Police detain man suspected of killing 8 relatives in southern Turkey

Adana Governor Ilhan Atis said eight people, including three women, three children and two men, had been shot and killed. "It can be considered that all of them were killed with the same gun," he said.

 

"In order to shed a light on the cause of these murders our technical team is continuing their efforts," he added.

 

The 38-year-old suspect, Murat Yuksel, the younger brother of one of the victims, 40-year-old nurse, Nalan Yuksel, has confessed to the murder, Atis later told reporters.  Â

 

Officials named the victims as Yuksel, her 62-year-old mother Gunay Yuksel, her 64-year-old father Ibrahim Yuksel, and two sons, 17-year-old Halil Ibrahim Kopar and 19-year-old Arif Kopar. Nalan Yuksel's older brother Ali Yuksel and his wife Gul, and six-year old Vedat, are also among the dead, news agencies reported. Nalan Yuksel had divorced nine years ago, the reports added.

 

The suspect, captured with what was believed to be the murder weapon, was taken to a local police station for questioning.

 

He was picked up at his home by investigating police officers while writing a suicide note, news agencies said. Media reports suggested the motive for the murder is a disagreement among the family members over some financial issues.

 

The suspect reportedly attempted to commit suicide three months earlier by setting himself and his car alight, and was reportedly discharged from the army, where he served as a petty officer, after it was discovered that he was married to a foreign national, according to the Anatolian Agency.

 

SILENCER USED

A colleague of Nalan Yuksel, a doctor working at the same clinic, called police early in the morning after she failed to show up for work and did not answer her phones, according to reports. The bodies of the victims were discovered after firefighters and police broke into the apartment on suspicion that the family may have been asphyxiated as the result of faulty boiler system, the reports said.

 

The suspect began shooting the victims, which he had placed in separated rooms, one by one on Monday afternoon and continued until late evening, Anatolian Agency reported, citing police officials.  

 

Local news channels reported the murders might have been committed with a gun silencer, citing police officers. None of the other residents of the apartment building reportedly heard or saw anything at the time the shootings were taking place.

 

Earlier Adana Mayor Aytac Durak claimed that all but one male victim was covered with a blanket, giving the impression that the uncovered male might have killed the others before turning the gun on himself, an assumption that was later disproved.

 

The incident occurred in the developing newly-built, mainly middle to lower-middle-class neighborhood of Huzurevleri in Adana, the fourth largest city in Turkey.

 

A neighbor of the family, Hasan Cingoz, told DHA that the Yuksel’s have been living in the flat for five years.

 

"We did not hear any gunshot or so for forth. There had been a couple of quarrels within the family. We don't know anything about the motive for the incident," he added.

 

Photo: DHA