Per news articles published in the Evrensel Newspaper on 23rd January 2009 and the Hürriyet Newspaper on 19th January 2009, İdris Yıldırım was living with his family in the Uzungeçit Village of Şırnak, where he worked as a village guard. Weary of the threats he had been receiving for his job, İdris Yıldırım wanted to quit. As soon as he entered Turkey via Habur Border Gate, he was placed under custody by soldiers and detained for two days before being transferred to Diyarbakır, where he was kept in custody for two more days. Upon release, İdris Yıldırım went to Silopi with his wife. He left the house to go to the marketplace, but failed to return home. Based on witness accounts, İdris Yıldırım was escorted into a car by four armed men carrying walkie-talkies, who had shown police ID cards to Yıldırım. To find him, family members went to the Silopi Gendarmerie Station and the Silopi Police Department to no avail.

In 2004, Abdülkadir Aygan, a former PKK member turned JITEM agent, claimed to have taken part in the murder of İdris Yıldırım, who, by his account, had been taken to Elazığ from Silopi, where he had been killed and disposed of by Aygan, a group commander and the Elazığ team.