Ece Gürel, the 36-year-old woman who was found alive yesterday morning with severe symptoms of hypothermia after being missing for four days in the Belgrade Forest on the outskirts of Istanbul, finally died early today in the intensive care unit of the hospital where she was receiving treatment.
Gürel, an architect by profession, left her home in the Kağıthane neighbourhood last Sunday 2 March saying she was going for a walk in the Belgrade Forest, located north of Istanbul, but never returned home or communicated with her family again. Thanks to security cameras, it was confirmed that the woman did indeed enter the forest that day, where she was lost.
The rescue teams – including rescue members of AFAD and medical teams of UMKE, but also volunteers – who began the search after mobilising the emergency services, found several belongings of the woman on 4 March, including her mobile phone, her bag and her coat, and searched the entire forest and even used divers to explore a nearby river, without success.
Gürel was found at 1:15 am on 6 March in a semi-conscious state, with severe hypothermia and minor injuries; after first aid, she was taken by ambulance to a private hospital in the Istanbul neighbourhood of Maslak, where she suffered a cardiac arrest during treatment, although she was successfully reanimated by the medical teams.
Many unanswered questions about her disappearance
Gürel was admitted to an intensive care unit where she remained intubated. Finally, as several Turkish media outlets including the newspaper Sabah have reported in the last few hours, the woman died this morning around 3:00 am, despite all the efforts of the medical staff attending to her, and her body was later transferred under police escort to the morgue of the Yenibosna Institute of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy to be performed.
After this tragic ending, many unanswered questions remain about this strange event. At first, and after she was reported missing, there was speculation about a possible suicide attempt because Gürel had been experiencing problems at work and in her marriage; but what intrigues the public and those who participated in her rescue the most, is how the woman was able to survive for several days in the forest without adequate clothing or food.
For now, the Istanbul police are examining all the leads and no suspicious evidence of a possible assault or other crime has been found; but all the questions that the investigators hoped to clarify once Gürel regained consciousness have remained unanswered… Who knows, maybe forever.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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