GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #5

[ThinkHard]

Are they saying that is Z's "home" in the walls? I wonder if they took DNA from there, too.

I agree the video looks like she is swinging a jacket in her right hand

I agree definitely in the video looks like she has her jacket off. Would definetly explain why that item wouldn't have any blood.

 

[zarra30]

I think your confused, the phone receiving the message would say the time it was sent, but it would state this time based on the receiving phones local time, not the sending phones local time. So if her family is saying they received the text at 9:20 am they are referring to 9:20 am NY time. If this in fact the time the message is recorded being received, Sarai phone would show an outgoing message at 4:20 pm.

If she sent the message at 9:20 am Istanbul time Sarai's phone would show an outgoing message of 9:20am, but her sisters phone would show receiving the message on her end at 2:20am ny time.

Hi Thinkhard. I am so confused. I am part of the older generation- Don't have a texting phone or an Ipad, just a cheap cell phone that I rarely even charge.
So I will leave the tech stuff & answers of when to you guys.

 

[ThinkHard]

Hi Thinkhard. I am so confused. I am part of the older generation- Don't have a texting phone or an Ipad, just a cheap cell phone that I rarely even charge.
So I will leave the tech stuff & answers of when to you guys.

Haha Zara don't worry I think we are all confused here

 

[Yashim]

News Report by Anadolu Agency

February 21, 2013; 11:38 PM (local time), Karabük

The assumed name under which Ziya bought the bus ticket from his hometown of Karabük to Hatay (Turkish town by the Syrian Border) turned out to be an old friend of his, Murat Çimen, who runs a coffee shop in Karabük.

Çimen said that he learned about this when LE came to ask questions about it. He told LE that he didn’t know where Ziya was off to. Çimen also said that Ziya chatted with a few people at the coffee shop telling them ‘My work is done in Turkey. I will go to Hatay, and from there to Syria.’ (By “my work is done”, he means something like "I have no business left”.)

Çimen heard that Ziya had told another friend of his that a murder was committed where he lived and that things were getting complicated and he was on the run. Since he had issues with his family (in Karabük), he told his friends he couldn’t stay in town either. Çimen said that they used to hear that he was inhaling (paint) thinner and baly (shoe glue).

Another friend of Ziya, Muharrem Uçar, told reporters that he had last seen Ziya on February 8, and that was the day he disappeared. “We talked about what was going on (there). He said LE would pick them up (remove them from the city walls). He told me he already knew that and that’s why he had come to town. I knew about the murder case, so I tried talking about that. I didn’t think Ziya would have anything to do with it. I noticed a wound mark on his left ear. When I asked him what happened he said ‘It’s Istanbul, you always have to watch out. Once in a while, such things happen.’ He said he got slashed with a box cutter.”

Another friend of his, Zafer Özden, met him in the coffee shop and asked Ziya to join him while Özden ran some errands. When they returned to the coffee shop, Ziya told Özden ‘some bad things happened in Istanbul, and my inhaler buddies are going to stick it on me.’ “He had a backpack. He then took off. He is not the kind of guy to kill someone. I know him since childhood. But you never know what an inhaler is capable of when he is stoned. He told me that Istanbul Police told him ‘Ziya, you’d better get lost. There has been a murder here. You’ll be the one to get pinned.’ There was nothing unusual about him. He seemed like the same guy he always had been. He didn’t have any place to spend the winters, so he’d commit minor crimes to go to prison.”

http://www.aa.com.tr/tr/haberler/135994--bileti-arkadasinin-adina-almis

Sorry for the poor translation. I had to rush.

 

[zarra30]

Haha Zara don't worry I think we are all confused here

Thanks I know LOL, this whole case is crazy!
But so many really interesting ideas from all you posters, just keeps me intrigued!

(I keep trying to add those cute yellow faces and characters in my message but no matter if I click on them, they don't appear, oh well... giving up on it.)

 

[Yashim]

One man's brick is another man's stone

I watched some newscast on a Turkish TV channel (NTV) at 11:00 PM (local time).

They said the murder weapon was a brick off the city walls.

So that explains it.

A brick from a 1,650 year old city wall is in fact a piece of stone.

 

[Yashim]

More video of Sarai walking, and maybe Ziya's "home"
yavuz oymak tv8 sarai sierra cinayeti amerika cıa mit tecavüz özel haber tinerci laz ziya - YouTube

Translation needed

There isn't much new info. Mostly old stuff. DNA from SS fingernails matching hair from Ziya's pillow at his brother's house.

Own comments in ()

This hole in the city walls was Ziya's home. It's 100 meters (109 yards or 328 feet or 19,9 rods) away from where SS's body was found.

His real name is Ziya Tasali

(actually Ziya Tasalı, last i has no dot on top, sounds like the "a" in "decimal", me thinks)

SS took pictures of Ziya, Ziya attempted to rape her and Ziya killed her and ran away. (Although a likely scenario, they just seem to be guessing.)

Ziya fled to Syria and CIA agents are looking for him. (Should we believe that? I really don't know.)

...

 

[ThinkHard]

One man's brick is another man's stone

I watched some newscast on a Turkish TV channel (NTV) at 11:00 PM (local time).

