Free Republic

FBI agents probing the murder of a Staten Island mom in Turkey said they don’t believe she was there just to take pictures — and said she hung out with a “criminal element” during the solo trip abroad. “There are a lot of open questions that need to be answered,” a source familiar with the ongoing case told The Post. Mother of two Sarai Sierra, 33, was found dead from a ferocious blow to the skull in a seedy area of Istanbul last Saturday after failing to show up for a Jan. 21 flight home to New York. “The first...

Turkish police have arrested 11 people over the murder of an American woman who disappeared while visiting Istanbul last month, police and the local media reported Sunday. -snip- "We have confirmed that she was murdered by way of impacts on her head," Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin told reporters on Sunday. "But we need to conclude the investigation before details emerge." The Milliyet newspaper said she was also stabbed several times in her abdomen, but there was no sign of rape or theft and she was still wearing jewellery when police found her. -snip- Hurriyet speculated that Sierra might have...

Turkey's state-run news agency says a missing New York City woman has been found dead in Istanbul. Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two, went missing while vacationing alone in Istanbul. She was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due back home.

-excerpt- The agency said she was found with a head wound and a blanket near her body. She was wearing jeans, a jumper and a jacket, and still had her earrings and a bracelet.