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Subscribe to RSSSarai Sierra, an amateur photographer, took her first trip abroad to Turkey – alone. She was found dead in Istanbul's historic district. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
A New York City mom who went missing while visiting Turkey was killed by a blunt trauma wound to the head, Turkish officials said early Sunday.
The body of Sarai Sierra, 33, who had been missing for almost two weeks, was found Saturday evening dumped against ramparts of an ancient city wall, police said.
Police are reportedly questioning 15 people over her killing.
Mother-of-two Sierra, from Staten Island, had not been in contact with her family since Jan. 21, the day before she was supposed to fly home after a two-week vacation - her first overseas trip.
What happened in the days in which she was missing is not clear, police said.
Her husband, Steven, identified her body late on Saturday at an Istanbul morgue, state broadcaster TRT reported.
Sierra left for Turkey on Jan. 7 – alone, because a friend had dropped out of the trip. She wanted to pursue her photography hobby. An Instagram account she set up over the summer, with images of scenes around New York City, had developed a strong following.
During her two-week trip abroad, Sierra also visited the Netherlands and Munich, Germany, according to the AP.
Police briefly detained a man last week who exchanged messages with Sierra online. The man had contacted her and made plans to meet with her on a bridge she wanted to photograph, according to Hurriyet. The bridge was a short distance from where Sierra's body was found.
The man was released after being questioned. It was unclear whether he was among the those arrested after the body was found.
Speaking earlier, Steven Sierra said Sarai stayed in close touch with him and their children, ages 9 and 11, by phone and by Skype. After she didn’t arrive at the airport as planned, he and his brother-in-law David Jimenez traveled to Turkey to look for her.
Isolde Raftery, Staff Writer, NBC News, contributed to this report.
Phone of NYC mom missing in Turkey used twice in recent days
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It seems to me the time to do this kind of stuff would have been before you are married with 2 kids.
IKnow-'just sayin'
Going against the flow here (by not blaming Turkey), I think the authorities need to take a hard look at the husband. How much life insurance did he take out on her? Does he have a serious girlfriend? Was the marriage in trouble? Check his phone and email records, to see if he's been in contact with anyone besides her in Turkey.
It wouldn't be the first time a spouse was murdered by a philandering mate.
Or they should just check to see if Turkey invaded Iraq from the rear.....would Greece help....???? I hope this statement sounds as stupid as - "The husband did it...."
May they catch the person/s responsible for this. May this young soul RIP and may her family come to find peace and solice.
Agreed! In the past Americans traveling abroad were relatively safe, not under present leadership.
I love my wife and we have traveled all over the world and
still have places to go.
However I am with Joe, some parts of the world I would not
let my wife go by herself. If she was to have a companion and that person
backed out then find another.
Nothing is fool proof and bad things happen to people all
over, sometimes it is wise not to temp the fates though.
Women, listen to me and spread the word...females since the day they are born until the day they die need to be extra vigilant in their surroundings and extra cautious with whom they choose to hang with. There are more various dangers for females then there ever will be for males. It is a sad fact of our world and always has been. So ladies, use your head, learn self defense and walk strong with confidence...it will keep you alive longer! No need to live in fear. If you follow my suggestions, you will be fine. Spread the word...especially to the young females! My condolences to the family.
How truly sad. However, in today's world you have to use some good common sense...especially in travelling whether you stay in this country or go abroad.
Common sense is rarer than diamonds or gold
Stupid azz should not have been there, especially alone, and texting with another man. Stupidity abounded in her!
at least she wasn't shot
Sad commentary!
A female traveling alone in a backwoods cesspool of a country is brutally murdered. Sounds like a Cold War script, but unfortunately its not. May hell find the person who did this and treat accordingly.
She was probably robbed and raped or even gang raped and then murdered to cover it up once they found out she was an American and alone. RIP
Does no one have a lick of common sense? She had an obligation to her children to be there for them. Now they have to navigate life without her. It's difficult under the best of circumstances.
I don't imagine it would go over too well for most of us to tell our spouse that we were taking a two week vacation and they had to stay home with the kids. Seems to me that there is alot of information left out of the article.
Arise America and ban Turkey....except on Thanksgiving.
I know where you can get a pretty good 11 inch turkey sub.
So this lady left "gun- violent" America; and got beat to death in another country: We need to pass more laws against assault rifles, and reduce the capacity of their mags; to "make sure this never happens again". Oh wait ; that makes absolutely no sense: never mind.
The Muslim ways will always prevail - Christian women are but prostituted for their beliefs that they are living in a civilized society! The ultimate defile is a Christian Woman being defrocked for her beliefs by a Muslim!
