A man implicated in the murder of five people in the northern Turkish province of Ordu, is suspected of killing three more people. The suspect, 44-year-old Mehmet Ali Çayıroğlu, was arrested last month over the robbery of two people last month and security forces found belongings of five victims of previous murders in his residence. He is believed to have committed theft and targeted lonely, elderly people living in rural areas. The accused also stole the livestock and personal belongings of victims and investigators suspect he had accomplices.
Police found guns and cellphones as well as stolen animals in Çayıroğlu's residence, along with 230 plastic handcuffs. Relatives of victims identified stolen belongings.
Çayıroğlu denied his links to the deaths but failed to offer an explanation for the victims' belongings. Authorities linked him to the deaths of Nuri and Lütfiye Usluoğlu, a couple who were killed in a house fire in Ordu's Ünye district in February and Senai and Ümit Türedi, another couple that died of gas poisoning in their home, as well as Şeker Köseoğlu, an elderly woman whose body was found in a forest near her house.
He is also believed to be the perpetrator of a house fire that killed a disabled woman and her two disabled daughters in Samsun, a nearby province. The 80-year-old woman, Sevim Semiz, and her daughters Emine and Havva were killed in the fire. The woman's son identified a rifle found in Çayıroğlu's home that belonged to his mother.
