A schoolgirl who left a family wedding early so she could go shopping in the market was beaten unconscious and then stabbed to death when she accepted a neighbour’s offer to visit.
The man accused of murdering 16-year-old Yagmur Tayhan was a friend of the family, and she had no idea that she was sealing her fate when she accepted his invitation to stop by briefly before going to the market.
He attacked her when she was inside, beating her unconscious and then dragging her lifeless body onto the balcony, where he stabbed her almost 30 times. He then wrapped the body in a sheet, and carried it down to waste ground where he dumped it on the floor.
Her family, who continued partying at the wedding, had no idea what had happened, and only raised the alarm when they went home and she had not returned from shopping in the market in the western Turkish town of Didim on 25th July.
They had no idea at this point that she was already dead, and joined in the search which ended when her body was found lying on the plot of waste ground on a vacant plot around a kilometre (0.6 mi) from her family home, and just 70 metres (230 ft) from her father’s workplace.
She was found with 27 stab wounds.
The police who studied CCTV images quickly managed to find and arrest the man they were convinced was the killer, identified as 53-year-old Nizam Cansizlar, and he was arrested after they found a drop of Yagmur’s blood at the entrance to his apartment.
Cansizlar, who is a father of one, lives next door to Yagmur’s father’s workplace and a further search of his property found traces of the victim’s blood on the stairs, with evidence they had tried to clean it away.
The officers found the traces of blood led up to the house’s terrace, and they also found traces of blood on a sheet in his washing machine.
He was taken to the local police station, where he confessed to committing the crime, telling the officers, “I invited her into my home. First, I beat her. Then, when she was unconscious, I brought her to the terrace and stabbed her multiple times.
“After that, I wrapped her corpse in a sheet and brought it down to the plot of land next to my house. Then, I placed it in a sack and left it next to the wall. I washed the bloodied sheet in the bathroom.”
The police have not commented on what the man’s motive was and the investigation is continuing.