It's pretty interesting how people are demeaning certain countries when we have cities that are crime-ridden just like any developing country. Fact is, there will always be safe neighborhoods or cities and sketchy ones filled with crime in virtually any country. If you let these kinds of events affect your decision to travel to broaden your horizons and expand your knowledge then you'll always just stay ignorant to these things. Fact is, anyone of any nationality can be murdered in any country. Just as ANY person of ANY nationality going ANYwhere around the world, know your surroundings when you're overseas, don't display wealth and ignorance (ie: your nationalistic views of the US to locals) and you'll be fine. I'm not saying that it's the reason as to why this poor woman died, but you have to be cautious while you enjoy your travels and exploring when you're in unfamiliar areas, just as you would if you visited a different city or state when you're travelling alone.
Again, DON'T let this incident deter you from going out and exploring what other cultures and countries have to offer, because I can honestly tell you that you're missing out on the experience of a lifetime if you do. Not only that, becoming more open-minded, learning and accepting from those experiences help us better ourselves and less prone to the "ignorant American" stereotype, which in turn is why many countries across the world dislike us.
Could not have said it better - thank you for some voice of reason on this board. If this was her first trip abroad, then sensibly she would have stayed close to the others that were staying in the hostel with her - not wandered off to meet people she spoke to online. Why would anyone do that ANYWHERE? IMO, this murder has zero to do with Turkey, Islam, her being a mother etc. etc. - it has to do with practicing safe common sense. While I don't know the circumstances leading to her murder, the fact of these side-trips to Munich and Amsterdam and that her husband wasn't aware of them, leads me to believe she was involved in something she shouldn't have been. I think once they start piecing together exactly where she was, who saw her etc, we will know more. Me thinks she was involved in some kind of drug or money trafficking gone bad - how the hell did she spend 10k? On what? And she stayed in a hostel in a shady part of Istanbul? What did she buy while she was over there, a car? If she had 10k laying around for a vacation then she could have paid the fees to rebook her trip when her friend would go with her. I'm skeptical of the friend's involvement at all, if there even was such a 'friend.'
That being said, I did have it happen to me where my friend and I were traveling to Mexico and my friend didn't bring her passport with her (this was back when the law was first changing) and I had to make the decision right there at the airport if I would go alone for a day or two and she meet me or I wait. I ended up traveling alone and meeting her there. I was very nervous about it but if you're wise, you stay with other tourists (doesn't have to be Americans - most Europeans speak at least a little English) and stay in populated areas. If you want to explore, go with other tourists. One would certainly not start chatting up with people online and meet ANYONE alone. Just my two cents.
A very sad ending...this entire world is very dangerous. A policeman told a friend of mine that if people knew what all was going on, they would never leave their homes. But, of course, realistically we have to.......
Born and lived in America. It's easy to state it's safe here. Mainly because we have learned where what might be a unsafe place. Thank goodness I wasn't born and raised in America where it's not safe too walk in your neighborhood at night. As a child I wasn't forced to join a gang for protection and feel lucky on not living in one of them areas. Without a rifle, I walked the streets of Saigon in Vietnam during the Vietnam war and wasn't that worried. Still like in America, I knew where not to walk at night.
This life we have, enjoy it as much as you can. This human life, we are blessed to have. Cattle life is around three years before being slaughtered. I'll take this human life over all other life. I'm not that much on status of rich and poor. This beautiful human life is what I dwell on. We all are very lucky.
This sad ending could happen in any city anywhere. I personally would not let my wife travel alone to these places especially the middle east. If somebody dropped out you find someone else to go along or reschedule. A woman traveling alone is not 100% safe anywhere. She should have thought more about her children's needs than her own.
Its so tragic. I was hoping a happy ending so badly.
This is a reminder to our naive citizens that foreign lands are dangerous; especially countries dominated by muslims. You can not assume those places are as safe and secure as NY, Chicago , LA streets etc.
I wonder if all these people saying that she was killed because the world hates Americans would think the same if they knew she was Puerto Rican... Chances are, most Europeans and Middle Easterns don't hate Hispanics, and there is no way she would have singled out as American by her looks...
If she was raped, ( a real possibility in such a macho male chauvinistic culture ) than I trust the Turkish police will, like, perhaps harvest DNA from these 15+ men - I hope ?! I remember the case of the missing husband onboard a cruiseship some years ago, and it left me with strong doubts about Turkish law enforcement. At any rate she should have been chaperoned. Easy to say now.
