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

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ThinkHard said:
It also says in that article, granted we do not know its accuracy, that sperm was found on her body.

I find it interesting that the rape test came back negative, yet sperm was found on her body. Does this mean that no sperm was found inside her body?

Also looking at a lot of the pictures through a link posted by a previous poster, I just have a really hard time believing that she was rapped, murdered, and concealed in broad daylight. I guess it's possible this was just a completely random act, and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if it was a location homeless people hung out, how come no one discovered her body for two weeks? How come her attacker didn't take her jewelry? Why do the police still think her iPad could hold the key to her attacker? If she had DNA under her nails because of a fight, she would have had time to scream. No one heard her?

If it was just a random crime why go through so much trouble to conceal her?

I know it seems like it could be written off as a deranged homeless man, but I guess I just hope its the truth that comes out. And that someone doesn't just take the blame for it because they seem sketchy.

I hope they are able to make a much more concrete analysis of how long she had been deceased for. That would be critical to explaining possible scenarios or ruling out others.

Btw does anyone else find it a creepy (most likely coincidence) that she was found so close to topkapi palace, and in Turkish palace is "Sarayi"
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Maybe that's why she was willing to cut the travel time so close. Someone (like Taylan) likely told her, "Ooh, there's an ancient ruin that's a famous historical Turkish palace that is named Sarayi just like your name, Sarai! You've got to see it before you return home to the states!"
 
vesa said:
New article..

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/22519816.asp

Lavy, can you please tell us, if there is anything new? Thank you very much. I appreciate your effort.
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The title is "did she go there to meet with her murderer"

It says police is focusing on 2 theories.

First one is that she was there to meet with someone. They are checking all surveillance around.

Other one is that she was killed somewhere else and carried to there.

Again they believe her gmail correspondence will shed some light.

Also they are saying she took pictures near railway in both Brooklyn and Amsterdam and thats maybe why she was up there. (theory of journalists)

Thats all.

-Video is very heart breaking :(
 
CMac2 said:
If she was a professional photographer, it would seem odd to me. But considering she was an amateur photographer, and really seemed to prefer sharing her pics online, it doesn't seem bizarre. Today's cell phones have excellent cameras on them- it isn't like it was even just a few years ago. Mine has an 8 MP camera with zoom, flash, etc, and is far from top-of-the-line. Plus, the cell phone provides the added ease of uploading the pics to IG (as well as FB, Twitter, e-mail, etc), which is really what she did almost constantly.
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I thought the same but I am watching the video. Her mum says she was enrolled to a photography class.

Even if your phone's camera is very good you probably wouldn't go to photography class without a camera. It is very trivial though: maybe she was going to buy one, borrow one from a friend etc.
 
I'm still confused by that fact here family claims to have spoken to her on then21st. Did they actually talk to her, or just receive email or text from her.

At 1:15 pm her last known siting it would have only been 6:15am in NY. Who would she have spoken 6:15 in the morning. And we have to assume it was prior to 1:15 considering she apparently told her family what she was planning to do that day prior to 1:15.

I'm still also stuck on why she told her family she was visiting the Asian side but appears to have changed her plans.
 
ThinkHard said:
I'm still confused by that fact here family claims to have spoken to her on then21st. Did they actually talk to her, or just receive email or text from her.

At 1:15 pm her last known siting it would have only been 6:15am in NY. Who would she have spoken 6:15 in the morning. And we have to assume it was prior to 1:15 considering she apparently told her family what she was planning to do that day prior to 1:15.

I'm still also stuck on why she told her family she was visiting the Asian side but appears to have changed her plans.
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I believe it was either email or skype messaging. See below:

"The last we heard from my wife was Monday morning on the 21st. She had spoken with her sister and the last thing she said was, 'I'm coming home tomorrow,' and she was excited and put a little smiley face at the end of her statement," said Steven Sierra in an interview with CNN earlier this week.

The time she last talked with her family, Sierra was planning on January 21 to see the Galata Bridge and visit the Asian side of Istanbul, her husband said. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/02/world/turkey-missing-woman/index.html
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ThinkHard said:
The serkeci tram stop is right across from boat docks for ferries.

