The body of Staten Island wife and mother of two Sarai Sierra was found in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday, two weeks after she was last heard from. A Turkish broadcaster said that 15 people were being detained for questioning.
Sierra had been traveling alone in Turkey beginning on January 7 to pursue her interest photography. Originally her friend Maggie Rodriguez was going to go with her, but Rodriguez had to cancel because of financial issues. Rodriguez told the Staten Island Advance, "If I went with her, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe we would have went to a different spot that day. Maybe we'd be sitting in a cafe, just chit chatting with each other."
The NY Times reports, "Ms. Sierra chronicled her travels around Istanbul, as well as side trips to Amsterdam and Munich, on her page on the social media outlet Instagram, memyself_sarai. The last photo was posted on Jan. 20." Sierra's Instagram page shows many photographs of city skyline, streetscapes and sunsets.
Police questioned and then released a Turkish man, named Taylan, who Sierra contacted online and met the day she was supposed to leave Turkey. The NY Times reports:
“I’ll be across from the Galata Tower in a while, will you come?” Ms. Sierra reportedly wrote in an e-mail sent on Jan. 21 at 11 a.m., referring to a popular tourist attraction in downtown Istanbul. The text of the message was first reported in the Turkish paper Vatan.
The tower is a short walk from the hostel in the Tarlabasi district where Ms. Sierra had rented a room.
Ms. Sierra sent another message at 11:33 a.m., saying, “I’m leaving, call me if you want to reach me.”
Taylan replied at 12:45 p.m., writing, “I’ll come there, hope you have wireless.”
When the police searched her room, they found her cellphone and passport and other belongings.
Taylan, according to the Turkish media, denied to the Istanbul police any intimate relations with Ms. Sierra, whom he had met on the Internet four months ago. He said they were both active on Instagram, which is used to share photography, and continued to communicate via his Gmail account.
According to a Turkish newspaper, he said, "She told me that she wanted to come to Istanbul to take pictures, and I told her that it was a good idea. She came to Istanbul, we continued talking over the net and met face to face for the first time on Jan. 13, talked about each other’s lives, wandered around and then left separately."
Sierra's body was found near ancient city walls of what the AP calls the "low-income district" of Sarayburnu. The Daily Beast reports, "Sierra was reportedly fully clothed with her earrings and bracelet intact. Some press reports have said that she had a head wound, while others have said she had been stabbed."
Sierra had two children, 9 and 11, who were not told their mother was missing. Her husband Steven Sierra had gone to Turkey to assist with the search last week, "You're hoping that she's OK wherever she's at, that she's not hurting, that she's not cold, that she's being fed. It' s difficult what's going through my mind, if our hopes and prayers are not answered. It is difficult when you have two children that look up to you, and you have to do your very best to stay strong regardless of what happens." Now he is going to Turkey to identify the body.
