Santo Spirito neighborhood, known for its bohemian atmosphere and bar scene, as well as its partying crowds.
“In Florence, ours is a huge community of young and creative expats, from every continent in the world, and we are close-knit,” Olsen’s friends wrote in a letter released by an English-speaking magazine in Florence, The Florentine. Of Olsen, they wrote: “From a distance she stood out, you saw her coming. Up close, it was the warm and vivacious smile that lit up her whole face that we, and so many others, will remember her by.”
On her Instagram account, Olsen posted several pictures of her travels through Italy and her walks through Florence with her beagle, as well as romantic poses with her boyfriend, a Florentine artist.
How is he feeling about all this, the forgotten fella?
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I predict this story will be quickly expelled from the throat of the propaganda pre$$.
Also see: In the home of pizza, pollution rules for ovens spur outrage
That covers the smell of anything.
Related: Licio Gelli, 96; Italian financier and colorful leader of political-industrial cabal
Gelli was part of Gladio.
