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

[ThinkHard]

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/...os/slides/aerial-istanbul-topkapi-palace.html

Look at this view. I believe her body was found by the walls closest to the three buildings in the bottom right of this photo ( this specific location is just out of view in the other photo.

 

[ami]

At least one article referenced earlier in the thread stated that she had moved in with her parents these last months...though it sounds like communication was certainly wide open. That was my point of reference

Yeah, I read that in one article but given all the misinformation ($15,000 spent, etc) I took it with a grain of salt, thinking it fit in with the picture they were trying to paint of her doing something seedy and sex-touristy.

 

[ami]

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/...os/slides/aerial-istanbul-topkapi-palace.html

Look at this view. I believe her body was found by the walls closest to the three buildings in the bottom right of this photo ( this specific location is just out of view in the other photo.

Thanks, that makes sense... so if she walked to the wall herself or with someone, she just had to cross the road and some grass, looks like.

 

[stmarysmead]

Yeah, I read that in one article but given all the misinformation ($15,000 spent, etc) I didn't automatically believe it, thinking it fit in with the picture they were trying to paint of her doing something seedy and sex-touristy.

Well, we will find out in time.

 

[looking4answers]

I agree with your summary except for the bolded parts. I so far don't really see anything that says she was bored with her husband or found him dull. Traveling without him doesn't have to mean there was a problem, just that she had her own life and interests. And I'm still in the camp of buying her IG posts that there was a problem with her college enrollment that she had to attend to in person. She didn't change her plans directly before she left - her post about leaving early came somewhere around the Amsterdam trip, and so she must have changed that earlier. Mix in some homesickness for her boys. I get that....



I saw some posts Sarai made to others in NY about getting together for photo walks. I got the feeling they'd done that before a few times (she says "another photo walk" in her posts about NY). So this trip was probably the international extension of the photo walks.

I personally think most people are good, non-murderers, non-rapists and so the overwhelming majority of the time your interactions would be positive for getting together. Sarai sounded like she had really good interactions with IG people. Her A'dam "guide" seemed like a smart and fun person, too. I can understand how she felt confident about something she had done before and enjoyed.



Okay here's my thing about Taylan.

Didn't she leave the house THINKING she was going to meet with Taylan? She asked to meet with him, he said he'd meet with her, she went to the Bridge intending (I'm assuming) she would meet with him. So why would she have met with a different IG'er instead? How would she have changed her plans so quickly that when Taylan didn't show up and she got tired of waiting for him, she was able to contact yet another IG'er and arrange to meet with him instead? And how would she have communicated? She didn't have her Turkish cell with her (by all reports) and so she'd have to use wifi, and as our "locals" have said, that's not necessarily easy to come by on the fly. She would have to have stopped somewhere, asked to use the internet... that sounds like something someone would have remembered, a waiter, etc.

So that's why I think it was either Taylan or someone she met while walking around... because she left the house believing she would probably meet up with him and so I can't see how she'd have made other plans with someone else at the same time.

I agree, well thought out.

 

[tresptip]

At least one article referenced earlier in the thread stated that she had moved in with her parents these last months...though it sounds like communication was certainly wide open. That was my point of reference

Who was the kids staying with while she lived with her parents? Maybe she was interested in maybe meeting a guy there since her and her husband were seperated.

 

[tresptip]

I agree with your summary except for the bolded parts. I so far don't really see anything that says she was bored with her husband or found him dull. Traveling without him doesn't have to mean there was a problem, just that she had her own life and interests. And I'm still in the camp of buying her IG posts that there was a problem with her college enrollment that she had to attend to in person. She didn't change her plans directly before she left - her post about leaving early came somewhere around the Amsterdam trip, and so she must have changed that earlier. Mix in some homesickness for her boys. I get that....



I saw some posts Sarai made to others in NY about getting together for photo walks. I got the feeling they'd done that before a few times (she says "another photo walk" in her posts about NY). So this trip was probably the international extension of the photo walks.

I personally think most people are good, non-murderers, non-rapists and so the overwhelming majority of the time your interactions would be positive for getting together. Sarai sounded like she had really good interactions with IG people. Her A'dam "guide" seemed like a smart and fun person, too. I can understand how she felt confident about something she had done before and enjoyed.



Okay here's my thing about Taylan.

Didn't she leave the house THINKING she was going to meet with Taylan? She asked to meet with him, he said he'd meet with her, she went to the Bridge intending (I'm assuming) she would meet with him. So why would she have met with a different IG'er instead? How would she have changed her plans so quickly that when Taylan didn't show up and she got tired of waiting for him, she was able to contact yet another IG'er and arrange to meet with him instead? And how would she have communicated? She didn't have her Turkish cell with her (by all reports) and so she'd have to use wifi, and as our "locals" have said, that's not necessarily easy to come by on the fly. She would have to have stopped somewhere, asked to use the internet... that sounds like something someone would have remembered, a waiter, etc.

So that's why I think it was either Taylan or someone she met while walking around... because she left the house believing she would probably meet up with him and so I can't see how she'd have made other plans with someone else at the same time.

Same here, I think it was someone she met while walking around.

 

[ThinkHard]

Ohhh, good point.

I revise: I think she probably crossed the RR tracks where the little road goes over them at the point and continued along the walls from that point.

If she went up by the palace the back way, that has so many tourist places I think she would have been caught on camera again at multiple places.

And I don't think she crossed the RR tracks on foot by herself.

My estimation of her route is just a guess -- Lavy and ThinkHard should also weigh in...

I can't say for sure but my guess would be that it was more likely that she either walked across the road from the wall, or along the sidewalk on the same side as the wall for the entire distance. That wall is long but changes how it looks along it. I would think she would have wanted to photograph it at different points and thus would have wanted to be on the same side as it.

