Family tells heartbreaking story of mysterious cemetery girl in Turkey’s Çorum

ÇORUM

The parents of a mysterious crying girl at a cemetery in the central Anatolian province of Çorum, who have been in headlines in Turkey for weeks, have shared the details of the 15-year-old girl’s untold story.

The girl’s father, who is a worker and her mother, who is a housewife, said they were terrified by the public reaction, while they were struggling to treat their daughter who had psychological problems.

“They waited for our child with sticks by the cemetery, they held a night watch to catch her. They watched our suffering child while eating sunflower seeds and raced to catch her on camera. Everyone was looking for an adventure throughout this situation. We heard people had started to come from outside of Çorum to watch as our child became lost in her psychological suffering. We were horrified as we watched during this period,” they said.

Her parents also said the girl was obsessed with the cemetery, adding that she had believed one of her relatives were buried in one of the graves at the cemetery.

“We had determined our child had been going to the cemetery in the last few weeks. She has psychological problems and we have been trying to treat her. It has been a difficult process for us. Suddenly, videos started to circulate on the internet, everyone started to talk about our daughter. The incident turned into entertainment news. Her psychological issues were a result of our recent loss of a loved one and she had thought his grave was there. She became obsessed with this thought, she had not actually been looking for his grave, she was looking him,” they said.

The story of the “mysterious crying girl” in the cemetery started almost a month ago and the story spread among the locals and also became a topic on Turkey’s agenda in a short period of time.

On April 26, witnesses reported a teenage girl crying and speaking to herself in one of the graves. The next day, workers at the cemetery found the girl, but then she disappeared, after which they left a note on the grave saying they could help her. They also informed police about a “ghostly image” in the area.

Locals had started to keep watch every night in the area to find the girl, with local tradesman taking advantage of the great interest by setting up stalls in the area around the cemetery.

Surveillance cameras were mounted around the grave that the girl had been seen crying on, but no trace of the girl was seen in any of the video footage.

According to locals, the girl had repeatedly come to the grave to cry and managed to escape officials each time and disappear into the shadows of the cemetery.

Police said the girl was around 15 years old, dressed in black and wearing red shoes, crying on the grave of a woman who died in 1982.

The unidentified girl who had prompted panic among locals was found on May 11, the Çorum Governor’s Office announced.

No administrative or judicial action is being taken against the girl, the governor’s office added.