GUILTY Turkey - Sarai Sierra, 33, NY woman murdered, Istanbul, 21 Jan 2013 - #1

[stmarysmead]

But she only paid for 13 days, according to the Hostel owner, so it was a two week trip. Or at least she only planned to spend 13 days in that place. If her flight was the next day...wouldn't that be the 14th night, or not?
Why did the husband believe she was cutting the trip short if she only paid for 13 days?

If the husband and family actually believed she planned a 3 week trip, and the hostel owner can prove that the online reservation was only for 13 days...then IMO that indicates some preplanned misleading of her family by this young woman herself.

 

[Orgona]

I don't see anything in the comments on that link referring to an unknown male in A'dam. are you sure it was that page?

I saw it too. You would need to scroll down a good distance.

 

[belimom]

This article (I assume loosely translated into English) shows another picture of the house she was staying in. The street looks more like a side street and not Tarlabasi Blvd. There is a street mentioned, Kömürcü Zeynel Sokak No:20, that is off Tarlabasi on google maps. Not sure why that street is mentioned.


http://www.habermonitor.com/en/haber/detay/can-not-get-lost-in-beyoglu-us-sierra-dan-new/54033/

I've searched two sites for hostels in Istanbul - and even expanded it to include all lodging - and can't find anything with that address. I'll keep looking.

 

[ami]

But she only paid for 13 days, according to the Hostel owner, so it was a two week trip. Or at least she only planned to spend 13 days in that place. If her flight was the next day...wouldn't that be the 14th night, or not?
Why did the husband believe she was cutting the trip short if she only paid for 13 days?

If the husband and family actually believed she planned a 3 week trip, and the hostel owner can prove that the online reservation was only for 13 days...then IMO that indicates some preplanned misleading of her family by this young woman herself.

I really think this is confusion generated by the reporting.

From the cnn article [http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/27/world/europe/turkey-missing-american/index.html?iref=allsearch]:

After doing some in-depth research in advance, she was "excited" as she headed east. Her husband said that she was enjoying herself in Turkey, though early on in the trip, she rebooked her flight home to come back three days earlier -- hoping, among other things, to surprise her sons.

When the hostel owner said she paid in advance for 13 days, maybe this was the planned days after she'd decided to cut it short, or maybe that didn't include the Amsterdam trip, etc. I think it's just a confusion of lack of details - it really doesn't sound like this was a secretive trip plan in the least.

 

[Snoopster]

I really think this is confusion generated by the reporting.

From the cnn article [http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/27/world/europe/turkey-missing-american/index.html?iref=allsearch]:


When the hostel owner said she paid in advance for 13 days, maybe this was the planned days after she'd decided to cut it short, or maybe that didn't include the Amsterdam trip, etc. I think it's just a confusion of lack of details - it really doesn't sound like this was a secretive trip plan in the least.

I agree. If it was secretive then she wouldn't have posted the photos from Amsterdam.

 

[lucky181]

I've been trying to find pictures of hostels/rooms etc that look like this one which I assume is her room. Most of the other hotels look rather nice but this room looks kinda small. I can't tell if there is a lock on the door.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=447&GalleryID=1155&gpid=2

 

[lightlady]

Have any of you found her tweets? I am not a tweeter, but a Turkish friend of mine said that he had read her tweet trail and that she was a very outspoken Christian. He seemed to think the trip might have been more about evangelism than photography, and that she got in trouble with someone over that. I have to admit I have not seen anything myself on this so it is just a rumor, but maybe one of you sleuthers could dig them up...

 

[belimom]

There is Omer Hayyam street that connects with Kömürcü Zeynel street. I did not find any Hayyam hostel, though.

I found a Hayyam hostel... I think tarabull listed it above also. But, is the address right? :waitasec:

 

[stmarysmead]

http://www.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/1871609

This article claims this is a dangerous part of the city.

ISTANBUL - An American woman who vanished while on a photography vacation alone was staying in one of the more dangerous parts of the city.

Sarai Sierra, the mother of two young children, had a room in a small basement apartment with bars on the windows and weak lighting. She was the only tourist in the building in a district where drug dealing is not uncommon.

"If you want to see hell, just go a few streets down," said Juliette Denptos, a French woman who lives on Komurcu Zeynel Street, where Sierra stayed. "The police may be near, but they don't protect us much."

 

[ami]

Have any of you found her tweets? I am not a tweeter, but a Turkish friend of mine said that he had read her tweet trail and that she was a very outspoken Christian. He seemed to think the trip might have been more about evangelism than photography, and that she got in trouble with someone over that. I have to admit I have not seen anything myself on this so it is just a rumor, but maybe one of you sleuthers could dig them up...

There are a couple "Sarai Sierra" names on Twitter, though neither of them struck me as belonging to this particular woman. Does your friend think one of them was her account?

 

[lightlady]

Honestly I am not sure, I will try to ask him. Perhaps he had the wrong person. Thanks for checking!

