Missing Moldovan woman found in Istanbul, rape suspected

ISTANBUL

A Moldovan woman, who has been found alive after going missing for more than two days in Istanbul, may have been raped multiple times, Turkish media has reported.

The 21-year-old woman disappeared in the central Taksim neighborhood at around noon on Dec. 7, while her mother, a Turkish citizen, was buying credit to use the metro. After the mother was unable to find her daughter in the streets, she notified the police.

The missing woman was picked up by police in nearby Beşiktaş late on Dec. 9, walking alone on the shoreline. She was reportedly unable to speak and was carrying no identification, so police took her to a homeless shelter in the Zeytinburnu district. She left the premises on Dec. 11 of her own accord, according to the shelter’s registration book.

Habertürk newspaper reported on Dec. 18 that the woman had been found 11 hours and 21 minutes after her reported exit from the shelter, unconscious in the garden of a mental institution in the Bakırköy district. Security guards at the institution said the woman’s lower body part was covered with blood, and she was immediately taken to hospital.

Her mother went to the hospital after medical personnel who recognized the woman’s photo in the newspaper got in contact.

According to the initial medical examination, the victim had been raped, possibly multiple times.
The mother said her daughter was able to tell her that she had been raped, and was uttering words such as “car” and “house” in her sleep.

A criminal investigation has been opened into the incident.