A model found dead on a chair with her hands cuffed behind her back, her mouth stuffed with cloths and a bin bag placed over her head committed suicide, a Turkish court has ruled.

According to the verdict, 25-year-old Ukrainian national Kristina Novytska took her own life by imitating a scene from the 2003 film ‘The Life of David Gale’ starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney.

Investigators initially suspected that the young woman had been murdered in her house in the Turkish city of Bodrum. She was found dead at around 4.30pm on 3rd January.

The body was discovered when neighbours who had not heard from her for two days raised the alarm.

Entering the house with a locksmith’s help, it was the property’s landlord who came across the grim scene.

Emergency and police teams were dispatched to the scene and could only confirm that Kristina was dead.

Friends of the blonde, blue-eyed model, who also worked as a translator and a part-time dance instructor, told local media in Kyiv that they did not believe her death was suicide.

It also seems that the investigators initially agreed, but they changed tack when several pieces of evidence seemed to contradict that hypothesis.

Police found that the property was locked and that there was no sign of a break-in through the iron-barred windows.

They also noted that the box for the handcuffs was found next to the model’s body. It was later found that she had ordered them online four days before she died.

The court placed emphasis on a key statement taken from the young woman’s mother, who lives in Ukraine, who said her daughter was using antidepressants and had suffered under lockdown.

She was also said to have experienced frequent migraines.

The court was unable to identify anyone who encouraged or incited Kristina, who was in a relationship with a Turkish man at the time, to take her own life.

The young woman, who was a graduate of the Kyiv National Linguistic University, spoke fluent Turkish and had apparently been planning to fly back home shortly before she died.

No charges were made, and the case is now considered closed.