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

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  • #361
The husband of the New York mother bludgeoned to death during a solo trip to Istanbul posted a series of cryptic online messages about cheating and bad relationships in the weeks prior to her death, it has been revealed.
Steven Sierra wrote on Twitter on December 28 last year: 'Don't cheat in relationship, if you are not happy then just leave.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Twitter-bemoaning-cheating.html#ixzz2KWGoEZ9x
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
  • #362
MY own musings, nothing factual here folks, just random thoughts in my head....

1. Someone earlier referred to SS as an "urban savvy tourist".
How could she be that already when according to what we have been told, this was her first trip abroad? ALL of her trip details that have been shared so far DO point to an urban savvy tourist - traveling alone, staying by herself in a basement apartment in a gritty neighborhood, arranging a side-trip to Amsterdam during the visit, striding confidently through the streets of Istanbul. NOTHING about her actions as they have been described show the usual tentativeness and uncertainty that I would expect of a neophyte solo-traveler, even one with a strong personality. Did she have a translation app on one of her devices? The language barrier alone adds an air of vulnerability that from what I can tell, she outwardly displayed not a trace of hesitiancy. I read about the "New York face", and I DO understand that, but she was not in NY. It seems to me too soon for her to have adopted an "Instanbul face" if this was her very first time in ANY foreign city.

2. I wonder if any of the 20 cameras show her stopping and checking her devices for texts or messages? Wasn't she waiting to hear from T about their planned meet-up? I would expect the cameras she was seen on would have seen her checking and rechecking a device to see if he was coming. Do the cameras show when she realizes/learns he is not?

3. The most-often used picture of SS is beautiful -the one of her in a leather jacket with a cap covering her hair and her eyes cast upward. When I first saw it the day her disappearance hit the news, I assumed she was someone who had made a name for herself as an author since it looked like a professional shot for a book cover. The details of her life as they were revealed seem much more humble, yet just as meaningful as a wife, mother, wage-earner and student. I find myself wondering in what context that picture was taken and by whom, because it IS so much more striking that typical photos a family might have around to use for publicizing a disappearance. It probably has no bearing on the circumstances of her tragic death, and I am just wondering as I fill in the picture in my own mind.

4. Re: the hit man from US theory - anything is possible, and I would think it more possible to be a Turkish hit-man hired by someone from the US. Who in her US life even has any connections in Turkey, and would that person want to harm her????

These are all questions and speculations and not FACTS.
Thanks for indulging me as I try to make sense of this tragedy.
 
  • #363
I think she was definitely meeting someone at the bridge
BBM

Well, all agree she tried to meet Taylan (even Taylan). We have no evidence she was meeting anyone else, how can you say it is definite?

That explains why she went back to a place she'd already been to several days earlier.

Almost all tourists staying awhile in the same city cover the same ground over and over. I've been known to go back to the same place every day!

Why would he suggest she go back there if he'd already taken her there previously?

She wasn't checking in with him and updating her itinerary every day. Maybe he really didn't care and was half-listening while trying to get busy with her.

If, as some have speculated, she wanted to go back there to get some pictures she didn't get a chance to take when she was there before,

No evidence she had been to city walls before, only speculation.

I think she messaged him and asked where he'd like to meet. Not where he thought she should go for sight-seeing purposes.

Maybe, but this is just speculation again.

Just like he waited until there were reports of DNA recovered from the body before he acknowledged a sexual relationship.

Sure, I pushed that theory too. But the reports said his DNA didn't match the killer. So either the report is wrong (very possible), or he's off the hook (as the murderer).
 
  • #364
The husband of the New York mother bludgeoned to death during a solo trip to Istanbul posted a series of cryptic online messages about cheating and bad relationships in the weeks prior to her death, it has been revealed.
Steven Sierra wrote on Twitter on December 28 last year: 'Don't cheat in relationship, if you are not happy then just leave.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Twitter-bemoaning-cheating.html#ixzz2KWGoEZ9x
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

bbm

I think that was the same post that he shared - a post by a FB group with that name (Don't Cheat in a Relationship, if you are not happy then just leave). We discussed it above - and I do think that this is a case of sensationalist journalism. Perhaps he posted it for a reason, but I don't believe that it was *his* words.
 
  • #365
I just have to pull away from this thread for awhile. My family is begging me to please get off of WS... :o... So I'm going to try. Keep up the good sleuthing!
 
