Body of missing Egyptian engineer found floating on the Nile

Mahmoud Ads, Gulf Today

The body of engineer Ahmed Atef, who was missing for 11 days, had been spotted floating on the river Nile, fully clothed, in Talkha city, Daqahlia Governorate, Egypt, after 11 days of absence from his family. The engineer, who was working an assistant teacher at the Faculty of Engineering, reportedly went out to get money several hours before his wife’s delivery and called her that he was on his way back, but he disappeared after that. The engineer’s dead body appeared in the Nile 11 days later, Egyptian local media reported.

The incident began when the security authorities received a report from the deceased’s family about his mysterious absence. They indicated that Ahmed had gone to settle some accounts and obtain money from one of his friends before the wife’s delivery to manage the expenses of the hospital. He then called his wife half an hour before his absence and told her that he was on the way back, but the car broke down. Since that moment, he diapered, they added.  

Major General Ihab Attia, Director of Criminal Investigation Department in Daqahlia Governorate, entrusted a research team led by him to uncover the mystery of the young engineer's absence. Over the course of 11 days, the team failed to reveal the details of the incident until the body of the young man had been spotted floating on water of the Nile in full clothes.

The engineer’s wife entered the hospital and refused for three days to give birth before her husband returned, but her condition began to deteriorate and the doctors were forced to deliver her. She gave birth to a baby boy “Selim”, the second child of the dead engineer.

When the body was found, the engineer’s wife and his family, who had great hope for his safe return, collapsed, and all of them broke down in tears, not believing that they had lost their son in an instant.

A team from the Public Prosecution moved to the place where the body was found to examine it. The body was fully clothed, had his ID card and mobile phone in the pockets. There were no signs of violence or assault on the body. The forensic expert obtained samples from the intestines of the engineer’s body to be analyzed to determine whether he had taken toxic or narcotic substances or not. The Public Prosecution decided to authorize the burial of the corpse and hand it over to his family.

After the body of was found, the security authorities intensified their efforts to uncover this mystery. They arrested the last person the engineer met with, pending investigations, in an attempt to reach any clues that help solve the mystery of the engineer’s disappearance and the finding the body.

His family refused to take condolences for their son, demanding retribution and a speedy arrest of the perpetrators, stressing the existence of a criminal suspicion in the accident.