THE CHIEF suspect in the double murder in Turkey of two Irish women may appear for his first public court hearing today since the remains of the victims were discovered last Thursday evening.
Reports from Turkey suggest the suspect may be older than the 17 years he has claimed and, if this is proven to be the case, he would be processed through the system as an adult offender rather than as a juvenile.
The remains of Marion Elizabeth Graham and her friend Kathy Dinsmore, both aged 53 and from Newry in Co Down, have been formally identified and may be brought home for burial by the middle of this week.
Postmortems on the bodies have confirmed the women died from stab wounds.
Turkish police are working on the theory that the chief suspect, Recep Cetin, killed the women because they were trying to prevent Ms Graham’s 15-year-old daughter Shannon from marrying him.
The girl had been in a relationship for the past 18 months with Mr Cetin, who may be in his early 20s.
The relationship apparently strengthened during Shannon’s numerous holidays to Turkey with her mother in recent years.
Shannon’s father, Raymond McGuinness, owns a property in Kusadasi in western Turkey and, while he was separated from Shannon’s mother, Ms Graham and her daughter continued to use the property as a base for extended holidays.
It was on one such trip that Ms Graham and Ms Dinsmore were stabbed to death.
Mr McGuinness has arrived in Turkey and told journalists there that the families of the dead women wanted to be left alone to grieve in private.
“We’ve identified the bodies and my main concern now is my daughter,” he said.
“We’re going to arrange a flight home as soon as possible.”
Mr McGuinness said he had never felt comfortable about the relationship between his daughter and Mr Cetin. “There was always something that was not quite right,” he said.
The Irish Timesunderstands Mr Cetin wanted to marry Shannon and return with her to live in Northern Ireland.
When her mother and Ms Dinsmore made it clear this would not be happening, Mr Cetin is said to have threatened them both.
He is also alleged to have tried to assault Shannon in the past week. Reports from Turkey suggest her mother stopped that alleged attempted assault.
Last Thursday, when Shannon was on a boat trip, it would appear that Mr Cetin travelled from Kusadasi with Ms Graham and Ms Dinsmore for a trip to the port city of Izmir near Kusadasi.
However, the women were murdered and their bodies dumped. When Mr Cetin went to work in a restaurant that day, he is said to have had a cut on his hand and to have changed his clothes.
Around the same time, Shannon returned from her boat trip. Unable to find her mother or Ms Dinsmore, she went to the police.
When they questioned Mr Cetin about the missing women, he told them they had all been kidnapped by a group of men in a van and that he had been knocked unconscious and could not recall what had happened to the two women.
He told police that he had sustained the cut to his hand when he tried to fight off the kidnappers.
However, on further interrogation it appears he confessed to the killings and supplied information that helped police find the missing women’s remains.
Mr Cetin’s father and two other men have been questioned about the case but have been released without charge.
The two murdered women were travelling on Irish passports. Irish diplomatic staff in Turkey are giving assistance to Mr McGuinness and his daughter.
They are also assisting relatives of Ms Dinsmore, whose niece and nephew have also travelled to Turkey.
Ms Dinsmore had previously worked for Newry and Mourne District Council.
She had also worked for a taxi company in Newry towards the end of last year.