GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #2

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The NY Post is just tabloid journalism and not considered main stream media.

The headline is very disrespectful. What the **** "Turkey Ma"! That says it right there ...

"Turkey ma’s shady pals"
Hung with bad guys: feds
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I don't know how to carry over a post, but this is in reply to cmac's post about registering. The thing is, although there may have been plenty of time when she got back, the classes fill up VERY quickly and you would want to register ASAP to get the classes you need at the times you want. Normally I would create a mock schedule as soon as the class list was released so I could register the second my appointment was. Which brings me to registering online. You can, however it is not as cut and dried as you may think. If she wasn't there last semester than she probably was not able to. It is a separate website, and you have to be already be a student in good standing (no tuition/fin aid issues or anything like that)- then you are given a date and time when they 'unlock' you and you can register. Fir example, when you log in and click the 'register' tab, it will say something along the lines of 'you may register on 1/25/13 at 11:25 am'. The date and time is applicable for in-person registration too. It is a huge school with a LOT of students. This is their way of trying to alleviate some of the crowds/lines. I hope I've explained this clearly!
 
necco said:
Seriously, though, The New York Post is a rag that strives to come up with the tackiest pun headlines it can think of
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They are shameless.

Their most famous headline was "Headless Body in Topless Bar".

An editor thought up the headline, but there was some question whether the bar really was topless or not. A reporter was dispatched. Calling back minutes before deadline, the crack journalist reported "I see *advertiser censored*!" And thus a legend was born.
 
Its very possible that Sarai did meet...innocently...with some "criminal element" in Turkey. She was, after all, connecting with strangers from the Internet. And this could have factored
into what happened to her.

Let us not forget that it was the notorious Natl Enquirer that broke the JohnEdwards baby scandal...when his adoring media would not cover the story.

As difficult as it is, I think we need to remain objective from every angle. We know very little to be FACT. We do not know the state of her marriage, the nature of her interactions with these Internet friends, the reality of her relationship, sexual or otherwise with Taylan, or honestly, the purpose of her trip. I would not be surprised that an FBI agent might have told a reporter of his suspicions. It's the job of the FBI to take nothing at face value. They cannot just accept Sarai as a lovely, adventuresome faithful young wife/photographer. They are investigating a brutal murder that has made international news. They cannot romanticize anyone or let sympathy impede their inquiries.

Many of us have made an emotional connection with Sarai...much like she did with the strangers she met on the Internet. But truly, we do not know HER any better than she knew them. Let us just pray that the truth of this tragedy is one that will comfort her family and children.
 
One more thing. You register before paying your bill, which needs to be done right around the end of jan before classes start. If you don't pay by the deadline, they drop your spot in your classes and like I said previously, they fill up quickly. Students wait for bill deadline day bc a lot of slots open up. Anyway it's totally plausible there was a snafu in her bill/method of payment (financial aid?) which would need to sorted out in person. It would be something that would be dealt with urgency or the semester would be ruined. That, plus maybe she just wanted to come home. I am almost always ready to come home before my vacations end
 
stmarysmead said:
Let us not forget that it was the notorious Natl Enquirer that broke the JohnEdwards baby scandal...when his adoring media would not cover the story.
Click to expand...

Every so often, even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

I'm just disappointed the nut was the Edwards affair sorry instead of the "the President is secretly an alien from Alpha Centauri" story. Would've been fun.

But seriously, I'm sure we all agree you are right. We are just saying that we shouldn't take the NY Post at face value, but submit it to critical thinking. We don't know yet what happened to SS and who was at fault.

Clearly she did meet up with a "criminal element" at some point in Istanbul, and all avenues should be explored until it can be proven who killed her and why.
 
stmarysmead said:
Its very possible that Sarai did meet...innocently...with some "criminal element" in Turkey. She was, after all, connecting with strangers from the Internet. And this could have factored
into what happened to her.

Let us not forget that it was the notorious Natl Enquirer that broke the JohnEdwards baby scandal...when his adoring media would not cover the story.

As difficult as it is, I think we need to remain objective from every angle. We know very little to be FACT. We do not know the state of her marriage, the nature of her interactions with these Internet friends, the reality of her relationship, sexual or otherwise with Taylan, or honestly, the purpose of her trip. I would not be surprised that an FBI agent might have told a reporter of his suspicions. It's the job of the FBI to take nothing at face value. They cannot just accept Sarai as a lovely, adventuresome faithful young wife/photographer. They are investigating a brutal murder that has made international news. They cannot romanticize anyone or let sympathy impede their inquiries.

