Ece Gürel, a woman who had been reported missing for four days in Istanbul, was found alive this morning, although on the verge of dying from hypothermia, in the Belgrade Forest, north of the city. Her relatives feared the worst, but her survival leaves many questions unanswered, such as how she managed to survive for so many days in the wild and in such low temperatures.
Turkish media and news agencies confirmed that Ece Gürel, a 36-year-old architect who had left her home on 2 March saying she was going to the Belgrade Forest, was discovered near a river at 1:15 a.m. on 6 March by several members of the rescue teams involved in the search. During the search, several of the woman’s belongings had been found in the forest in the previous days, including her mobile phone, which had raised fears of a tragic outcome. In addition to this, and according to her family, the woman had been suffering problems at work and in her marriage, which sparked speculation about a possible act of suicide.
The rescuers who found her confirmed to the Turkish press that Gürel was found asleep but with symptoms of hypothermia, so she did not respond: ‘Ece’s eyes were open, but she was unable to speak. Her body was stiff. Her arms and legs were scratched. We wrapped her in thermal blankets immediately,’ said the head of the search and rescue team that found her.
‘When we found her, her lips were trembling. But once we managed to warm her body, she began to make sounds and finally started to scream. That was a relief for us, because it was a sign that she had regained control of her nervous system. We carried her for 2 km until we reached the main road,’ said another member of the search and rescue team. The woman’s condition was so delicate that she even suffered a cardiac arrest, although she was successfully reanimated. She is currently admitted to an intensive care unit at a hospital in Istanbul.
The big question: how did she manage to survive cold and hunger?
Thanks to the images from the security cameras, it was possible to identify when Gürel left her house and entered the Belgrade Forest, which helped the emergency services narrow down their search. Teams of scuba divers even went so far as to explore the river where she was finally found: in fact, the area were she was found had already been searched twice during the operation; moreover, she was found two kilometres away from where her bag and coat were found, which raises even more questions about how she managed to survive for so many days without adequate food or clothing.
There is no evidence to suggest that the woman left the forest and then returned to the place where she was eventually found; but it is not clear what happened during the 72 hours she spent in the forest. If she did not leave the forest during that time, even though she was found on the verge of dying of hypothermia, the fact is that without adequate food or clothing it is difficult to explain how she could have survived in those conditions and not die due to cold much earlier.
‘She’s OK, admitted to intensive care. She’ll recover as soon as she gets some rest. We don‘t know why she went there or how she survived. Even when we were there in warm clothes while we were following the search efforts, it was hard for us to bear the cold,’ confessed Gürel’s mother, Gülşen Koçoğlu, thanking everyone who took part in the rescue operation. ‘I felt relieved when I saw my wife. God bless you all, thank God she was found safe and sound,’ said Ece’s husband, Sezer Gürel.
Once the woman regains consciousness and is released from intensive care, her testimony will be key to shedding light on what happened during the time she went missing and, above all, how she managed to survive against all odds all that time in the Belgrade Forest – with temperatures at night in Istanbul close to freezing – without succumbing to cold and hunger.
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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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