GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #4

[NewYork625]

I am so confused.

The photos you're referring to are the same person, IMO. Tarkan and Taylan are two different people.

Read back to the posts from around 14-15 hours ago. It was discussed and settled then.

 

[NewYork625]

Disagree with this statement.

Homeless people do end up with "territories" in certain zones with other homeless folks. They may cluster together in parks or unsupervised areas with cover, deserted buildings. They may have zones where certain garbage cans are theirs, or parts within a zone is where they scavenge. It's all very territorial, like animals in the wild (which we all are). They know who is new or alien to their community. They know when something different is happening. At least the ones that learn how to live homeless the best.

And, the Purported Perp Z is not described in the article as homeless so much as he is a collector of trash. He may have a hovel he calls home.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but just as a point of information the UK Daily Mail Online headline reads: BBM "Police hunt for homeless man suspected of killing New York mother on solo trip to Turkey".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278051/Police-hunt-homeless-man-suspected-killing-New-York-mother-solo-trip-Turkey.html

 

[Yellow]

Here's some operational and organizational insight of Turkish LE for sleuthers that aren't Turkish nationals:

Turkish LE is highly centralized. Every province is a seperate administrative organization, thus you can hear Istanbul Police, Izmir Police or Ankara Police. However, they are all centrally administered. Operationally, Turkish National Police falls under Ministry of Justice. Administratively and organizationally, they fall under Ministery of Interior. As provincal prosecutors and chiefs of police report to the province governor, which is appointed by the government and works for Ministery of Interior, you can say that MoI is running the show.

SS case is being handled by Istanbul Homicide Branch. Statements of individuals are handled mostly by them. However, it is possible that individuals' statements that are considered peripheral to the case are handled by Istanbul Public Order branch and passed onto Homicide Branch. Public Order branch are the Police you see patrolling streets, initially responding to incidents and mainly manning the precincts.

This Z is almost certainly from underdeveloped Eastern Provinces. He emigrated from his place of birth to Istanbul. Failing that, he must be born into such a family, which previously immigrated to Istanbul.

Eastern Provinces come into play, as Police intelligence and records for those who hail from there are more extensive than they are for from those who are from other regions. Reason for this is simple, there's been a Kurdish insurgency in the region revolving around Marxist terrorist organization PKK for the last 30 years. Easterners almost always face more scrutiny against possible ties to insurgency, their records are more extensively maintained.

This makes identifying Z even more easier. All Homicide had to do is to correspond with Intelligence Branch and Counterinsurgency Branch. Those branches can easily provide information for Turkish Nationals hailing from Eastern Provinces, even more so from what can be fetched from the central databases for any other national not from Eastern Provinces.

Lastly, I assume Homicide is corresponding with Foreigners Branch actively as well, as it is the Foreigners Branch which handles foreigners coming in and out of the country, administrating extended stay and permanent residencies, even manning the border points, checking arrival documentations. Besides, Foreigners Branch must have more English speaking personnel than other branches. I'm sure at least a liasion was appointed to Homicide from them to handle correspondence with US LE.

New generation of academy graduate Police Officers are highly educated though, more than the old school ones, knowledge of English is bound to be more common among them. But again, such Police Officers are junior or middle grade by now, so there's a good chance senior grade homicide people assigned to the case are supplemented by English speaking officers.

I wouldn't be surprised a lot if I learn that some of the assigned homicide guys are watching our correspondence and smiling after seeing theories discussed here.

How do you know he is from eastern provinces? Is it just bc most street people hail from there? Who are the people from the eastern provinces and why are they in Istanbul? Do they emigrate for jobs?

 

[bourne]

Seems like we're in the minority, ThinkHard, but I'm definitely with you on this.

I'm curious as to how LE was yesterday saying they'd narrowed the suspects down to SS' internet contacts (and one homeless man who was only a suspect because he was at the scene when the body was found) and today have full name, age, etc of this other random trash guy whose name starts with a Z as suspect #1 instead. What gives?

Maybe Z is an internet contact of Sarai's. Maybe he's one of the 5 original men, who happens to be a trash collector by trade. That's the only way this is making any sense to me at all right about now.

Is suspect Z the same homeless man LE already took DNA from?

 

[SANDOVAL]

Homeless people do have territories, group structure and some are more in charge than others , that is those who regularly congregate at a particular location.
That cave, even if there was no 'good samaritan' most likely was someone's 'home' and they knew when it got a dead person left in it.

 

[bourne]

While reading the forum I had another thought as to why Sarai may not have been raped, not sure you will want to hear it though.

I'll bite. Why?

 

[zarra30]

So my faith in LE has been proven? They are really zeroing in on the bad guy?

