Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

A life sentence has been demanded for the murderer of this pretty young journalism student who was cut up into pieces, possibly while still alive, with her head thrown off a cliff.

Azra Gulendam Haytaoglu was only 21 years old when she was brutally murdered and cut up into pieces with her body parts stuffed into a bag and buried in a suitcase in the woods. Her head that was thrown off a cliff has never been found.

Her self confessed killer Mustafa Murat Ayhan, 48, has admitted strangling her until she was unconscious during his trial for her murder in the Turkish city of Antalya, which is located in Antalya Province in south-western Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast.

Azra was a third-year student at Akdeniz University, in the Journalism Department, when she was murdered after being seen for the last time when she left her home on 28th July.

She had accepted an offer to sleep on a ‘friend’s’ sofa and was never seen alive again after prosecutors say that he raped her.

The Antalya Police Department determined that Azra last talked to Ayhan, a civil engineer and real estate office owner, on his mobile phone. The homicide team cross-examined Ayhan as he was the last person to speak to her, and eventually he confessed to committing the murder during the interrogation, according to local media outlet DHA.

He then showed the authorities the forest where he had buried the suitcase.

Her remains were then sent to the Antalya Forensic Medicine Institute for autopsy but Azra’s head has never been found.

DHA report that details pertaining to the murder were included in the indictment, which was accepted by the Antalya 11th High Criminal Court, and which describe the course of events.

The media outlet quotes the defendant as saying: “She told me that her older sister in the next room didn’t take care of her, that she hadn’t eaten for 5 days, that she couldn’t take her medication and that she wanted to die.”

She texted me in a tearful voice that she was hurting all over. I called her and said I would help. I took Azra from the petrol station in Kultur Mahallesi. We ate first. Then I picked up her medicine.

“We drove around the city in my car. At 00:40 on the night of 29th July, Azra called a friend to stay with her. However, her friend did not answer the phone because I think she was asleep.

“I wanted to drop her off at her house, but she said she didn’t want to stay with her sister. I said that my house had four rooms and that she could stay.

“She said to me, ‘If I am not bothering you, I’ll stay with you’.

“We went to my house at around 1:30am. I offered that she stay in my son’s room, but she preferred to sleep in the living room because he had COVID. I went to my room and drank alcohol.

“My staff arrived at 8:30am. I gave him his office key at the entrance to the apartment and then went back to my room. I left my room at around 1:00pm.

“When I looked at Azra, I saw that her top was open. I sat next to her to cover it up. While I was covering it, my hand touched her hip. She woke up in a panic and said, ‘What are you doing?

“She shouted and scratched the left side of my face. I panicked. At that moment I said ‘Hush! Why are you shouting?’ I started squeezing Azra’s throat with both hands.

“I squeezed her throat until she lay motionless. When I realised that Azra wasn’t breathing and her pulse wasn’t beating, I realised that she was dead.”

In the court documents, the defendant also reportedly said that he then dismembered her body and put it in a bag, before going to a forested area where he threw her head off a cliff. He then allegedly threw her body parts into bushes.

Public prosecutor Haki Celiker said that the defendant raped the victim before murdering her, adding: “The suspect wanted to satisfy his sexual desires with the victim. However, upon the victim’s resistance, he raped the victim by forcing himself on her.

“When the victim shouted, he killed the victim by strangling her with his hands in order to prevent the incident from being revealed. The suspect, who decided to get rid of the corpse, cut the corpse into pieces and threw it into the forest to avoid being prosecuted.”

The prosecutor has requested an aggravated life sentence against the defendant. The verdict is due at a later date.