Haydar Well Murder: A Quadruple Murder Solved One Year Later by Commissioner Sami Şengün

The year was 1956... The date sheets showed April 13. A shepherd named Mehmet, who was grazing his animals in the endless steppe of Konya, moved towards the place where the blind well known as Haydar Well was located to water the lambs in his flock. When the young shepherd approached the well, he noticed that the animals did not approach the water. Thereupon, when he went to the well and looked down, he saw a human corpse lying upside down on the water. Mehmet, who was afraid, ran to the village and told the village headman what he saw. The situation was reported to the gendarmerie.

4 MEN'S BODIES WERE FOUND FROM THE WELL

Gendarmerie teams arrived in the area a short time later and started work to remove the body from the well. However, when the first body was removed, the terrible secret that Haydar Well kept had not yet been revealed. Because there were other bodies in the well. During the work, 3 more bodies were removed from the well, one after the other. A total of 4 male bodies were found in a blind well located approximately 42 kilometers outside Konya.

MURDERS THAT ADDED KONYA

The situation was reported to the prosecutor's office. Konya Prosecutor and Police Chief also came to the scene and investigated. When it was understood that four people were thrown into the well after being killed, Konya police launched one of the most comprehensive murder investigations of recent years. During the searches carried out at the scene and on the bodies, some findings that may be important for the investigation were obtained. A check worth 20 thousand liras, a bank book in the name of Arif Bey, a Zafer newspaper dated May 7 and an empty cartridge case with a diameter of 7.65 millimeters were found in the well.

THE FIRST TWO BODIES WERE IDENTIFIED

As a result of the investigations, it was determined that one of those killed was 40-year-old Arif from Oymaağaç village of Şereflikoçhisar. It was determined that Arif's financial situation was quite good and that he had a brick factory, two trucks and a dry goods store in Ankara. Arif, who was married twice, had 5 children from his second wife. The other victim was 28-year-old Osman, also from Oymaağaç village. Osman, who is married and the father of three children, was also Arif's partner. When Arif's son was brought to Konya, he identified his father's body. Then he said that the other body belonged to his father's partner, Osman.

IT WAS SHOWN TO 12 THOUSAND PEOPLE

The other two people could not be identified. The bodies were brought to Konya for identification. According to newspapers of the period, the bodies were shown to approximately 12 thousand people during the work that lasted for days. However, these two people could not be identified by anyone. The fingerprints of two unidentified people were sent to the General Directorate of Security for examination. The police now had two basic questions to answer: Why were these 4 people killed in the same place and who threw them into the Haydar Well?

ARİF YILMAZ'S LAST JOURNEY

Among those who investigated these brutal murders was Commissioner Sami Şengün of the Konya Homicide Unit. Commissioner Sami and his team began to retrospectively examine Arif and Osman's actions before they were killed. It was determined that the two partners set out to buy spare parts for their trucks. It was revealed that when they could not find the piece they were looking for in Aksaray, they first went to Konya and then to Akşehir.

Thereupon, when the commissioner and his team reached the shop where they shopped in Akşehir, they obtained remarkable information for the investigation. The shop owner remembered Arif. However, Arif was not alone that day. There was another man next to him. The police showed the other bodies taken from the well to the shop owner. After looking at all of them carefully, the man said that the person he saw next to Arif was none of these people. Thus, a new unknown person entered the investigation. This time, the police started looking for the mysterious man seen next to Arif in Akşehir.

RED TRUCK WITH GAZİANTEP PLATE PLATE

While the work was continuing, another tip took the police in a completely different direction. A gas station employee near Ilgın said that a red truck with a Gaziantep plate came to the station on the night when the murder was thought to have been committed. According to the statement, there were 5 people in the driver's seat of the truck and 2 people in the bed. The driver looked very excited. After buying some diesel, he did not ask for an invoice and quickly continued towards Konya.

This time, Commissioner Sami and his team started to track the red truck. Large-scale searches were carried out in Sarayönü and Akşehir. People deemed suspicious were questioned one by one. It was reported in the newspapers of the time that the prosecutor took the statements of approximately 300 people in just two days. 3 people were taken into custody in Sarayönü. However, as the investigation progressed, the number of people detained increased. Despite this, not a single concrete evidence could be found leading to the real murderers.

70 THOUSAND LIRA CLAIM

One of the strongest possibilities that the police considered was extortion. It was claimed that Arif had a large amount of money on him, and some news of the period claimed that this amount was up to 70 thousand liras. However, when his body was found, the money was not there. For this reason, it was evaluated that four people may have been killed for their money. Another possibility was a smuggling showdown. It was emphasized that the murder might have been carried out by a large smuggling network operating in the surrounding provinces, especially considering the victims whose identities could not be determined at the first stage.

