Missing 3.5-year-old boy found dead in pool

Eyüp Serbest - Fırat Alkaç - Emre Yunusoğlu - Hasan Yıldırım - Soner Hasırcıoğlu - Hakan Kaya - Sinan Bilgili / ISTANBUL

At night, some Zekeriyaköy residents volunteered with their flashlights and lanterns to search the forest for Pamir Dikdik, who doesn't talk yet

A 3.5-year-old boy who disappeared in Istanbul on April 4 was found dead after a massive manhunt that took almost 30 hours.

Pamir Dikdik opened the front door himself, went out to the garden and climbed over a fence while his parents were still asleep at 9:30 a.m. in their house located in the affluent Zekeriyaköy neighborhood, the boy's father Serdar Dikdik told journalists.

Several gendarmerie soldiers and policemen participated in the initial search, but they couldn't find any hint regarding the boy's whereabouts in the immediate vicinity. The surrounding wooded area, as well as the gardens of the neighboring villas were searched.

As the incident created a social media storm in the afternoon, hundreds of people volunteered for a more thorough search. Gendermarie commandos and policemen were soon joined by university students, members of AKUT Search and Rescue Association, the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) and the Disaster Coordination Center (AKOM).

The total number of people combing a large area in Zekeriyaköy exceeded 500 in the evening, Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu announced. Nearby wells were emptied, commando frogmen dived into ponds and pools in the area. Gendermarie helicopters equipped with thermal cameras hovered while troops supported by tracking dogs strode through the forest till morning.

"Pamir has disappeared with his pajamas and without shoes. We call on anyone who saw him to inform us," father Serdar Dikdik said. After a 13 hour long search without any result, the parents set up speakers in their garden and aired soundtracks of Pamir's favourite cartoons, hoping he'll hear them and return home. 

Efforts intensified on the morning of April 5, as Governor Mutlu announced experts and volunteers have spread out over an 6-kilometers radius in an intense search for the missing boy. However, Pamir's corpse was found in the pool of a neighboring villa at 2:45 p.m, 29 hours after he went missing.



Father Serdar Dikdik was devastated when he received the news. "What will I tell my love, now? My only child." he said tearfully.

"The pool was searched with various equipment yesterday, but our divers only found our baby in the second search today," Governor Mutlu has tweeted. Doğan news agency footage shows the moments when the pool was searched on the night of April 4: