The owner of the popular Tiffany’s jewelry empire in Turkey, Dilek Ertek, has died after falling from an NCL-Norwegian Cruise Line ship in the South Pacific.
71-year-old Ertek fell into the sea off the coast of Tahiti while on holiday with an unnamed Swiss boyfriend.
Police questioned her 74-year-old lover when the NCL Norwegian Spirit ship docked 3 days later. He was released without charge.
The crew members had reportedly kept the man under observation until the liner arrived at Papeete port, French Polynesia's capital city, as Gokce Atuk, Ms. Ertek’s son, claimed that jewellery had gone missing from her stateroom.
Her family is said to be taking legal action against the vessel’s operator after they claimed CCTV had shown she had fallen on October 26 but had not been reported missing for 20 hours.
Ms. Ertek opened the first Tiffany & Co shop in Istanbul back in 1995 and was a brand supplier in Turkey.
Tiffany & Co. is a luxury jewelry & specialty retailer, headquartered on 5th Avenue in Manhattan and selling "jewelry, sterling silver, porcelain, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watches, personal accessories, and leather goods."
As of 2018, the company operated 93 stores in the United States and 321 stores worldwide.
For more Norwegian Spirit incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.