How police cracked the 1995 cold case murder of Hasan Dastan
Kubilay Kilincer brutally murdered his kind-hearted boss in a Sydney auto wrecking business, but lived free for decades until dogged detectives cracked the cold case. Read how.
Police & Courts
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A false alibi, a staged crime scene and a washing machine spin cycle were the key elements that allowed a murderer to roam free for almost 25 years.
And Kubilay Kilincer would have gotten away with the horrific murder of his boss if not for a team of dogged detectives who reopened one of Sydney’s most notorious cold cases.
Hasan Dastan was found in a pool of blood on the floor of his Blacktown auto wrecking business in December 1995.
He had extensive fractures to his skull, and a metal pole had been shoved down his throat. A bloodied sledgehammer and a “revenge note” were found near his body in the workshop.
An autopsy revealed the pipe was shoved six centimetres into his mouth, and his injuries were consistent with attacks from multiple weapons, including a ball joint remover, sledgehammer and a heavy car part.
Kubilay Kilincer was an employee of Mr Dastan’s at Esy Wreckers Auto Repair, and was the last person to see him alive.
He denied any involvement in his boss’s brutal murder, telling police “I didn’t do it” on dozens of occasions.
Forensic examination of DNA and fingerprints at the crime scene failed to connect him with the killing, while freshly washed clothing and shoes seized from his home on the day Mr Dastan’s body was found also did not contain any traces of blood.
But he was always a suspect in the murder.
Free to live his life for 22 years, Kilincer was arrested in 2020 and charged with murder, after a $1 million reward was announced for any information relating to Mr Dastan’s death.
Detectives said it was the “tenacity and determination” of investigators, as well as information provided to them by the public which led to Kilincer’s arrest.
“The $1 million reward complemented an ongoing active investigation. Without the assistance from the community, it would make our job very difficult,” Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said at the time.
He said the arrest was made following the discovery of new evidence.
“It’s a combination of reviewing all the material, all the statements we had.”
That material revealed Kilincer was in a parlous financial situation because of a gambling habit.
Evidence established he borrowed money from others, which he failed to repay in a timely manner — or at all — and did not pay his bills.
Kilincer was in debt to the Department of Housing for unpaid rent, with his situation so precarious that he feared being evicted from his home and having his possessions seized for payment of moneys owed.
He was also under pressure from his family, who wanted him to stop gambling.
So, he resorted to stealing from his boss — Mr Dastan.
Mr Dastan figured out his employee was keeping money from jobs done at the workshop and, on December 10, decided to terminate Kilincer’s employment.
The following day Mr Dastan was found dead in his workshop by David Steel.
Mr Steel entered the workshop and walked to an area he hadn’t been in before, finding an arm and a face that “looked like it had exploded”.
A car covered 80 per cent of his body but he could see that one of his eyes appeared to be dislodged and his face was smashed in.
Mr Steel didn’t recognise the person on the ground as being Mr Dastan because of the severe facial injuries.
Tools and pieces of machinery were used as impromptu weapons. He had been struck to the head and body, causing severe injuries and massive blood loss leading to death. A bar had been rammed down his throat.
Kilincer was interviewed by police at the time, but had come up with a false alibi and, as the investigation continued, actively interfered with witnesses and the evidence they could give, again to create a false narrative around Mr Dastan’s death.
For years he continued to live his life as a loving husband and father to two daughters — hiding the dark secret of Mr Dastan’s death.
In 2018, detectives from the Unsolved Homicide Unit established Strike Force Biltine II to reinvestigate the circumstances surrounding Mr Dastan’s murder.
Two years later, Kilincer was arrested at a Sydney Olympic Park hotel, aged 58.
The arrest brought with it a sense of relief for Mr Dastan’s daughter Yasemin Sevim.
“Our family was so heartbroken to have lost Dad in such brutal circumstances just over 24 years ago,” she said at the time.
“He was such a kind and hardworking person and it’s been very difficult living without him for more than two decades.
“While I know this doesn’t bring him back, we are so thankful that investigators never gave up on him. They worked tirelessly to find out why he was taken away from us.”
However, Kilincer’s own family defended him, with his daughter Tulay Barkin labelling him “an honest, caring and kind man who is devoted to his family”.
Kilincer continued to deny his involvement, and pleaded not guilty, facing a lengthy trial in the NSW Supreme Court, where a jury ultimately found him guilty of the savage murder.
The trial undid Kilincer’s decades of lies, with a witness telling the court Kilincer had revealed the murder to him.
“During his confession to ‘Robert’, Kilincer expressed no contrition for the horrible death he inflicted upon Mr Dastan, a man who was kind to him, and no sorrow for the plight of Mr Dastan’s family,” Justice Helen Wilson said.
“His palpable relief after having finally told ‘Robert’ what he had done, and the tears he then wept, were plainly for himself and his relief at a burdensome secret shared.
“None of the great emotion he displayed to ‘Robert’ was for Mr Dastan.
“The offender’s only concern has been and is for himself.”
It was also revealed Kilincer tried to clean up the crime scene after the brutal attack on his boss.
He staged the scene to hide evidence of his responsibility for the murder and divert police inquiries elsewhere. He planted the note at the scene, wiped down the ball joint remover with rags, removing both Mr Dastan’s blood and his own fingerprints.
He disposed of the rags in a residential garbage bin on his way home.
And when he arrived home, Kilincer put his clothes and shoes in the washing machine to wash, effectively removing Mr Dastan’s blood.
In sentencing Kilincer, Justice Wilson said it was clear the murder was a result of his firing.
“With the offender already highly stressed and on edge because of his pressing financial difficulties, whatever Mr Dastan said to him was sufficient to cause the offender to lose control,” she said.
“The violence of the crime was extreme, and the injuries inflicted on Mr Dastan horrifying.
“The gesture of ramming a pipe into Mr Dastan’s mouth was one redolent of contempt and unconcern for his victim.”
Justice Wilson this week jailed Kilincer for 22 years, with a non-parole period of 16 years and 6 months.
Despite the overwhelming evidence and a confession he later took back, Kilincer continues to deny killing Mr Dastan, saying he plans to appeal the conviction.
In prison, Kilincer goes by the name Thomas Gillinger — and claims other inmates have threatened his life.
Due to the fears for his safety, he has requested to be placed under protection.
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