US woman was brutally beaten and strangled in Florence

An American woman found dead in her Florence apartment had been brutally beaten and strangled, Italian prosecutors said.

They suspect a Senegalese man she met at a disco who was detained after authorities received “decisive” DNA evidence from a condom and cigarette butt and he was found using her mobile phone.

Cheik Tidiane Diaw, a 27-year-old who had arrived in Italy from Senegal in recent months, was arrested early yesterday at his brother’s apartment and is being held on suspicion of aggravated homicide, Florence chief prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told a news conference.