 

[stmarysmead]

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The husband of the Staten Island woman missing in Turkey since last week said Monday he was "well aware" of his wife's side trips to Amsterdam and Munich, and described the man his wife was Internet chatting with during her stay in an Istanbul tourist hostel as a "tour guide" from the Netherlands.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/husband_of_staten_island_woman.html

 

[belimom]

http://www.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/1871609

This article claims this is a dangerous part of the city.

ISTANBUL - An American woman who vanished while on a photography vacation alone was staying in one of the more dangerous parts of the city.

Sarai Sierra, the mother of two young children, had a room in a small basement apartment with bars on the windows and weak lighting. She was the only tourist in the building in a district where drug dealing is not uncommon.

"If you want to see hell, just go a few streets down," said Juliette Denptos, a French woman who lives on Komurcu Zeynel Street, where Sierra stayed. "The police may be near, but they don't protect us much."

bbm

This worries me.

 

[ami]

Police were also trying to establish the identity of a man Sierra, 33, was chatting with on the Internet, according to local media.

Rachel Norman, a family friend, said the man was a group tour guide from the Netherlands and said Sierra stayed in regular touch with her family in New York

. [ http://abcnews.go.com/International...n-missing-turkey-side-trips/story?id=18336047

It sounds more like the husband isn't really concerned about the Amsterdam guy (thought the one instagram commenter apparently felt he was sketchy) - and if she made it back to Istanbul and was there an additional few days before going missing, are they trying to imply someone followed her from Amsterdam?

 

[Hexe]

I found a Hayyam hostel... I think tarabull listed it above also. But, is the address right? :waitasec:

On their official webpage they list the address of the hostel as ömer Hayyam Mah. Camcı Musa Sok. No: 12.

I must say turkish way of writting adresses confuses me strongly.

 

[belimom]

I didn't realize how tight those IG groups are, at least the #made_in_NYers (not sure I typed it right). A member told them to post full-body shots of Sarai for the missing posters in Turkey with tag #sarai_appearance (I like how they didn't say 'disappearance' - I think they're trying to be positive). If you search on IG with that tag, this is what you get... they're doing a great job:

http://statigr.am/tag/sarai_appearance

(OT - I never understood IG before now.)

 

[lucky181]

I checked her brother's twitter and I don't see him following her and I think he would be if she had one,

I've found that some people are transitioning to IG and not updating their FB. There had been a FB for SSMissing but it is no longer there. Someone had posted that they had liked it yesterday and now it's gone.

I think she paid for 13 days in Istanbul just so she would have a place to come back to after visiting Amsterdam and Munich. I doubt if it was very expensive since it's not a great looking room and in the basement.

It seems odd that she doesn't have any IG pics from Munich. Maybe she was waiting to get home to tweak them with photoshop. I can't remember where I read it, but she takes pics with her Galaxy 3 phone and then uses iPad to edit them.

 

[Snoopster]

Here is the photo from the news:

I found this place listed at the same address (Kömürcü Zeynel Sk, Istanbul):

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/180932?locale=en

So, it seems like the same building, except the advertised apartment in this case is on the upper two floors, while SS stayed on the basement level. (Is there really a 'basement' as we North Americans know it or is it on the ground level? In Europe they call the second floor the first floor.) The woman advertising this apartment sounds really nice (I know, you can't tell!) but it sounds like she wasn't going to be present for January and February and was hoping to rent the entire apartment out, as opposed to room by room while she was away.

I will look to see if I can find the basement apartment. According to the news the home owner was a man named Yiğit Yetmez. Perhaps the woman renting out the upper apartment was just subletting her apartment.

 

[radiator]

Here is the photo from the news:

I found this place listed at the same address (Kömürcü Zeynel Sk, Istanbul):

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/180932?locale=en

So, it seems like the same building, except the advertised apartment in this case is on the upper two floors, while SS stayed on the basement level. (Is there really a 'basement' as we North Americans know it or is it on the ground level? In Europe they call the second floor the first floor.) The woman advertising this apartment sounds really nice (I know, you can't tell!) but it sounds like she wasn't going to be present for January and February and was hoping to rent the entire apartment out, as opposed to room by room while she was away.

I will look to see if I can find the basement apartment. According to the news the home owner was a man named Yiğit Yetmez. Perhaps the woman renting out the upper apartment was just subletting her apartment.

you're good! that definitely looks like the same house. interestingly the woman who's listed as the renter on the airbnb site says she is going to be out of the country in january and february so perhaps YY is a friend or somebody she hired to manage the property and he rented out the basement?

 

[ami]

you're good! that definitely looks like the same house. interestingly the woman who's listed as the renter on the airbnb site says she is going to be out of the country in january and february so perhaps YY is a friend or somebody she hired to manage the property and he rented out the basement?

Or maybe the basement is just the ground floor (street level) and someone else (YY) owns it and rents it out? But then I wonder how YY saw her "around the house" on Sunday... makes it seem like he's on site all the time. Could she have rented out a room in his apartment?