"Beat & Release": Rug's Cleaning Tag Leads Police to Suspects in Young Woman's Death, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 9 June 2024)

Suspects were too fussy about clean rugs for their own good.

Along the shore of the Sea of Marmara near the Mimar Sinan Bridge in

Istanbul's Büyükçekmece district in the morning on 7 June fishermen

found a woman's body wrapped in a rug with her hands and feet bound.

The family of the deceased woman confirmed her identity as Sedef

Güler (24), with the tattoo of a snake (!) on her back providing the 

absolute proof. 

Police reviewed security camera images and determined that the body

had been brought to the Mimar Sinan Bridge from nearby Beylikdüzü

in a car.  Based on a carpet cleaning firm's tag on the rug (!) police were

able to track the suspects to a house in Beylikdüzü they had rented a 

month ago. 

In a raid on the house Firat B. (53) and Onur Ö. were taken into custody.

The driver of the car was identified as drug addict Yavuz G. and Firat

B. was the passenger in the car.  A scarf, neckerchief and rope thought to

have been used to strangle Sedef hanım were found in the house and sent

to the police lab. 

In his statement to police, Firat B. "explained" that "Yavuz G. called me.

When I went to the house I saw that the woman was dead.  We got chains

and a lock from a hardware store and then wrapped the body in a rug,

securing it with the lock and chain.  We put the body in the car  and then

threw it from the bridge.  I didn't kill the woman."  Police are currently

trying to track down Yavuz G. 

Sedef hanım's parents live separately.  Her mother, who lives in Avcılar

district of  the city, told police on 6 June that her daughter had not been

heard from for four days.  Her sister put a picture of Sedef hanım on  

social media, also noting that she had been missing for four days.