They said the murder weapon was a brick off the city walls.

So that explains it.

A brick from a 1,650 year old city wall is in fact a piece of stone.

Well gee LE thanks or that, the second I heard she was killed at the walls and her head was smashed with a blunt object...too me the most obvious weapon was a loose brick peice on the ground....it's really took them this long to figure that out?

 

[Snowball58]

1. I'm a jeweler. It's my profession.

2. If anyone calls 14k jewelry "junk", "garbage", "trash" or any other derogatory term, I'm going to flip out. That's incredibly rude considering that 14k is standard for gold jewelry in the US, and is what most people wear for their truly sentimental pieces, like engagement rings, etc. Calling it garbage is really hurtful and it sounds derogatory towards the victim. Plus it's just plain silly and untrue.

3. 14k is certainly valuable. I recently scrapped a 14k tennis bracelet after removing the diamonds from it. The total weight of the finding was probably equivalent to that of a very long gold chain and a ring, maybe a hair more. I got $150 for it without even trying. I once shipped all my scrap gold (14k) to one of those rip off gold buying places and they sent me over $200, and it was just a tiny itty bitty envelope full. A friend of mine inherited all her mother's jewelry when she passed away and it filled a ziploc sandwich bag (probably weighed over a pound, lots and lots of chains). She got $7k cash for the scrap gold. I'd say that every scenario resulted in a fair bit more than a few dollars. The assertion that 14k has no value TO A HOMELESS PERSON is ludicrous.

I would most certainly NOT assume that Sarai's jewelry was not valuable just because her killer left it behind. If we know it's 14k and we know it was left behind, then to me the most logical assumption is that the killer was known to Sarai or was someone who would not have seen $50+ as worthwhile.

PS - 14k is considered "fine jewelry" as opposed to costume jewelry. And if I'm remembering correctly, her wedding ring was missing, but other gold jewelry was left behind? That sure sounds personal to me, unless perhaps Sarai never wore her ring that day, or she removed it and carried it in her missing bag.

 

[Yashim]

Are they saying that is Z's "home" in the walls? I wonder if they took DNA from there, too.

I agree the video looks like she is swinging a jacket in her right hand

It didn't say that. Only DNA came from the hair on the pillow which LE took from Ziya's brothers house.

 

[ThinkHard]

It truly is just my writing style. On several forums I've gone to they thought i was a guy.

If you could all just give me the benefit of the doubt. I don't mean it this way I promise. If you met me in real life you'd think I was a doll.

I've tried correcting it, but I don't seem to see it the same way. So I can't quite do much about it except to apologize and ask you to take it with a grain of salt.

:banghead:


ETA, you added something about me denigrating her jewelry taste. That just about blows my mind! It was nothing of the sort at all. My word, is that what this is all about???

Look we can all get a little passionate, or intense, or frustrated, or insert another emotion here....

And sometimes without meaning to between our emotions, and the fact you cannot really tell in writing how someone actually intends something....

Things can get misinterpreted and people can feel under attack on this board...

I know I have been guilty of this myself.

However I think it is important to acknowledge when perhaps we have crossed a line, and also try our hardest to be self aware enough to learn from mistakes we make, or ways in which we can communicate our ideas yet come across less aggressive.

I think sometimes instead of just giving excuses and saying well that's just the way I am, we should try to use the opportunity to be a little more self aware, and self controlled.

 

[Yashim]

Well gee LE thanks or that, the second I heard she was killed at the walls and her head was smashed with a blunt object...too me the most obvious weapon was a loose brick peice on the ground....it's really took them this long to figure that out?

No, I don't think so.

I believe it's either that the reporters got it from an officer who has a friend who has a friend who has a friend who is on the case or that LE didn't want to reveal that detail at that time.

 

[StCirq]

<<I noticed a wound mark on his left ear>>

Interesting. The sinister face shot of Ziya that's circulating shows something on/in his left ear. There was a discussion of it earlier. Could it be a bandage of some kind? But that would suggest that the police or someone took that picture after the crime (assuming he had anything to do with it).

And if his "home" is 100 meters from where SS was discovered, that's the exact distance the LE has been saying she was dragged. So she was first dumped in Ziya's "home" and then dragged 100 meters to her final resting place? I can't imagine anyone comitting a brutal murder, then dumping the body in the hole where he lived, knowing the evidence would be overwhelming, unless he had to do something with her really quickly to avoid detection.

Thanks for that translation, Yashim. Very interesting.

 

[ThinkHard]

<<I noticed a wound mark on his left ear>>

Interesting. The sinister face shot of Ziya that's circulating shows something on/in his left ear. There was a discussion of it earlier. Could it be a bandage of some kind? But that would suggest that the police or someone took that picture after the crime (assuming he had anything to do with it).

And if his "home" is 100 meters from where SS was discovered, that's the exact distance the LE has been saying she was dragged. So she was first dumped in Ziya's "home" and then dragged 100 meters to her final resting place? I can't imagine anyone comitting a brutal murder, then dumping the body in the hole where he lived, knowing the evidence would be overwhelming, unless he had to do something with her really quickly to avoid detection.

