The murder of a school teacher in Istanbul on April 21 turned out to be a planned scheme by the murder victim, with the culprit being a hit man she had hired to kill her.

Forty-one-year-old İlkay Sivaslı was found dead in her home in Istanbul's Kartal district and media outlets had initially reported that the suspected murderer Tanju D. was her ex-boyfriend and killed her after an argument over money.

However, after the capture of Tanju D. in the southern city of Adana, where he fled after the incident, along with the discovery of text and audio messages in his possession changed the course of investigation. It turned out that Sivaslı was depressed after she broke up with her married boyfriend and found Tanju D. online while searching for a hit man to kill her as she wasn't able to commit suicide. She paid TL 6,000 to her would-be killer, but Tanju D. fell in love with the teacher and couldn't bring himself to kill her, at least for a month. He also recorded every conversation he had with the woman on the phone and in person and some recordings Sivaslı can be heard telling him, "I am fed up with waiting. When will you kill me?" while in another recorded conversation, she is heard telling Tanju D. not to kill her while she is in the company of her friends.

Tanju D. finally brought himself to kill Sivaslı and tried to choke her to death at first but failed. He then fired a shot at the woman, ultimately killing her and fled the scene. The suspect has been arrested and a court date for a trial is yet to be scheduled.