Turkish academic murder suspect may be international serial killer: Reports

ISTANBUL

An academic who is suspected of killing three people in Turkey may also have killed a Russian woman in Paris, with reports suggesting that the fugitive might be a serial killer. 

Olga Seregina has been searched for by Interpol since going missing in 2011, Doğan News Agency reported.

The 29-year-old suspect, identified only as Atalay F., is suspected of killing a history teacher in the Tuzla district of Istanbul on May 26 and the son of a major general and his girlfriend three years ago in the capital Ankara. 

He had been sought for the murder of the couple with a red notice and might be using a fake identity. 

Officials reportedly believe that the murder of teacher Fatma Kayıkçı, 40, may have been motivated by the fact that Kayıkçı knew the suspect’s real identity and could have revealed it.

Atalay F. is also suspected of killing Göktuğ Demirarslan, who worked in the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and who is the son of the major general Hasan Hüseyin Demirarslan, and his girlfriend Elena Radchikova due to “unreturned love.”

The suspect graduated from Galatasaray High School in Istanbul and did his doctorate in the biology department in Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ).

He went to Paris as part of the Erasmus program in 2010 and stayed in the same house with Demirarslan, who he may have later killed in Ankara. He is thought to have gone to Lisbon and stayed at a hotel after killing the couple, and officials are evaluating the possibility of him returning to Turkey via illegal means.

Atalay F. reportedly did not use a cell phone in Turkey, working low-skilled jobs and not contacting his family in order to avoid being caught.