Hanged mother and drowned son found at their home
A FINANCE analyst battling breast cancer was found hanged alongside her drowned seven-year-old son.
Yulia Gokcedag, 35, and her son Timur were found unresponsive at their flat on the Isle of Dogs, east London, on Aug 13. The Metropolitan Police forced entry into the home at 3.20am after they had been reported missing the previous day.
Originally from Russia, Mrs Gokcedag worked as a city analyst for Moody’s Investors Service and had studied at the Moscow Financial University. She was described by a former neighbour as a “devoted mother”.
Detectives are not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths. The force’s specialist crime command is investigating and inquests will be held at Poplar coroner’s court on Dec 16.
Agnieszka Leonowicz, 27, her friend and former colleague, revealed Mrs Gokcedag had been battling breast cancer. She described being “shocked”, and said they last spoke in March.
“I wouldn’t have said she was depressed,” she said. “She was quiet and kept to herself.”
Mrs Gokcedag posted a picture on Facebook in March which shows her hairless and sitting upright in a hospital bed during treatment.
Mehmet Gokcedag, her husband, is a Turkish City banker and was the father of Timur. He said his wife had suffered from anxiety which was worsened by delays to her chemotherapy, caused by the lockdown, and had been due to have surgery days before the incident.
He added: “Yulia had been battling with her cancer and anxiety in the past eight months, but I wasn’t fully aware that she would do this.
“Yulia gave us our son Timur, now she took him from us. She must have been in a very different mental state, battling with her demons, this was not the Yulia we knew.”
He has made plans to bury his wife alongside their son in Turkey.