  • #366
The husband of the New York mother bludgeoned to death during a solo trip to Istanbul posted a series of cryptic online messages about cheating and bad relationships in the weeks prior to her death, it has been revealed.
Steven Sierra wrote on Twitter on December 28 last year: 'Don't cheat in relationship, if you are not happy then just leave.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Twitter-bemoaning-cheating.html#ixzz2KWGoEZ9x
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

See- this is what I keep coming back to. As more and more details of her marriage- a story being told not by speculation, but by her husband's own words- keeps unfolding, talk of a sexual tryst in Turkey, followed by a visit to stay with a (basically) total stranger in Amsterdam (yet another man), talk of telling the landlord she was unmarried... Follow all of these strings, and I think we'll find our killer.
 
  • #367
bbm

I think that was the same post that he shared - a post by a FB group with that name (Don't Cheat in a Relationship, if you are not happy then just leave). We discussed it above - and I do think that this is a case of sensationalist journalism. Perhaps he posted it for a reason, but I don't believe that it was *his* words.

I agree it wasn't his own words- it was a meme- but do you usually post words (even if they're written by someone else) that have no meaning to you personally?

People can tell based on the memes I share on FB what my state of mind is at any given time. LOL. Really sad, I know- but true!
 
  • #368
I agree it wasn't his own words- it was a meme- but do you usually post words (even if they're written by someone else) that have no meaning to you personally?

People can tell based on the memes I share on FB what my state of mind is at any given time. LOL. Really said, I know- but true!

CMac2! You're dragging me back into this discussion... :trout:

True - I do think it may have meant something. By the way, have you read his IG comments? Just curious. Interesting to say the least. I'm going to log back in after a minimum of two hours away with my family... :jail:
 
  • #369
See- this is what I keep coming back to. As more and more details of her marriage- a story being told not by speculation, but by her husband's own words- keeps unfolding, talk of a sexual tryst in Turkey, followed by a visit to stay with a (basically) total stranger in Amsterdam (yet another man), talk of telling the landlord she was unmarried... Follow all of these strings, and I think we'll find our killer.
i'm with you on this .... so far we had no MOTIVE
 
  • #370
Thank you CocoChanel, all food for thought for sure!

*I read about the "New York face", and I DO understand that, but she was not in NY. * It seems to me too soon for her to have adopted an "Instanbul face" if this was her very first time in ANY foreign city.

I was guilty for calling her an "urban savvy tourist" which is a little stupid -- my writing on the "New York face" was a better way to express what I was thinking. I don't think she had a clue whatever the "Istanbul face" was. I think in a typical way of someone who had hardly if ever been outside her home environment, she resorted to her default affect of tough NYC urban girl and strode around as such. It doesn't seem unusual to me as a New Yorker.

2. I wonder if any*20 cameras show her stopping and checking her devices

Good question. All they've said is that they show her walking. And that as far as the Galata Bridge she was alone and not being followed.

picture looked like a professional shot for a book cover.

Interesting point -- it looks like the same clothes she was wearing in IST, but she looks very self-possessed and trendy indeed. Anyone know the circumstances of the photo?

Who in her US life even has any connections in Turkey, and would that person want to harm her????

WS user Yannis threw out the idea that maybe her husband hired a hit man because he was angry she was "cheating" (if she was).
 
  • #371
CMac2! You're dragging me back into this discussion... :trout:

True - I do think it may have meant something. By the way, have you read his IG comments? Just curious. Interesting to say the least. I'm going to log back in after a minimum of two hours away with my family... :jail:

Sorry!!!
 
  • #372
Also interesting, the Doom's Day article posted upthread quotes a member of LE stating that when SS was seen on video in the area near the bridge on her last day, she didn't look like a tourist. Unlike the tourists that day, she looked like she knew where she was. This lends some credibility to earlier statements that she had already been to that place (days earlier) with TK.

Which makes me ask the question: If true, what was she doing back there again?

I'm married to a Turkish man so I don't normally have any trouble but my first visit to Istanbul was not with him it was with a female friend. I got friendly with the "touts/unofficial tour guides" outside the Sultan Ahmet mosque. After complaining one day about the hassling outside the Grand Bazaar, one of these touts told me to always walk as if I looked like I knew where I was going and walk with purpose. It was the best piece of advice I was ever given and has served me well in other touristic places.

