Men kill best friend, share condolence photo

TEKİRDAĞ

“Let your place be Heaven, my brother. Our prayers are with you.”

Two young men have killed their best friend secretly, before attending his funeral and sharing a condolence photo on social media showing them all together, Turkish daily newspaper Sabah reported on Feb. 4.

Aykut Birke, 25, a worker at a factory in the Thracian province of Tekirdağ, went missing on Jan. 31. After his family contacted the authorities, the police searched for the man and found his body the next day in a wooded area 5 km away. Birke’s head was crushed and his right arm was severed.

Among the 40 people who were interrogated by the police, two men were considered particularly suspicious. Ömer Cansever and Yunus Yıldız, who were known as Birke’s best friends, confessed to the murder after the police revealed inconsistencies in their testimonies.

Both suspects did their best to hide the murder and also attended the victim’s funeral, according to reports. Cansever even shared a photo of the three on his Facebook page with the message: “Let your place be Heaven, my brother. Our prayers are with you.”

A gun found on one of the suspects has been sent to forensic analysis on suspicion that it was the weapon that killed Birke.