GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #1

[ToutCa]

Now I'm wishing Taylan would have met her that day.

Unfortunately it may indeed turn out that he did. Let's wait and see.

 

[Wanderlust]

I think she being found where she was makes a lot of sense Walking around the peninsula makes for a nice, historical walk (if you are unaware of the possible dangers that I wrote about earlier) and if you're also into photography, the derelict city walls are a very good subject. As I wrote earlier, I've done it myself, so makes perfect sense to me anyway!

The part of the city wall in the photo that posted above, by the way, looks very much like the area where I found the rubbish, beer cans etc. two years ago. They were under similar kind of arches as the ones in the photo. If Sarai was there by herself then I'm afraid she may well have become the victim of a completely random attack by some drifter/criminal

 

[ToutCa]

hmmmm....now I'm not so sure anymore. After looking at the video at this link, there are a lot of high walls around there. You can get a feel for the area.

Great map, Snoopster. The walls look the same all around the peninsula, so it's hard to say. One of the reports said the body was found 100m from a lighthouse -- do you see the lighthouse in your searches? I was guessing it was on the tip of the point somewhere...can't remember from when I was in Istanbul though...

 

[Walker]

I assume you're reading my words through your own filter. Obviously I said no such thing, and that's a pretty weird and farfetched spin on the words I did say. In fact it's pretty much the opposite of what I said, but whatever.

If you have a link to female graduate students offering free educational tours of international cities, I'd love to have it if you don't mind.

Almost every college & university has international student programs, and they often assist college students even from other colleges or universities in their travel planning. Even if a Turkish university woman charged money to be a tour guide, the fee would be an affordable one; esp. relative the fact that some sensible advice might have saved a life here. Don't forget that a Turkish woman seriously studying (for example) history would likely enjoy very much showing the city's sights to an interested woman tourist.

 

[nursebeeme]

A New York mother of two was found dead Saturday evening almost two weeks after she was reported missing, Turkish police told USA TODAY.

"It's her," a police official said when asked if the body belonged to Sarai Sierra, before quickly hanging up without identifying himself. Turkish police have not returned repeated follow-up calls.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that the body of a woman with stab wounds to the abdomen was found at the foot of the ramparts of the city walls in the Sarayburnu district of Istanbul. Police found Sierra's driver's license on the body.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/02/turkey-sarai-sierra-missing-american/1886059/

Is her family still over there? I hope they are getting support from the fbi as well.

 

[Walker]

I think she being found where she was makes a lot of sense Walking around the peninsula makes for a nice, historical walk (if you are unaware of the possible dangers that I wrote about earlier) and if you're also into photography, the derelict city walls are a very good subject. As I wrote earlier, I've done it myself, so makes perfect sense to me anyway!

The part of the city wall in the photo that posted above, by the way, looks very much like the area where I found the rubbish, beer cans etc. two years ago. They were under similar kind of arches as the ones in the photo. If Sarai was there by herself then I'm afraid she may well have become the victim of a completely random attack by some drifter/criminal

What is the story behind the name "Kennedy Road"? Was JFK popular in Turkey?

 

[ami]

Great map, Snoopster. The walls look the same all around the peninsula, so it's hard to say. One of the reports said the body was found 100m from a lighthouse -- do you see the lighthouse in your searches? I was guessing it was on the tip of the point somewhere...can't remember from when I was in Istanbul though...

All I can find is the "Maiden's Tower" but that's located in the water itself, not on the peninsula where she was found.

 

[ToutCa]

Deleted as media seem to have now back-tracked

 

[Wanderlust]

What is the story behind the name "Kennedy Road"? Was JFK popular in Turkey?

I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to that, I'd need to ask a local. But I guess Turkish governments have always been rather pro American since the country joined NATO already in 1952.

 

[Yellow]

I assume you're reading my words through your own filter. Obviously I said no such thing, and that's a pretty weird and farfetched spin on the words I did say. In fact it's pretty much the opposite of what I said, but whatever.

If you have a link to female graduate students offering free educational tours of international cities, I'd love to have it if you don't mind.

I think the previous poster was merely referring to the fact that if SS wanted to meet up with strangers in a foreign place it would be alot safer to meet up with random woman, than random men. I am sure there are female photographers in Turkey and I think it is a little odd that all of the strangers we know she was talking to were men, not women.

It is a shame it is true but the fact of the matter is that it just is not that safe to meet up with men you meet over the Internet, especially if they know you are alone in a foreign place. some men,especially if they do not know she is married, will get the wrong impression. Add to that the fact that many people in other cultures have a stereotypical view of American women as "easy" and it makes the risk even greater. 99% of the time, it may end up being ok, and maybe that was the case here, maybe she was not harmed by anyone she met over the Internet. But the 1% of the time things can wrong can be quite tragic... Why take the chance? It is still a risk.

Saying that someone should be wary about meeting strange men over the Internet is not equivalent to trying to pigeon hole someone to 1950s mentality. It is just being street smart. Unfortunately it is just not the case that a lone female meeting a strange man over the internet is the same as a lone female meeting a strange female. You may hear of robbery meeting a strange female but you virtually never hear of death or rape for a female meeting female. But you do hear the latter for male meeting female. Risk may be small but the fact of the matter is the risk for female meeting male is higher than for female meeting female.

SS was a victim here, perhaps due to a random mugging or perhaps due to foul play at meeting some stranger over the Internet.

 

[michellemarls]

A snippet from fowing link.

