The mystery of what happened to the heart of Beth Louise Eileen Martin, a 29-year-old UK mother who passed away during a holiday with her husband and two young children in Turkey, is yet to be resolved. Speculation that the organ had been stolen was published by British media after a UK autopsy on the body flown to England showed it was missing.

The culmination of a shocking sequence of events is captured by a description on a GoFundMe page set up for the grieving family: “The UK autopsy began. And then the final blow: Beth’s heart was missing.

“The Turkish hospital has removed it. No explanation. No consent. They have invaded her body and they have TAKEN her heart.”

It was on April 27 that the Martin couple together with their eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, from Portsmouth, southern England, flew to Turkey for a family holiday. On arrival, Beth began feeling unwell, according to the outline of the tragedy provided on GoFundMe.

On the morning of April 28, Luke struggled to get an ambulance to take Beth to hospital. In the end, he managed to take his wife to hospital by himself. After night fell, Beth was moved into intensive car, but her husband was not allowed to see her.

“Concerns with her heart”

On April 29, Beth’s mother and friend arrived in Turkey. Luke and the mother said they were told that Beth had been transferred to another hospital overnight.

Later on, however, Beth was transferred back to the first hospital and Luke was told that the move during the night took place due to “concerns with her heart”. The family was again not allowed to see her.

Quizzed by police

Meanwhile, police officers interrogated Luke at his hotel. They did not bring along a translator. Hotel staff assisted. Luke was told to sign a document.

Dead or alive?

When he later got a translation of the document he signed, Luke became informed that Beth had died at around 9am. And that the Turkish authorities were treating him as a suspect in the poisoning of his wife.

Then another strange turn of events. Beth’s mother later that day managed to see her daughter – she was still alive on life support.

The doctor asked if Beth had allergies. Luke said he had already told the paramedics when Beth got in the ambulance that she was allergic to penicillin. When told again, the doctors were shocked to hear this information.

Passed away

In the evening, the hospital called Luke. Beth, they said, had passed away. This time, it was true.

Next came continuing problems with the insurance company and the hospital. The family were asked for a payment.

Burial attempt in Turkey

Later on, the police called Luke to tell him that they planned to bury his wife the following evening. He strongly refused to agree to such a burial, telling the officers that he planned to take his wife’s body home. The police then told him to return to the hospital at 8am the next day to be interviewed by a prosecutor.

Police interview in back of a van

On April 30, he waited for the police to come and conduct the second interview. At 2pm, he was interviewed in the back of a van in the hospital car park. The chief investigator was sat at a desk bolted to the vehicle.

Eventually, the husband was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Body handed over

The body of Beth was handed to Luke, the mother and the friend in a zipped body bag.

On May 2, the family managed to arrange a flight for the body to be flown home. On May 6, the body arrived in the UK.

Autopsy finds heart missing

The results of the autopsy in the UK included the finding that Beth’s heart was missing. The Turkish hospital had removed it with no explanation and no consent. 

Beth’s death is now being investigated as a case of potential hospital negligence.

Heart found

After the story broke across the international media, Turkey’s government-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 24 that the heart was inspected at laboratories of a local forensic medicine institution with the aim of identifying the cause of death.

The official story

According to Anadolu, Beth Martin on April 28 told Marmara University Hospital Prof. Dr. Asaf Ataseven that she suspected she had contracted food poisoning from a meal.

She is said to have passed away on April 29 during treatment. The forensic medicine institution on April 30 conducted an autopsy and the body was rendered to the husband on May 1.

Officials talk of no notification option available to indicate missing organ

Information obtained by an Anadolu reporter, indicated that officials at the forensic medicine institution took the heart for further analysis after they failed to determine the cause of Beth’s death.

The institution is to release its final opinion within seven to 15 days, with the heart together with tissue samples and solutions to be delivered by the prosecutor’s office to the family.

Since in the health ministry system for notification of a death there is reportedly no option for inputting an explanation, involved officials are said to have later on in the process not reported that the heart in the body delivered to the family was not present.