DETECTIVES WERE BROUGHT, A SPECIAL OFFICE WAS ESTABLISHED

For this incident that shook Türkiye's agenda, the prosecutor's office also established a special team to solve the murder. Detectives from the General Directorate of Security were sent to Konya. This special team was also in contact with Homicide Commissioner Sami. Suspects were questioned, tip-offs were investigated, and studies were carried out in surrounding provinces.

A BROADCAST BAN HAS BEEN ARRIVED

After a while, even the publication of the news was banned for the sake of the safety of the investigation. The police were investigating all possibilities one by one. However, the red truck did not appear. No smuggling connection could be established. Those detained were not murderers. No results were obtained from the mysterious man seen next to Arif in Akşehir. The Haydar Well murder was gradually turning into an unsolved case.

A YEAR HAS PASSED SINCE

The investigation, which continued for months, did not yield any results. It was known how the four people taken out of the well were killed, but it was not revealed who did it. Nearly a year has passed since the murder. The case was not closed, but there was no new clue to take the investigation forward. The special team was also gone now. The file was left silent. However, there was one person who did not forget this file. He was Commissioner Sami Şengün.

NEWS THAT CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF THE COMMISSIONER

There was no technology at that time. There wasn't even internet or television. The news was followed by reading daily newspapers. Commissioner Sami had a special feature. He read all the newspapers thoroughly every day. That day, all the newspapers were in front of him, and while he was reading them one by one, a small news article in the Istanbul newspaper caught his attention. Konya was not mentioned in the news. There was no mention of Haydar Well either. The news was coming from Mersin, hundreds of kilometers away. A car with an Istanbul license plate was pulled from the sea. This news caught the attention of Commissioner Sami Şengün, who had been following the Haydar Well murder for a year. Because Şengün did not look at the incident only as "a car thrown into the sea in Mersin".

WHY IS A CAR THROWN INTO THE SEA?

The question in the commissioner's mind was different: Why is a car thrown into the sea? Şengün thought that the four people in Haydar Well might have been brought to the scene in a vehicle. The murderers might have wanted to eliminate the car they used after the murder. There was no evidence to confirm this. There was only a police intuition and a possibility that needed to be investigated. But Sami Şengün did not ignore that possibility.

THE VEHICLE WAS STOLEN FROM ISTANBUL

Commissioner Sami shared this idea with the authorities, and with his initiative, Mersin Police Department was contacted. When it was learned that the car recovered from the sea was stolen from Istanbul, the scope of the investigation expanded and Commissioner Sami and his team headed towards Istanbul. Commissioner Sami and his team started investigating this vehicle with a team from the Istanbul Second Branch's Homicide Unit. During the investigation, it was determined that the car was a 1952 model Buick. The vehicle belonged to one of Istanbul's well-known merchants and was stolen from his garage in İçerenköy on the night between April 4 and April 5.

IT WAS STOLEN BEFORE THE MURDER

This date was remarkable. Because the car had disappeared just days before the Haydar Kuyusu murder. In other words, the bodies were found on April 13, and the car was stolen on April 5. Moreover, there was a woman who witnessed the theft of the car. Based on the information given by the woman, the police reached the names Alpan and Ayhan. The possibility that Commissioner Sami had based on a newspaper report had now begun to yield its first concrete results.

HIVES AND BLOODSTAIN ON BUICK

The car recovered from the sea was examined in detail. An empty cartridge case was found stuck in the back of the driver's seat. A comb was also found in the vehicle. However, the most striking finding was obtained in the examination of the interior of the car. When viewed in good light, a blood stain about the size of a dime was visible on the floor. Upon examination, it was determined that this was human blood. Commissioner Sami's suspicion was no longer just an assumption. There was a Buick that was stolen from Istanbul days before the murder and was later thrown into the sea in Mersin. There was an empty shell casing inside the car. Moreover, human blood was found. For the first time, a real door was opened in the Haydar Well file, which had remained in the dark for a year.

WHO STOLE THE CAR?

Commissioner Sami and his team went after people connected to the theft of the car. During the investigation, a suspect named Alpan was found. It was determined that Alpan, who was said to be a soldier, was caught after his escape. Alpan, who was interrogated, did not accept the accusations against him regarding the theft of the car. However, his statement led the investigation to two important names: Refet and Ayhan Tahir... The police were no longer after so many obscure suspects as they were a year ago. He had a car in his hand and concrete names associated with that car.

