GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #3

[Munich]

It was reported in multiple mainstream media sources that her husband "wired" her $500 to change the ticket in two increments.

MOO the package is nothing. No one would bother to send cash in a package overseas unless it was tens of thousands of dollars. Where would her cash-strapped family get access to that kind of money? To do what? To buy drugs in IST to take to the USA? Why? There are plenty of drugs you can buy easily in NYC.

If she had access to that kind of money, she wouldn't need her husband to be wiring her small amounts to change the tickets.

Same questions apply to the 'package' being kilos and kilos of pure cocaine. Why take the risk of shipping cocaine overseas when you can sell it so much easier in NYC right out your front door?

She sent and received mail in Istanbul. I doubt she's the only one to do that.

I just thought perhaps there was the very off chance that's how her husband sent the money to change the flight. Not that there was a package with oodles of cash in it or that it contained drugs.

Why wire increments? Is there a limit to this sort of thing?

 

[Munich]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Mr Sierra asked Taylan to contact local authorities in a bid to help find the 33-year-old mother of his two children allegedly unknowing that the man had had sex with her in a bar's bathroom only the night before according to several local reports.

Yigit Yetmez, owner of the flat in the down-and-out neighborhood of Tarlabasi, told Hurriyet that Sarai had told him she was 'bekâr' meaning 'single' or 'a bachelorette.'

I commented on this in a prior post / thread. Taylan said they met for drinks had lamb intestines split the bill and he walked her back since it was a "sketchy neighborhood". (This is conflicting with "just meeting for tea twice" as well.)

I don't buy the bathroom sex, because clearly they could have shacked up at her place if he knew where she stayed, walked her there, and she had told the AirBnB guy she was single if she was really worried about being judged by someone who "knew" her and might see Taylan there.

Bathroom sex surely happens, but really? I think it's just the media trying to discredit her. Even if she did partake in an amorous bathroom session it doesn't much matter.

 

[yannis]

greetings everybody , this is my first post and thank you for the opprtunity to talk about this story ....i started having some thoughts in a different direction , so far we can't be sure of what has happened ...so maybe , the killer traveled from the USA ? We miss the motive so far .... i know this is very serious to say but if we think a bit on this .....well it fits

 

[ToutCa]

Why wire increments? Is there a limit to this sort of thing?

I'm not even sure he wired it. They said that, but wouldn't it be easier for him to just put it in her account (assuming she had an ATM card)?

Anyway the story was she arrived with only $400 on hand for spending money for the entire trip. When she went to change her ticket, she asked hubby to send more. He "wired" first $350, then later $150 more -- if memory serves.

Why two increments? I dunno. Maybe she was quoted one price for the ticket change and then found out it was more? Maybe she was out of money and needed the $150 for food and incidentals? Do you have any more guesses?

 

[ToutCa]

greetings everybody , this is my first post and thank you for the opprtunity to talk about this story ....i started having some thoughts in a different direction , so far we can't be sure of what has happened ...so maybe , the killer traveled from the USA ? We miss the motive so far .... i know this is very serious to say but if we think a bit on this .....well it fits

WELCOME TO WS!!!!! WELCOME TO THIS THREAD!!!!!

Anything is possible, there's no suspect or theory too wild at this point.

Why do you think the killer traveled from the USA?

 

[english]

I just thought perhaps there was the very off chance that's how her husband sent the money to change the flight. Not that there was a package with oodles of cash in it or that it contained drugs.

Why wire increments? Is there a limit to this sort of thing?

If I remember rightly, from the date of the article and the postman's recollection of when it was delivered it would have had to be posted before she even arrived.

If there ever was a letter or parcel, which I seriously doubt, we can be sure it wasn't sent from a turkish source as they would NEVER trust their postal system with anything important.

 

[yannis]

hi ToutCa and thank you , i'll answer with a question ..... who's mostly motivated to do this ? maybe it's a revenge thing .......

 

[BrownRice]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Mr Sierra asked Taylan to contact local authorities in a bid to help find the 33-year-old mother of his two children allegedly unknowing that the man had had sex with her in a bar's bathroom only the night before according to several local reports.

Yigit Yetmez, owner of the flat in the down-and-out neighborhood of Tarlabasi, told Hurriyet that Sarai had told him she was 'bekâr' meaning 'single' or 'a bachelorette.'

My interpretation of that is she meant a "single" room. This is more of a case of lost in translation.

Regarding the bathroom sex- could or could not have happened. I don't buy it though. I thought I read she nor her husband drank alcohol - so it's not like she would be drunk in a bar (with lower inhibitions). Usually that kind of behavior goes hand in hand with being inebriated.

 

[ToutCa]

Bathroom sex surely happens, but really? I think it's just the media trying to discredit her. Even if she did partake in an amorous bathroom session it doesn't much matter.

No proof exists. Taylan's attorney waffled when asked directly if his client had sex with SS. Journalists then went back to Turkish LE and asked if Taylan had claimed to them he had sex Jan. 20 with SS in a bar bathroom. Off the record they said yes.

That's far from proof, but it's not just wild rumors either. It's somewhere in between, like much of our info.

People have risky sex because it's fun.

The reason there was so much focus on this was not just to bad-mouth SS, it was because Taylan was the last to have contact with SS. It's natural that their relationship and his actions would come under intense LE focus.

 

[ToutCa]

If I remember rightly, from the date of the article and the postman's recollection of when it was delivered it would have had to be posted before she even arrived.

