ROME – In past week more disturbing details of the murder of Ilaria Sula have been shared by the police, creating a clearer picture of how ex-boyfriend Mark Sampson killed her and how he attempted to cover it up. 

 Ilaria’s autopsy results were released on Tuesday, showing that she had three stab wounds to the neck, rendering her unable to scream, but also a large hematoma on the cheekbone, a wound which wound likely attributable to a punch thrown during a prior assault. The autopsy would then suggest that the two had argued prior to the murder, which is different scenario to that described by the 23-year-old who confessed to the femicide of his ex-girlfriend.

 There is evidence that Ilaria tried to defend herself, scratching him on the arms, before being killed in the small 50 square metre apartment on via Homs, an affable part of the eternal city. Samson's lawyers have since returned to Regina Coeli prison, where the 23-year-old is being held after he allegedly said he wanted to be questioned again to clarify some important things.  According to the story told by Sampson, he killed Ilaria on the morning of March 26 but after recent discoveries, the Prosecutor's Office have alleged that the argument and attack occurred the night before. 

 This difference in dates would change the whole story, the cleaned-up scene and the transport of the body to the cliff of Capranica Prenestina, as at the moment the only person under investigation for complicity in concealing a corpse is Samson's mother. Traces of Ilaria’s have since been found in every single room of the small apartment, including in the shower and on tooth brush handles. A new hypothesis from investigators is that Ilaria “could have been saved” if she has received help for her wounds but was instead left to bleed out. Her body was then concealed in the flat for at least 20-22 hours before being thrown off the cliff in a suitcase.

 While Sampson’s mother has confessed to being home at the time of the murder it has still not been confirmed whether or not the new suspected time of the murder would also place Sampson’s father at the scene of the crime. 

 Sampson then began using Ilaria’s phone, which has not yet been found in an attempt to deceive one of her friends. Pretending to be Ilaria, he said that she was with another boy, who she met by chance at Sapienza and sent a photo of a young bodybuilder. He then claimed she was on a trip to Naples. However, Ilaria's friend realised that something was incredibly wrong and gave him the ultimatum to "answer this video call. Ilaria's mother called me. She's going to Rome to contact the police. Greetings to whoever you are". 

 The photo of the young man used by Mark Samson to divert the search for Ilaria Sula, belonged to a real man, who has not been identified in the media, who has decided to speak out because "he has nothing to do with it.” The man, 27, of Campanian origin but raised in Rome explained that he had matched with Ilaria on Tinder only two days before her disappearance, March 24. He told the Italian Media that "that photo is mine. Mark took it from Tinder to make Ilaria’s friends believe that she had run away with me to Naples to 'be naughty'. As a matter of fact, I was in Rome, at work. He tried to frame me and I have nothing to do with it.”

 "Then I stopped hearing from her, but I didn't notice as it was one of the many open chats [I had on the app]". The two, therefore, neither spoke on the phone, nor had the opportunity to even meet other, before Ilaria was murdered by Sampson. 

 In messages, which perhaps not only were sent to deter suspicion but are also illustrative of how Sampson believed Ilaria spoke to her friends, he continued to message her friends to say that she has simply upped sticks and gone to Naples with this man that she had met outside the university and that he had already had intimate relations with him.

 The news has come a day after Ilaria’s University, La Sapienza decided to name their new study spaces after the murdered statistics student, in a ceremony with her family present. 

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