Sarai Sierra Murder: Secret Lover Reportedly Had Sex With Victim Prior To Death
Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two children, had gone missing while vacationing by herself in Istanbul, Turkey and her body was found beaten to death days later on Feb. 2 after she had failed to make a returning flight back to the U.S.
Reports from Daily Mail now state that Sierra had sexual relations with a Turkish lover inside a bar restroom on Jan. 20, which was the day before she was found dead.
The allegations come around the same time that her body was transported back to her home in Staten Island, N.Y., and will likely add more turmoil to an already detrimental situation for her husband Steven, who had traveled to the foreign country in order to help out with the initial search for her.
The Gazete Vatan , a Turkish news publication, identified Sierra's alleged secret lover as a man named "Tarkan K," who claims to have never met up with the victim, but admitted to communicating with her online about three or four months ago.
Sierra is said to have emailed her alleged lover after first meeting him through the website Instagram, to say that she'd be traveling to Turkey and would like to see him.
However, new media reports suggest that "Taylan K" is the actual person who had sex with Sierra and that there's a mix-up.
Taylan K's lawyer said that his client had nothing to do with the murder and that he's from a "good family and completed a master's program abroad...He's very demoralized."
Hurriyet Daily News reported that Taylan was the person who revealed to police that the two had sex in a bar restroom in Beyoglu on Jan. 20.
One day later, he apparently missed two messages from Sierra in the morning, and tried calling her, but her phone was off.
"We're not interested in whether she had a sexual relationship. What's important for us is who killed her," said state prosecutor Huseyin Kaplan, who claims that Taylan isn't being considered as a suspect.
It's also being reported that the police are questioning a rug dealer and hostel owner in the vicinity where Sierra's body was located after checking her cell phone and Gmail records.
At this point in time, DNA testing from 22 suspects has still not linked anyone to her death.
