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Florida professor who killed his three-year-old daughter then himself in a gruesome murder-suicide case while in the middle of a bitter custody battle over the child with his estranged wife left a note which shed light on his state of mind.
'I cannot imagine a life for myself and Ela to go through this nonsense for the rest of our lives,' Ayhan Aytes wrote in the letter found by investigators.
The note was found on December 10, when police were conducting a welfare check on Aytes and his three-year-old daughter, Ela, in the suburban Tampa home in Temple Terrace, Florida.
When officers arrived at Aytes' first-floor condo, they found him hanging from a rafter on his back porch and his daughter laying dead in her bed, according to the
Tampa Bay Times.
The letter was a typed, seven-page note dated December 6. A police search warrant described the letter as discussing matters including 'separation, divorce and child custody matters between Laurel [Friedman] and Ayhan.'
The welfare check was initiated after Friedman, 38, Ela's mother who was estranged from her husband, said she had not heard from them in days. Friedman said she was having custody problems with Aytes, 48 over Ela. The couple filed for divorce in January and decided to share custody of Ela, but Friedman grew increasingly worried he would take the child to his native country of Turkey after he failed to bring her back after his scheduled visits, according to her divorce filings.
In September, a judge granted Friedman's request to bar Aytes from taking Ela to Turkey to visit his family.
The judge agreed with Friedman that Ela was at risk of abduction by her father, who denied that he planned to stay in Turkey permanently with his daughter. Aytes claimed that he simply wanted to take Ela to visit his mother.
On December 5, Aytes was scheduled to bring Ela to school, but he never showed, prompting Friedman to file an emergency motion in court.
Friedman's motion alleged that Aytes was beginning to show signs of decline in his mental health and that his behavior was becoming more erratic.
Friedman then sent Aytes a text message saying it was her turn to spend time with their daughter. Aytes responded by warning Friedman not to 'push it too hard.'