Per case files on Mehmet Turay and Mehmet Elçi’s disappearance, both men were living in Cizre, Şırnak with their families. On 5th February 1994, after leaving home for work, Mehmet Turay, who sold books in front of the mosque, met with his brother-in-law Mehmet Elçi at the marketplace, where they were last seen. When the families applied to the Cizre Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, they were told that both men had been placed in custody in Silopi, Şırnak; they were indeed seen by someone from their who was also under custody. Fifteen days after their disappearance, a relative of theirs working as an imam in Silopi informed them that the two men’s dead bodies had been discovered near his mosque. By the time the families arrived, the bodies had been buried.