It looks like Turkey has dismissed a bizarre Saudi theory about Khashoggi's death that a mystery collaborator in Istanbul was given his body then vanished

Reuters

Saudi officials have pushed a theory that a Turkish collaborator has Jamal Khashoggi's body. Here, a Turkish investigator searches the Saudi consulate after Khashoggi's disappearance.

• Anonymous Saudi officials have pushed a theory that Jamal Khashoggi's body was rolled up some kind of fabric and given to a local Turkish co-conspirator.
• Turkish authorities do not believe this person exists at all, The Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed official.
• Where Khashoggi's body has ended up is one of the many unanswered questions in the case, and has been raised at the highest levels.
• Turkish investigators are pursuing an alternative theory; that Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid.

Turkish officials appear to have dismissed a bizarre theory that Jamal Khashoggi's body was given to a mystery local collaborator in Istanbul.

Saudi officials have for weeks pushed a theory, via anonymous leaks to the media, that Khashoggi's killers rolled the journalist's body in some kind of carpet or fabric and gave it to a Turkish co-conspirator for removal.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Istanbul's chief prosecutor Irfan Fidan, separately called on their Saudi counterparts to identify the collaborator this week. But so far the Saudis have not publicly mentioned or identified this person.

Turkish investigators now do not believe such a person exists at all, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed senior Turkish official.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

A protester holds a photo of Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 8.

Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor, Saud Al Mojeb, neither provided the location of Khashoggi's body nor identified this alleged conspirator when he visited Istanbul this week, a second senior Turkish official told The Post.

Read more: Here's everything we know about the troubling disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Mojeb and his team visited the Turkish city earlier this week, ostensibly to share intelligence on Khashoggi's death and killers.

However, they appeared unwilling to share knowledge over the investigation, and "seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators," an unnamed Turkish official told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.

Kemal Aslan/Reuters

Chief Saudi prosecutor Saud Al Mojeb visited Istanbul this week.

The Washington Post also cited officials saying that Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after he was strangled to death and dismembered, which contradicts the Saudi claim that Khashoggi's body was rolled up and palmed off.

Fidan, the Istanbul prosecutor, said on Wednesday that Khashoggi was strangled shortly after he entered the consulate, and his body was dismembered afterward. It was the most detailed official account of Khashoggi's death so far.