Italian authorities have arrested and charged a Nigerian national with the murder of an 18-year-old Italian woman.

Innocent Oseghale allegedly murdered and dismembered Pamela Mastropietro, hid the body in two suitcases before dumping them in the countryside outside Pollenza near Macerata in Marche.

According to reports, Oseghale, 29, appeared “confused and not very clear” during questioning in which he denied the charges on Thursday.

The Nigerian reportedly continued to deny the charges and tried to accuse two other people who police have cleared.

“I did not kill her,” he was reported to have told the police repeatedly.

Oseghale is said to be an asylum seeker with a residence permit, which expired last year. He is married and has a daughter. He, however, stays alone in an apartment, not rented in his name. Police, after searching his flat found 70 grams of hashish, but not heroin.

An autopsy on the body failed to establish the cause of death Thursday, medical sources said.

Carabinieri forensic police found bloodstained clothes belonging to the victim and other blood traces at the suspect’s home. They also found a receipt from a nearby pharmacy where the victim had bought a syringe, reports said.

Oseghale has a record for drugs offences, police said. He was pinned down by CCTV footage of the area where the suitcases were dumped, and by a foreign national who said he saw him carrying the suitcases there.