The lifeless body of Narin Güran, the eight-year-old girl who went missing on 21 August, was finally found this morning in an irrigation canal near her home in the province of Diyarbakır, after an intense search that has kept all Turkey on suspense for 19 days and involved thousands of people, including gendarmes, military and volunteers.
Turkish media reported that Narin’s body was found approximately 1.5 km from the village where she lived with her parents, Tavşantepe, located in the Bağlar district of southeastern Turkey: the same village where witnesses and security camera footage last placed her at around 7 p.m. after attending a religious course at the local mosque.
After her family notified the gendarmerie of her disappearance, a huge search operation was launched involving hundreds of police, gendarmes, members of the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), municipal teams and volunteers, supported by drones and dogs, covering a search area of more than 11,000 hectares.
The girl’s uncle, the main suspect
During the investigation, Narin’s older brother, aged 18, was initially arrested after several bite marks were discovered on his arms, which finally could not be linked to the case. Subsequently, the investigation focused on the girl’s uncle, Salim Güran, in whose car traces of the girl’s DNA were found and who could not explain what he had done on the evening of 21 August, nor why he had switched off his mobile phone and deleted several calls and messages. Güran has been detained since 2 September on charges of ‘deprivation of liberty’ and ‘premeditated murder’.
In recent days, the search had focused on a local cemetery, where gendarmerie teams under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office had been scanning the area with the help of geo-radar equipment for possible recent burials. In addition, Gendarmerie Search and Rescue (JAK) group members had begun searching again in the nearby Eğertutmaz River, located less than 2 km from the village of Narin, where they had already searched two days earlier without success after receiving a tip.
Narin was found in the river in a sack and covered by stones
It was precisely in this river that several gendarmes found the lifeless body of Narin Güran this morning. ‘Unfortunately, the lifeless body of our missing girl Narin, who disappeared in the village of Tavşantepe in the Bağlar district of Diyarbakır, has been found by our gendarmerie teams. I ask God to have mercy on Narin and to take her to paradise. Our condolences,’ said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç promised that those responsible for the crime ‘will be brought to justice’.
The girl was found at 8:45 local time (7:45 CET) still wearing the same clothes she was wearing on the day she was reported missing, stuffed in a sack and covered by several branches and stones to hide it, Diyarbakır governor Murat Zorluoğlu told the media. Access to the village has been restricted while Narin Güran’s lifeless body will be taken to the Diyarbakır Institute of Forensic Medicine in the coming hours for an autopsy to establish the clear causes of her death.
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As a history lover, Pablo Gómez was captivated by Turkey from the first day he visited it in 2006: he got married there, has a house there… and has since become an expert on Turkey’s current affairs. With a long experience in media, he has been at the helm of hispanatolia.com since 2011.
