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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Alahna Kindred

Model, 24, plunges 60 feet to her death at hotel hours after 'staggering' on CCTV

A Russian model was found dead following a 60-foot fall from her hotel balcony.

Sofia Olifrenko, 24, died instantly after plunging from the fifth-floor room in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 18.

A Turkish man, who had arrived at the hotel with her, was taken into custody but has since been released.

CCTV from earlier that day shows the model appearing to stagger down a narrow street and holding onto the wall.

The man, who has only been identified as F.K. in local media, said in his police statement: "I don't know the woman's name, we met on the street.

"She was crying. I took her to her hotel room."

Russian model Sofia Olifrenko poses with her husband, Istvan Sarkozy (Newsflash)

He claimed that she appeared to be very drunk and could barely walk.

Sofia had also checked into the hotel under the false name of Alexandra V, according to local reports.

She married Romanian male model Istvan Sarkozy in February and he has since told how his wife arrived in Istanbul on May 9 for modelling work.

He said he had not been in contact with her in the three days before her death.

Sofia Olifrenko died after falling from the fifth floor of a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey (Newsflash)
Sofia Olifrenko married Istvan Sarkozy earlier this year (Newsflash)

Turkish media reported that Sofia might have had problems with her husband because she thought he was cheating on her, but he denied this.

He said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: "We lived in peace and quiet."

Istvan instead pointed the finger of blame at Star Models Istanbul.

He said: "My wife went to work as a model at the mentioned agency, where she had also worked in May 2021, so the agency is to blame for everything that happened.

This grab from CCTV shows Sofia walking through a narrow street (Newsflash)

"The agency, instead of posting about Sofia, deleted pictures of her. Can you believe how heartless these people are?"

After travelling to Istanbul to identify Sofia's body at the morgue, he said he returned home to Oradea, Romania, "with a great pain in my soul".

At the time of reporting, Sofia's body was due to be repatriated to Russia at her family's request.

The circumstances in how she fell to her death remain unclear.

Istvan said: "She was a wonderful person, full of life and always smiling."

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