I'm still leaning towards the smuggling angle but only because I can't fit any other scenario. Having said this, I should know it's not easy to smuggle through Istanbul airports as I've been searched four times for suspected smuggling (1st antiquities - it was a wooden wall sconce, 2nd antiquities - it was a large stone I had picked up from the beach in another part of Turkey, 3rd gold - a lot of coins together in a coin purse, 4th drugs - a kilo of apple tea pellets wrapped inside a prayer mat!).
 
  • #373
See- this is what I keep coming back to. As more and more details of her marriage- a story being told not by speculation, but by her husband's own words- keeps unfolding, talk of a sexual tryst in Turkey, followed by a visit to stay with a (basically) total stranger in Amsterdam (yet another man), talk of telling the landlord she was unmarried... Follow all of these strings, and I think we'll find our killer.

Why?

Most people who sleep around abroad wake up the next morning and go home.

If she slept with someone, maybe she just took a walk to the wrong place and stumbled on a random perp.

One of the frustrations here is that all the strings don't necessarily lead anywhere, just to a big ole tangled knot.
 
  • #374
What is amazing about her last steps if you read the DN article is it seems like she was captured everywhere on camera, whether it be a jewelry store camera, bank camera, etc.

Then nothing, like she vanished into thin air.

And I think CMac makes an interesting point saying how she didn't walk like a tourist.

Kinda makes me think of the NYC Halloween parade videos, where surveillance cameras placed in strategic locations, and photographers doing closeups clearly observe Batman, Princess Diana and King Tut walking determinedly every year.
And poor Grade B slasher movies where someone dresses up like the victim to throw the cops off.

I imagine the police will find or have already identified people who talked to her specifically, because I doubt they would only rely only on surveillance videos to claim it was really her and not someone pretending to be her. And if so, they probably wouldn't release the additional evidence.
So many twists and turns in the case!
 
  • #375
i'm with you on this .... so far we had no MOTIVE

AND... to be fair to SS, we have no idea what she told her husband before she left to go on this trip. She very well could have told him exactly what she was doing- going to find herself- she also could have told him the marriage was over for all we know. His declarations of love, while I find them VERY heartfelt, and truly believe he adores his wife- does not mean she didn't tell him the truth from the beginning.

When my ex-husband and I split up, he got an apartment of his own, was living completely separate from me- we'd jointly decided to divorce (we were merely waiting until a few months, until after the holidays, to file), and he had a Yahoo Personals page that listed his marital status as divorced. I later learned that while we were absolutely on the same page as to the status of our relationship, he'd neglected to share that info with family and friends. His family believed we were still together- had no idea he'd gotten himself an apartment elsewhere. He told them we were having problems, but that it was all being worked out.

I'm not saying this is what happened in this case, but it is possible that he knew what the deal was from the beginning. Doesn't mean he had to like it or accept it, but doesn't mean he had no idea either.

I don't get the impression Steven believed his wife's sole purpose for this trip was to take some pictures.
 
  • #376
I've been searched four times for suspected smuggling (1st antiquities - it was a wooden wall sconce, 2nd antiquities - it was a large stone I had picked up from the beach in another part of Turkey, 3rd gold - a lot of coins together in a coin purse, 4th drugs - a kilo of apple tea pellets wrapped inside a prayer mat!).

English you smuggler!!!!!!!! I guess I fit no profiles because they never search me no matter how grungy and unkempt I look....
 
  • #377
Somebody please tell me how to do a quote and have it come up in blue. This is my first time on a forum and I hit quote, but it doesn't come up blue. I'm a novice here, computer-illiterate. Stupid, I know.
 
  • #378
Why?

Most people who sleep around abroad wake up the next morning and go home.

If she slept with someone, maybe she just took a walk to the wrong place and stumbled on a random perp.

One of the frustrations here is that all the strings don't necessarily lead anywhere, just to a big ole tangled knot.

Because this doesn't have the feel of a woman who simply slept around abroad. It doesn't seem like she went to Turkey to take pics and happened upon a man who coincidentally charmed her right out of her pants, the end, case closed.

I'm not saying it couldn't be random, but given how rare random acts of murder are in Turkey, coupled with the sex/marriage/did she talk to her hubby regularly/didn't she/cryptic online postings about cheating/claiming to total strangers that she's unmarried... I'd say a random crime would truly be a helluva coincidence. Not impossible, but improbable.
 