Many of us have made an emotional connection with Sarai...much like she did with the strangers she met on the Internet. But truly, we do not know HER any better than she knew them. Let us just pray that the truth of this tragedy is one that will comfort her family and children.
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This is a very thoughtful appraisal, thank you. The way information is being disseminated by the investigative parties (LE, FBI) I am very concerned how the truth will eventually play out and how she will ultimately be perceived. Even if some of the worst case scenarios are realized (drug mule, illicit relations etc) no one deserves to meet that fate and no children should be resigned to the loss of a parent in such an unspeakable manner.
 
stmarysmead said:
(snip)

As difficult as it is, I think we need to remain objective from every angle. We know very little to be FACT. We do not know the state of her marriage, the nature of her interactions with these Internet friends, the reality of her relationship, sexual or otherwise with Taylan, or honestly, the purpose of her trip.

(snip)
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I had read in a previous post - I think it was Turkish LE reporting? - that she had recently been staying with her parents. This could be rumor, but if not, I wonder if her trip was to try to break away a little more. We still don't know the truth to that statement, though. I wondered how they would know this, but then any Turkish friends she made may be more willing to talk to the Turkish media than to the US media.

Found it (bbm):

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8806564&postcount=1307

Originally Posted by Lavy

Originally Posted by vesa

New article:

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/22523692.asp
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Ah...good. It was becoming too hard to focus on the case and actually ignorance started to hurt.

I'll translate the rest but this is just media crap no source is stated. (I mean the first and second paragraphs)

Sarai Sierra's trip to death started 6 months ago when she started publishing her photos on instagram. Sierra was staying with her parents because of the problems she was having with her husband. Soon she had 3000 followers and met with people all around the world. She got invitations from all over the world. Her friends from Turkey told her Istanbul is a great city to take photos.


Sierra came to Turkey on 8th of January and stayed in the room in Tarlabasi for a week. Then she went to Amsterdam to meet with AR. When AR learned that she was missing he said: "I told her to not go there. I wasn't feeling right about where she was staying an the person she is staying with. I believe she met with wrong people on internet and thats why she is in trouble."

It is been said (but not confirmed) that a special team from US is accompanying the interrogation and search. US press came to Istanbul as well.

Istanbul has lower murder rates when compared to other metropols. Numbers are given

Forensic results: No rape, her face is unrecognizable

According to initial results no sign of rape. On the left side of her head starting from a little bit above her neck there are 5 blows to head. Her right hands ring finger and middle fingers are broken. Although her death time is not certain, she was died on 21st. Her face is unrecognizable because of the blows on her head. There are lots of small cuts and bruises on her body. Full autopsy report will be ready in three weeks. Blood and saliva samples will be taken from all suspects.

-It was very hard to translate the last paragraph. I hope the monster who did this will be arrested soon, nothing else matters at that point.
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The NY Post article still has the trip dates incorrect. One day in Amsterdam and 3 in Munich. That information has been corrected elsewhere yet the Post reporters don't seem to be checking their sources very well.
 
Kluver13 said:
Even if some of the worst case scenarios are realized (drug mule, illicit relations etc) no one deserves to meet that fate and no children should be resigned to the loss of a parent in such an unspeakable manner.
Click to expand...

I've been wanting to say something about this for days.

Why, unlike male victims, do we tend to submit women victims to a kind of all-or-nothing, black-or-white "*advertiser censored*/madonna" standard? The stories are almost all either "SS was a drug-running hard-partier who abandoned her family" OR "SS was a perfect mother and a saint who never drank, danced or had an untoward thought".

This is unrealistic. SS was a beautiful, complex, conflicted human being like any of us. I believe she should be remembered as such, regardless of the particulars of whatever happened to her.

We don't know what she was up to with the men she met on her travels, and we don't know what her primary relationship status was either. Maybe everything was great and they were deeply and exclusively committed to one another. Maybe they had an open relationship. Maybe her husband had cheated on her and she was dealing with that. None of us know.

We can't walk in her shoes because we don't know where she was in her emotional life. We may never know. We must, though, respect her journey, and whatever the truth was of her actions on her voyage through the world, accept her in all her complex contradictions as one of us.

That is my plea.
 
ToutCa said:
I've been wanting to say something about this for days.

Why, unlike male victims, do we tend to submit women victims to a kind of all-or-nothing, black-or-white "*advertiser censored*/madonna" standard? The stories are almost all either "SS was a drug-running hard-partier who abandoned her family" OR "SS was a perfect mother and a saint who never drank, danced or had an untoward thought".

This is unrealistic. SS was a beautiful, complex, conflicted human being like any of us. I believe she should be remembered as such, regardless of the particulars of whatever happened to her.

We don't know what she was up to with the men she met on her travels, and we don't know what her primary relationship status was either. Maybe everything was great and they were deeply and exclusively committed to one another. Maybe they had an open relationship. Maybe her husband had cheated on her and she was dealing with that. None of us know.

