Background
In April 2010, the Turkish port city of İzmir was shaken by three armed attacks within three days. Each victim had been killed by a single bullet, and the press soon dubbed the perpetrator the "single-bullet killer". The victims did not know one another; they included a bank employee and a university student. The attacks caused wide anxiety, particularly among young women and people walking home at night.
The suspect was a young man who had lived for years in the Balçova district and had no prior criminal record. He had worked as a waiter in İzmir, Çeşme and Bodrum.
What happened and the investigation
The first attack took place on 25 April 2010, targeting a woman walking home. The next day an architecture student was killed in the same way, and a third attack followed on the third day. Police established that the bullets in the first two cases came from the same weapon and concluded that the incidents were connected.
A large police team reviewed security-camera footage and traced the victims' mobile phones. Two things sped up the search: details the suspect gave while selling a stolen phone, and a distinctive jacket visible in the footage. He took a bus from İzmir to Bodrum and was found asleep in a guesthouse in the early hours of 29 April 2010. Ballistic tests linked the pistol found on him to all three killings.
In statements reported by the press, he said he was short of money and had chosen his victims at random.
The name and address details he gave while selling a stolen phone led police to his past as a restaurant worker, and combined with camera footage the search narrowed quickly. Press reports said he told investigators he had gone to Bodrum intending to kill a former girlfriend; the arrest prevented that.
Trial and legacy
The case was heard by the İzmir 7th High Criminal Court. In 2013 the court sentenced Hamdi Ayri to three aggravated life sentences, with an additional penalty for unlicensed possession of a firearm. The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict, making it final.
The case remains one of the few cases in Turkey widely described as serial murder, and it is often cited as an example of how quickly camera footage and phone tracking can narrow a search. For the families, no verdict could replace what was lost. The case is archived here in remembrance and for public awareness.