A Taiwanese female backpacker who was suspected of being raped and murdered in Sanliurfa, eastern Turkey five days ago, was buried Saturday in Adana where her body was kept for autopsy after being found.
At Liu Chieh-ying's (劉潔穎) funeral were her father, Liu Chun-shung (劉俊松), and mother from Taiwan, officials from the Taiwan representative office to Turkey, Turkish officials and staff with the Taiwan charity Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟基金會).
Although Liu's father said his daughter was a Buddhist, the funeral financed by the Turkish government was held in the Islamic style as most Turks are Moslems. The Turkish government also provided a place for internment and promised to do their best to help bring her remains back to Taiwan.
Liu's parents, who flew in from Taiwan Saturday afternoon, resigned themselves to laying their daughter to rest in a country thousands of miles away from her homeland after learning that there is no crematorium in Adana and that to airlift Liu's body back to Taiwan would entail enormous expense and red tape. Liu Chun-shung and his wife will fly back to Taiwan today.
Liu Chieh-ying, 27, arrived alone in Turkey for a trip in the middle of last month. She lodged in a cheap hotel in Sanliurfa on Jan. 27.
Her landlord called police Jan. 29 to force their way into her room after she was reported to have not left her room for two days.
The police found her scantily-clad body on the bed with her limbs tied to the four legs of the bed.
A waiter at the hotel confessed that he killed Liu to steal her belongings but police suspected that Liu was sexual assaulted before being killed and more accomplices were involved in the case.
Located about 1,000km southeast of Ankara, Sanliurfa is a small town of Kurds and foreigners are rarely seen there.
RSS