A family row in which a man shot his pretty cousin in the back of the head when she refused to marry him and then put her body on a donkey so he could take it and bury it has resulted in four people being arrested.

Dilara Gunana, 25, the mother of a seven-year-old girl, had gone to visit her cousin Volkan Kaplan, her uncle Yasar Kaplan, her aunt, and another cousin not named at Elazig, a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey.

The visit was carried out earlier this May, and they had lured her by asking her to help with an elderly relative, but when she was there, she demanded that she agree to marry her cousin Volkan.

When she refused, she was tortured and eventually shot in the back of the head. When her worried mum could not reach her, she raised the alarm and the police started the search.

In rural areas, because large transfers of wealth are often involved in a marriage arrangement, it is not unusual for first cousins and other close kin to get married under the incest laws of Islam to keep control of wealth within the extended family.

Cops quizzed the family members who claimed to have no knowledge of where she had gone after visiting, but eventually they confessed that she had been killed, and her body buried after being transported there on the back of a donkey.

Police rescue team confirmed that they recovered the body on 12th May after a shepherd’s dog had found it where the family had buried it.

The father and son who are believed to have transported the body to the remote site have been remanded in custody, while the aunt and other cousin have been released on bail.

When they were arrested, the gun believed to have been used in the murder was also recovered.

Dilara’s lifeless body was taken to Firat University morgue for autopsy, and sadly her little daughter was playing outside while the anxious rest of the family turned up and were waiting for confirmation that their worst fears had come true.

Volkan Kaplan reportedly confessed to killing her after being questioned by the Provincial Police Department Public Order Branch Directorate Homicide Bureau.

He said that he had wanted to check her phone and that when she refused, he lost his temper and shot her in the back of the neck with his gun.

He said that he then wrapped her lifeless body in a blanket and carried it by donkey to hide it in Armutlu, where he dumped it.

The investigation is ongoing.