And to your point if she wasnt planning to go to the Asian side, what made her change her plans?
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Why she changed her mind and didn't take a boat after the bridge? I can think of few things:

1- She was supposed to meet with Taylan or someoneelse

2-She met with someone and changed her mind (unlikely as she is alone at the camera recording at 13.15)

3-The day before they were at Sirkeci with Taylan. So maybe he convinced her to go up there.

4- Or she saw something the previous day. Maybe a shop or a museum, she came back the next day and tried to find the place but got lost.

5- She saw the walls the previous day, thought it is a good spot to take photos. Couldn't take pics on 20th for some reason (maybe it was getting dark) she came back the next day to take the photos from up there.

So many maybes!
 
lavy said:
I believe it was either email or skype messaging. See below:








Why she changed her mind and didn't take a boat after the bridge? I can think of few things:

1- She was supposed to meet with Taylan or someoneelse

2-She met with someone and changed her mind (unlikely as she is alone at the camera recording at 13.15)

3-The day before they were at Sirkeci with Taylan. So maybe he convinced her to go up there.

4- Or she saw something the previous day. Maybe a shop or a museum, she came back the next day and tried to find the place but got lost.

5- She saw the walls the previous day, thought it is a good spot to take photos. Couldn't take pics on 20th for some reason (maybe it was getting dark) she came back the next day to take the photos from up there.

So many maybes!
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There are definitely a lot of maybes. i wish we knew. Because i really think the
reason FOR, not because of her plan change, is directly connected to why she is deceased.
 
ThinkHard said:
Well taking the tram from the Galata bridge wouldn't really have made a whole lot of sense anyway. It wouldn't really have saved her much time. There is a tram stop on the beyoglu side of the Galata bridge
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The speculation started with a question of whether she was in a rush to go from her place to Galata/Sirkeci and then back home to go quickly to the airport in the mid afternoon. She could have used the tram from Beyoglu or earlier if she was in a rush.

There is no evidence she was in a rush. She walked slowly and leisurely across town from what we know from her video waypoints.

She appears to feel she had plenty of time to go to Galata/Sirkeci and even to further explore the Asian side via boat -- and still make her flight.

Thus to understand why she was in Sirkeci/Sarayburnu, and what happened, it helps to know that she was in no mad rush there. It appears she would have been comfortable time-wise to explore areas around there.
 
looking4answers said:
Anybody hear about this news conference this morning with the family and SI NY rep Michael Grimm? It was supposed to happen at 11AM EST this morning. Yet I have not seen anything in any news about it having happened yet. I read about it happening here:

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/staten_island_rep_michael_grim_7.html

and here:

http://*****************/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981845927


I do not see anything on it yet. It was supposed to clear up some facts.
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There is a video in turkish, where someone from turkish press talking outside of Sierra family's apartment he is saying that the news conference took place.
 
Is it possible she just told her family some general plans, "maybe the Asian side, Galata bridge, that sort of thing..." and didn't really have anything carved in stone, but decided to just set out and see what she felt like doing? When I travel the number of things I set out intending to do is always about 3x as big as the number of things I do in a given day.
 
ThinkHard said:
I'm still also stuck on why she told her family she was visiting the Asian side but appears to have changed her plans.
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Maybe she never changed her plans -- and always intended to go and take the boat to the Asian side.

BUT: (a) she went to take shots of the walls, either planned or spur-of-the-moment -- then met foul play; (b) Taylan or someone talked her into going to the walls, to check them out, or photograph them -- then foul play occurred; or (c) she was abducted by Taylan or someone in a car and later dumped at the wall.

I don't see a contradiction with where she was found and a planned jaunt by boat over to the Asian side.
 
lucky181 said:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/staten_island_woman_goes_missi.html
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So that would have been sent sometime in the morning on the 21st, assuming that it was meant as EST Monday Morning. Sarai would have had to sent it btw 7am and 1:15 ish istanbul time, ant the sister would have received it between 12am and 6:15am EST, when she went missing.

We also know that this confirms she would be arriving in New York on the 12th, but doesn't tell us anything about when she was leaving.

This also doesn't tell us when she told them what her plans where for that day. That could help tell us a time frame for when she changed her mind about the plans to the Asian side. I'm not so sure she lied to them on purpose, but I suppose its possible.

