06.02.2025 16:53
On April 14, 2020, in the Karşıyaka district of İzmir, police officers arrived at the home of 73-year-old Birsen Bayraktar after her relatives reported that they had not heard from her. They found her body in the hallway, covered in blood. Homicide Bureau detectives meticulously examined 116,300 data entries and 6,500 photos found on Bayraktar's mobile phone. As a result of the investigation, the building caretaker, Uğur Can, was arrested.
On April 14, 2020, when news could not be obtained from Birsen Bayraktar, who lived alone in an apartment in the Karşıyaka district of İzmir, her son Kafkas Gence Karadağoğlu (45), who lives in Ukraine, and her neighbors reported the situation to the police. Upon the notification, police teams entered the house by having a locksmith open the door and found Birsen Bayraktar's body in a pool of blood in the hallway.
IT WAS DETERMINED THAT SHE WAS MURDERED
Initially thought to have died from a fall, it was determined during the autopsy at the İzmir Forensic Medicine Institute that Bayraktar had been murdered. In the report dated December 18, 2020, from the Forensic Medicine Institute, it was stated that Bayraktar died due to a fracture in the dome bone caused by blunt force trauma, bleeding between the brain membranes, and pressure applied to her neck.
THOUSANDS OF DATA AND PHOTOS WERE EXAMINED
The Homicide Bureau teams of the Public Security Branch Directorate worked for 4 years to solve the murder. Police teams learned from neighbors' statements that sounds were heard from Bayraktar's house on the day of the incident, that they went to the door and rang the bell, and that they saw a shoe resembling a work safety shoe in front of the door, but when the door did not open, they went upstairs and found that the shoe was gone when they returned. It was assessed that the incident occurred on the evening when neighbors heard noise, one day before the body was found. Homicide Bureau detectives repeatedly watched 96 hours of footage from a camera that monitored the entrance of the building. It was determined that there was no foreign person entering or exiting the building in the footage. Detectives examined 116,300 data and 6,500 photos found on Bayraktar's mobile phone one by one.
FOCUS ON 2 PHOTOS
The police focused on 2 of the photos on Bayraktar's phone. In a photo taken with Birsen Bayraktar's mobile phone, it was determined that the shoe worn by the building caretaker Uğur Can was the same as the one the neighbors said they saw in front of the door. The teams also determined from the statement of Uğur Can's wife M. C. that the shoe was thrown in the trash the day after the murder. However, it was observed that the 4,000 dollars and 22,800 TL in cash in the murdered Bayraktar's house were untouched. The police then focused on the idea that the suspects panicked and fled without being able to take the money after the neighbors rang the bell.
3 SUSPECTS DETAINED WERE RELEASED
Police teams detained Uğur Can, the building caretaker, his wife M. C. (34), and electrician Hakan H. (60), who lived in the same apartment and was also learned to be involved in the building's repair work, as suspects on May 6 last year. The suspects were released by the Duty Magistrate after their procedures.
INDICTMENT PREPARED
The Karşıyaka Chief Public Prosecutor's Office completed its investigation regarding the incident and prepared an indictment against the 3 suspects on December 24. In the 38-page indictment, life imprisonment and up to 15 years in prison were requested for the caretaker Uğur Can and electrician Hakan H. for 'intentional murder' and 'attempted robbery', while a prison sentence of up to 5 years was requested for M. C. for 'aiding a criminal'.
POLICE AND PROSECUTOR'S FINDINGS INCLUDED IN THE INDICTMENT
The indictment also included the findings of the police and the prosecutor regarding the murder. According to the statements of her relatives, it was noted in the indictment that the murdered Birsen Bayraktar constantly locked the lower and upper locks of her house and did not let anyone she did not know into her home. It was also emphasized that during that period, due to the pandemic, Bayraktar, who could not leave the house, received help from caretaker Uğur Can and electrician Hakan H. for grocery shopping. The indictment also pointed out that Birsen Bayraktar was afraid due to a false information she received that savings would be confiscated due to the pandemic, and that for this reason, she went to withdraw her 4,000 dollars and 22,800 TL from the bank the day before the incident, accompanied by Hakan H. It was also noted in the indictment that when she previously went to visit her son in Ukraine, some of the gold in Birsen Bayraktar's house was stolen.
HE TOLD HIS WIFE 'I WILL STEAL BIRSEN HANIM'S MONEY'
The statement of caretaker Uğur Can's wife M. C. was included in the indictment. In her statement, M. C. said, "Birsen Bayraktar had a very good relationship with my husband. She would call my husband for any kind of need. Hakan H. was the one who handled Birsen Hanım's money withdrawal issues with the bank. She trusted him a lot. He also frequently entered her house. The day before the incident, my husband told me that Hakan had withdrawn money from the bank with Birsen Hanım. Then he said he would steal Birsen Hanım's money. I got angry with him. I said, 'We don't need the money, don't do such a thing.' He didn't respond to me," it was stated.
"CLEANERS ARE ALWAYS GUILTY"
In the continuation of M. C.'s statement, it was noted that the police looked at one of her husband's shoes and took a photo of it, and she said, "Later, my husband was questioned. When he returned home, he said to me, 'Why did you show this shoe to the police?' Then he just threw that shoe in the trash. I asked him, 'If you are innocent, why did you throw the shoe in the trash?' He said, 'If someone says this shoe was in front of the house, I will burn. In such situations, cleaners are always guilty,'" it was recorded. It was also noted that after this incident, my husband's communications with Hakan continued.
CLAIM THAT HE INDIRECTLY CONFESSED HIS CRIME WITH HIS WORDS
The indictment also addressed various findings and contradictions related to the incident. It was stated that Birsen Bayraktar told the suspects Hakan H. and Uğur Can that she had withdrawn all her money from the bank, and that suspect Can made a false statement that he had not gone home that night. Unlike Uğur Can, Hakan H. stated that he was with Birsen Bayraktar on the night she was murdered. It was also emphasized that the electricity in Birsen Bayraktar's apartment was cut off and that only suspect Uğur Can had the main switch keys of the electrical panels and apartments located in the attic, and that when the law enforcement officers entered, the apartment had no electricity.
It was noted that Uğur Can opened the electricity of Bayraktar's apartment, who was killed from the electrical panel in the attic, and this is how the law enforcement officers started their work. When the law enforcement officers first entered the apartment, it was understood from the statements of the locksmith that Birsen Bayraktar was lying on the floor, and despite the possibility of her being unwell or fainting, the suspect Uğur Can indirectly confessed to being the person who acted against Bayraktar by saying, 'Who did this, Aunt Birsen? We were together just yesterday. We didn't hear anything. I did my job just last night. What happened to you? Who did this to you?' It was also pointed out that despite Uğur Can and Hakan H. denying the contrary in their defenses, they were the ones who had been to the house of the deceased Bayraktar.
REQUEST FOR ARREST WARRANT
In the indictment, it was emphasized that Uğur Can and Hakan H. were referred to the Duty Magistrate's Court with a request for arrest during the investigation phase, and despite sufficient material evidence being found, they were released without even being placed under judicial control. It was requested that a request for arrest be issued against them. Following the prosecutor's request, the court issued an arrest warrant for the defendant Uğur Can. Can, who was caught by the police teams yesterday, was arrested by the court he was brought to at the courthouse.