Channel 4’s Catching a Killer features Essex landfill body find

A murder investigation involving a painstaking search of a landfill site to find a missing man’s body will feature in a Channel 4 documentary.

Cumali Turhan, 45, was fatally stabbed in a bar in Chelmsford in November 2024 and his body was disposed of in a bin, leading to a 47-day search of a landfill site.

Essex Police sergeant Simon Gray, who features in the hour-long Catching a Killer episode airing later on Tuesday, said his team “achieved the impossible” in an “incredibly challenging environment”.

Detectives are still looking to speak to a man who left the UK via Stansted Airport and flew to Turkey on the day Turhan was reported missing.

The operation is believed to be the first time an active police search of a landfill site in the UK has recovered a body.

“We calculated the square footage where we were most likely to find Cumali and worked from there,” Gray said.

“It was never lost on us that we wanted to find Cumali and bring him home to his family. It was mentally and physically challenging for all those involved, and we were acutely aware that we would not be able to continue the search indefinitely.

“I hope this documentary shows people the dedication and commitment of everyone involved in that search.”

The opening of an inquest into Turhan’s death heard he had been fatally stabbed in the neck.

Prosecutors believe he had been mutilated before being knifed inside Barista bar in Chelmsford on 19 November 2024, with his body being disposed of in a bin.

Police discovered his body at the Enovert waste site in Stanway, near Colchester, on 11 January.

In October last year, a man was jailed for seven years for assisting an offender and preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body.

Ciprian Ilie, 45, of no fixed abode, claimed he had been forced at knife point to clean up following the stabbing of Turhan at Barista.

During Ilie’s trial, the court heard the tip of Turhan’s tongue and his penis were severed during the attack and were later found in a bin.

The force said it was working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and other authorities to try to speak to Ceyhan Dinler, 38.