Milwaukee man with nail in his head allegedly murdered girlfriend, lived with her body for weeks

Content warning: This article mentions intimate partner violence and suicide and contains graphic descriptions of murder. Please take care while reading.

A 22-year-old Milwaukee man is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death and then living for weeks with her body in his apartment before he contacted the police. He told police he found her dead, and police say her body was on the floor with a pillow under her head. But authorities now say he staged the scene.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Serkan Akcilad is a Turkish national who reported his girlfriend, 21-year-old Silan Tut, dead on Feb. 27 this year. Tut was also from Turkey and Akcilad said he was unfamiliar with American law and that’s why he waited so long to report her death. According to Newsweek, however, Akcilad allegedly only contacted the police because the property manager had planned to inspect the apartment.

“Akcilad advised that about 20 days prior he ran an errand leaving his girlfriend at their apartment. When he returned he found her dead on the floor,” Akcilad’s probable cause affidavit, viewed by Law & Crime, said. “Akcilad stated he had been gone about an hour and when he returned she was ‘lying on the floor covered in blood.’ Initially he thought [Tut] was ‘joking’ and he tried to lift her up. Akcilad said [she] was ‘cold as ice’ and he ‘fainted from shock,’” the affidavit added.

Reportedly, Akcilad also said he slept next to his girlfriend’s body on the floor after he found her dead about 20 days earlier, and was so shocked when he discovered her body, he tried to take his own life with a nail gun the next day. Authorities found the nail still lodged in his skull extending to his brain when he filed the report. It was removed through surgery.

Knife wounds and blood evidence

Akcilad’s story that he arrived home and found Tut dead fell apart when forensics found a dozen knife wounds on Tut’s body, damaging several major organs, including her lung, heart, liver, and diaphragm, as well as her carotid artery. There was also massive blood evidence throughout the apartment, including signs that someone had tried to clean the blood up.

Authorities also found cleaning supplies and a receipt, proving Akcilad bought the cleaning supplies around the same time Tut died. Surveillance footage from the store showed Akcilad made the purchase, and neighbors also reported they heard a heated argument between the couple that night.

Akcilad, meanwhile, admitted he bought the cleaning supplies, including the nail gun he used to try and take his own life, but said he found Tut’s body when he returned home from a trip to the store, and then passed out. He denied he bought the supplies after he found her body, Milwaukee’s Fox 6 Now reported.

Akcilad admitted some things, but denied he killed his girlfriend

Akcilad has denied he killed his girlfriend, but he did admit he moved her body to where police found it, and only reported her death because the property manager was scheduled to enter the unit the next day. He also said he impersonated Tut in text messages with old photos to her family in Turkey, suggesting she was alive and well.

An official motive for the crime has not been announced, but reportedly, Tut and Akcilad had received an eviction notice for unpaid rent around the same time Tut was killed.

Authorities have not found the alleged murder weapon or the nail gun Akcilad said he used to shoot himself in he head. He told police he didn’t know what happened to it. Akcilad is currently held on a $1 million bond and expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 19.

If you are experiencing domestic abuse, or if you believe someone you know is being abused, contact The National Domestic Violence Hotline. The hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE or spoken with online via the hotline’s website. Mobile phone owners can also text “START” to the number 88788

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. A list of international crisis resources can be found here.