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John Minchillo / AP
Betzaida Jimenez, mother of 33-year-old Sarai Sierra who was found dead on Saturday in Turkey, pauses before a news conference at a friend's home in Staten Island, on Monday.
The FBI is playing a significant role in the investigation into the death of a New York City woman in Istanbul while on a solo vacation, a U.S. congressman said Monday.
Rep. Michael Grimm, a former FBI agent, said U.S. investigators were invited by Turkish authorities to assist as they try to find out what happened to Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two who disappeared Jan. 21. Her body was found 12 days later, near the remnants of the city's ancient walls. Police said she had suffered a fatal blow to the head.
Prosecutors in Istanbul got a court order Monday for authorities to take blood and DNA samples from 21 people already questioned in the death, according to Turkish state media.
Meanwhile, her family was working out how to return her body to the U.S.
Sierra's husband, Steven, is in Istanbul, where he traveled last week to help in the search. He intends to accompany her body back to New York, but the family is still determining how to fund the transport. Their church and friends are working to raise money to help defray the costs.
Turkish authorities finished an autopsy Monday on Sierra and gave DNA samples from it to a crime lab, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. After that, Istanbul prosecutors got the court order but did not identify the possible suspects, the agency reported.
On Monday, police with sniffer dogs were scouring the area where the body was found for clues, it said. The Milliyet newspaper said the forensic lab will examine samples from Sierra's fingernails as well as hair and other samples from a blanket found near her body. It said some nail scrapings suggest she may have tried to fight off at least one attacker.
Sarai Sierra made her first trip overseas alone after her childhood friend, Magdalena Rodriguez, backed out. At Monday's news conference in New York, Rodriguez fought back tears as she said she wished she had not changed her plans.
"I wasn't working at the time and I didn't have the money to go," she explained.
Family and friends described Sierra as a devoted mother to her 9- and 11-year-old sons who volunteered at their school and worked part time so she would be available for them after school. "Every time I saw her, she was always with her family," said another longtime friend, Dulce Arroyo.
Arroyo ran across Sierra on a shopping trip two days before she left the U.S. and said traveling alone didn't appear to be a frightening prospect. Her friend was looking forward to an exciting adventure and spent most of their conversation talking about the murals and architecture she planned to photograph.
"She was perfectly OK with taking this trip on her own," Arroyo added. "She was thrilled."
Dennis Jimenez said Sierra tried to calm any fears by emphasizing that she'd be in regular contact via video calls and text messages.
"I didn't want her to go, but she wanted to go," he said. "Turkey was a land rich in architecture and ancient history, and she was very fascinated by that."
He added that she shared her photos online and checked in frequently. "You could tell that she was happy," he said.
Grimm said Turkish police still have hours of video footage to review as they piece together Sierra's last movements. A special unit of Turkish police set up to find Sierra have an image of her at Galata Bridge, which spans Istanbul's Golden Horn waterway and where she went on her last day to take photos.
The trip also included preplanned excursions to Amsterdam and Munich.
Betzaida Jimenez said her two grandsons do not know what had happened to their mother. They only know their father went to get her after her vacation.
"We're going to talk about that when he gets back," she said.
She recalled hugging her daughter before she departed and praying together for a safe journey.
"Just the thought that I'll never be able to hug her again," she said, pausing to compose herself. "We just didn't think a tragedy like this was going to happen."
Related: Mom of woman slain in Turkey: Her sons don't know
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This has to be her families worst nightmare.She wanted adventure and did not deserve to be murdered.You can't travel alone in these countries full of poverty as there is a big chance that you will be robbed.I do not see why the FBI is investigating this as Turkey has their own law enforcement people and will eventually piece together what happened to her.We have more crimes in the U.S. and the FBI should be trying to solve some of our unsolved murders.
I know nobody cares...but the FBI can investigate a murder of a woman in Turkey,but couldn't find time to investigate the murder of John Wheeler in Delaware,a West Point veteran and adviser to 3 presidents?
This whole place becomes a bigger joke everyday.
A rather convenient reason to send the "FBI" to Turkey to investigate this murder, when things are really heating up in Syria and with Iran.
Since when did the US need an excuse for clandestine work?
We can go were ever please, thank you. It's our planet. Everyone else just rents.
The FBI has nothing better to do than investigate a woman's death in Turkey?
If that's true, then it's time to disband them.
I just don't get the reasoning that led a young mother of two to go off by herself to some third-world sh!t hole country like Turkey in the first place.
Most people can have some reasonable expectation to be able to travel safely in the US as long as they avoid the real cesspool cities, but for a woman to choose to travel alone in that part of the world is just really poor judgement, IMO. Sort of like a lone teenage girl hitch hiking in south Chicago - just kinda really stupid.
Guess you know nothing about Turkey. Go back to school a$$hole
David9000,
I know enough to be certain it's a crap-hole third world country. So how "bout you just f**k off?
How ignorant. Turkey is not a third-world sh!t hole country. I have lived there, and many, many of my friends have travelled there. I don't know where you live, but Turkey is a lot safer than most metro areas in the US.
Yeah, right! That's BS, but I agree a young mother should'nt go off like that by herself, I know I would'nt let either one of my grown daughters or granddaughters attemp this foolish and greedy adventure. And what a weak husband,no telling what he thinks now! I feel for the kids, who probably had no say in it either.
Patriot to the bone: Maybe the husband loved his wife enough to trust her decisions, be it poor or positive. Not everyone has to be barefoot, pregnant and stirring your dinner. Alive as a slave is not alive at all.
And who is to say she would be safe in your neck of the woods, anyway? Spiders lurk in all sorts of nooks and crannies.
I've also lived there. It was very safe. Never had to lock my house or worry about crime.
But I didn't live in a large city.
She should have known better than to chase some photograph into an area of the city that was dangerous... it's no different in New York, Chicago, L.A., etc.
Traveling in any city or country requires that you be aware of where you are and not assuming that being American brings some kind of protection.
I have been to Turkey while on active duty and it is the only country I've ever traveled to where I was sexually harassed (while working and in uniform). And this was on an established base. Having experienced that, I wouldn't under any circumstances travel to this country again unless accompanied by a male travel companion.
Where were you stationed? I was in Ankara, and had nary a problem. Could walk from my apartment to downtown at night totally unafraid. On the other hand, I was sexually harassed at England AFB, Louisiana, as well as the Pentagon!
I rest my case!
And thank you for your service!
Women's lib is just over 40 years old in this country... Turks and the rest of Asia do not recognize women as equals or anything near it. Find an attractive, lone traveling female in their midst, and anything and everything can happen.
In this case, it did...
And as for Jean's comments, her friends were fortunate. I am a male and NEVER traveled alone or went anywhere downtown on my own in a foreign or unfamiliar place, in many years of service and traveling across the globe. That is just asking for trouble and it's a violation of common sense!!
Condolences to the family... But, not very smart on the dead-mother's part. Reminds me of the three dumb-U.S. hikers who decided to see Iran's scenic beauty because it was there...
Plain dumb.
Wahoo 69--women had the right to vote in Turkey in 1934, and have held and continue to hold many positions in government, industry, and the arts. They have had equal rights for an extrememly long time. As in all countries, including our own, women's rights suffer more in a conservative and religious environment.
I happen to be known for my common sense, and I have also enjoyed every country that I have lived in or traveled through. How else to live life?
No solo vacation in the Middle East, e.g. Turkey which its neigboring nations have in wars, is a wise, responsible decision.
God bless her and her family. And many prayers and thoughts to her children who now have to grow up without a mother. Special prayers for them.