türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 1 September 2026)
They found the one thing they didn't want to steal.
In Istanbul's Bahçelievler district, thieves found a three-month-old
corpse in the elevator shaft of an empty building they had broken into.
The building's owner, despite completing construction, ended up in
court due to a dispute with the owner of the adjacent vacant plot.
Construction of the building, which was found to be encroaching on
the boundaries of the neighboring plot, was halted by a court order.
The incident occurred on Monday, August 24th, at approximately
10:35 PM in an empty building located in the Siyavuşpaşa
neighborhood. Entering the empty building to steal whatever he could
find, A.E. (29) noticed a person lying face down and motionless in a
puddle of water in the elevator shaft (!). A.E. informed his friend İ. A.
(41) about the situation and then called the 112 Emergency Call Center
to report the incident. Upon the report, police, fire and medical teams
were dispatched to the scene.
Medical teams arriving at the building determined that the person
found in the elevator shaft had died. To prevent the body from
decomposing, the teams first drained the water that had accumulated
in the elevator shaft with the help of the fire department. The deceased's
body was removed from the shaft hours later.
Robbers rewarded by police with t-shirts
Following the work of the crime scene investigation teams and the
examination by the on-duty Public Prosecutor, the body was taken to
the Forensic Medicine Institute morgue to determine the exact cause
of death and identity. A.E., who found the body, and his friend İ.A.
were released after their statements were taken (!). It was learned that
the police teams are continuing their investigations into the matter.
Gülay Gündüz, who lives on the street where the incident occurred,
said, "The police arrived at 11 PM. Teams worked until 2:30 AM.
There was a water accumulation in the basement. They drained it,
and then the body was recovered. There have been problems with
this building for a long time. At one point, homeless people came
and stayed here. Neither can anyone live here, nor is the building
being demolished. A solution needs to be found to prevent these
kinds of problems from happening again. The problems will
continue as long as the building remains in this state. Whoever
has the authority to help, a solution needs to be found."