Whoever did this to a young mother, beloved wife, great friend, aspiring photographer is purely evil. They live in every city, state, and country.

What I personally would want to be the 'cautionary tale' here is NOT that mothers and female students should be fearful of having a passion for the arts and NOT that they should be afraid to experience other cultures.

I am a mother and not so young anymore, but for some of us, our lives did not simply stop when we had children. We can love and fully provide for children and husband and still retain an interest in other things. In my youth, I traveled to small towns and islands and cities and always returned with amazing stories from their journeys, and friends from all over the world. Of course I wouldn't encourage a woman to trust or go off with an email address, screen name, or avatar or whatever they call it today. I'm not saying that, and I seriously, absolutely doubt that she did.

Truth is, if I had known Sarai, and she sounds pretty amazing to me, I would have loved her idea to take a trip abroad, a photography jaunt to Istanbul, as long as her children were safe (and they were), the trip was short (in fact she shortened it) and she was smart enough to research the destination (which she apparently did) and had trustable contacts in the destination.

In my younger years I would have taken the fun side-trip to Amsterdam (another amazing city) and thanked the friend (who I would have checked out pretty well in advance) for for taking me around. Lots of girls and women have guys who are just friends. Lots.
She may have met him on IG, but no one knows that all she exchanged were a few words on pics. There would have been phone calls and skypes, they may have had friends in common here in the U.S. or in Amsterdam, they may have met up before. No one knows. I doubt she went to a screen name stranger's home blindly. Her family would have stopped that.
It's not always a smoldering love match just because two people are from the opposite sex.
Posters on this board, including me suggested she should have stayed in a hostel because you are surrounded with so many other newly arrived people in a strange land. Hostels are geared to help people navigate and usually arrange lots of tours.
But she may have had friends there that we don't know about or maybe she wanted to stay in the part of town that was colorful, gritty, inner city and artsy, like our Lower East Side in New York, and maybe she was referred there by others who had stayed there, artists, musicians, students. No one knows.

Are they suggesting she was killed where she was found? I don't know how she got to that isolated lonely, cave. I certainly hope she didn't walk along railroad tacks alone or in the woods, so far off the beaten path. I just don't see her naive, so it must have been close to something else and it was a wrong turn?

Having traveled on my own, I only have this to add: If you're in a new place, listen to the locals, to your host. Rely on those who know the land. Millions of people travel to foreign lands and good things happen to them.

Lastly, I totally reject the bathroom sex story. I believe the tea story. It's just me. But I think it does nothing but cast aspersions on her character and titillate and it's painful to her family. The guy should have the courage and decency when this is over to come out and be quoted as absolutely denying it and not hide behind the "no relationship" ambiguity.
This is all my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with all I have said. So be it. Someday we will get the true story.

 

[Yashim]

I agree with you Meri. A lot of posters here are feeling remorse for posting their theories/speculation implicating innocent people, and the effect it may have on SS's children. Hence, Herat's reply.

I dropped my theories about SS quite a while ago.

But she took some steps that made her real motives to be questioned. And LE also questioned Taylan and his derivatives. So, despite all, what we were doing was parallel to the investigation.

It was when we pulled SS's family into the scenarios that we got off track. Even LE wasn't suspicious (as far as I could observe) of them.

I believe that scenario started budding in this thread. Maybe we can still do something about that.

 

[looking4answers]

Don't buy that assumption

There's a big difference between being "dirty" disheveled, poor, and unwashed and being "covered in mud."

What stands out in the LE description was that he was [unusually] covered in mud.

I also don't think the people in Yashmin's video look covered in mud. They look a bit unwashed, wearing some dirty clothes, but not anything that would stand out.

For the reason of his appearance, Purported Perp Z stands out from the unwashed crowd.

Dirt or mud? Hmm, I wonder if he got wet and placed dirt on him as mud, so that he could better cover up cuts/bruises he got from Sarai in a srtuggle.

Mud /= Dirt

Seems fishy to me.

 

[Yashim]

While reading the forum I had another thought as to why Sarai may not have been raped, not sure you will want to hear it though.

Before you go, please note that some this type of sex offenders are capable of attacking anything moving, even a shrub that sways sexily.

 

[Yashim]

Dirt or mud? Hmm, I wonder if he got wet and placed dirt on him as mud, so that he could better cover up cuts/bruises he got from Sarai in a srtuggle.

Mud /= Dirt

Seems fishy to me.

What do you mean by dirt exactly?

 

[StCirq]

I think the term "scavenger" used in the video is more appropriate than either garbage man or trash man. Or perhaps even dumpster diver.

