Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek made important statements yesterday regarding the work carried out to shed light on unsolved murders. Minister Gürlek announced that 83 murders were solved in 76 files.
Mehmet Şahinoğlu and his ex-wife Saime Sivri disappeared.
"THERE WERE NO BODY BUT THE TEETH TALKED"
According to the special report of Habertürk reporter Mustafa Şekeroğlu, one of the events that attracted attention in Minister Gürlek's statement was the 14-year-old murder of Mehmet Şahinoğlu, which Habertürk brought to the agenda in May with the title "There are no bodies, the teeth spoke".
Mehmet Salih A. is at the forefront among the police officers.
UPPER JAW BONE WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT FINDING
In the file regarding the murder of Mehmet Şahinoğlu, who disappeared in 2012, the fact that the upper jaw bone fragment found years ago was compatible with the dental records played an important role in the Supreme Court's overturning the acquittal decisions. In the file that was reconsidered, this time an operation was organized against 12 suspects.
HE WAS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY WITH HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN
Under the coordination of the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Department within the Ministry of Justice, Bursa Homicide Bureau teams re-examined the file upon the instructions of the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. The teams re-evaluated forensic reports, dental records, communication data and witness statements regarding burnt human bones found in Bursa's Kestel district in 2015.
11 SUSPECTS WERE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY
Based on the findings, an operation was carried out against 12 suspects. A total of 11 people were detained during the operation, including the main suspect in the murder case, Mehmet Salih A., his wife and children. It was announced that efforts are continuing to capture a fugitive suspect.
MYSTERIOUS LOSS OF TWO PEOPLE
The incident, which came to the fore with a new operation 14 years later, started with a missing persons application filed in Istanbul in 2012. Mehmet Şahinoğlu, who was a truck driver in Osmaniye, mysteriously disappeared after arriving in Istanbul on October 18, 2012. Relatives who could not hear from Şahinoğlu filed a missing person report on December 21, 2012.
HIS DIVORCED WIFE ALSO DISAPPEARED
The file caught the attention of Police Chief Oktay Kapsız, known as "Kurt", who was appointed to the Istanbul Missing Persons Bureau Chief in 2014. In the investigation initiated by Kapsız, it was revealed that Şahinoğlu's recently divorced wife, Saime Sivri, was also missing.
MARRIAGE THAT STARTED WITH THE WRONG NUMBER
In the police investigation, it was revealed that Mehmet Şahinoğlu met and married Saime Sivri as a result of a wrong phone call. Saime Sivri, who lives in a religious marriage with Mehmet Salih A. in Bursa and is a mother of two children, left home and went to Osmaniye, allegedly due to the violence she experienced. She married Mehmet Şahinoğlu by hiding her past.
HE TOOK SAIME AND RETURNED TO BURSA
However, Mehmet Salih A., with whom she had a religious marriage, began to follow Saime Sivri's footsteps. He learned his address in Osmaniye through his relative İsmail Yazal. Then he went to Osmaniye and met with Mehmet Şahinoğlu. He explained that Saime was his religiously married wife and the mother of his two children. Thereupon, Mehmet Şahinoğlu and Saime Sivri divorced. Mehmet Salih A. took Saime and returned to Bursa.
RICH WOMAN WAS CALLED TO ISTANBUL WITH HER TRAP
According to the allegations in the investigation file, Mehmet Salih A. held Mehmet Şahinoğlu responsible for Saime Sivri leaving him. A plan was prepared to bring Şahinoğlu to Istanbul. Within the scope of this plan, İsmail Yazal's friend Sultan D. stepped in. Sultan D. called Mehmet Şahinoğlu and said that he dialed the wrong number. During the conversation, which started with Şahinoğlu calling him again, Sultan D. explained that she was a rich and widowed woman.
NO NEWS WAS HEARD FROM HIM
After days of phone calls, Mehmet Şahinoğlu came to Istanbul on October 18, 2012 to meet Sultan D. However, after this date, no news was heard from him again. After a while, his ex-wife Saime Sivri also disappeared.
HTS RECORDS EXTENDED TO THE VILLA
Istanbul Missing Persons Bureau teams examined Mehmet Şahinoğlu's phone records. HTS and base station records revealed that Şahinoğlu was in the same area with some suspects on the day he arrived in Istanbul. Şahinoğlu's phone turned off after a while.
SKULL FOUND IN THE VILLA
The police found evidence that the suspects went from Istanbul to Bursa's Gemlik district. During the investigation, it was revealed that Mehmet Salih A. had a villa in Gemlik Kurşunlu. Thereupon, simultaneous operations were organized in Diyarbakır, Bingöl, Bursa, Istanbul and Muş in 2015, within the scope of the investigation carried out by the Istanbul Missing Persons Bureau teams. 5 suspects, including Mehmet Salih A., were caught. A skull was found during excavations in the villa. However, upon examination at the Forensic Medicine Institute, it was understood that the skull did not belong to the missing Mehmet Şahinoğlu or Saime Sivri.
THE DEFENDANTS WERE RELEASED
Suspects Mehmet Salih A., Gürsel S., Sultan D. and Saadet A. were arrested on 16 May 2015. The suspects were charged with premeditated murder, deprivation of liberty and organization charges. A lawsuit was filed at Bursa 3rd High Criminal Court. Saadet A. was released about a month later, and the other three defendants were released on February 15, 2016.
