BBC Reporter Found Hanged Dead In Turkey Airport Restroom

Jacqueline Sutton

Dumbfounded friends of a former BBC journalist and U.N. official found dead in a bathroom in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport are calling for a full investigation into her death.

Briton Jacqueline Sutton, 50, was found hanged Saturday in a restroom at the airport's international transit terminal, Turkey's state-sponsored Anadolu news agency reported, citing Istanbul police.

Sutton, who once worked for the United Nations and the BBC, flew from London to Istanbul to take a connecting flight to her base in Irbil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, according to her employer, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

Turkish media reported Sutton missed her flight to Irbil.

Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed the death of a British national in Turkey, saying embassy staff was assisting the family of the deceased and that British officials would remain in close contact with Turkish authorities.