Turkey to exhume four suspects in 26-year-old murder case

Four graves are set to be opened in Turkey as part of a renewed investigation into the unsolved murder of a teenager that has haunted the country for 26 years. The decision, announced by Turkey's newly appointed Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, targets individuals who were suspects in the original probe but have since died.

The victim, Cagla Tugaltay, was a 15-year-old high school student. Her body was found with her throat slit inside her home in Istanbul's upscale Sisli district in the year 2000. The initial investigation failed to identify any perpetrator or perpetrators.

New unit reopens cold case

A recently established unit within the Turkish Justice Ministry, specifically tasked with solving mysterious crimes and identifying those responsible, has taken up Tugaltay's case. Justice Minister Gurlek met with the victim's family, including her mother, to inform them that the investigation had been relaunched.

The minister revealed that the new probe will involve collecting DNA samples from 12 individuals who were suspects in the original investigation because they had entered the building where the crime occurred. Among these, four have died in the intervening years, and their remains will be legally exhumed for testing.

Technology and hope for other families

Beyond the exhumations, the investigation will include DNA testing of other suspects, alongside the collection of new evidence to be added to the case file. The goal is to identify the killer in what is considered one of Turkey's most famous unsolved crimes.

The cold case unit has revived hope for many other families who have lost loved ones without ever learning the identity of the criminals, or who have had relatives disappear under mysterious circumstances with no trace or accountability. These renewed investigations leverage advancements in technology, data retrieval, information gathering, and artificial intelligence, aiming to produce outcomes that were unattainable when the original probes were closed.