Police detain Florence suspect after DNA analysis on condom

DNA analysis of a used condom and samples taken from under Olsen’s her fingernails and cigarette butt found in Olsen’s bathroom led Italian police to the suspect, the prosecutors said Thursday. Traces of DNA found on a condom and on her body matched that of the suspect, 27-year old Tidiane Cheik Diaw.

Diaw was also using Olsen’s phone after putting his own SIM card inside, Creazzo said.

“We have collected very serious evidence of his guilt”, Florence chief prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told reporters at a news conference on Thursday after the man was arrested and questioned in the early hours of the morning.

CNNAn image from a CNN report on Olsen’s death.

Olsen was found dead in her apartment on Saturday, after her boyfriend had been unable to reach her and asked Olsen’s landlord, Claudia Colivicchi, who lived upstairs, to open the apartment for him.

A picture taken on January 11th shows messages and drawings on a wall at the entrance to the building that houses the flat of Ashley Olsen.

He said the autopsy determined that Olsen had also suffered two fractures to her skull before she was strangled. Police said that her neck showed signs of bruising and scratching.

Italian media has reported he told police he did not mean to kill Ms Olsen, but claimed she had fallen during an argument.

Mr Creazzo said Mr Diaw had “largely admitted” his role in the events. Her father is a professor at a local design institute.

According to the reports, Olsen was strangled with some sort of a cord and definitively not with the killer’s bare hands.

A witness saw them together and described the man to police and the two were captured on CCTV walking towards her apartment.

Olsen’s father teaches in Florence, and her social circles included the art community in the Tuscan capital, renowned for its Renaissance architecture and masterpiece-rich museums and churches.

Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted the boyfriend, an artist, as saying the couple had quarrelled over a minor matter three days before her body was found.

“She was a attractive and creative young woman with a happy, exuberant and generous soul, and she loved her life in Florence”.

In a separate statement, Miss Olsen’s closest friends in Florence said they were struggling to come to terms with her violent death.