  • #379
Somebody please tell me how to do a quote and have it come up in blue. This is my first time on a forum and I hit quote, but it doesn't come up blue. I'm a novice here, computer-illiterate. Stupid, I know.

If you're trying to quote another poster's statements, just hit the "Quote" button under their post.

If you're trying to quote from an article or other source on line, start a post, and click the yellow box that looks like it's a cartoon bubble. it's to the left of the '#' sign, to the right of the picture box.
 
  • #380
Many of those cameras show thousands of anonymous people. No way in hell to find them. Also, cops have theorized the killer could have made his way to and from the walls via back ways to and from the railway station.

Don't agree at all that this remote area had thousands of pedestrians within that time window. Remember, if they don't have a camera seeing her walk out, she would have only been out of camera angle to stay stationary in that area for a specific amount of time before harm came to her. Assuming the time she spent taking pics in this area is conservatively a few hours, and you add give or take 1-2 hrs of pedestrain traffic, you now have a 4-6 hr window. I would of course focus on the traffic within the closer 2-3 hour range and then work out, but there is no way in this remote area there would be thousands of people walking by. Why? because then she wouldn't have been able to be harmed because someone would have seen or heard something. This place is considered remote for a reason.

Give me the route to the train station, and I guarantee you there is an entrance way to the station within short distance of this path. A railway station should have many cameras, and they can deduce who took a tangent from this area. Identify all likely suspects within the time window who came from and went in this direction. Also, your theory speculates that they took the same path there and back. This in itself would be identifiable. Most video though hard to manually go thru and identify, there are programs that can parse and find matches on the same person to see if they are in different shots in the same area or on the same camera. I work in tech, there are companies that can do this for them. If they can't, I am sure the FBI has the ability or has a contractor that can for them.


Possible, but see above. Easy to come one way and leave another. What if he got there unperceived and then was picked up in a car. No trace.

If they left another, they would get them on at least one camera. As you said there is only one way in and out that they could use with no cameras, then as I said use my above method and you will get them. If they were picked up in a car, you will get them in the method I stated earlier. A car entering or leaving the area will have a rate of speed and you can ascertain if it either slowed or stopped in the time window entering/leaving the area. If you feel there are too many cars, use a contractor who has the tech to identify similar cars and those that slowed or stopped. Technology is our friend, use it.

Yah, they're doing that. Feel bad for those guys -- loads of nothing calls, probably all nothing calls to investigate.
I did not mean calls, I meant picking up a cell signal. You do know that even if your location service is not on, you can still be found right? Your cell picks up a signal, by sending a signal to a tower, it is pinging it in a sense. If a cell is on, even if it goes in and out with its signal based on signal strength, it WILL be picked up enough times when it close enough to a tower, which it ALWAYS will be as a person moves, as long as their cell phone is on. They will know all people who entered the area who had a cell phone on them. Yes it is possible that some poor druggie had no phone, and as you say knew how to avoid the cameras to the train station. For this, see my method above near the station.

It's great they're trying, but like trying to find a needle in 500 haystacks.
I am an analyst, well I lead programs and projects now, but I am a very good analyst. Besides setting up the case, and determining the scenarios and data points to cull thru and compare, I would find any possible suspects because this is a job. Some people love doing this. Believe me, I bet the analysts on this case are ferocious and will not stop till they have gone thru everything.

Already done, LE has that stuff, we don't know what it shows. As you say, if she has additional ID's, how the heck will they find those without her iPad?
I'm sure they are trying all the tech angles on the stuff, but if she created IDs on her iPad once abroad, I think it will be pretty difficult to unearth anything.

I work in tech, I mentioned how above, you might have skimmed how they could go about this above, because my answer was lengthy. But my answer covers all angles. They could do this if they did their homework, and it is really not that hard, as long as they can get the proper subpoenas.

And, in the end, all of that is wasted time if it was a random! (Except the camera searches on the nearby street and RR station, they might get lucky with those).

Nothing is wasted if you can prevent another death by a random who thinks he can get away with doing this again. There are many reasons why this case is important to be solved, for the Turkish Gov't and tourism. Also with the US being an important geo political ally, especially right now with the war in Syria and its spill over with Iran, Lebanon..etc. Turkey is a very important ally to us right now, and the FBI will provide all necessary resources.
 
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