A Child Vanished After a Lesson. Then Came the Ending No One Wanted, and the Betrayal No One Imagined By Christina Coulter 46

Eight-year-old Turkish girl Narin Güran vanished after a Quran lesson on Aug. 21, 2024. Nineteen days later, searchers found a horrific sight: her body sealed in a sack and wedged beneath rocks in a creek near the girl’s home city of Diyarbakır.

Investigators reconstructed her last afternoon from cameras and household data. The killing was narrowed to 3:18–3:21 p.m. — and shockingly, placed inside the family home, with relatives present, per CNN Türk.

The same reporting noted a spike in household water use and extensive washing in the residence after that window.

Istanbul’s Forensic Medicine Institute concluded Narin died on Aug. 21 by asphyxiation after closure of the mouth and nose with pressure to the neck, according to Hürriyet Daily News and Turkish Minute.

Examiners reported no sharp, blunt, or gunshot trauma, per those outlets. It was not possible to make a medical assessment as to sexual assault, according to BBC Türkçe.

The girl’s relatives soon came under the microscope of investigators. A court jailed the child’s mother, Yüksel Güran, and her brother, Enes Güran, pending trial on murder charges, while other relatives and associates faced evidence-destruction accusations, according to Reuters.

The child’s uncle, Salim Güran — the village headman — had been arrested earlier in the probe, per Hürriyet Daily News. Evidence linked the uncle’s vehicle to the case. DNA taken from Salim Güran’s car matched DNA on Narin’s clothing, according to Daily Sabah and Turkish Minute.

Narin’s uncle claimed he had deleted his correspondence with his 8-year-old niece to hide admissions that he had met with sex workers, per BBC Türkçe.

A non-family figure entered the record regarding the disposal of the girl’s body. Nevzat Bahtiyar, a neighbor, told authorities he carried the body to the creek in a sack after being approached and offered money, but denied killing the child — he was later arrested, according to Duvar English and Bianet.

In court testimony, Bahtiyar said the girl’s uncle, Salim Güran, told him the child was killed because she had seen him with the child’s mother. (Outlets reported the statement as testimony, not as a judicial finding, according to VOA Türkçe and Turkish Minute.)

Protests were held in multiple cities after the recovery and during early hearings, according to Reuters and Duvar English.

The case proceeded in Diyarbakır’s 8th High Criminal Court. On Dec. 29, 2024, the court sentenced the girl’s mother, Yüksel Güran, her brother Enes Güran and her uncle Salim Güran to aggravated life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of a child acting in concert, according to Daily Sabah.

Neighbor Nevzat Bahtiyar was sentenced to four years and six months for destroying or concealing evidence after admitting he moved the body, per the outlets.

Reporting on the ruling noted the panel did not identify who applied the fatal pressure or establish a definitive motive. A subsequent review upheld the prison terms and the case moved forward in the Court of Cassation, according to bianet.