Ukrainian girl stays three days with dead parents in Turkey

ALANYA

A 6-year-old Ukrainian girl has been rescued from starvation after remaining for three days next to her parents following their death at a Turkish resort.

According to Doğan News Agency, 38-year-old Viacheslav Samilo and his wife, Maiia Samilo, recently rented an apartment in the southern Turkish province of Antalya’s Alanya district, which is popular among Russian-speaking tourists. 

The couple’s daughter, Anzhelika Samilo, went to the balcony at around 3 p.m. on June 22 and alerted her Russian-speaking neighbors, saying: “I am hungry. My parents are sleeping and they won’t wake up.”

Turkish security forces and medical teams arrived at the scene soon afterward and determined that the Ukrainian couple had died three days ago. After the bodies, which were found sitting on a couch, were sent to the morgue of the Antalya Forensics Institute, police questioned the couple’s neighbors and the doorman of their apartment. Samilo was handed to Turkish authorities after medical checks.


Metin Mutlu, a 58-year-old neighbor, told Doğan News Agency that the couple had arrived in Turkey on May 8 and “were consuming too much alcohol.” Claiming that the man was beating his wife, Mutlu added that they have not been seen out of the apartment for the past three days. 

“It is thought that both of them fell into a coma due to alcohol and died,” he said.

Turkish authorities have launched an investigation into the incident and called for help to find the girl's relatives.