Two more missing children found dead, a suspect confesses to murder and torture

Two more missing children found dead, a suspect confesses to murder and torture

ADANA - Doğan News Agency
Two more missing children found dead, a suspect confesses to murder and tortureTwo more missing children found dead, a suspect confesses to murder and torture

Six-year-old Gizem is reportedly a victim of a 'revenge murder.' DHA Photo

Two children were found dead after going missing days ago in two separate cases on April 29, while the chilling confession of the chief suspect in the murder has been released.

A six-year-old girl who went missing two days ago has been found dead by a special police unit after a search operation in the southern province of Adana’s Seyhan district, in the third case of child murder this month.

The girl, Gizem A., showed signs of torture and was partially burned, Doğan News Agency reported. Police believe that she was killed after being stabbed and strangled, according to initial findings.

The suspect, identified only as 20-year-old S.A., has been detained and reportedly confessed that he committed the crime in “revenge” against Gizem’s parents for not letting him marry her elder sister. 

S.A. said he tricked the girl into his car by saying that they would go for a picnic, but then tied her with box tape in a wooded area near a countryside cemetery. 

“I closed my eyes and stabbed her. She fell down. I poured gasoline on her and lit it with a match. She started to scream,” he said. 

S.A. also reportedly said that he had decided to kill someone from the family and picked up Gizem as she was playing in the street, away from her parents.

The victim disappeared April 27 as she was going to the children’s playground at a school, while her mother went shopping at the market. Police units, rescue teams, locals, as well as a team of experts from Ankara, were mobilized to find the little girl. Helicopters were also dispatched to contribute to the search efforts. The girl's body was eventually found 20 kilometers from her home, near the Seyhan reservoir. The body has been sent to forensics for an autopsy.

In a separate case, nine-year-old Umut Zambak was found dead in a watering well on April 29, four days after going missing in Manisa’s Akhisar district. 

After searchers removed the body from the well early in the morning, the authorities said initial indications showed no marks pointing to murder or sexual assault. It is presumed that the boy accidentally fell into the well and was drowned.

Turkey has recently been shocked by the murders of two other young children. Two weeks ago, a 4-year-old boy, identified as C.C., was found savagely murdered in a barn in the Aegean province of Aydın. Earlier this month, a 9-year-old boy was murdered in the northeastern province of Kars.

Both murders came after a 3-year-old boy, Pamir Dikdik, was found dead in Istanbul on April 5 after going missing a day earlier. A massive search of almost 30 hours was organized for Dikdik, before his body was eventually found in the swimming pool of a neighboring villa.