Murder of Pınar Gültekin

Pınar Gültekin (1 October 1993 – 16 July 2020) was a Turkish woman who disappeared on 16 July 2020.

Her body was found in the rural neighborhood of Yerkesik in Menteşe on 21 July 2020 after she was murdered.

In July 2020, a global Instagram hashtag campaign called ChallengeAccepted was relaunched by a group of Turkish women in wake of the murder of Gültekin.

Her body was later discovered in a plastic box in the woods.

On 16 July, Gültekin who was a student at Muğla University School of Economics, left her house in the Akyaka neighborhood in the town of Ula where she lived alone.

She could not be reached by her family and friends afterwards.

Her younger sister Sibel Gültekin and her mother Şefika Gültekin came to Muğla and reported her disappearance to Akyaka Gendarmerie General Command and asked for help through social media.

In the testimony of 32-year-old Cemal Metin Avcı, who was identified as the case's main suspect, he stated that he is married and the father of two children.

However, he wished to rekindle his relationship with Pınar Gültekin, whom he had dated before.

After Gültekin's refusal to accept his offer, the two engaged in an argument during which Avcı beat her up and left her unconscious.

He then had the victim strangled.

However, Gültekin's family disputed his claim of the two having a relationship, saying he was a jilted stalker who had met her at a bar and begun obsessively messaging her.

Her father claims that he murdered her after she blocked him on social media and he couldn't take it.

According to the information obtained from Avcı's testimonies and through further reviews, it became evident that Avcı had taken 2 bottles of gasoline from the gas station on the same day that he killed Gültekin, and tried to remove the trace of murder by burning her body in a garbage barrel in the forested area in Yerkesik neighborhood and poured concrete on it.

As to why he murdered Gültekin, Avcı responded: "I killed her in a moment of anger".

However Gültekin family's lawyer Rezan Epözdemir said that they believed this was a premeditated murder in which there were others involved and they delivered their suspicions to the prosecutor.

Cemal Metin Avcı was first sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, then his sentence was reduced to 23 years with "unjust provocation" by the victim given as the reason.

In the 13th hearing held at the Muğla 3rd High Criminal Court on 20 June 2022, Avcı's brother, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged aiding in the murder, was acquitted.

Avcı's mother Ayten Avcı, father Selim Avcı, ex-wife Eda Karagün and partner Şükrü Gökhan Orhan were acquitted because they were not proven to have committed the crimes of "destroying and concealing evidence".