Indictment reveals details of eight brutal murders in Black Sea region

MUSA KESLER

An investigation into a serial killer, who was held responsible for 13 separate murders, has been completed and an indictment prepared has revealed eight murders that have been identified with evidence in the Black Sea province of Ordu’s Ünye district.

The indictment includes blood-chilling stories about the alleged actions of the 44-year-old suspect, Mehmet Ali Çayıroğlu, who is accused of killing 13 people in northern Turkey by burning them alive.

Having been imprisoned 11 times so far, Çayıroğlu opened a butcher shop with his ward friend in the Black Sea province of Samsun after his release from prison in 2018 and set up an animal farm in the neighboring city of Ordu for his business.

Çayıroğlu, who went to mountain villages on the pretext of buying animals for his farm, identified defenseless or old people living alone. Later, he started to enter the houses of his victims by wearing a military uniform, according to the indictment.

Downloading a radio voice application on his smartphone to make the soldier in disguise believable, Çayıroğlu tied the victims with plastic handcuffs and seized their animals, money and gold in the meantime.

Çayıroğlu made some of his murders look like an accident by turning on the gas used for heating in homes or he set fire to the houses and watched the victims burned alive, according to the indictment.

It is reported that he killed 13 people in the provinces of Ordu and Samsun in the three-month period between May and August 2018.

The prosecution demanded that Çayıroğlu be punished with eight aggravated life sentences and up to 60 years in prison for the crimes of “deliberate murder” and “looting.”

Another investigation for five other murders estimated to have been committed by Çayıroğlu is ongoing in Samsun.