A man who admitted beheading a 21-year-old student with a saw has killed himself in prison after being jailed for 30 years.
Civil engineer Mustafa Murat Ayhan, 49, had confessed to murdering victim Azra Gulendam Haytaoglu and brutally cutting her body into 13 pieces.
After burying most of her remains in woodlands, he is then said to have thrown the journalism student's head off of a cliff.
And in a sick twist, he even 'signed' her body with a razor blade, the court in Antalya, Turkey, heard.
Now local media had reported that he killed himself in his prison cell in Diyarbakir on September 28.
During the trial, he had told the court he was 'sorry' for what he did, which the young woman's family slammed as a cynical ploy to try and escape the maximum penalty of 30 years.
Grieving dad Mustafa Haytaoglu told reporters following the hearing: "My daughter is turning in her grave. I want the murderer to receive the harshest punishment."
The victim's mother said: "The country lost someone with a bright future, my daughter. I sent my child to study, but he prevented her from having a future.
"I hope Allah will make him experience pain, too. I believe in justice."
Azra was a third-year student at the Journalism Department of Akdeniz University. She was last seen alive leaving her home on July 28 last year.
She had reportedly accepted an offer to sleep on a friend's sofa and was never seen again after prosecutors say the defendant raped her.
Police say they have recovered most of her remains, but some parts have not been found including her head, which her killer threw off a cliff.
His arrest came after police scoured CCTV footage following the young woman's disappearance on July 28 and caught him coming and going to his flat several times with the same suitcase.
He had sexually assaulted the 21-year-old before strangling her to death in his bathroom.
He later confessed to dismembering her body into 13 pieces with a pruning saw he said he bought from a market.
The divorced dad-of-one showed the police where he took the victim's body parts in a suitcase and buried them in an area of forest close to the village of Varsak in the district of Kepez.
The young woman's remains were subsequently exhumed and taken for a post-mortem examination in Antalya.
The suspect said he had consumed alcohol and drugs before killing Azra, whom he knew from the cafe where she worked part-time as a waitress.
It is not known how well they were acquainted, but she had told her sister the last time they spoke that she was going to crash for the night on a friend's sofa.
He confirmed he had offered his living room for Azra to spend the night and claimed he had only tried to cover her with a sheet when he accidentally touched her on the hip and she woke up.
He then claimed she screamed and that he throttled her to stop her from screaming, but she stopped moving and he realised she was no longer breathing or had a pulse.
Neighbours said they heard shouting from his flat on the night of the crime.
Femicide is a growing problem in Turkey, particularly after the country officially quit the Istanbul Convention in July last year.
According to the 2021 Annual Data Report announced by the 'We Will Stop Femicide Platform', 280 women were killed by men in 2021, while 217 women were found suspiciously dead.
According to data from the 'Monument Counter', which is "a digital memorial for women killed by violence" and is updated daily, 296 femicides have taken place in Turkey so far this year.
