Norma Girolami was a fun loving, kind and generous, Italian woman, who had formerly worked for her parent’s property business and as tour guide. Living alone in Highgate, an affluent part of North London, she was comfortable off having sold a second property and was to inherit her father’s house in Enfield.

Whilst in her late 60s in 2017, suffering from arthritis, Girolami relieved the pains by visiting the spa facilities at local Archway Leisure Centre. On one of these visits Girolami met Serkan Kaygusuz, a Turkish migrant to England in his late 30s, who worked at a Lidl supermarket. Whilst sitting in a hot tub, Girolami was alarmed when the younger man, 30 years her junior, molested her in a sexual advance. Despite Kaygusuz’s inappropriate behaviour which had taken advantage of her vulnerable, semi-dressed state, Girolami was somewhat flattered, not having had sexual activity for many years. The incident led to the start of a toxic relationship that would have terrible consequences for her.

When Kaygusuz became unemployed around 2018 he started asking his older european girlfriend for money. Girolami complied, and given a green light he demanded ever increasing, four or five figure sums, every few weeks. This strange, exploitative situation continued for three years during which time Girolami bought her Turkish loverboy a car and gifted him cash totalling around £200,000. After her father died in May 2021 she was becoming increasingly stressed about her diminishing finances and finally started to refuse Kaygusuz’s parasitical demands for even more money.

A few months later on the 1st August she met childhood friend Linda Crystallis and visited Kenwood House, a stately home near her flat. Crystallis noted her old friend seemed anxious and sad and Girolami confided she was worried about her finances explaining that Kaygusuz had been demanding more and more money. When asked if she could just stop paying Girolami revealed she feared violence from him. Girolami said she thinking of leaving Highgate to attempt to escape the abusive, parasitic relationship.

On the 19th August Norma Girolami made an hour and a half journey to the seaside where she spent the day with family at Southend-on-sea. In the evening she returned to Elm Court and Serkan Kaygusuz came round to join her. Girolami was never seen alive again.

Her family and friends became worried when she become very silent apart from some minor social media messages. After receiving a message which had uncharacteristically poor spelling and grammar the family became very suspicious and on the 20th September reported her missing to Police.

On the 1st October 2021, Kaygusuz of Crouch End was arrested on suspicion of murdering Norma Girolami. As the Police investigation into him proceeded they discovered mounting evidence linking him to Girolami’s murder.

They discovered he had taken control of her electronic devices sending fake messages to her contacts to make it appear that she was alive. In August leading up to her disappearance Kaygusuz had searched how to transfer property deeds between people and for ‘garden tools’, ‘caustic soda’, ‘hydrochloric acid’. He had also purchased a restraint harness which included a mouth plug and handcuffs as well as plastic gloves, overalls, Gaffer tape and a gardening spade.

In September Kaygusuz’s devices showed he had searched moving to Canada as well as enquiries about mud, grass turf and weed membrane. He then went to a Tool Station shop in Islington and bought a shovel, a 40-litre plastic trug, waterproof overalls and three plastic ground stabiliser sheets.

The same evening at 9.45pm he conducted internet searches for ‘body found in cemetery London’, ‘body found cemetery London today’, ‘body found in Harringay’, and ‘missing person Norma Girolami’.

Between Girolami’s disappearance and Kaygusuz’s arrest he had drained £55,000 from her bank accounts, stole jewellery and applied in her name for £60,000 loans.[6] This was on top of almost £300,000 given to him in cash whilst alive.[3]

On the 1st November 2022, 16 months after vanishing Norma Girolami’s body was found buried in St James’s Churchyard. It was wrapped in a bedsheet and several layers of plastic sheeting, which had been secured with gaffer tape, which was found to be identical to tape found in Kaygusuz’s home. A post-mortem examination found blunt force injury to both sides of Ms Girolami’s chest, rib fractures, and bruising “consistent with third party assault”.

Serkan Kaygusuz, 42, has admitted fraud relating to bank loans totalling £60,000 in her name, cash withdrawals and transferring criminal property in the sum of £21,000 from one of the loans into his own bank account. He also has confessed to hiding her body in a graveyard, but has denied her murder.

His trial is currently in progress.