We can't walk in her shoes because we don't know where she was in her emotional life. We may never know. We must, though, respect her journey, and whatever the truth was of her actions on her voyage through the world, accept her in all her complex contradictions as one of us.

That is my plea.
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^^^^ Very well said. ^^^^
 
I've felt from early on that there was more to the story than just a young mother traveling to Turkey to take photos.

What happened to Sarai was a tragedy, regardless of why she was in Turkey and what she may have done while she was there.

But something just doesn't add up, IMO, and I hope the truth will be uncovered.
 
shimz said:
I don't know how to carry over a post, but this is in reply to cmac's post about registering. The thing is, although there may have been plenty of time when she got back, the classes fill up VERY quickly and you would want to register ASAP to get the classes you need at the times you want. Normally I would create a mock schedule as soon as the class list was released so I could register the second my appointment was. Which brings me to registering online. You can, however it is not as cut and dried as you may think. If she wasn't there last semester than she probably was not able to. It is a separate website, and you have to be already be a student in good standing (no tuition/fin aid issues or anything like that)- then you are given a date and time when they 'unlock' you and you can register. Fir example, when you log in and click the 'register' tab, it will say something along the lines of 'you may register on 1/25/13 at 11:25 am'. The date and time is applicable for in-person registration too. It is a huge school with a LOT of students. This is their way of trying to alleviate some of the crowds/lines. I hope I've explained this clearly!
Click to expand...

I get all that, and don't disagree. However, she has been described more than once as a meticulous planner. If she needed to get a certain class, she easily could have (and would have, IMO) registered prior to leaving, or would have scheduled the trip around her school obligations/requirements. To cut a trip abroad short- a trip she had so meticulously planned for, and struggled to be able to do in the first place, just to register for school does not make sense to me. It isn't like she took a long lunch one day to register for these classes. She took drastic measures and incurred fees that I imagine exceed the cost of a late registration would have cost. The registration deadlines have been the same for months now. Why a meticulous planner didn't plan for that makes me think she told people she had to come home to register b/c she didn't want to have to explain the real reason for leaving early.

That said, the real reason could be anything, and quite possibly has nothing to do with what ultimately happened to her. That said, however, IMO she did not cut her trip short to register for class.
 
KivaSupporter said:
A local paper reported that investigators are focusing on a group of unofficial tour guides she was seen with in the days before she vanished.

According to the Miliyet newspaper, a woman called the police on Jan. 31 and told a dispatcher she had seen Sierra with the guides, who are known to harass tourists, on two separate occasions.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sarai-sierra-body-journey-home-turkey-article-1.1256570
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I wouldn't entirely doubt this as a possibility.
I mentioned a while ago on the previous thread that there are groups of people who do pray on tourist for money or sex.

If you are a lone female in turkey and you are in touristy areas you are bound to have people try to flirt with you. You simply have to flat out ignore them. No common curtiousy neccasary. Smiling, saying no thank you, all of this will just got them to keep going they will say things like " oh you break my heart" "my heart is broken now you won't talk to me" " how bought you just come have a drink with me, we'll go to Starbucks". Most of these men are attractive and young.
If you just keep walking and completely ignore this, it stops. But if you feed into it, AT ALL, this shows them you've let your guard down. The more you let them in, the greater chance you have to be victimized.

Note I'm not saying all Turkish men are like this. But there are enough, and they do look for a tourist who is trusting.
 
Marilynilpa said:
I've felt from early on that there was more to the story than just a young mother traveling to Turkey to take photos.

What happened to Sarai was a tragedy, regardless of why she was in Turkey and what she may have done while she was there.

But something just doesn't add up, IMO, and I hope the truth will be uncovered.
Click to expand...

Ditto and it doesn't take anything away. No one deserves her fate- whether they are young and beautiful or an older addicted sex worker.
 
Do they stone people to death for adultry in Turkey?
 
ThinkHard said:
I wouldn't entirely doubt this as a possibility.
I mentioned a while ago on the previous thread that there are groups of people who do pray on tourist for money or sex.

If you are a lone female in turkey and you are in touristy areas you are bound to have people try to flirt with you. You simply have to flat out ignore them. No common curtiousy neccasary. Smiling, saying no thank you, all of this will just got them to keep going they will say things like " oh you break my heart" "my heart is broken now you won't talk to me" " how bought you just come have a drink with me, we'll go to Starbucks". Most of these men are attractive and young.
If you just keep walking and completely ignore this, it stops. But if you feed into it, AT ALL, this shows them you've let your guard down. The more you let them in, the greater chance you have to be victimized.

Note I'm not saying all Turkish men are like this. But there are enough, and they do look for a tourist who is trusting.
Click to expand...
Could these be the same guys who offered to be her tour guides?
 
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