Banker battling breast cancer ‘drowned her son aged 7 then hanged herself ’
A FINANCE worker thought to have drowned her seven-yearold son before hanging herself had been fighting breast cancer, friends revealed last night.
Police found the bodies of Yulia Gokcedag, 35, and her son Timur in their £690,000 flat the day after they had been reported missing.
Friend and former colleague Agnieszka Leonowicz, 27, who was a banker at Barclays alongside Mrs Gokcedag, said the mother had been undergoing chemotherapy.
She said she had last spoken to Mrs Gokcedag in March after she posted a picture of herself having cancer treatment in hospital.
‘She was a great person, beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside,’ she said. ‘She had more experience than me and was always very helpful and kind. She was also really ambitious and wanted to grow.’
She added that Mrs Gokcedag had come from Russia and lived in Britain for around a decade and her son had always seemed like a ‘very happy child’.
Scotland Yard said officers forced entry to the flat on the Isle of Dogs in east London at 3.20am on Thursday, August 13, and found the mother and son unresponsive.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as hanging for Mrs Gokcedag and drowning for Timur. Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
An inquest into the deaths will be held at Poplar Coroners’ Court on December 16.
Mrs Gokcedag married investment banker Mehmet Gokcedag, 50, in 2011 and they are thought to have moved to London the following year.
Mr Gokcedag is a Turkish former academic who studied at Yale University in the US and now works
‘She was always helpful and kind’
as a risk manager in the banking sector alongside charity work as a trustee for Seeds of Growth, which helps disadvantaged people in London. He could not be reached last night.
The couple had shared photos of Timur on social media when he was a baby in 2013, along with days out in London and a trip to Turkey together.
Neighbours in the gated community near the financial district of Canary Wharf described Mrs Gokcedag as a ‘devoted mother.’ One man, who did not want to be named, said: ‘The wife seemed really devoted to her son.
‘She was Russian. Her mother and Mehmet’s mother, from Istanbul, were here all the time. The family seemed fine. I didn’t notice anything untoward.’
Mr Gokcedag had told neighbours that he planned to move the family to Wimbledon, southwest London.
Mrs Gokcedag last worked as a data analyst at credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, and had won awards during her time at Barclays, according to her Linkedin profile.
She attended the London School of Economics having gained a degree at the Moscow Institute of Finance and Economics.
Timur attended a primary school at Canary Wharf College.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Officers forced entry to the property and found Yulia and her son Timur unresponsive.
‘Both were pronounced dead at the scene and an investigation was launched by the Met’s Specialist Crime Command. Post mortem examinations determined the cause of death for Yulia to have been hanging and Timur’s cause of death was drowning.
Detectives are not seeking any other persons in connection with the deaths.’
Scotland Yard said it had made a routine referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which had referred it back to the local professional standards unit.