Slain man ID'd; Police looking for clues leading to his killer.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 11/23/99
By CAROL GORGA WILLIAMS
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Authorities have identified the man found slain in Barnegat Nov. 13 and as they suspected, he is of Turkish descent.
Ocean County Prosecutor E. David Millard announced yesterday that after nine days of investigating, authorities are certain the man is Mustafa Yakut, 34, a Turkish national who lived most recently in Perth Amboy.
Little is known about him, Millard said.
"The investigative team is in need of all information surrounding Mr. Yakut to include his associates and activities in both New Jersey and New York," Millard said in a statement. The prosecutor's office asked news media to circulate a photograph of the victim. "Perhaps it will jog somebody's memory and recollection concerning Mr. Yakut," Millard said.
Investigators from the prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit have determined that Yakut was killed somewhere else, leaving very little forensic evidence where the body was found in the woods at West Bay Avenue and Lighthouse Drive.
He was shot "multiple times," in the head and back, Millard said. Authorities think he was shot late Friday or early Saturday.
Millard said "obvious drag marks" on the body confirm the man was killed elsewhere and dragged before being dumped. He was found about 10 feet into the woods just west of Garden State Parkway Exit 67, which is off the parkway's southbound lanes.
Millard said the victim was found fully clothed, lying face up.
Yakut's last known address was on Madison Avenue, Perth Amboy. Before that, he stayed briefly at the homes of friends in Perth Amboy, Paterson and New York City, officials said.
Yakut came to the United States from Urfa in Turkey, where his family still lives.
Authorities said they were able to identify him after someone saw a police sketch in the Asbury Park Press. "In this case, the identification was made possible with the media's help," Millard said.
Investigators have been reaching out to communities with large Turkish populations, such as Paterson and Queens. They also have been in touch with the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., where they learned that most of the clothing worn by the victim was manufactured in Turkey.
Those items include a dark pinstriped suit of a European design; the stripes on the suit are gray and burgundy. Yakut, who was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds, was wearing a black turtleneck and alligator-style loafers, Millard said.
The manufacturer of the loafers is Inci, which Millard has described as "upscale." In an inside pocket of the suit jacket, there was the name of T. Bayram. The last name is common in Turkey, Millard has said.
It is likely the name was added to identify the suit during cleaning.
Inside one leg of the pants, there are several hand-stitched letters or symbols: "TC55." They appear to be followed by either a slash or a hyphen and possibly the numbers 2 and 7, Millard said.
There was no wallet to help in identifying the victim, but he was wearing "a fairly substantial" gold chain around his neck. The fact it wasn't taken means robbery "doesn't appear to be a motive," Millard said. The chain had a small hanging reproduction of either a sword or a scimitar, a curved sword used primarily by Arabs and Turks.
The vacant land that abuts the wood-ed area is located at a high-traffic intersection where some people leave vehicles that are for sale, so passers-by will notice them. A man who came to the site for such a sale happened to look down a wooded trail and noticed the body at about 10 a.m. Nov. 13.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Sgt. Thomas Hayes of the prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit at (732) 929-2027, ext. 3151. Hayes is part of the team that includes local, county and federal in-vestigators.
Carol Gorga Williams: (732) 557-5732 or at carolg@app.com.
Staff writer Allison Garvey contribut-ed to this story.
from the Asbury Park Press
Published on November 23, 1999
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