Malkac, a 23-year-old correspondent for Ozgur Gundem, disappeared after leaving the newspaper’s main office in Istanbul. Staff members suspect that the police took her because there was a heavy police presence around the building. Officials denied holding her. A person who was in custody at the Istanbul police headquarters between August 5 and 17 wrote a letter to Ozgur Gundem claiming he saw Malkac at the headquarters on the nights of August 8 and 9. After seven months with no news about her, Malkac’s colleagues and friends presumed her dead.