THEY WERE CAUGHT AND QUESTIONED

After a long search, Refet was caught in Bostancı and brought to Konya. Ayhan Tahir was also found. The suspects were taken into separate interrogation rooms. Within the scope of the same work, the police caught approximately 10 more people wanted for theft and smuggling crimes. However, Refet and Ayhan were now at the center of the Haydar Well investigation.

CONFESSION HAS COME

The interrogations got longer. The statements of the two suspects were compared. The findings were presented to them. Finally their resistance was broken. Refet and Ayhan Tahir confessed that they killed four people in Haydar Well. The names of the other two victims were determined to be Kerim and Vefa. The murder, which remained unsolved for nearly a year, was now illuminated. However, what the suspects would tell about how the murder was committed would present a much more chilling picture for the police conducting the investigation.

JOURNEY TO DEATH

According to Refet and Ayhan's statements, the duo stopped by Afyon after setting off from Izmir. While eating at a restaurant here, they met two hardware stores named Kerim and Vefa. Kerim and Vefa were going to Konya. Refet and Ayhan said they would go in the same direction and took the two men into the car. When they reached Akşehir around 22:00, this time they met the manufacturer Arif and his partner Osman. Arif and Osman also got into the car. Thus, in the Buick, along with Refet and Ayhan, there were 4 people whose bodies were later found in Haydar Well.

OSMAN NOTICED DÜZ CONTACT

During the journey, Osman Yeşilöz noticed something strange about the car. The Buick was powered by flat ignition. Osman's suspicion of this made Refet and Ayhan uneasy. According to their statements, the two suspects started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in order to distract the passengers. However, now Refet and Ayhan had another thought in their minds. They thought that the four people with them realized that the car was stolen. If they were caught, they would be brought before the police for car theft. Thereupon, they decided to eliminate the four passengers.

THEY STOPPED, SAYING "THE TIRE BLEW"

After passing Sarayönü, Ayhan stopped the car, saying that the car's tire was flat. Refet pulled out his gun. According to their statements, Vefa was shot first. Then Kerim was killed. Later, Arif and Osman were taken out of the car. Osman tried to escape but could not escape. In a short time, all four people traveling in the car were killed.

THEY THROWN IT INTO THE WELL

Refet and Ayhan did not immediately leave the bodies where they were found. They got back into the car and drove about 200-300 meters and stopped in front of Haydar Well. They took the four bodies out of the vehicle and threw them into the well.

THEY SEARCHED THE BODIES

According to the suspects' statements, they took approximately 9 thousand liras and wristwatches from the people they killed. They searched the four people again to see if there were any documents or traces that would give them away. Then they moved away from Haydar Well.

THEY CLEANED THE BLOOD TRACES

But there was one more thing to clean up: Buick. There was blood inside the car at the time of the murder. Refet and Ayhan stopped by the lake after going to Beyşehir. They tried to clean the traces of blood on themselves and inside the car. Then they continued their journey and reached Mersin. The most important evidence that could lead them to the murder was the car. That's why they decided to eliminate Buick as well. They threw the car into the sea opposite Kızkalesi in Mersin.

Thus, they thought that the vehicle they stole from Istanbul and used to kill four people would disappear forever at the bottom of the Mediterranean. Refet then returned to Istanbul by train. Ayhan went to Bursa. Months have passed. While the police were pursuing other possibilities, the two suspects were not caught. According to that period, the murder plan worked almost perfectly.

A NEWSPAPER NEWS SOLVED FOUR MURDERS

However, the only thing they did not take into account was the hundreds of kilometers of connection between a murder police officer in Konya and a car recovered from the bottom of the sea in Mersin. Commissioner Sami Şengün's investigation, which started with a few lines of news he read in an Istanbul newspaper, extended from Mersin to Istanbul, from Istanbul to the suspects and finally to Haydar Well.

The remarkable point in the solution of the murder was that Commissioner Sami did not initially have any concrete evidence linking the car to the murder. He thought that a car thrown into the sea was unusual in itself, and he investigated why. The more I researched, the more the pieces fit together.

The stolen Buick... Its disappearance just before the murder... The empty cartridge in the car... Human blood on the floor... Then the names connected to the car theft... And finally the confessions. The mystery of the four bodies found in the Haydar Well was solved about a year later, thanks to the attention and persistent follow-up of Commissioner Sami Şengün.

PEYAMİ SAFA ALSO WRITTEN ABOUT THAT SUCCESS

Commissioner Sami Şengün's extraordinary connection that led to the solution of the Haydar Kuyusu murder, return