The businesswoman who owned the Tiffany jewelry empire in Turkey dies under mysterious circumstances. She died at the age of 71. Dilek Ertek, who ran the business for about 20 years, fell off a cruise ship while on vacation in the South Sea Islands.
Her family has asked the police to investigate her boyfriend, with whom she was traveling. Her son, Gokce Atuk says the jewelry was missing from the safe in his mother's cabin. Despite footage from the boat showing her going down in the water at 3am, her unidentified boyfriend only reported her missing about 20 hours later, according to the DailyMail.
Experts seem baffled as to how Ertek was able to fall from the cockpit straight into the water.
The 74-year-old partner was kept under observation by the ship's crew in a separate cabin before they docked in Tahiti three days later. He is said to have been questioned by police in Tahiti before being released due to lack of evidence.
The sea search for Ertek's body has been called off. She had boarded the ship on October 24 in the island of Papeete, French Polynesia, to celebrate her birthday in Bora Bora, a small South Pacific island on November 5. The cruise was scheduled to end in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Turkish media have reported that there are also problems with the investigation. It is alleged that Tahitian authorities did not properly search Ertek's room.
Her lawyers are said to be preparing to file a lawsuit against the ship's operator.
Dilek Ertek was born in Istanbul and graduated from Mimar Sinan University, Department of Architecture. She studied diamonds at the Gemological Institute of America in New York. In late 1995, she opened the first Tiffany store in Istanbul. She was the distributor of Tiffany & Co. in Turkey for more than 20 years