A man from the UK was tied to a chair and killed with a lethal injection after falling in love with a 19-year-old girl whom he met after moving to live in Turkey.
Murat Arpapay, 57, still had family in England when he decided to move to live in Turkey and start a new life with friends he met online from Sirinevler, Istanbul, Turkey.
The alarm was raised when locals discovered the man’s body in the building’s ventilation shaft of a rented apartment and immediately reported the matter to the police on 27th July.
The police determined that the body belonged to Murat, who had moved to Turkey from the UK. His body showed no signs of any knife or gunshot wounds.
The corpse was taken to the Sirinevler Forensic Medicine Institute, as it was considered a suspicious death.
Following an autopsy, the resulting report revealed that Arpapay had been killed by injection but gave no further details.
Following the report, the police initiated an investigation into the incident.
After reviewing the security camera footage, it was established that Arpapay arrived at the apartment, where his body was later discovered, together with a young woman named Muhterem Percikli, 19, who was purported to be his girlfriend.
Percikli was apprehended and taken into custody by the police who also identified the other three accomplices and named them as Serpil Demir, Dogan Sariyildiz, and Fatih Erginoglu, who had entered the apartment shortly after the couple.
A fifth suspect was identified as Ersen Basak.
According to the statements provided by the suspects to the police, Murat, who had initially met Ersen Basak on social media and later had face-to-face meetings, had lived in England for many years.
After returning to Turkey, Murat told Basak that he supported himself with money sent by his family from England.
Upon discovering that he kept the money at his residence, Basak devised a plan and sought assistance from Percikli and her friend, Demir, to steal the funds.
According to the plan, Percikli and Demir were to visit a cafe owned by Basak, where they would meet Murat, who was seated there.
Among the suspects who executed the plan, Percikli became acquainted with Murat and subsequently became friends and later developed a romantic relationship.
On the day of the incident, Percikli met Murat Arpapay at a rented apartment. Shortly thereafter, Demir, Sariyildiz, and Erginoglu also went to the same apartment.
There, the latter three tied Murat’s hands and later injected a chemical substance into his body using a needle, resulting in his death.
The suspects then left the scene after placing Murat’s body in the ventilation shaft of the building.
Basak, the mastermind of the plan, who then entered Murat’s apartment, took his money and fled to Georgia, while Sariyildiz and Erginoglu, who allegedly committed the murder, escaped to Cyprus.
Following the incident, Demir and Percikli, who were taken into custody, were subsequently arrested by the court.
The investigation is ongoing.
