Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced that two more murders committed in previous years in Kırşehir and Samsun have been solved. Gürlek reported that, through efforts coordinated by the Faili Meçhul Suçları Araştırma Daire Başkanlığı, 60 cases involving 67 murder victims and 7 injured people have been solved to date.
The case of Rıza Güzel, who went missing on 5 February 2006 in the Akpınar district of Kırşehir, was taken up again. Examination of witness statements and communication records uncovered evidence of murder; in operations carried out at 6 addresses in three provinces, 7 suspects were taken into custody, and bone fragments believed to belong to Güzel were found. 2 of the suspects were arrested, and a judicial supervision order was issued for 1 of them.
In the case of Arif Yılmaz, who was killed on 1 June 2013 in the Çarşamba district of Samsun, the communication data of 28 people were compared; the 2 suspects taken into custody were arrested. Gürlek thanked the chief public prosecutor’s offices and gendarmerie commands that conducted the investigations.
Why it matters
The two solved cases demonstrate the concrete result of the working method of the Department for the Investigation of Unsolved Crimes within the Ministry of Justice, which follows leads in old investigations. The fact that the incident in Kırşehir dates back to 2006 and the one in Samsun to 2013 shows that results can be achieved in cases that have gone cold over the years by re-examining witness statements and communication records. This picture means that the judicial path is still open for families who have been unable to learn the fate of their relatives for years, and it indicates that similar cases can also be handled with the same method. By contrast, it was not disclosed what share of the nationwide unsolved crimes burden the 60 cases reported to have been solved account for. Since it has not yet been confirmed that the bone fragments found in Kırşehir belong to Rıza Güzel, identity verification and the trial process of the detained suspects will determine the future course of both cases.
Background
Gürlek is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 18 stories featuring this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated 11 October 2026.