If there ever was a letter or parcel, which I seriously doubt, we can be sure it wasn't sent from a turkish source as they would NEVER trust their postal system with anything important.

LOL....that made me laugh hard. I think they said the packages were from USA

It was surely from her family, and could have been a simple care package from mom, hubby, kids. This was a huge, unthinkable adventure for them being taken by a mother who had never been out of the country.

We can put shady spins on the package, but there are plenty of innocent ones as well...

 

[ToutCa]

hi ToutCa and thank you , i'll answer with a question ..... who's mostly motivated to do this ? maybe it's a revenge thing .......

Interesting, that her husband was mad at her "cheating" so he hired a hit man?

I guess that's possible. Crazy, but the whole case is crazy.

 

[ToutCa]

I thought I read she nor her husband drank alcohol

Some of her online posts have led many to cast very serious doubts on that claim (friends saying they owed her rounds of drinks, her own comments posted on bottles of alcohol, stuff like that).

 

[michellemarls]

Wow, just catching up. I must say what a fantastic bunch of Websluethers there are on this thread...i find myself coming here now for updates on Sarai's murder investigation, instead of looking at the media articles online. I know here i can get accurate translations and all the media rubbish has been filtered out by all you ladies and gentlemen.

Haha it leaves me with nothing to add to this thread right now as i think you have all covered every scenario available with the info you have.

So i just want to say great work fellow Websluethers!!

Also a huge welcome to all of the new Websluethers that have come on board.

 

[yannis]

sure it's crazy theory but as you all may have noticed ... on instagram they don't follow each other and if you see some of his posts , you 'll see a man in pain a man who knew that she was going to cheat on him

 

[ToutCa]

sure it's crazy theory but as you all may have noticed ... on instagram they don't follow each other and if you see some of his posts , you 'll see a man in pain a man who knew that she was going to cheat on him

True, but it's lot of steps from there to hiring a hit man to go to Istanbul to stalk her and kill her -- all on the salary of a city bus driver.

The biggest problem with that theory is that Turkish LE actually does state formally and definitely that no one was following her through town the day she vanished. At least (so they said to the NY Daily News yesterday) definitely not from her apartment to the Galata Bridge.

But the hit man could have arranged a meeting with her at the walls, somehow.

Or, as a professional, been really good at stalking I guess?

It's another possible theory. But it's a stretch.

 

[citizenofworld]

sure it's crazy theory but as you all may have noticed ... on instagram they don't follow each other and if you see some of his posts , you 'll see a man in pain a man who knew that she was going to cheat on him

Huh. What's the husband's Instagram handle?

 

[yannis]

i know that even her brother ( read this somewhere ) sent her a message , telling her : if you are going to cheat on him , why don't you stay of his life ? that means that already knew about what she was going to do .... so if it was me ..i'd get nuts and try to do something .....about the hit man , well it could be a friend who shered his pain ....we don't know his connections even if he has no file (with all respect to the husband we just talk here )

 

[yannis]

@myeyes_stevied

 

[Munich]

I'm not even sure he wired it. They said that, but wouldn't it be easier for him to just put it in her account (assuming she had an ATM card)?

Anyway the story was she arrived with only $400 on hand for spending money for the entire trip. When she went to change her ticket, she asked hubby to send more. He "wired" first $350, then later $150 more -- if memory serves.

Why two increments? I dunno. Maybe she was quoted one price for the ticket change and then found out it was more? Maybe she was out of money and needed the $150 for food and incidentals? Do you have any more guesses?

It depends on the kind of ticket she had and the price of the new one + the changing fees, so there's kind of no telling how much it actually cost to change the ticket. Interestingly, it does not appear she bought the very cheapest fare.

[LINK]

The first mention of the trip change was on her IG account 12 days after her arrival. So it was somewhat public and early on. If she didn't want "bad guy traffickers" to know she'd changed it she likely wouldn't put it online like that.

If I'm not mistaken one of the articles mentioned they found $400 in her room after she went missing. That would be at the end of the trip... who knows with the way info comes out what is actual fact and what is fiction.

I hadn't read this before:

"...Jimenez and Sierra's husband said Sarai was determined to complete challenges that she set for herself.
As an example, they described how she competed in a triathlon several years ago, despite being a weak swimmer, and despite the fact that she did not own a bicycle. Instead, Sarai completed the cycling leg of the competition by borrowing a mountain bike from her husband."

[LINK]

"(She also made a brief layover in Munich, Mr. Reduron said.)" - this is from Ammer (Amsterdam) according to the NYTimes.

[LINK]

Last I heard there was a misquote with the dates and she spent 3 days in AMS and only a layover in MUC, which makes far more sense.

 

[Munich]

hi ToutCa and thank you , i'll answer with a question ..... who's mostly motivated to do this ? maybe it's a revenge thing .......

The only thing I think this wouldn't be the case is because the person would have to be very knowledgeable about the area and law enforcement techniques.

Getting caught and going to jail anywhere isn't fun, I'm sure, but being put in a foreign jail where the person likely doesn't speak the language is a massive risk. Surely whatever criminal did this didn't think they were that invincible, because they left evidence behind.

Why spend all of that money and go with the uncertainty of stalking someone in an unknown area to murder someone?

At this rate virtually anything is possible, but I don't see her leading a risky life which would make her hated to that degree.