I didn't read every single one of the comments, so maybe I'm repeating, but my first thought was drugs. Why would she need to text some guy and meet him on a bridge so that she could photograph the bridge??? I think it's possible her and her friend were supposed to go there and attempt to smuggle or ship drugs back to the US, and that guy was her contact. He decided to keep the money and the drugs, since she was a foreigner, alone, and not likely to have told anyone in authority the true nature of her visit.
I must say that I am shocked by a number of the comments here. First of all, while Turkey is a Muslim country, it is also an associate member state of the European Union, and is one of the countries in the world that straddles both Europe and Asia. It is not, as some seem to be imagining, a Middle Eastern-style Arab state governed by Shariah law.
I am a 27 year old white female, and I've been traveling solo since I was 20. As of this summer, I've been to 23 countries on 4 continents - North America, Europe, Asia and Africa (incidentally, I was in Muslim North Africa). I have lived in Russia, Ukraine and Italy, and must say that I've felt far safer overseas than I do in most major cities in North America. In fact, I have felt the most unsafe in the American cities that I have visited. I have never had a problem due to my traveling alone - the only issues I've faced could have happened anywhere to anybody (for example, nearly getting killed by a drunk driver). While in North Africa, I found the people to be extremely friendly and hospitable, and I found that, by and large, they looked out for me and helped me. Quite frankly, it is appalling to see such ignorant comments directed towards Muslims when most of the commenters have probably never set foot on Muslim territory, and with attitudes like that, probably never will.
Several of the comments on the news story have questioned why women travel alone. To that, I must say - why wouldn't they travel alone? Of course, exercise caution in some countries, and yes, there are countries that I would avoid. It's just common sense. To make a blanket statement about women traveling alone, however, is simply offensive. It is as if we should fear the entire world outside our doorstep simply because we are women. In fact, my experience has shown me that as a woman traveling alone, the world opens up to you - people are welcoming, they are willing to help you. Male or female, the key to successfully traveling alone seems to lie in respect for the local culture, a willingness to learn, politeness and a smile.
Many things are dangerous, and yet we do them because, in doing them, we exercise a reasonable amount of caution. The same goes for traveling. For people to question why this woman traveled alone smacks not only of ignorance, but of the values of a past century. This is 2013. Women can be successful doctors, Supreme Court justices and CEOs - and yet we still think they cannot travel alone? What utter rubbish.
Doctors, Supreme Court justices and CEOs should not travel alone. It is abysmally stupid and/or foolish to travel alone, and identifies a person as residing on the left side of the bell shaped curve. Stupid is as stupid does. Your post seems to reflect some intelligence so you are probably just very foolish. I'm making a blanket statement about PEOPLE traveling alone. Ignore it at your own peril if you wish, but stop encouraging others to be equally foolish. You do yourself and others a great disservice thereby.
Thousands of people travel alone each day, and nothing happens to them. They are perfectly safe. As I said, I have never had any problems in traveling alone - in fact the only times when I have had anything resembling a problem is when I've been with other people because THAT is when you stick out as a foreigner. The world is not such a big, bad place as we all seem to think. Most of the time, travelers just blend into the background - after all, except when they are carrying luggage to or from a station or airport, they look like everybody else. Although it might feel like you stick out like a sore thumb, it's not actually the case 99% of the time. Another thing I've found in my travels is that most local people don't actually care that you're a tourist. Most people are busy leading their own lives, and could care less. How is it abysmally stupid to take a holiday to Paris? Sure, if you go out and get drunk, flash your cash around and end up in the wrong part of town it's "abysmally stupid", but doing so at home would be equally foolish.
Reading the comments here makes me so sad - so many are so ill-informed. Those of you who say she should never have been traveling alone as a woman or that she should never have left her hotel without a guide - have you ever even left the United States? Do you have any sense of how the rest of the world is? How amazingly friendly and good-hearted most people are?
I recently spent 13 months traveling solo around Russia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia (i.e., Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc). I was completely on my own for the majority of my trip and it was amazing. I met so many incredibly friendly, wonderful people - who were eager to help me, share their food with me, welcome me into their homes. The people I met in almost every country were far more hospitable than most I meet at home in the US. They were also very welcoming of me as an American, curious to learn more about our country and for those who disagreed with our policies, they were able to separate the American people from the American government.
People have asked me on numerous occasions since I returned whether I felt safe traveling alone as a female. 100% my answer is yes. I probably felt more safe in many of the places I visited than I sometimes do in my own hometown of Chicago - and that includes the 3 weeks I spent in Turkey and week I spent in Istanbul.
Yes, bad things happen out there. But bad things also happen in our own backyard. I hate to see people use an incident like this, as sad as it is, to discourage women (or anyone) from traveling solo overseas.