Pondering...
Part of the reason I get the impression she was departing Istanbul on the 21st, is because its been widely reported she kept in regular contact with her family while there. If her flight wasn't to depart until the 22nd, I find it odd that her family didn't mention being nervous when they couldn't get ahold of her. Because of the regularity of their contact its seems they would have expected to speak to her sometime that day other then 6:15. However if she was flying out that day, they might not be nervous by not hearing from her because she would have been busy getting to the airport and traveling.
 
bourne said:
I agree. I don't think she ever left the ruins.

I keep thinking it has to be Taylan. He lives near where she was found. He was the one who told her to meet him there, correct?

It's too much of a coincidence that Taylan's the last one to communicate with her and she was meeting him at the ruins where she was found. And why didn't he look for her or try to contact her after he didn't see her at the ruins? That is highly suspicious -- unless the cops have evidence that he had tried to contact her after she didn't show up via his phone messages?

I think she would only meet up the last day before she was due to fly home with someone she trusted and wanted to personally say goodbye to, and that would be Taylan. He was the only one who met with her several times prior to her going missing so he's the only one she appeared to have developed some feelings/trust for.

My theory is that Taylan and/or the group of people she met online via Instagram did her harm. They persuaded her to visit Turkey with the intention of wanting something from her -- but what? sex? money? her photographs? -- and then he and/or the gang lured her to the site where she was found.

Don't know how many times she was struck -- will have to wait for the ME report on that -- but I'm guessing one person struck and killed her while others watched and stole her Ipad, phone and jacket.

On the other hand, if her underwear was found lowered to her knees, then I don't think it's Taylan because if he had tried to rape her, why would he not pull her pants back on in order to hide the attempt at sexual assault? His being a man, he would know that a rape attempt would automatically point to him -- as he was the last man to communicate with her. So IDK
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I also think Taylan had something to do with this.

The pants/panties around the knees doesn't bother me in the slightest. The goal may not have been to physically rape her, but to humiliate her. If Taylan was attracted to her and had convinced himself that she was attracted to him in return, her rebuffing his advances and going home earlier than originally planned could have enraged him. It is possible that in his mind she led him on, only to turn him away later.

Obviously I have zero evidence to support that theory, so it truly is JMO. In my own brain, however, it does make sense somehow.
 
CMac2 said:
If she was a professional photographer, it would seem odd to me. But considering she was an amateur photographer, and really seemed to prefer sharing her pics online, it doesn't seem bizarre. Today's cell phones have excellent cameras on them- it isn't like it was even just a few years ago. Mine has an 8 MP camera with zoom, flash, etc, and is far from top-of-the-line. Plus, the cell phone provides the added ease of uploading the pics to IG (as well as FB, Twitter, e-mail, etc), which is really what she did almost constantly.
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She was an amateur photographer. It's stated that she was taking photography lessons at a city university. Still very odd to travel that far to an amazing city full of wonderful photo ops with a sole purpose of photography in mind, amateur or not and depend on your camera phone as your tool.

As a professional photographer myself I know that half the joy of photography besides actually capturing a great photo is knowing the ins and outs of your tool, manual settings for correct exposure and aperture to better manipulate your desired outcome, this is what you are taught in photography class...camera phones goes against this, mostly being all presets and auto everything.

These are just my personal views, nothing more.
 
ToutCa said:
The speculation started with a question of whether she was in a rush to go from her place to Galata/Sirkeci and then back home to go quickly to the airport in the mid afternoon. She could have used the tram from Beyoglu or earlier if she was in a rush.

There is no evidence she was in a rush. She walked slowly and leisurely across town from what we know from her video waypoints.

She appears to feel she had plenty of time to go to Galata/Sirkeci and even to further explore the Asian side via boat -- and still make her flight.

Thus to understand why she was in Sirkeci/Sarayburnu, and what happened, it helps to know that she was in no mad rush there. It appears she would have been comfortable time-wise to explore areas around there.
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Those are great points. And i agree with you. she does not appear to be in a rush. but guess I was thinking that if the decision to go to the walls was last minute, perhaps to get some photos of the wall. At the place we know she last was to the location her body was found, the tram would have been useless in expediting that trip since it does not go near where her body was found, and thus she could have only gotten there by foot.
 
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