Thanks for that translation, Yashim. Very interesting.

I noticed the distance similarity too.

However his home didn't seem to be very well guarded, nor disturbed. So I'm guessing they have no evidence to believe that any part of the crime took place there, otherwise I would think it would be more sealed off. Just my guess though.

I also found it interesting that Ziya had commented to one of his friends something about his thinner dealer or thinner friends where trying to pin something bad on him.

 

[Yashim]

<<I noticed a wound mark on his left ear>>

Interesting. The sinister face shot of Ziya that's circulating shows something on/in his left ear. There was a discussion of it earlier. Could it be a bandage of some kind? But that would suggest that the police or someone took that picture after the crime (assuming he had anything to do with it).

And if his "home" is 100 meters from where SS was discovered, that's the exact distance the LE has been saying she was dragged. So she was first dumped in Ziya's "home" and then dragged 100 meters to her final resting place? I can't imagine anyone comitting a brutal murder, then dumping the body in the hole where he lived, knowing the evidence would be overwhelming, unless he had to do something with her really quickly to avoid detection.

Thanks for that translation, Yashim. Very interesting.

You're welcome. This is from Anadolu (News) Agency, the biggest news agency in Turkey. They also have a website in English. Maybe a better translation may appear in a few hours/days.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/

But I believe that picture of Ziya looked like an ID picture. He was also in and out of prison. Maybe it is a mugshot.

I also do not understand the motive for murder. Unless something really ticked him off. Maybe the fight SS put up.

 

[Yashim]

I find it curious they can state that she was not alive after 18:00 hr.

Sunset in IST on Jan 21 was at 5:46pm. There is often a bit of twilight, but I would think it would be too dark to be identifying Z very well on cameras by 18:00 unless you had very very good street lighting and a particularly close shot.

How did they arrive at 18:00 hrs? Is there a witness who is stating this?

Are you sure, Herat?

5:46 PM is way too late. I just checked it should be 5:08 PM

So, it should be even darker.

Pasted the link below.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=107&month=1&year=2013&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

...

 

[pbj]

This is what I think transpired:

1. Too bad SS didn't keep her more androgynous look on the 21st, with her hair tucked into her unisex cap. She dress nicely since she had hoped to meet Taylan, and that is her on the video.

2. People had described her as adventurous. (Who among us would sleep on the couch of an instagram acquaintance in Amsterdam?) She was also trusting and naive. She thought, though , she was a good judge of character. Early on her minister described her as 9 going on 32 (or whatever her age is.) This trait alone led to her demise.

3. Perhaps Taylan had mentioned the night before about going to the walls and trying to get portraits of the people there.

4. She decided that since Taylan didn't show, today would be her last day to capture great photos.

5. She went to the walls and assumed it to be safe. It was daylight, and a traveled road. Perhaps she was on the other side of the road. Z appeared and seemed charming, safe, and cooperative. Perhaps he motioned kindly for her to come across the road. He may have motioned for her to come into his cave.She did not feel brave enough to do this, but she may have glanced in.

6. Z then pulls her in to rape her. He pulls down her pants. She is fighting back, but given her size ,she is not a challenge for him. But then she starts a loud piercing scream. He knew he must silence her. He has her on the ground, and his adrenaline and testosterone is flowing, and in his unstable fashion, he begins to pulverize her with the rock, he get carried away.

7. Later, Z moves the body away from his territory. Another scavenger comes upon the body and decides to remove the jewelry. He takes off her earrings and then looks for a wallet. He finds her driver's license and realizes she is the one that everyone is searching for. He drops the earrings and the license. He wants nothing to do with her, but now his fingerprints are on her.

8. Z flees to his homeland. While on the run, he sells her ipad and phone, which he took from her. In part for the value, but also because her last photos were of him. When he sells them, he asks for everything to be erased, which the buyer does, and it entails turning on the devices.

And that's the way I think it went down.

This is what I said yesterday, and still think it may be close to the truth. But now I think SS was relocated out of Z's cave by perhaps other homeless people that wanted to "frame" the killer.

 

[SANDOVAL]

You're welcome. This is from Anadolu (News) Agency, the biggest news agency in Turkey. They also have a website in English. Maybe a better translation may appear in a few hours/days.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/

But I believe that picture of Ziya looked like an ID picture. He was also in and out of prison. Maybe it is a mugshot.

I also do not understand the motive for murder. Unless something really ticked him off. Maybe the fight SS put up.

This is whatis so strange, whoever it was, they have probably seen loads of tourists with cameras roaming around the walls, so WHY, WHY, just SS got beaten up there??

 

[SophieRose]

This is whatis so strange, whoever it was, they have probably seen loads of tourists with cameras roaming around the walls, so WHY, WHY, just SS got beaten up there??

There were two tourists and a Turkish woman that were raped/attempted rape in that very area. I believe one of them was even hit by a rock but not killed.

 

[pbj]

I think it was SS's loud , piercing screams that changed Z from a rapist to an unstable killer...he needed to silence her. His adrenaline and testosterone were pumping and he's unstable. He may have also been high on glue.