Nazmi Gezginci, wanted by Interpol with a Red Notice in connection with the 1984 murder of 19-year-old Maria Köhler in Aschaffenburg, Germany, was captured 41 years later in Hatay, southern Türkiye, living under a false identity.
A 1.5-centimeter (0.6-inch) scar beneath his right eye ultimately gave him away during the police investigation.
On July 30, 1984, Maria Köhler, a 19-year-old nursing student at Aschaffenburg City Hospital in Germany, was found dead in her room at the hospital dormitory. Investigations revealed that she had been strangled to death.
The police focused their investigation on 25-year-old Nazmi Gezginci, Köhler’s ex-boyfriend, who fled Germany for Türkiye one day after the murder.
German authorities issued an arrest warrant and launched an international manhunt, but Gezginci managed to elude capture for decades. After 41 years, German police reopened the cold case and requested a red notice from Interpol, suspecting that Gezginci might be residing in Türkiye.
Working in coordination with the Hatay Police Department and the Interpol-Europol Division, Turkish authorities conducted field and technical surveillance at addresses linked to Gezginci and his relatives. Investigators noticed an elderly man periodically visiting addresses associated with Gezginci’s family.
Under close surveillance, the suspect, an elderly man using a different identity, was observed and officers noted that his physical appearance matched the description of Gezginci, particularly the scar beneath his right eye.
The man was apprehended in the Serinyol neighborhood of the Antakya district in Hatay and taken into custody. Legal proceedings have since been initiated against him. It was also revealed that Gezginci had killed his German girlfriend out of jealousy, believing she had been unfaithful.