 

[CMac2]

Who was the kids staying with while she lived with her parents? Maybe she was interested in maybe meeting a guy there since her and her husband were seperated.

I don't think this has been answered yet. The fact that she and her husband were seperated was just a little blurb- one short sentence, if memory serves- and didn't contain any detail about it, other than that she was staying with her parents, I believe.

 

[ThinkHard]

Same here, I think it was someone she met while walking around.

In my opinion, i have to strongly disagree. The murder showed way too much evidence of rage to be random.

 

[lavy]

Ohhh, good point.

I revise: I think she probably crossed the RR tracks where the little road goes over them at the point and continued along the walls from that point.

If she went up by the palace the back way, that has so many tourist places I think she would have been caught on camera again at multiple places.

And I don't think she crossed the RR tracks on foot by herself.

My estimation of her route is just a guess -- Lavy and ThinkHard should also weigh in...

I don't think she went to palace way: (1) She would be seen by cameras etc. (2) I don't think she can go around the walls from that side.

We don't even know for sure that she went to the railway.

It was said somewhere that (I'll locate it) most of her followers did not know SS had a family, you certainly cannot tell from her IG postings. Did she tell these men she was married with a family? We don't know.

But why should she?
Also isn't it especially advised not to give information about your kids online.

I remember it was written that she said that she is single to the landlord. Again its not confirmed and I don;t want to blame her or anything close to her. If that is true I wouldn't understand that.

 

[CMac2]

In my opinion, i have to strongly disagree. The murder showed way too much evidence of rage to be random.

I agree. I think the questions at this point are what the motive was, how it was done without any witnesses (seeing OR hearing anything), and what the murderer perceived his relationship with SS to be.

 

[tresptip]

In my opinion, i have to strongly disagree. The murder showed way too much evidence of rage to be random.

Here in the states recently ,a man walked up to a random women in a store who had a child with her and stabbed the mother 12 times for no reason.
That is a pretty rageful thing to do to someone you don't know,never met.
There are violent people in the world that do violent things for no reason.

 

[stmarysmead]

It may turn out to be untrue that they were separated, but so much made sense to me after reading the article that said they were not living together. I have been curious as to why it took so long for the family to contact the Turkish police after she was not on that flight. We speculated here that maybe they just thought she had reverted to her orginal date of return. But most families, especially those who admit they did not want their loved one to go, would have been immediately panicked. Especially with no contact since the day before of any kind.

But they waited.This made me think that something gave them hope that this was voluntary on her part. Certainly, if the last few months hadshown her to be exhibiting a new independence, that would explain the wait.

I think so many new doors had opened for this young woman...with her new acclaim and new contacts on Instagram. I tend to think she was cautious with any strangers she encountered on her travels. But she did not see these Instagram "artists" as strangers...she saw them as kindred spirits.

I think this is unbelievably sad in so many ways. Its obvious she was adored by both her family and her husband.

 

[ThinkHard]

Here in the states recently ,a man walked up to a random women in a store who had a child with her and stabbed the mother 12 times for no reason.
That is a pretty rageful thing to do to someone you don't know,never met.
There are violent people in the world that do violent things for no reason.

I understand that. I think those types of crimes are far more common in the states however then they are in Turkey. And while it is not impossible that something similar could have happened in this case, I think it is highly unlikely.

 

[KuriousKev]

It may turn out to be untrue that they were separated, but so much made sense to me after reading the article that said they were not living together. I have been curious as to why it took so long for the family to contact the Turkish police after she was not on that flight. We speculated here that maybe they just thought she had reverted to her orginal date of return. But most families, especially those who admit they did not want their loved one to go, would have been immediately panicked. Especially with no contact since the day before of any kind.

But they waited.This made me think that something gave them hope that this was voluntary on her part. Certainly, if the last few months hadshown her to be exhibiting a new independence, that would explain the wait.

I think so many new doors had opened for this young woman...with her new acclaim and new contacts on Instagram. I tend to think she was cautious with any strangers she encountered on her travels. But she did not see these Instagram "artists" as strangers...she saw them as kindred spirits.

I think this is unbelievably sad in so many ways. Its obvious she was adored by both her family and her husband.

so incredibly sad especially being her 1st time ever leaving the country.

 

[Janeumayer]

I'm surprised LE hasn't located her Ipad already. The Ipad has an application that automatically tracks/traces and locates the device -- unless someone permanently disabled her cellular/wireless/wifi service on the Ipad. Which leads me to believe that Taylan is involved because his last words to Sarai was something to the effect of "do you have wifi where you are?"

Not true. If you do a factory rest on the iPad then you can no longer track it.

 

[tresptip]

I understand that. I think those types of crimes are far more common in the states however then they are in Turkey. And while it is not impossible that something similar could have happened in this case, I think it is highly unlikely.

Well, ya never know,the murderer could have been a tourist from America.

 

[Yashim]

Is this the cave?

 

[CMac2]

But why should she?
Also isn't it especially advised not to give information about your kids online.

I remember it was written that she said that she is single to the landlord. Again its not confirmed and I don;t want to blame her or anything close to her. If that is true I wouldn't understand that.

This is even true here, in this forum. We chat- some of us with the same people regularly, over a period of months or more- especially if we're digging really deeply into a case. We may have internet conversations multiple times in the same day with the same people. I don't know if the vast majority of the people on this thread- or any of the others I follow- are married, have kids, etc, etc.

Plus, I'd be more than willing to meet with someone like you or ThinkHard (or any of you other most knowledgeable folks ) at a local cafe if I happened to find myself in Turkey, knew one of you were there too, and wanted some tips on where to go to get the best experience out of the trip.

Like you said, though- if it's true she told the landlord she's single, that's a little different.

JMO.