 

[Yashim]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but just as a point of information the UK Daily Mail Online headline reads: BBM "Police hunt for homeless man suspected of killing New York mother on solo trip to Turkey".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278051/Police-hunt-homeless-man-suspected-killing-New-York-mother-solo-trip-Turkey.html

Some of those people have normal homes. And some even make around $1500 a month. Since they aren't on a payroll or anything, homeless is their default title.

 

[Yellow]

Lastly, I totally reject the bathroom sex story. I believe the tea story. It's just me. But I think it does nothing but cast aspersions on her character and titillate and it's painful to her family. The guy should have the courage and decency when this is over to come out and be quoted as absolutely denying it and not hide behind the "no relationship" ambiguity.
This is all my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with all I have said. So be it. Someday we will get the true story.

Sad thing is if Taylan is simply a Casanova, he might never admit publicly he struck out, especially if he told his friends otherwise. But maybe he will, or at least talk to the family...

I wonder if she just wandered in that area or she was led there? I could see how, If unfamiliar, how you could quickly end up in a more deserted area than you expected... Then if someone surprised you....

She might have simply been taking pictures, perhaps was busy taking them and maybe did not realize someone came up behind her...

Sad story but it will be especially tragic if it turns out she was killed for an ipad. So senseless....

I wonder if Z perhaps turned on the ipad in one of those eastern province towns? That he split from Istambul, went to his home region, and turned it on there? That would explain why they seem to have him as a suspect even though they probably do not have his DNA match (though perhaps DNA on file if he did petty crime?)

Also the Skype thing too.. Perhaps they trace the Skype to a region where he is from and it would be just too coincidental he goes missing and then her electronics are turned on in the region of Turkey where he is from?

 

[Yashim]

Homeless People have no ties to any one area. The police are looking to speak to him.

Everybody has some ties. And people long to be attached to some place.

People even get emotionally attached to the butt prints they make on the couch.

But they may always be ready to leave if necessary. That I most definitely agree.

 

[Herat]

I wonder if she just wandered in that area or she was led there?

She prefers to photograph railroad tracks, grafffitti, arches, and bridges.

If you were innocently directing someone to photograph those things, you would mention this area.

There are railroad tracks on the town side of where she was found, not more than about 30 feet away, I guess from googleearth.

There are arches all over the crumbling ancient walls.

There is grafffiti in many places of these walls. Ironically, on the outside (street-facing side) of the cave-like area where her body was found.

She looks as though she was heading to that region intentionally and I think likely to photograph these types of scenes on her last day in Istanbul.

 

[Yashim]

She prefers to photograph railroad tracks, grafffitti, arches, and bridges.

If you were innocently directing someone to photograph those things, you would mention this area.

There are railroad tracks on the town side of where she was found, not more than about 30 feet away, I guess from googleearth.

There are arches all over the crumbling ancient walls.

There is grafffiti in many places of these walls. Ironically, on the outside (street-facing side) of the cave-like area where her body was found.

She looks as though she was heading to that region intentionally and I think likely to photograph these types of scenes on her last day in Istanbul.

Perhaps, we'll have a better idea when they find the iPad.

She might have even tried to take a photo of the Bosporus from inside the cave, through the entrance.

Would she do that? I might.

Using the entrance hole of the cave as a frame would be something.

 

[necco]

Perhaps, we'll have a better idea when they find the iPad.

She might have even tried to take a photo of the Bosporus from inside the cave, through the entrance.

Would she do that? I might.

Using the entrance hole of the cave as a frame would be something.

Using architecture as a frame for scenery is definitely one aspect of photographing urban decay. I probably have a thousand pictures taken through doors, windows, holes in buildings etc.

Good call, Yashim.

 

[writer411]

I sincerely hope local LE doesn't hang its hat on the theory that "he was covered in dirt so the killer must have been Jim" just to cave to international scrutiny. The fact that local LE doesn't normally dedicate this level of resources to the death of a woman has got to be weighing on its desire to wrap up the investigation.

 

[Herat]

Perhaps, we'll have a better idea when they find the iPad.



She might have even tried to take a photo of the Bosporus from inside the cave, through the entrance.


Using the entrance hole of the cave as a frame would be something.

Don't you mean IF they find the now-famous I-pad?

Those kind of shots might be tricky because of the lack of lighting inside a cave-like broken arch (which is what I think it is, actually). At least with an SLR you can manipulate the flash, exposure, and depth of field, which you really can't do with a cameraphone.

We've never seen a photograph of the entrance of this cave-like area have we? I'm curious to see what the surrounding ground looked like- full of irregular rubble difficult to walk over? someone's old firepit? flat and muddy?