NECEPHE'S STATEMENT CHANGED THE COURSE OF THE FILE
Months after the release of the defendants, an important development took place in the investigation. Mehmet Salih A.'s nephew, Ercan Akdeniz, went to Eskişehir Odunpazarı Police Station on October 12, 2016 and gave a statement. Ercan Akdeniz claimed that his uncle Mehmet Salih A., whom he visited in prison, asked him to move the body, which he said was buried in the villa in Gemlik Kurşunlu, to another place.
HE TOLD ME THAT THEY CARRIED THE BODY AND BURNED IT
According to Ercan Akdeniz's statement, he went to the villa with Mehmet Salih A.'s wife, Saadet A., in August 2015. Saadet A. showed the place where the body, which he claimed belonged to Mehmet Şahinoğlu, was buried. Ercan Akdeniz claimed that they later went to the villa with Faruk A. and Savaş G., removed the body from where it was found, took it to the forest area near the Ümitalan ramp in Bursa's Kestel district and burned it.
FROM BURNED BONES TO DENTAL RECORDS
One of the most important evidence of the investigation was the burnt human bones found in Kestel. In the forensic examinations carried out on the bone fragments, a piece of the upper jaw bone called "maxilla" attracted attention. The dental structure on this piece was compared with the records of the dental treatment Mehmet Şahinoğlu had in 2011. The examination revealed that the tooth structure in the jawbone fragment was compatible with Şahinoğlu's old dental records.
This forensic finding in the file regarding the murder of Mehmet Şahinoğlu, whose whole body could not be found, became one of the most important evidence of the trial process.
THE WITNESS WHO TOLD THE MURDER WAS KILLED
Ercan Akdeniz, who claimed that Mehmet Şahinoğlu's body was carried and burned, later recanted his previous statements in his statement in court. However, there was another remarkable development in the file. Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office took action upon receiving information that Ercan Akdeniz was killed in Muş. The Prosecutor's Office sent a letter to the Homicide Bureau, requesting that Akdeniz's death be investigated and whether there is a connection with Mehmet Şahinoğlu's murder.
ACQUITTAL DECISIONS ARE RETURNED BY THE SUPREME COURT
In the case heard at Bursa 3rd High Criminal Court, acquittal decisions were given for the defendants. The acquittal decisions were also approved in the appeal review. However, the file was moved to the Supreme Court. The 1st Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the acquittal decisions on February 4, 2025, on the grounds of incomplete examination. The Supreme Court pointed out that Ercan Akdeniz's statements regarding the carrying and burning of the body and the compatibility of the maxilla piece found in Kestel with Mehmet Şahinoğlu's dental records were not adequately evaluated.
The Supreme Court also requested that HTS and base station records be examined in detail on the map by experts, other investigations regarding unidentified corpses and cremated human bones be investigated, and soil samples be taken again from the areas where the corpses were allegedly removed.
THE LOCK NAME OF THE FILE WAS MISSING
Another remarkable development took place in the case, which started to be heard again after the Supreme Court's reversal decision. Sultan D., who allegedly invited Mehmet Şahinoğlu to Istanbul with the trap of a rich businesswoman, could not be reached. During the hearings held in May 2026, an arrest warrant was issued for Sultan D., from whom no news was heard.
THE IMPORTANT NAME OF THE FILE WAS FOUND DEAD
Sultan D., who did not attend the hearings, also claimed in his statements during the investigation phase that Saime Sivri was kept in a cellar by Mehmet Salih A. It was revealed that İsmail Yazal, one of the important names in the file, was found dead in a house months after Mehmet Şahinoğlu's disappearance.
HER NAME WAS ALSO MENTIONED IN THE 22 YEARS OLD LEYLA FILE
The name of Mehmet Salih A., the prime suspect of Mehmet Şahinoğlu's murder, also came up in the file of 21-year-old Leyla Şakar, who disappeared in 2004. Leyla was the girlfriend of Mehmet Salih A.'s son, who committed suicide in 2001. Two separate reports were made about the murder of the young woman in 2012 and 2016. In the denunciations, it was claimed that Mehmet Salih A. had a hand in the murder of Leyla. However, the fate of Leyla Şakar could not be clarified for 22 years.
A YEAR'S SECRET WORK FROM THE HOMICIDE OFFICE
Behind the scenes of the latest operation in the 14-year-old murder file was the meticulous work carried out in secrecy by the Bursa Homicide Bureau teams for a year. The suspects were put under the spotlight in the studies carried out under the instructions of the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, under the coordination of the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Department within the Ministry of Justice. Homicide detectives took action for the operation after their new findings.
Homicide detectives, who examined the file again under the coordination of Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, conducted a comprehensive investigation of the suspects. The teams re-examined the evidence obtained years ago, the connections between the suspects and other findings in the file, and reached new findings after a year of work.
Following the findings, Bursa Homicide Bureau teams took action for the operation. In simultaneous raids, 11 suspects, including Mehmet Salih A., his wife and children, were detained. Efforts are continuing to capture a fugitive suspect.