13 people were detained in

Fatih body of the murder of an American Sarai Sierra percent 9 people including a woman were arrested.

Detainees are taken to the statements of the Directorate of Public Security Branch for reference.

An investigation is underway.

The first findings of the force

The first fixation Forensic Medicine Department 'American Sierra's body was encountered from knife wounds, were signs of torture on the back of the head. Sarai'nin the city walls, which had been found, his face unrecognizable, theft and rape causing cancer does not stay, has been killed with assault.

http://yenisafak.com.tr/gundem-habe...=manset-1&utm_medium=df&utm_campaign=manset-1

The translation makes the info unclear but i don't like what it seems to say.

 

[vesa]

According to the police, T.K. and Sierra met twice in person before she went missing. The last time they met was Jan. 20 in Sirkeci. The following day, Sierra sent an email to T.K. about meeting up on the Eminönü side of Galata Bridge, but he never received the message.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-305815-last-person-to-see-missing-new-yorker-met-with-her-on-jan-20.html




Sirkeci - the place where Sarai and Taylan met the last time, Jan. 20 - is very near to the place where her body was found.

 

[ToutCa]

Witness reports seeing her body taken from a car to be placed where it was found between 11:30-midnight on TUES night.

She did NOT go to police and is currently being chastised for failing to do so. Edit: Witness seems to be saying he did not get the license plate number, so did not bother? AND more disturbingly, witness seems to be saying maybe they saw it wrong, and hey, you know crazy American tourists, they like to "express a woman's body", so just ignore them if they are moving a body from a car? HUH???!!!

OK, I thought about it, and I think the witness is saying: I learned from the press that it was the American woman's body.
Makes more sense. Still, cowardly idiots for not going to cops TUES night!!!!!!!

Bad translation:

WITNESS women, "Sierra's body were a car" ALLEGED
Secured after the discovery of the body of a woman from the U.S. Sarai Sierra testified as a witness.
Who disclosed to the name of the woman, "on Tuesday night at the foot of the city walls, the back seat of a car stopped, a man of middle age was superior to anything I've seen has done or stick. Meanwhile, a hand saw," he said.
American Ambulance after the discovery of the body of Sarai Sierra testified a woman at the Directorate of Public Security Branch. Expression in a statement to reporters after the unnamed woman, "I'm sitting Gayreteppe. Brother on Tuesday, I went out to dinner, from 23:30 to 23:00 at night to eat the return of a car stopped at the foot of the ramparts of a man of middle age superior stick or has done something I saw the back seat. Meanwhile, a hand saw, "he said.
Why not come to the police on Tuesday on the question is, "My daughter was hampered. Car I am using the 'wrong've seen Anne said,' I did not get to the plate. Americans express a woman's body I've come to learn from the press that," he said.

 

[nursebeeme]

A snippet from fowing link.




http://yenisafak.com.tr/gundem-habe...=manset-1&utm_medium=df&utm_campaign=manset-1

The translation makes the info unclear but i don't like what it seems to say.

oh my...

 

[tresptip]

Have they stated whether or not any of her valuable possesions that she carried with her were missing?

 

[Snoopster]

Great map, Snoopster. The walls look the same all around the peninsula, so it's hard to say. One of the reports said the body was found 100m from a lighthouse -- do you see the lighthouse in your searches? I was guessing it was on the tip of the point somewhere...can't remember from when I was in Istanbul though...

I believe the lighthouse is this one, Ahırkapı lighthouse -sarayburnu:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/43999494

I had presumed that the lighthouse would be near the "point", but it's not. Perhaps my second marker wasn't so far off after all.

ETA: I've added the lighthouse and Sirkeci to my map. (Thanks Vesa)

 

[Dion]

It makes me so sad to read this news, even though it was kind of expected.

I never for a moment thought that Sarai ran off on purpose, or was some kind of drug mule. She was just what she seemed to be, a loving wife and mother, who was off on an overseas adventure for the first time, exploring new cultures and sights.

I’m glad at least she got to experience most of what she set out to do, and her family have the photos she took, to remember her by. I’m also thankful that she was eventually found, and that her brother and husband will be able to take her home. She was so close to returning home herself, but unfortunately, that was not to be her destiny.

RIP Sarai

 

[nursebeeme]

Steven Sierra and his brother-in-law David Jimenez booked one-way tickets to Turkey to look for her.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...issing-new-york-city-mom-found-in-turkey?lite

looks like family may still be there in Turkey. My thoughts are with them

 

[tresptip]

A snippet from fowing link.




http://yenisafak.com.tr/gundem-habe...=manset-1&utm_medium=df&utm_campaign=manset-1

The translation makes the info unclear but i don't like what it seems to say.

Google translation is horrible!
The first findings of the force
The first fixation Forensic Medicine Department 'American Sierra's body was encountered from knife wounds, were signs of torture on the back of the head. Sarai'nin the city walls, which had been found, his face unrecognizable, theft and rape causing cancer does not stay, has been killed with assault.

 

[Dion]

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-305815-last-person-to-see-missing-new-yorker-met-with-her-on-jan-20.html




Sirkeci - the place where Sarai and Taylan met the last time, Jan. 20 - is very near to the place where her body was found.

Is it possible that when he sent her a message asking if she had "wireless" ie, a phone, that he wanted to change the location of their meeting place to a more remote location where they were not as likely to be on surveillance cameras?

They could have met at the same place where they met last time (possibly with him picking her up by car).