Sitting in his Istanbul office, Ercikti turned up the volume on a TV newscast featuring the latest round—a New York Post article stating that a source familiar with the Sierra case told the paper that FBI agents believe she spent time with a “criminal element” in Istanbul. “I can’t do my job when I have to respond to all these rumors,” Ercikti said, dismissing the claim and adding that police had seen no evidence to support it.
Ercikti then outlined the facts of the case. Sierra was struck in the head with a blunt object, almost certainly the cause of death. She tried to defend herself, and parts of her clothing were torn from the struggle. Her body was covered with a blanket when it was found inside a cavern of the ancient walls, obscuring it from view. Ercikti said Sierra may have been killed nearby, her body then dragged to the spot where it was found, with the intention of hiding it there. It was far less likely, he said, that she had died elsewhere in the city and then been transported there. “Anything other than this is speculation,” he said.