The question 'How did you get that wound on your hand' solved a series of murders

In 2005, 4 people—3 women and 1 transvestite—were murdered in Istanbul within a span of 2 months. The cold-blooded serial killer burned two of these women so they would not be identified. Following the series of murders committed one after another, Istanbul Police Department teams conducted meticulous investigations at the crime scenes to find evidence regarding the killer. How was that serial killer, who had no prior criminal record, caught 19 years ago when technology was not as advanced?

What were the remarkable details that led two experienced police officers—one now retired and the other still active—who were working at the Küçükçekmece Public Security Bureau at the time, to catch this killer? What gave away the killer caught by the Istanbul police? Why did the homicide detectives, including the Public Security Branch Manager, arrive at the police station as if they were conducting a raid at night? I will share the answers to these questions with you, including details that have not been written until now.

On October 5, 2005, in Istanbul Kartal, Begüm Tenekesen was shot to death and then burned by the side of the TEM Highway. On October 18, 2005, in Şişli, 72-year-old Nihal Tezkuran was killed in her home with a single bullet to the back of her neck. The killer or killers also took Tezkuran's mobile phone. On November 11, 2005, Gökçe Şandır was found shot to death and burned at the same location where Tenekesen's body had been found. On November 29, 2005, in Etiler Ulus, a transvestite named Murat Taç, known by the alias "Serenay," was killed inside a car.

The only piece of evidence in the 4 murders committed within 2 months was a fingerprint found in Murat Taç's car. This fingerprint belonged to a nurse who had a police record for prostitution and was working at the Balıklı Rum Hospital at the time. The Istanbul Public Security Branch Homicide Bureau teams had placed this nurse under technical surveillance. However, because she turned off her phone while going home after her shift, her address could not be found.

The police had only one person in their hands. Even though they knew this was not the person who committed the murders, they continued to keep the nurse under technical surveillance every day. However, Osman Bora Çuhacı, a dropout from the 1st year of Istanbul University's Tourism Department, whom they learned was living with the nurse, was also a suspect despite the lack of evidence. But Çuhacı's phone was never turned on. Meanwhile, the phone stolen from the home of 72-year-old Nihal Tezkuran, who was killed in Şişli, gave a signal when a SIM card was inserted and it was turned on. The homicide police detained the person using the phone. The person said the phone did not belong to him and that he had bought it from the nurse working at Balıklı Rum Hospital. This nurse was the same one the police were pursuing. The person using the phone was arrested by the court and sent to prison. In the meantime, the results of the shell casings sent to the crime lab regarding the 4 murders had reached the homicide police. All 4 people had been killed with the same weapon. In other words, the police were not looking for an ordinary killer, but a serial killer.

IT STARTED WITH A MUGGING LIE...

A month had passed since the last murder. When the date was December 27, 2005, a woman who had been shot in the leg went to a private hospital in İkitelli. Upon notification by the doctors, teams from the Küçükçekmece District Police Department Public Security Bureau went to the hospital. The wounded woman said she was a nurse and that she had been shot in the leg because she resisted a mugger who wanted to take her bag. However, two police officers—Tahsin Kütük, who is now retired, and another whom we learned is currently serving in Bursa—did not believe this. Because a mugger would not shoot anyone over a bag they did not take. While the cross-examination continued at the hospital, the nurse stated that her fiancé was also with her and said, "He just went out in front of the hospital." This time, the Public Security Bureau team asked the fiancé outside. This person was Osman Bora Çuhacı. Çuhacı told the police, "We were walking. They pulled up next to us in a vehicle. At that moment, they wanted to take the bag; when she didn't give it, they fired and shot her in the leg. I picked her up and took her to the elevator and then to the apartment. When I couldn't stop the bleeding, I brought her to the hospital."

THE QUESTION THAT CAUGHT THE SERIAL KILLER

However, his hand was bandaged. When the police officer, who is currently active, asked, "What happened to your hand?" Çuhacı replied, "I hit a glass door. That's why it was cut." The experienced police officer did not find it convincing. He did not know that the person he was talking to was a serial killer. He said, "Let's have your hand checked, come inside." This was actually the moment the knot of the serial murder case was untied. When the doctor checked, he said the wound on his hand was not a cut from broken glass, but a gunshot wound from a weapon that had exploded in his hand. The engaged couple had wanted to deceive the police but failed. It turned out that the lie about "going up to the apartment by elevator" after the mugging lie was told because the police might find bloodstains in the elevator, hallway, and apartment if they checked the house.

He said, "I threw the gun inside the housing complex." However, it could not be found. The mugging lie had been exposed. He confessed that he had shot his fiancée while playing with the gun. He said he threw the empty shell casing into the toilet and flushed it. The Küçükçekmece Crime Scene Investigation teams, who searched the house, found the bullet lodged in the sofa. The Küçükçekmece Public Security Bureau teams took Osman Bora Çuhacı, whom they had detained for the shooting, to the Halkalı police station. At the station, Çuhacı asked the police if he could make a phone call. When he got the phone, he sent a message to the nurse saying, "Hide the gun in a place even you can't find." The then-Public Security Branch Manager and the police officers, including the Homicide Bureau Chief, who determined that the signal of the phone that sent this message came from the Halkalı Police Center, rushed to the Halkalı police station as if to raid it. Because the phone to which that message was sent belonged to Osman Bora Çuhacı, whom they suspected of committing the 4 murders. The two police officers who exposed the mugging lie and detained him by suspecting the wound on his hand had actually solved the serial murder case on one hand and prevented other murders from being committed on the other.

The police, who went back to the house, also found the pistol camouflaged with fruit peels inside the trash can in the kitchen cabinet. It turned out that the examined pistol was the weapon used in the 4 murders. Çuhacı, who was referred to the court, said that he met his nurse fiancée at the Balıklı Rum Hospital, where the elderly woman from Şişli brought escort women for examinations, that they went to her house to commit robbery because she was rich and killed her, that he killed the other two women with a gun after having sexual intercourse in their home in Halkalı and took them to Kartal to burn them, and that he killed the transvestite in the car after a sexual encounter. Serial killer Osman Bora Çuhacı, who received a life sentence, is still in prison. One of the police officers who solved the case is retired, and we heard the other is working at the Bursa Police Department. I believe that other successful police officers like these two, who ensured the serial killer was caught 19 years ago without the technology available today by relying on their suspicions and good interrogation skills, should be enabled to teach new police candidates after they retire.